LPR with a pair of IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E

It shouldn’t do that ??? B&W forces B&W using the “Schedule” profile. You may have a different one chosen such as “Normal or Full Time” under the Profile Management” tab?

I have the Schedule set to change 45 min prior to Sunset and 30 min After Sunrise
 
I have a HFW5231E-Z12E and read through this post... is there a spot where people share their working settings? I know one needs to "tweek it", but i'm still unsure of where to start for all the settings.

thanks.
 
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JayS_IPCams said:
I have a HFW5231E-Z12E and read through this post... is there a spot where people share their working settings? I know one needs to "tweek it", but i'm still unsure of where to start for all the settings.

thanks.
Click to expand...

I think we really should have that thread - I have been meaning to do it and share mine and see if anyone has any suggestions for improvements as well, but I need to find the time to find the right images to post as I would like to show a good and bad, I think providing distance, angles if known or approximated, screenshots of settings, and a few day and night examples would be excellent.
 
There are quite a few threads in the LPR sub forum with shared settings, including this one!

Each location is going to be different. Its really part art / part science and you need to be willing to put in the time to tweak your specific location. I found parking a vehicle at the capture point or using an old plate mounted on a 2x4 to be helpful. Daytime is relatively easy, nighttime is where the work starts.

Here's my latest for reference

Tips:
  • Increase Contrast a lot for better clarity (75-80). A lot depends on the contrasting colors of the plates. Here in FL the green letters on white background are harder than most
  • Angle of attack makes a huge difference. Anything over 30 degrees makes things trickier
  • Zoom is your friend. Dont expect to get much more than 2 car widths in the scene, its a dedicated LPR camera. If you want Overview, add a 2nd camera
  • Speed of the vehicle matters. Use a high FPS and fast shutter to freeze motion and get as many frames at the capture point as possible
  • Additional IR is usually helpful/needed once you get out 80+ft
  • I use HLC (60-80%) at night to cut down on the bloom from headlights
  • Keep DNR to a minimum it creates motion blur as does WDR

front-tag-night-0424-2020.jpg front-tag-day-0424-2020.jpg
HOA Entr_EntrTag_main_20200425135334_@3.jpg HOA Entr_EntrTag_main_20200424201220_@3.jpg
 
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bigredfish said:
There are quite a few threads in the LPR sub forum with shared settings, including this one!

Each location is going to be different. Its really part art / part science and you need to be willing to put in the time to tweak your specific location. I found parking a vehicle at the capture point or using an old plate mounted on a 2x4 to be helpful. Daytime is relatively easy, nighttime is where the work starts.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I thought of that, but then doesn't help with head/tail light issue; so will try parking in a car with laptop to tinker if needed further :)

bigredfish said:
Tips:
  • Increase Contrast a lot for better clarity (75-80). A lot depends on the contrasting colors of the plates. Here in FL the green letters on white background are harder than most
  • Angle of attack makes a huge difference. Anything over 30 degrees makes things trickier
  • Zoom is your friend. Dont expect to get much more than 2 car widths in the scene, its a dedicated LPR camera. If you want Overview, add a 2nd camera
  • Speed of the vehicle matters. Use a high FPS and fast shutter to freeze motion and get as many frames at the capture point as possible
  • Additional IR is usually helpful/needed once you get out 80+ft
  • I use HLC (60-80%) at night to cut down on the bloom from headlights
  • Keep DNR to a minimum it creates motion blur as does WDR
Click to expand...

I'll give those a try. I read elsewhere that FPS should be set based upon estimated avg speed for vehicles.
In the spot I have, its a direct line of sight (down angle about 20deg), about 60-80m away (with extra IR at the point of capture). Its a speed bump, so people slow down alot...plenty of time to capture.
I have daytime at 96+% capture rate (the ones it misses are typical people who have such an old plate, no one can read it :).

Night time i'm struggling, but now fingers crossed I understand that when there is no car, you can't see anything on the camera (its almost black); which is appears to be required so that headlights don't wash out the image. can't wait for dark to test out these settings!

Thanks!
 
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Looking to try this. What is the IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E going for in price right now?
 
I am very interested in adding LPR cams next BUT I also want it to catch people walking on sidewalks. Is there enough resolution to be zoomed out enough to get sidewalks but also be zoomed in enough to get plates ?
 
@Warptrooper - that really will depend on the angle you are coming from. Mine is at an angle such that I do pickup the upper half of people in the day, but not at night.

Generally you want to have the camera zoomed in enough that all you get is the vehicle. You want the plate to be as large an image as possible. Can you get by with a smaller image, possibly, but then you might be guessing at the plate too more times than not.

At night time, no way will it pick up people. The image will be too dark at the shutter speed we need to run to get plates. All you will see is head/tail lights and the plate floating by lol - you usually do not even see an image or outline of the vehicle.

The biggest mistake people make is trying to have a camera do LPR and overcam duties - you need to pick one or the other.
 
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@parsley everything still running ok? I'm waiting for the same z12 to arrive and also have a hikvision nvr. I'm curious what settings you have access to in the NVR. You mention you used the dahua config tool to set some settings first, can you use the tool if the camera is plugged into the NVR, or do you need a direct connection via pc / laptop for the config tool. Thanks
 
Heck, I've done that with ONE tab open :rofl:
 
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Hi @All. What software are you using to record what's captured. The HFW5241E is I dont see nay LPR function in the settings.? though in the pdf manual i see a section where the Automatic plate number recognition funtion is supposed to be in Settings -> Events -> APNR. but that seciton isnt in this camera with me.
 
kounzo said:
Hi @All. What software are you using to record what's captured. The HFW5241E is I dont see nay LPR function in the settings.? though in the pdf manual i see a section where the Automatic plate number recognition funtion is supposed to be in Settings -> Events -> APNR. but that seciton isnt in this camera with me.
Click to expand...

The 5241E-Z12E is not an ANPR camera, so you will not see those settings.

Many here use that camera to be able to manually read plates with our own eyes, or use a 3rd party tool to computer read them.

Many here use Blue Iris and the BI custom model a member created here to read and log plates or use the paid OpenALPR.

But you can record to the SD card, computer, NVR, or another VMS like Blue Iris - whichever one fits your budget and length of time to store video/pics.
 
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wittaj said:
The 5241E-Z12E is not an ANPR camera, so you will not see those settings.

Many here use that camera to be able to manually read plates with our own eyes, or use a 3rd party tool to computer read them.

Many here use Blue Iris and the BI custom model a member created here to read and log plates or use the paid OpenALPR.

But you can record to the SD card, computer, NVR, or another VMS like Blue Iris - whichever one fits your budget and length of time to store video/pics.
Click to expand...

Any suggestion on which is better software option considering capture accuracy and user interface? I'm lookiing to capture and log plate numbers and easy retireval by non-techie end user.

Can you also share link to this BI custom model. Thanks!
 
OpenALPR works really well, but is a paid service.

This custom model works well as well and is free:

Blue Iris and DeepStack ALPR

I took a break from my DeepStack Custom Model project and started work on a DeepStackALPR solution. I made a lot of progress on the DeepStackALPR. The solution is API that crops and rotates (if needed) the license plate. Then the API reads all of the characters in the plate and logs the license...
ipcamtalk.com ipcamtalk.com
 
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