- Nov 23, 2017
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Yeahbut does it leave piles of molten plastic from burning a hole in the front bumper?
Congrats!
That's v4 with the 48w and the bat signal, it burn the bat wing shape onto the cars
Need Help tweaking HFW5231E-Z12 for night @ 240ft
- Thread starter Bitslizer
- Start date
That's v4 with the 48w and the bat signal, it burn the bat wing shape onto the cars
- Nov 23, 2017
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So night #2 with laser, I'm happy to report that I'm pretty much capturing everything but those weird, damaged, or paper plates. I was able to up my shutter from 1/500 to 1/1000 and lower my gain from 35 to 30 (lower the gain the less noise/grain but you need more light).
The only challenge now is that the evening "prime" high traffic hour also is right around the sunset time. The laser photo diode doesn't switch on the laser till 20-30 min after the sunset. And that period without the laser I'm missing some plates or very dark plates with the new setting. Going to see if I can push back the day night switch and/or put a little shade around the photo sensor(it's on the driver housing and not on the front board) to make the laser come on earlier
The only challenge now is that the evening "prime" high traffic hour also is right around the sunset time. The laser photo diode doesn't switch on the laser till 20-30 min after the sunset. And that period without the laser I'm missing some plates or very dark plates with the new setting. Going to see if I can push back the day night switch and/or put a little shade around the photo sensor(it's on the driver housing and not on the front board) to make the laser come on earlier
Flintstone61
Known around here
This guy doesn't need a Hobby. I think he's found it. Good Job dude.
- Nov 23, 2017
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Much to my wife's chagrin
I went to build the laser. It sucked.
Did with a 660nm red one because it was easier. Beam pattern was nasty. I had some holographic glass lenses to do beam spreading and refocus but, honest, it was just awful all around.
I should give it a go, new lenses came in but I didn't have time yet to do anything with them.
Edit: I mean I built the laser, not the vendor stuff you used. Which one did you end up going with? For the cost it looks like it would have enough power to hit what I needed at night.
- Nov 23, 2017
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660nm is in the visible red spectrum, better to use a white light at that point. It also depends on the wattage of the output, regular laser pointer are in the mw range where did illumination (not collimated in to a laser beam) we are in the 1-3w range
I did a review here with a ebay link for what I brought. Contact the seller for customization option. I actually just ordered the 9 chips laser (supposed to be 15w) with 7 degree lens. It's in transit from China so I will update once I get it
VCSEL IR Laser 850nm illuminator for long distance spot IR 250+ ft
6/3 Update So.... the 9 laser chips illuminator arrived today, it works and it is good! run lurk warm (not hot at all, i can hold forever) even in my chilly basement but since it will only be on at night with no Sun, that should not be an issue. Same great tight and bright as the 4 chips one...
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660nm is in the visible red spectrum, better to use a white light at that point. It also depends on the wattage of the output, regular laser pointer are in the mw range where did illumination (not collimated in to a laser beam) we are in the 1-3w range
I did a review here with a ebay link for what I brought. Contact the seller for customization option. I actually just ordered the 9 chips laser (supposed to be 15w) with 7 degree lens. It's in transit from China so I will update once I get it
VCSEL IR Laser 850nm illuminator for long distance spot IR 250+ ft
6/3 Update So.... the 9 laser chips illuminator arrived today, it works and it is good! run lurk warm (not hot at all, i can hold forever) even in my chilly basement but since it will only be on at night with no Sun, that should not be an issue. Same great tight and bright as the 4 chips one...ipcamtalk.com
Sorry, I meant to say I used red for testing purposes due to being 'eye safe' blink- was much easier to visualize the beam pattern. However I should have just stuck with lasers out of pointers because they were a hell of a lot better beam shapes than the malformed junk I got for 'specialty' ones.
- Nov 23, 2017
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So.... the 9 laser chips illuminator arrived today, it works and it is good! run lurk warm (not hot at all, i can hold forever) even in my chilly basement but since it will only be on at night with no Sun, that should not be an issue. Same great tight and bright as the 4 chips one. I was able to knock down my gain to 25 with 1/1000 shutter (enough for my head on application) and 100% open iris. It seem to be a case of diminishing return though, upping the shutter to 1/2000 some plates start to become dimmer than I would like. seller claimed customized to 15w output, killawatt show 19.5w draw at the wall
That's awesome!
Honest, more is better. It's better for LEDs, lower power consumption, higher efficiency ... everything is better with more.
.. and honest, if something cra..ps out ... assuming they're wired correctly (With/without bypass diodes) more is more robust. Knowing the pcb, no, they don't have that (some LED grow lights do which is honestly amazing giving the cutthroat pricing), but a CC driver will automatically adjust.
Tell me which one to order and I shall, good Sir!
- Nov 23, 2017
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bigredfish
Known around here
DLONG2
Known around here
- May 17, 2017
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- 461
I bought this IR illuminator which has the 940nm wavelength light, invisible to the human eye.
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- Nov 23, 2017
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it is an nice option if you have the power/illumination budget. Considering the goal being to maximize IR illumination, and camera sensor being less sensitive to 940nm resulting in dimmer image...... its also got a 45-60 degree spread, I think if i used that for my use case, it would be worse than my 4w 8 degree 850nm v1. I also like the fact that with the 850 a quick glance I can confirm operation without having to check power draw or overview camera
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biggen
Known around here
- May 6, 2018
- 2,691
- 3,065
There are plenty of folks using the cheapo Amazon IRs and they seem to work fine. Maybe not as focused as the Axton 10' units but still workable.
I finally caved and bought the BI18 and installed it yesterday. I tweaked my settings a bit and I can tell the light has made a huge difference, but not sure what to adjust to fix the noise. I confirmed hand carrying and jogging by I get the same noise, no way I'll catch a 20+ mph car if my slow ass causing the same motion noise.. @bigredfish
Your shutter range is killing you. 3ms is way too slow.
Close down the iris some - try 60 or so.
Switch to just 1/2000 or 1/1000.
Cut sharpness down to 40.
If needed after testing, then bump the NR up to 35.
What is the full camera view - is this digital zoomed in or the actual optical zoomed image?
Close down the iris some - try 60 or so.
Switch to just 1/2000 or 1/1000.
Cut sharpness down to 40.
If needed after testing, then bump the NR up to 35.
What is the full camera view - is this digital zoomed in or the actual optical zoomed image?
@wittaj thanks, that was a slightly cropped image. Here's a fullsize. I'm going to give it a try at 1/1000, 60 iris, and 40 sharpness now..
bigredfish
Known around here
Agree mostly with @wittaj
Leave Iris at 50 to start. Make that the LAST thing you adjust. small changes make a big difference.
Again start Exposure comp at 50 then go up slowly id it helps.
1/1000 fixed or faster exposure. Dont use an exposure range at night
I run 45 or so Sharp and 35-40 DNR mostly
Leave Iris at 50 to start. Make that the LAST thing you adjust. small changes make a big difference.
Again start Exposure comp at 50 then go up slowly id it helps.
1/1000 fixed or faster exposure. Dont use an exposure range at night
I run 45 or so Sharp and 35-40 DNR mostly