LPR setup help

[wittaj]

More light!!!!

As I told you, getting color is tough. Maybe you have enough light?

Post a sample video of what you have now, flaws and all. We can probably tell you if we think it is even possible.

The more you zoom in, the more light is needed. But if you zoom wider, then the plate might not be big enough to read.

 

[Timokreon]

Still dialing things in with the 437. Very frustrating with color, but maybe one day. lol.. I really need to park my car when I'm making adjustments, would make things so much easier.
The neighbors put up new light fixtures on their garage, which puts out a LOT more light than their previous lights. That will definitely help on my quest for color 24/7.

However, in the meantime, while in IR mode I captured a new 3m type plate on a police car.

 

[Timokreon]

Watching this for a few more weeks, and I would state I'm getting the new 3m plates at least 60% of the time with the 437. Kind of difficult to go through all the pics etc... to see, but...
Looking pretty good right now.

Though it is a bit disappointing that it seems Dahua is no longer supporting the 437.

 

[Parley]

I am running my LP cameras in black and white and I find that the extra IR is helping quite a bit. In fact, I am in the process of upping the IR on my LP cameras yet again.

 

[samplenhold]

Sign on the LPR store:

"Parley is upping his IR on his LPR cams, Up yours!"

 

[Timokreon]

Well a bit of a set back. The neighbor has decided to replace their garage exterior lights, which helped light the area I am aiming my 437 LPR, with accent lights. I really think I could have gotten 24/7 color if they didn't replace them.
Due to the replacement, their light now barely goes 10 feet out from their garage. Ahh well..

It still REALLY annoys me Dahua stopped supporting this camera so soon. Their next "real" anpr camera is close to $1000.

 

[samplenhold]

It still REALLY annoys me Dahua stopped supporting this camera so soon.

How does not supporting it impact you? I don't get it. Is it not working just fine?

 

[Timokreon]

How does not supporting it impact you? I don't get it. Is it not working just fine?

No, it's not. There are several bugs and several improvements that can be made.

 

[Timokreon]

Well well well. After adding different garage light fixtures, which resulted in a huge increase in brightness, I was hoping to get the 437 to run color 24/7. Didn't work due to the neighbors changing their light fixtures out for accent lights.

What I didn't test was the 5241, pointing in the other direction. Just for kicks I tested this out last night, and huh... I can capture plates in color 24/7. How bout that? I still need to change settings a bit, fix the focus issue, etc... but I'm getting captures.

 

[bigredfish]

Yep, with the right light and angle, you can make it work!

 

[Timokreon]

After a couple more incidents last night and this morning, guess I need to add a few more cameras for coverage. One camera is going to be a LPR for coverage of the T intersection. Few vehicles got broken into down that road, and I did get coverage of the vehicles from my other LPR, one more almost straight on would help quite a bit.

The other cameras are going to be covering my front porch at face level, A/C at face level, and back porch at face level. I already have coverage in these areas, but just want a different angle.

The other will be my mini-ptz going into duty covering my front/side yard and sidewalk areas. Unfortunately a elderly neighbor tripped on the sidewalk (not my sidewalk) where there is a pretty good difference level between one section and the other. I happened to be watching my cams for a different reason and saw him fall. Called 911, fire truck and ambo arrived. He went to the hospital for x-rays. Hope he's ok.
But the mini-ptz would have been able to see this from a different angle/coverage. More is better I guess.

Which also brings me to now needing another NVR. lol.. It never ends.

 

[Timokreon]

Bought the new 5241 S2, and am close to getting color. Would like more light out on the street, but unfortunately most of the neighborhood has decided they want accent lights that barely light up their driveway, rather than lights that can help you see.
Not sure if I can get this or not.

 

[Flintstone61]

Fun to try....depending on the distance, you might have more captures in color with the Z4E flavor.
My experience at the 74 unit Condo led me to go with over view cameras AND the LPR dedicated to 24/7/365 Night profile with IR on and fixed focus,,,,then i began collecting 99.9% of the plates.
B54IR-Z4E-S3 1/1.8"

EmpireTech IPC-B54IR-Z4E-S3 1/1.8" CMOS 4MP WDR IR Built-in Mic AI Net

4-MP 1/1.8" CMOS image sensor, low luminance, and high definition image. Outputs max. 4MP (2688×1520) @25/30 fps. Built-in IR LED, and the max. illumination distance is 120 m. ROI, SVC, SMART H.264+/H.265+, AI H.264/H.265, encoding after filter, flexible coding, applicable to various bandwidth...

empiretech01.com

 

[Timokreon]

Fun to try....depending on the distance, you might have more captures in color with the Z4E flavor.
My experience at the 74 unit Condo led me to go with over view cameras AND the LPR dedicated to 24/7/365 Night profile with IR on and fixed focus,,,,then i began collecting 99.9% of the plates.
B54IR-Z4E-S3 1/1.8"

EmpireTech IPC-B54IR-Z4E-S3 1/1.8" CMOS 4MP WDR IR Built-in Mic AI Net

4-MP 1/1.8" CMOS image sensor, low luminance, and high definition image. Outputs max. 4MP (2688×1520) @25/30 fps. Built-in IR LED, and the max. illumination distance is 120 m. ROI, SVC, SMART H.264+/H.265+, AI H.264/H.265, encoding after filter, flexible coding, applicable to various bandwidth...

empiretech01.com

I was looking at that one as well, but I'm trying to reach out around 100-120'. If that had 5-60mm, I would grab it.
I also happened to be looking at the Dahua website today and see that the 5241 z12e 5mm-60mm has a S3, instead of the S2 I just bought.

Yeah, I really think if I had the knowledge of @Wildcat_1 , I have a feeling he could dial it into color in 2 minutes. lol..

 

[wittaj]

I was looking at that one as well, but I'm trying to reach out around 100-120'. If that had 5-60mm, I would grab it.
I also happened to be looking at the Dahua website today and see that the 5241 z12e 5mm-60mm has a S3, instead of the S2 I just bought.

Yeah, I really think if I had the knowledge of @Wildcat_1 , I have a feeling he could dial it into color in 2 minutes. lol..

Andy's S2 is the Dahua S3. Dahua skipped S2 for some reason. They have done that before.

 

[Timokreon]

For some reason, this morning the camera decided to quit sending snapshots to my NVR monitor/screen. No clue why, just stopped.

I'm still messing with color on this, but I can't get it any clearer than what's shown in the above post.
Any ideas? It seems whenever I mess around with sharpness, or 3d / 2d, lowering any of those makes the picture worse.

 

[bigredfish]

Yes, quit trying to run it in color at night

 

[biggen]

I'm still messing with color on this, but I can't get it any clearer than what's shown in the above post.
Any ideas? .

Yup. More light.

 

[Timokreon]

Getting closer.
People from Iowa must be coming up here for graduation, or something.

A few more tweaks, and..... maybe, maybe.

 

[biggen]

You will get some. But you will miss far more in color than you will in B/W.