Need Help tweaking HFW5231E-Z12 for night @ 240ft

[wittaj]

It just shows how site dependent each camera is. I am guessing at the distance you are at that the HLC wasn't helping? Or maybe it was too much? Kinda surprised given the straight on shot you are at, but anything is possible.

 

[Bitslizer]

Have to see more samples. For those coming towards the camera the worse are the old reflector headlights causing a lot of lens flare. I usually catch the plate as they turn (and turn the light off axis from the camera). Tesla have no lens flare but then many of them have no front plate even though we are a front plate state lol

 

[Bitslizer]

Then there are these which is the most challenging to get going to try to bump the sharpness up since the plates are bright enough without much gain noise

 

[wittaj]

What about 1/1000 or 1/750? I think that plate is too washed out and sharpness won't fix it.

 

[Bitslizer]

What about 1/1000 or 1/750? I think that plate is too washed out and sharpness won't fix it.

Will try! Thanks May have to wait till tomorrow evening, won't get much car this late

 

[wittaj]

Yep, never subjects when you want it LOL.

 

[Bitslizer]

Yep, never subjects when you want it LOL.

My own cars even in motion are the easiest to get even going fast, so they don't make good samples for the difficult to get plates. Sigh

 

[Bitslizer]

What about 1/1000 or 1/750? I think that plate is too washed out and sharpness won't fix it.

The bright taillight is also causing lens flare. If I close down the iris you would see the star burst rays

 

[wittaj]

What if you tried yours with the brights on?

 

[Bitslizer]

What if you tried yours with the brights on?

Toward the cam is less problem as they will always turn left or right then the lens flare go away which I most likely will catch a glimpse of the legible plate. Turning right and going away, for the challenging plates, usually even if the plate first enter the frame it is still not legible

Also im sure my neighbor won't appreciate me flashing their house with the high beam repeatedly. Lol

 

[Bitslizer]

I get great shot like this at the same setting and focus as bad one like the other.

I don't even know if it's the tail light lens flare or something with the plate being less reflective. Since I do manage to get some readable plates with the bright tail light looks like that sometime.

Anyhow so the $100+ blackoak ir pod light draw between 9 and 14 watts(I think 4x3w led for 12w) but I don't want to spend that much.

The kill a watt say my el cheapo v1 draw 5w max. So that mean about 4x 1w led which was what I was expecting.

Doing a mini upgrade to this illuminator which should draw 9-10 watt and double the output of El cheapo v1. See if that helps, I have 10 lens anyway. V1 maybe repurposed to the front yard as hybrid fill and spot light. The rectangular illuminator with more LED is nice but the bracket design makes it very hard for me to mount them so this swivel base one looks like my best bet. Cmvision have a bigger swivel base certain with 15 led but then it's double the price at $50 and I will need to buy more lens. Pushing it close to the blackoak pod light territory then I may as well make the jump to the black oak as it is way less conspicuous

Going to take down the camera and spray paint them back to white when the wind die down. Not fun to be on a tall ladder when the wind is 20mph. Then I will permanently mount them, see if it helps with lens flare if I mount this one as high as I can get.

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[Bitslizer]

so.... it seems the LONNKY illuminator may not be ideal...

1 it doesn't use regular 20mm lens,
2 its only total about 6-6.5w, I think a combo of 1 3W batwing type LED and 7 5050 0.5w chips LED

which mean its not much of an improvement over the 4W one I first brought.............

BUT BUT BUT...........

I found on Aliexpress.... IR Illuminators with LASER diodes.... 3W laser chips... 6 of them is 18W of laser power.... combine with 8 degree lens sounds like a rabbit hole I will be going down... even stronger than the 12w blackoak.

It goes up to 12 Laser LED for 36W, but it would be a bit overboard probably and even the 9 LED one I would need to buy an additional good 3A 12v supply. so I think the 6 LED 18W one is the best I can use with my good 2A 12v supply. none of my POE splitter support the 60w BT poe standard either so oh well

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[Purduephotog]

Theory seem to be holding. Waiting for night to confirm my el cheapo ir spotlight conversion is enough to supplement the z12

3 shots, all roughly aimed at the same place on my wall


1 - 60 degree lens that came with the illuminator.
2 - No (secondary) lens (very diffused look at the reflection on the ground, there is a primary lens built into the led and I think the primary is 120 degree),
3 - Regular led 8 degree lens (note these were not ir specific lens as I couldn't find any 15 degree or less IR lens with prime shipping and don't want to wait for China shipping lol)

For reference this is the 8 degree LENs i got and a 5 degree alternative. They are very easy to swap the black housing is just push fit onto the LED, there was no glue or solder holding the original lens/housing

uxcell 10 pcs 20mm LED Lens 8 Degree with Holder for Led Light - - Amazon.com

uxcell 10 pcs 20mm LED Lens 8 Degree with Holder for Led Light - - Amazon.com

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uxcell 10 pcs Led Lens 5 Degree with Black Holder for 1W 3W High Power LED Light - - Amazon.com

uxcell 10 pcs Led Lens 5 Degree with Black Holder for 1W 3W High Power LED Light - - Amazon.com

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My illuminator was potted- couldn't swap out the lenses. Are you saying yours wasn't poured with potting material to weather proof it??

 

[Bitslizer]

My illuminator was potted- couldn't swap out the lenses. Are you saying yours wasn't poured with potting material to weather proof it??

No, you can see the circuit board through the glass cover

 

[Purduephotog]

No, you can see the circuit board through the glass cover

I really regret buying the tendex one then. I mean, don't get me wrong- I like it, and it's done well up in the roof top... but it's still out there.

And my hacked together 12VAC to 12VDC regulator is still working, thank god...

 

[Bitslizer]

I really regret buying the tendex one then. I mean, don't get me wrong- I like it, and it's done well up in the roof top... but it's still out there.

And my hacked together 12VAC to 12VDC regulator is still working, thank god...

Good to know! I was considering buying the tendelux

 

[Purduephotog]

Good to know! I was considering buying the tendelux

I did a teardown on the tendelux, but I don't know if I ever put it up. The potting was excellent. That only counted as a negative because I wanted to put in long range TIR lenses. The driver was attached to the heat sink and the seals were good. The screws were a little ginchy but, ehhh, still had a nice gasket around the edges.

The driver also had some other modes that I could use but didn't chose to do so. Were it closer and I could run an alarm wire yeah I could do things with it. Seems robust so far. Let me find the photos and I'll put it up (with all that free time, right?)

 

[Bitslizer]

I will put some silica gel pack in them before putting them back together. The lonnky have decent gasket and some hardened goop by the wire entry into the housing. The JC 4 led have no gasket so I will put some di electric grease to water proof the thread

20mm lens compare to the lonnky 16mm 60 degree (taller one) and 90 degree shorter one with 3 stud legs slot into the pcb

Case of when cost cutting actually have benefits

-- edit
Just noticed the JC LEDs have the wrong polarity! At least it was an easy fix for them to swap the wires pins. The little dash divot on the LEDs pin is supposed to be negative but the pcb mark is positive

 

[bigredfish]

Good to know! I was considering buying the tendelux

I’ve had good luck with a dozen or more Tendelux over the years...from 20 from to 200ft

 

[Bitslizer]

My illuminator was potted- couldn't swap out the lenses. Are you saying yours wasn't poured with potting material to weather proof it??

Thinking some more.... The clear part of the lens pop out from the black housing. Can't you change just the clear part of the lens?