Review: IPC-LPR237B-IR / Equivalent of Dahua ITC237-PW6M-IRLZF1050-B - ANPR, Traffic & Access Control Camera

Billyjack5 said:
Wildcat, in your initial review I think you mentioned that the exposure and shutter (and may all other camera conditions) on this camera do not have day/night mode and one would need to have one set of settings to accommodate both day and night conditions. I certainly could have misread it, but if that's the case, is the camera amenable at all to being used outdoors where there is sun during the day and darkness at night?
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@Billyjack5 To clarify, the camera itself will detect Day vs Night as I mentioned in the review BUT there is no profile / schedule option to set when Day/Night kicks in (its an auto switch based on brightness and you can set a brightness value for it to kick over at). However, you cannot state that at 6am it is now daytime for example.

Now, while that is certainly a limitation (in comparison to standard, non traffic based i.e. IPC cams), the camera does allow you to configure settings for Daytime, Night, Dawn/Dusk separately. This plus the opportunity to set IR light into day/night mode helps a lot. Then all you do is dial in shutter manually to accommodate the FOV lighting etc throughout the day in a range (i.e. setting at a minimum of 1/500 or 1/1000 to /1/4000 at the high end) gives you enough scope to be able to set and forget in most cases. On top of this, being able to set Plate Light on or off + Front & Backlight then IR intensity for 'general' vs 'as vehicle passes' ensures that you are covered in most situations.

Therefore I don't think this is a problem IF you dial in the camera (as I always advocate for) for the conditions, FOV and target variables I mentioned above.

HTH
 
tech191 said:
I'm trying to pull the trigger as early as today after some criminal activity in my immediate area. But I want to figure out how it compares against Hikvision DS-2CD7A26G0-P-IZHS8 or Nelly's IPCT-LPR-832-BT1. Pricing is in the same ballpark. My constraint is that the choke point is 160 feet away where it's on the dark side. I have not seen much talk here about these 2 cameras although Nelly's option is sold here in the ipcamtalk store. The IR range on the Hikvision is 165ft.Any hands on experience? Just like all of us here, I'm trying to spend my $ wisely.
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@tech191 If you want TRUE ANPR with white & blacklist options on camera with plate database for recognition (i.e. true traffic cam) then this is certainly 1 to go for. Its a real workhorse and above all else, does what it says on the tin ;)

Also remember this Dahua is a 10-50mm lens vs the 8-32 on the units by Hik & Nellys therefore for ‘reach’ this cam would be your best bet all things considered.As I mentioned before however, lighting and install and final FOV dial in is key and that’s regardless of this vs Hik vs Nellys.

Now with that said if you dont want / need true ANPR and associated functions on cam then you could do the 5241-Z12 and parse the stream through OpenALPR or another plate recognizer including Milestone and plugins for BI etc.

Just remember as I said above if you want/need a true Traffic cam, this really is a powerful one.
HTH
 
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@tech191 Well between Hikvision and Dahua you have a difference in power of zoom, dahua has wider range compared to hikvision.
Also keep in mind the physical size, Dahua ALPR is huge with very bulky but strong mounting arm, hikvision ALPR somewhat comparable to dahua z12.

Hikvision
8 to 32mm
Maximum Aperturef/1.6
ZoomOptical: 4x
Lens Field of ViewHorizontal: 42.5 to 13.4°
Vertical: 23.4 to 7.7°
Diagonal: 49 to 15.3°
Dahua


Focal Length
10mm~50mm

Max. Aperture
F1.3 (constant)

Field of View
H: 46.6° ~ 10.62°
V: 40.6° ~ 9.3°
D: 22.7° ~ 5.3°
 
Wildcat_1 said:
@Billyjack5 To clarify, the camera itself will detect Day vs Night as I mentioned in the review BUT there is no profile / schedule option to set when Day/Night kicks in (its an auto switch based on brightness and you can set a brightness value for it to kick over at). However, you cannot state that at 6am it is now daytime for example.

Now, while that is certainly a limitation (in comparison to standard, non traffic based i.e. IPC cams), the camera does allow you to configure settings for Daytime, Night, Dawn/Dusk separately. This plus the opportunity to set IR light into day/night mode helps a lot. Then all you do is dial in shutter manually to accommodate the FOV lighting etc throughout the day in a range (i.e. setting at a minimum of 1/500 or 1/1000 to /1/4000 at the high end) gives you enough scope to be able to set and forget in most cases. On top of this, being able to set Plate Light on or off + Front & Backlight then IR intensity for 'general' vs 'as vehicle passes' ensures that you are covered in most situations.

Therefore I don't think this is a problem IF you dial in the camera (as I always advocate for) for the conditions, FOV and target variables I mentioned above.

HTH
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Thanks for the clarification. I was looking forward to picking up an IPC-LPR237B-IR to replace my Z12, but the size ended up being the determining factor to stick with what I have.
 
Wildcat_1 said:
Initial Pics & Vids Post

Some product pictures first, starting with (left) footprint comparison to 7442 & 5231-Z12​
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Closeup of the mount. Great mount for those that haven't used it that allows you to rotate at the top (head end) and has a cable channel too​
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Daytime Testing - Taking ANPR For A Spin

As promised, here is the daytime testing of ANPR. I've left this as primarily jump cuts so you can see in real-time how the camera processed vehicles moving through the FOV. I puposefully used the same angle as the 8442 for consistency of those that followed both reviews BUT this is not an angle I would recommend when I install traffic cams. However, I wanted to push this to crazy lengths with angles and reduce its time to process target. Couple of notes:​
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  • I've labelled each video so you can see what the camera is processing itself in real-time, standalone
  • I've included video and images that once read and processed by the camera are also met-tagged back to the NVR too so you get the option to review both. Remember this tagging only takes place on recognized plates so this shows the power of this cam as every plate was recognized and accurate regardless of angle and speed of target
  • Initially shipped with international FW so 'vehicle signs' weren't always correct but plates were accurate every time. Will be loading the US firmware next
  • I also show what the camera see's how it looks for target then plate and adjusts confidence level of capture dynamically on the targets path through the FOV
  • Black & White listing on cam is supported as is the ability to have it alarm on a particular plate and to use fuzzy logic to identify a plates 'around' a match you are looking for such as dropping first digit from a plate or identifying 4 digits only and having the camera 'look out' for vehicles in that set of parameters
  • You also have the ability to set for vehicles that make multiple passes in x period of time which is great
  • You also have the ability to have drivers or passenger face superimposed in each cap. In some cases these were so good I had to remove. To give you an idea of what this looks like however, I left one in that was a little lower quality at 5:24 in the video so you get the idea
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Anyway, for your ANPR viewing pleasure, here is 5 minutes of what this cam can do on-board (without assistance) when giving an FOV and its favorite target.......Vehicles.​
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Take a look at the results, personally, I'm impressed.​

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Night Time ANPR Testing​
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Here is the night time footage. I put the cam through different approach / exit angles in testing and test its ANPR capabilities at night​
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ITC V3.0 Menu Walk Through For This Camera​
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Also listed in it's own post HERE with details on what to know, features, limitations in the menu etc​
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Could this be mounted to a wall without the "J" mount part using this?
 
tech191 said:
I'm trying to pull the trigger as early as today after some criminal activity in my immediate area. But I want to figure out how it compares against Hikvision DS-2CD7A26G0-P-IZHS8 or Nelly's IPCT-LPR-832-BT1. Pricing is in the same ballpark. My constraint is that the choke point is 160 feet away where it's on the dark side. I have not seen much talk here about these 2 cameras although Nelly's option is sold here in the ipcamtalk store. The IR range on the Hikvision is 165ft.Any hands on experience? Just like all of us here, I'm trying to spend my $ wisely.
Click to expand...
If you want TRUE ANPR with white & blacklist options on camera with plate database for recognition (i.e. true traffic cam) then this is certainly 1 to go for. Its a real workhorse and above all else, does what it says on the tin ;)
Billyjack5 said:
Could this be mounted to a wall without the "J" mount part using this?
Click to expand...


Yes @Billyjack5 the PFA162 (not to be confused with the PFA160) DOES work with the ITC 237 but it’s key to make sure you can mount it to a flat surface. Therefore if you place it on top of a pole or wall, make sure nice and flat then secure down into it. Also remember that the cam still has the built in cable channel molded in (I.e. the curved piece at bottom end of the cam that usually attaches into J mount) therefore when mounting to the 162 (using separate mounting points on the cam bottom) make sure you seal around the cable connection from the cam to ensure no issues with water etc.
 
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Wildcat_1 said:
If you want TRUE ANPR with white & blacklist options on camera with plate database for recognition (i.e. true traffic cam) then this is certainly 1 to go for. Its a real workhorse and above all else, does what it says on the tin ;)



Yes @Billyjack5 the PFA162 (not to be confused with the PFA160) DOES work with the ITC 237 but it’s key to make sure you can mount it to a flat surface. Therefore if you place it on top of a pole or wall, make sure nice and flat then secure down into it. Also remember that the cam still has the built in cable channel molded in (I.e. the curved piece at bottom end of the cam that usually attaches into J mount) therefore when mounting to the 162 (using separate mounting points on the cam bottom) make sure you seal around the cable connection from the cam to ensure no issues with water etc.
Click to expand...

Appreciate the response. I guess what I'm hoping is that the end cap piece can be attached to the short neck piece with the threads and then attached to the PFA162 and mounted on a vertical surface, as opposed to a flat one.
 

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I went ahead and bought the ITC 237 from Andy and have it up and running and have been playing with it for the last week. My capture point is right where there is a speed hump on the street in front of my house, which is great for getting decent nighttime plate reads because cars must slow down to 10-15 mph. I've noticed, though, that when two cars are bumper to bumper the camera doesn't snap the trailing car. To fix this and ensure that both cars get snapped and recognized by the camera, would I need to adjust the "Loop Mode Parameters" under Snapshot settings, or the "Vehicle Detection Sensitivity" under the Recognition menu, or both? These menus are unique to the 237 so I figured this thread was the most appropriate place for this question.
 
Billyjack5 said:
I went ahead and bought the ITC 237 from Andy and have it up and running and have been playing with it for the last week. My capture point is right where there is a speed hump on the street in front of my house, which is great for getting decent nighttime plate reads because cars must slow down to 10-15 mph. I've noticed, though, that when two cars are bumper to bumper the camera doesn't snap the trailing car. To fix this and ensure that both cars get snapped and recognized by the camera, would I need to adjust the "Loop Mode Parameters" under Snapshot settings, or the "Vehicle Detection Sensitivity" under the Recognition menu, or both? These menus are unique to the 237 so I figured this thread was the most appropriate place for this question.
Click to expand...
Try with loop mode params and also number of snaps first. I wouldn't adjust detection sensitivity yet
 
Thanks, Wildcat_1. I'll try that. This camera is a lot of fun. The plate reads are great. I'm pushing the distance with this cam with an 85 foot capture point at about a 35 degree angle, and the plate pixels are less than 140 because I'm already at max zoon (I have a constant red message in the config box), but the camera still performs well. Just trying to fine tune it. I never subscribed to anything other than the scout plan for OpenAlpr so I don't know if it had a comparable feature, but the "vehicle sign" field gives me a whole lot of "Daihatsu" and "TataMotors" results, but I don't think you can expect much from that sort of AI at this point.
 
For the 237 users on this thread, I'm using this camera at max zoom (2287 on the manual focus zoom slider) and during the daytime hours the optimal focus is at 140, but at night it's 160. If I don't manually change the focus to 160 when the camera is in nighttime mode, I get blurred captures. After manually changing it to 160, for some reason the focus automatically changes to 140 in the morning when it's daylight. I've played played around with the "Regional" focus settings in the "Config(LPR)" tab but am not sure that I'm using it correctly and the Dahua manual, while voluminous, isn't any help on this. When I click the "Regional" button I can draw a red box but there is no indication that the area delineated in the box is saved after pressing "confirm" because the box isn't seen again. Anyone have this issue or any thoughts?
 
For folks on this thread with a LPR237B-IR, the link to the 210922 firmware that Andy posted above, is that the same firmware that I have below? I purchased my camera in Oct. 2021 and the upgrade for the 210922 fails when I try to install it. I'm wondering if the 210922 is the same as what I have installed already and that's why the upgrade is failing.

Device Type: IPC-LPR237B-IR
Hardware Version: 1.00
Algorithm Version: libits v1.0.349337:Jul 1 2021 321903 0.0.0
Algorithm is authorized
System Version: 2.625.10BE000.0.R, Build Date: 2021-07-19
Software Version: 2.625.10BE000.0.R, build : 2021-07-19
Soft Build Time: 2021-07-19 14:53:26
 
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