LPR setup help

[wittaj]

I totally get your feelings and can relate. After the third time of my cameras capturing useful video for one of my neighbors, he suggested we should put a flyer in everyone's door letting them know of my system in case something happens on their property.

I was like no effing way am I going to do that. I paint mine to blend in with the house to try not to bring attention to them and I told him there would be some neighbor that would take exception to it so I would prefer to just lay low and be silent.

I have had a few neighbors that have given me rude remarks on my cameras, but who was the first person they asked when something happened to one of their cars? I should have been "oh man sorry I didn't catch it", but I was nice and provided them with the make/model/plate of the car that hit theirs in hopes maybe it would settle them down.

Another neighbor stopped when I was putting one up one day and was like "can you stop please". Guess what, that camera provided the info he needed when he was broken into.

 

[Flintstone61]

When I worked at the 74 Unit Condo, with 100 residents, there were 100 opinions. The most vocal folks were also the most non-complaint.
These folks led the league in rule bending, bullying, being resentful at every board meeting decision.... Oppositionally defiant, passive aggressive,
The 2 People who had for years, scrawled nasty-grams on the Laundry room community bulletin boards about Boards rules etc...were the most curious and the most bitchy about them.
Of course they were bitchy about anything, ( fuck em)
The 3-$49 Amcrest 1179ew's with Audio, installed in each laundry room, were far and away the most behavior changing cameras on the property.
The LPR catching over nite parking violators in the Front lot, also was a behavior modification tool of great value in making my job easier.
I'd login to the console on Monday, and look at the parking violators, text a few of the residents, and that was all it took.
Also we had a angry announcement " ripper-downer" in the Elavator. having Elavator landing cams, help me catch the perps, and 1 ole Bat on the board would go shake em down.....
So the cams while being resented, were the best behavior modification tools ever seen at the Condo...
and The HOA....was the better for it.
we were able to call the Sheriff, and creat usable Case#'s because we had great cameras of Perps doing illegal stuff.
And the hit and run from resident to resident. caught the Woman in a lie...
And also caught her in another lie when she claimed somebody hit her car in the lot.
The cams showed her leaving dent free, and returning at Midnite with a wrinkled driver door.
Case closed.

 

[Flintstone61]

Now at home, it's a little different story.
The comment from my next door neighbor, was " Paranoid much"
( sigh) here comes the explanation story....I laid on him

I had to Explain my gf and her family had lived in Orange County CA. by Garden Grove, and if it wasn't nailed down it would get missing.
And then the she moved here to MInnesota, and being " fresh off the Boat" they bought a house on price rather than demographics, and wound up on the East side of St. Paul, which is a crime infested shit hole. ( Sometimes you need American friends)
And she had stuff ripped off, car windows broken, all the ghetto fabulous fun stuff.
So then He goes, " Oh well I guess that would make a person paranoid"

So needless to say I have no camera's mounted on that side of our house. and the ones he can see are pointed away from his property.
Of course my garage cam happens to ( whoops) catch motion thru the garage window of his driveway.
now the other side of us is about a 40 unit Townhouse complex with renters.
For these people i have LPR, and intersection cams running, and street parking cam to see if we get any ass clowns crossing zones into my yard. So far they have not....

So for her next house she wanted camera's.
Everyhouse she looked at except this one, was based on how short of a drive it was to her North Minneapolis factory job. Another crime ridden shithole.
I kept telling her Nice house, bad neighborhood.
If she didn't have such an aversion to driving, we could be up in the 140-150th Avenue areas with house built in the 80's and 90's and better demographic.
It's been ok, but some of the people I see outside at the townhouses make me glad I have cameras up.

 

[Timokreon]

After sleeping on it, I woke up and said screw em'. If they think they aren't being monitored 24/7 by cameras, etc.. maybe one day they'll wake up. I asked one of them if they had a iphone or alexa. Of course they had both. I asked, you do realize those items monitor everything you say 24/7, right? Oh the companies state we don't record, or monitor blah blah blah.. if that's true, then how come your iphone responds to Siri? :scratches head:

Funny thing is the husband is a real nice, laid back guy who understands about the crime around here, cameras etc... it's the wife who is... yeah. I think she's as far left as left can be.
We get around 900-1500 cars a day on this street. Not REAL busy, but busy enough.

 

[Timokreon]

Thinking on this even more, there is a common denominator among those who have spoken up these past few months. They are all new to the neighborhood (moved in within the last 4 years), and they all seem to lean left to wayyyy left.
Which makes me even more so go towards, screw em'.

The sad part, this neighborhood used to be a great area. Everyone watched out for each other, would all say hi, etc.. Though there were a few outliers, but... It seems the left have gotten tired of their shit hole neighborhoods and decided to bring their bs to my neighborhood.

 

[wittaj]

Oh yeah I have those lefters too.

One of them was asking why I have so many cams and I said I was tired of having stuff stolen.

His reply back was "Well they must have needed it more than you" and was dead serious.

When we have some door checkers and I ask him if he had anything stolen, he said he doesn't really care as they must have needed it.

He said before they moved here, there were in a bad area and he left his van doors unlocked so the homeless could take shelter in it during the night if needed.

WTF

I work hard for what I have and all the left want to do is give it away.

I hate driving down the main strip and seeing all these drifters holding signs saying "Need Money. God Bless" and they are literally standing next to a fast food place with signs all over saying NOW HIRING and offer same day pay.

 

[samplenhold]

His reply back was "Well they must have needed it more than you" and was dead serious.

When I lived in Nigeria, the culture was such that if you did not protect your stuff, it was fair game to be taken. I talked so much about the culture with my driver. It all boils down to the village mentality. Everyone that makes a good living is expected to share with their village. The idea is that if you have so much, then you should give some to them. If you do not want to have things taken, then don't leave them where they can be taken. They really do not think of it as stealing. To them, stealing is when they have to make an effort to take something. Like B&E or pilfering your home to find something of value. They really think that is wrong, but taking something that is just laying around is ripe for the plucking.

I have seen that in other parts of the world too.

 

[Flintstone61]

At the Mall of America, (Surveillance cam CITY), there are "people who may need it more" As Wittaj's neighbor says, but the store owners dont see it that way, and so they leave in Handcuffs daily. My shuttle bus goes into the Light rail/Bus transit center every 2 hours
and its almost daily , that I see Mall Security using a herding tactic to push unwanted groups or individuals off of the property. Reminding them that this is Private property and they have rules. And that they use facial recognition cameras and if your banned and you come back in a face( Skimask) mask they can ask you to remove it. and if you refuse to be identified, then your out. It's fucking 75 degrees out, who goes " shopping" in a hoodie with a Nike full head face mask.....

 

[Timokreon]

Since this has to do with my LPR, and I don't like to create 8 million different threads.. lol..

How does one create an Excel spreadsheet to store license plates that I want to keep track of? Such as, license plate #, Vehicle description, time/date, reason for tracking, etc...

I'm absolutely terrible at excel, and when attempting to research creating a sheet, sigh.. it goes way above and beyond my comprehension on this stuff.

Thank you

 

[Alaska Country]

If a comma delimited data file is available for export from the camera or BI then the below information may be of assistance. If not, then one would have to hand enter the required data into Excel.

How to Convert Delimited Text Files to Excel Spreadsheets

It's easy to convert a delimited text file to an Excel spreadsheet. Here's how to do it using three different methods.

www.makeuseof.com

 

[wpiman]

If a comma delimited data file is available for export from the camera or BI then the below information may be of assistance. If not, then one would have to hand enter the required data into Excel.

How to Convert Delimited Text Files to Excel Spreadsheets

It's easy to convert a delimited text file to an Excel spreadsheet. Here's how to do it using three different methods.

www.makeuseof.com

I posted the plates to MQTT along with the direction. You could probably put this into InfluxDB or Grafana if you wanted a database storage of it...

 

[Timokreon]

Got my first, that I know of, captures of 2 stolen vehicles that happened yesterday, just down the street.
Black Corvette, owner left the garage door open while working in the yard with the keys in the car. Bye bye... the thief had a Kia mini-van with 2 of his fellow thieves following.

The Corvette stealer was caught a few hours later while attempting to steal another car. The Corvette owner got VERY lucky in that they parked his car in an apartment complex and took off.

 

[Timokreon]

This does make me think about putting another camera up zoomed in for face identification covering my mailbox, and just happens to cover the road as well.
I could use my mini-ptz zoomed in, and have my other 2 cameras call it away if they see something.

 

[Parley]

Got my first, that I know of, captures of 2 stolen vehicles that happened yesterday, just down the street.
Black Corvette, owner left the garage door open while working in the yard with the keys in the car. Bye bye... the thief had a Kia mini-van with 2 of his fellow thieves following.

The Corvette stealer was caught a few hours later while attempting to steal another car. The Corvette owner got VERY lucky in that they parked his car in an apartment complex and took off.

Looks like the usual suspects.

 

[samplenhold]

Love the mask down below the chin.

 

[Timokreon]

Tried color again for the 437. Can get back plates, but front plates not very good. Really don't need color captures, but doing it just to see.
Any tips, suggestions? Getting a lot of noise in the picture.

using 0-1.0 for exposure.

 

[wittaj]

That is pretty decent.

If for plates, I am not concerned about noise as the primary goal is to read plates. Now it appears that benefits from a plate light. Can you get them without the plate light?

I would make it a fixed shutter speed. Sometimes the range can be problematic, especially causing focus to shift.

The goal is always to try to capture plates in color if you can - that allows more of the dirty, temp, 3M printed, etc. to be captured.

 

[Timokreon]

That is pretty decent.

If for plates, I am not concerned about noise as the primary goal is to read plates. Now it appears that benefits from a plate light. Can you get them without the plate light?

I would make it a fixed shutter speed. Sometimes the range can be problematic, especially causing focus to shift.

The goal is always to try to capture plates in color if you can - that allows more of the dirty, temp, 3M printed, etc. to be captured.

Only problem with a fixed shutter speed on the 437, there isn't a day/night option. You set your shutter speed and that's it for 24/7.
So if I set it for say 1/1,1000, on bright sunny days, cars get to be blown out....

Maybe I just haven't looked into it far enough to see if there is a way around all that.

As for plates without the light, not really. Front plates were hit and miss. Might be missing some kind of setting on that one.

 

[wittaj]

Yeah that would be a problem.

 

[Timokreon]

I'm still attempting to get color on my 437. Does anyone have any other tips/suggestions?
Would zooming in or out make any kind of difference?

I'm just kind of making changes all over the place for settings, and just can't seem to make it click yet. I suppose parking my car in the FOV and making adjustments that way might help some too. Hmmmm

Just thinking out loud here. heh