Review- New Design Tendelux 10 Watt IR illuminator.

[105437]

I changed the wiring. Originally I had one POE cable running to this fence post, so I had 3 cameras, a POE extender, and two of those CMVision IR40 illuminators (4W each?) all running off that one cable run, off of a single POE+ 802.3at port from an Amcrest AMPS5E4P-At-65. It will allegedly deliver 30W to one port and 65W to all 4 combined:

View attachment 135192

I ran a second cable* out of the POE+ switch to power one camera and one illuminator, which reduces the load on both the POE extender and that one POE+ port:

View attachment 135193

It works! I ran the 10W illuminators for 5-6 minutes last night, and nothing shut off like it did last time.

I need to find some daytime when I can mount the two Tendelux illuminators, and I also want to zip tie some of that diffuser material onto them, so it'll be a few days before I get new and improved coyote footage.

* running that second cable was supposed to take 20 minutes, but it took 2.5 hours because my pulling eye got unscrewed from the fish tape in the middle of the conduit, so I ended up with an empty conduit and no pull string . The conduit run is only about 30', but it has a few bends that I can't push through, so I had to vacuum a new pull string through it, which required me schlepping the shop vac and 3 extension cords down to the trail. But at least it worked!!

Great job! I'm interested to hear about what extender you're using and what diffuser material you're using.

 

[105437]

Glad you guys mentioned these. I've bought several of the 10W recently. Like them a lot. Much better than what I had up.

For whatever reason my Dahua cams seem to have a much better image when not using the onboard IR. I can tweak them all day (or night I guess) but they won't look as good as they do when that's turned off. Even though it's adding light the cam seems to do some kind of internal adjustment that just ends up looking better without.

I completely agree. My 5442s seem to have a much better quality image with the onboard IR off.

 

[tigerwillow1]

My 5442s seem to have a much better quality image with the onboard IR off.

That's true with all of my several camera models, which all have worse hotspots than the external IR I use, not to mention attracting bugs, rain reflection, and snow reflection.

 

[Mike A.]

Is kind of hard not to blow out faces with these at any close distance. Fortunately I'm using two mostly for wildlife so not as much of an issue. One that's for people watching I had to mount real high and angle up to try to get the main beam more over their heads and out into the distance.

 

[TheWaterbug]

I bought a few sheets of this diffuser gel material a few months ago, for $19 off of amazon. I cut a 3" x 3" square of it and taped it over the CMVision IR40 illuminator for the 2nd photo and for the right half of the video. The camera and illuminator are otherwise the same in both.

^^ Here's the diffuser I'm using:

 

[TheWaterbug]

I changed the wiring. Originally I had one POE cable running to this fence post, so I had 3 cameras, a POE extender,

^^ and here's the extender I'm using:

 

[105437]

^^ Here's the diffuser I'm using:

Thanks for sharing. What difference did you notice with/without the diffuser?

 

[TheWaterbug]

Thanks for sharing. What difference did you notice with/without the diffuser?

See my post from June 15, on the previous page, and a few posts following.

 

[karlocikovic]

I changed the wiring. Originally I had one POE cable running to this fence post, so I had 3 cameras, a POE extender, and two of those CMVision IR40 illuminators (4W each?) all running off that one cable run, off of a single POE+ 802.3at port from an Amcrest AMPS5E4P-At-65. It will allegedly deliver 30W to one port and 65W to all 4 combined:

View attachment 135192

I ran a second cable* out of the POE+ switch to power one camera and one illuminator, which reduces the load on both the POE extender and that one POE+ port:

View attachment 135193

It works! I ran the 10W illuminators for 5-6 minutes last night, and nothing shut off like it did last time.

I need to find some daytime when I can mount the two Tendelux illuminators, and I also want to zip tie some of that diffuser material onto them, so it'll be a few days before I get new and improved coyote footage.

* running that second cable was supposed to take 20 minutes, but it took 2.5 hours because my pulling eye got unscrewed from the fish tape in the middle of the conduit, so I ended up with an empty conduit and no pull string . The conduit run is only about 30', but it has a few bends that I can't push through, so I had to vacuum a new pull string through it, which required me schlepping the shop vac and 3 extension cords down to the trail. But at least it worked!!

How you supplied with power Tendelux LED?

 

[karlocikovic]

I have IPC-T5442T-ZE and PFA130-E box, so I would like to implement connection and all cables inside box and mount external IR LED near camera..

Actually this is nice solution, but is risky and I'm not sure if 10W is too much power draw:

Dahua camera mod to power external IR light

I've made an easy modification to 2 popular chinese market cameras to provide 12 volt power from their external power input jack (models HFW4431M-I2 and HFW4431R-Z). The same power components are in at least one model international starlight I looked at, so I'd expect the modification to be the...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[TheWaterbug]

How you supplied with power Tendelux LED?

Very similar to the post you just linked, but simpler. I just jumpered over the diode.

Due to the placement of the diode on these cameras I have to actually remove the lens assembly, just to be able to get my soldering iron onto the diode.

I wish Amcrest would put a removable jumper somewhere easily accessible on the board; it would save me a lot of time and motivate me to buy more cameras.

 

[TheWaterbug]

Note that, with any of these 12 V hacks, you will need to connect a 2.1mm female cable on the camera to a 2.1mm female cable on the illuminator. I have been using these M/M jumper cables:



but I also just ordered a 5-pack of these M/M gender changers:



My cameras now identify as Male.

 

[coltechaz]

I installed a 20watt unit in the top of the gable where the roof is about 20' off the ground. It is pointed directly at the spot where my license plate camera is focused on the road going past my house. It obviously covers my front yard as well. I will say that I am disappointed (but not surprised) at the performance of the unit. Of course this is physics - 20 watts of energy into over 100 individual LEDs which are designed to cover a 90° view means each LED is not really that bright. I was hoping that I could turn off the built in IR light from my 5241E-Z12E camera that I use for license plates, but the IR light from the 20 watt unit is not enough. I had to turn the camera emitters back on to get good results. Now keep in mind that the desired location is about 150' from the 20w emitter, but I was still hoping for more (the camera is about the same distance away from the desired location).

I also have several 5442E-Z4E bullet cameras facing towards the yard, driveway and the street and the IR emitters on those cameras are MUCH stronger than the 20w emitter. Again, those emitters are designed to have a narrow field of coverage compared to the 20w emitter, but the difference is huge.

I'd say this emitter is probably good out to about 50' or 60' and then it is probably going to underperform expectations.

Remember, license plates are retroreflective and return all of the incident light back exactly towards the illuminator within an angle of 2-4 degrees. I think your 20 watt light might be powerful enough but is too far off-axis so that your camera is not receiving any of the reflected light. Your illuminator needs to be almost right next to the LPR camera in order for the camera to see its license plate reflected illumination.

 

[Redbone]

Been in contact with Jon from Tendelux. Recently purchased and installed Tendelux DI10 IR Illuminator, 10W. These give off a strong "light" but are prone to strip or band lighting as opposed to the desired area fill at least for my 4 car parking spot driveway. Jon noted that the issue is due to the 90 degree beam angle and suggested pointing the illuminator in the opposite direction using reflection. Due to my area this would not work for me but I did have great luck pointing the light further down or closer which reflected the light with much less banding. Jon also informed me that they are currently working on a 120 degree angle light which would mitigate banding and give more of a fill. BTW these get hot, allow for some air flow spacing as opposed to placing back of unit too close to wall. Overall happy with the Tendelux DI10 IR Illuminator vs the other cheap round low wattage 48 cell unit commonly found on Ebay and Amazon.

 

[105437]

Been in contact with Jon from Tendelux. Recently purchased and installed Tendelux DI10 IR Illuminator, 10W. These give off a strong "light" but are prone to strip or band lighting as opposed to the desired area fill at least for my 4 car parking spot driveway. Jon noted that the issue is due to the 90 degree beam angle and suggested pointing the illuminator in the opposite direction using reflection. Due to my area this would not work for me but I did have great luck pointing the light further down or closer which reflected the light with much less banding. Jon also informed me that they are currently working on a 120 degree angle light which would mitigate banding and give more of a fill. BTW these unit get hot allow for some air flow spacing as opposed to placing back of unit too close to wall. Overall happy with the Tendelux DI10 IR Illuminator vs the other cheap round low wattage 48 cell unit commonly found on Ebay and Amazon.

I have several of these, a mix of 10W and 20W. I don't know what you mean by "strip or band" lighting, I've never noticed anything like that. Also, the IR wouldn't have anything to do with color night vision.

 

[Redbone]

I have several of these, a mix of 10W and 20W. I don't know what you mean by "strip or band" lighting, I've never noticed anything like that. Also, the IR wouldn't have anything to do with color night vision.

The banding is based on IR angle according to Jon from Tendelux aiming can mitigate this. My Dahua camera has auto or manual night color settings which shows color if there is enough lux.

 

[105437]

The banding is based on IR angle according to Jon from Tendelux aiming can mitigate this. My Dahua camera has auto or manual night color settings which shows color if there is enough lux.

Thanks, I guess my IRs are aimed in a way I don't see it. As for night color, I thought your night color picture above was shown as an example of how one of these IRs can help. You must also have white light out there in order to get color to look okay.

 

[Redbone]

Thanks, I guess my IRs are aimed in a way I don't see it. As for night color, I thought your night color picture above was shown as an example of how one of these IRs can help. You must also have white light out there in order to get color to look okay.

Only white light I have is from a short led strip house number center above garage doors and neighbors lighting. Enough to allow both color feature and subsequently improve detailing.

 

[Redbone]

Same camera different location using only onboard IR Illuminator no added white light except some light from neighbors front door or garage.

 

[Mike A.]

Make sure that you tape up the connector for these. I lost one last night when we got some rain. Hadn’t finished mounting yesterday and left it up without. Dead this morning. Kind of surprised but my bad. Should have just left it unplugged.