Review- New Design Tendelux 10 Watt IR illuminator.

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Could scuff it up some with a Scotch-Brite abrasive pad or similar I suppose. Might try that with one of mine.
 
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Mike A. said:
That's what I was afraid of. I guess if you had an application where your interest is longer reach it would be better. None of mine are all that far out. Even the DI10 lights up the house across the street.

Thanks, saved me the extra $10.
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I want to see if I can improve the night-time image from my OwlCam. I have a sunshade over the top, but the IR bounces off it like crazy, despite my attempts at mitigation. That camera (IPC-HFW4431R-Z) throws a ton of light (it was appropriate suggested to me as an "IR cannon"), so I'm trying to get a similar amount of light, but from a different source. This would also help with the spiders.

LOL! I just checked, and I never checked out, so that DI20 was still in my amazon cart from this morning. Since then it dropped $7 to $45. So I saved $7 by being forgetful. I just ordered, and it should arrive tomorrow.
 
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Mike A. said:
Could scuff it up some with a Scotch-Brite abrasive pad or similar I suppose. Might try that with one of mine.
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It would be easier if could take the glass out of the housing. Has anyone disassembled one of these?
 
Oh yeah, I think I remember talking to you a long time ago about using that cam just as an IR source. Some cheap fluke pricing on it at Amazon at the time. Thought about getting one of those then too but already had a cam of similar design that I used for a long while before the DI10s. Curious to see how the DI20 works for that. You've got a good basis for comparison there.
 
TheWaterbug said:
It would be easier if could take the glass out of the housing. Has anyone disassembled one of these?
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I had one fail and looked briefly at it but didn't see how it came apart in any easy way. Set it aside and forgot about it. I think the front assembly/internals may just be pressed into the metal frame.
 
Mike A. said:
Oh yeah, I think I remember talking to you a long time ago about using that cam just as an IR source. Some cheap fluke pricing on it at Amazon at the time. Thought about getting one of those then too but already had a cam of similar design that I used for a long while before the DI10s. Curious to see how the DI20 works for that. You've got a good basis for comparison there.
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I actually have an another IPC-HFW4431R-Z laying around. I used it as my bee hive time-lapse camera last season, but this year I'm trying to use a real dSLR for that purpose, which would leave it idle.

I suppose I could use that as just an IR illuminator. But that seems wasteful.
 
TheWaterbug said:
I wish the manufacturers would just use a piece of frosted glass in front. I can't think of a single application where more diffuse wouldn't be better. And it's not a matter of specsmanship, as the wattage would remain the same. Any test images would look better, too.
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For LPR, a hotspot would be preferred over wide range dispersion LOL, but yeah for almost everything else an evenly lit up field of view would be preferred.
 
Yeah, looked at my dead one again just now and don't see any way to get it open easily. No fastener hidden under the label on top. Hard to find anything thin enough to get between and under the edge of the front plastic that's strong enough to maybe pry it off.
 
IT'S ALIVE!!! Was using my dead one to see what scuffing it some would do and plugged it in just for the hell of it and it's working again! Damn, that's a surprise. It's been sitting there for months. Tried it many times since and nothing.

Scuffing it up is fairly effective. You can kind of see the effect. Looks more opaque when it's not on. Could do more but want to try it first to see how it does and go from there. Can always do more, can't take it back easily. Try it tonight if I get a chance and see how it works.


DI10scuffed.jpg

Looks rough since I scraped the paint off trying to get under the edge but pretty easy to paint them. If you do best to leave the protective plastic on the front. Kind of comes already masked.
 
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Would love to hear how the difuser film or frosted spray applications work. I have several of these, and would like for them to be less, glossy and more diffuse..
 
Mike A. said:
IT'S ALIVE!!! Was using my dead one to see what scuffing it some would do and plugged it in just for the hell of it and it's working again! Damn, that's a surprise. It's been sitting there for months. Tried it many times since and nothing.
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It just needed to be rebooted. :rofl:
 
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wittaj said:
For LPR, a hotspot would be preferred over wide range dispersion LOL, but yeah for almost everything else an evenly lit up field of view would be preferred.
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Ok, you've got the one application that's better :rofl:

I was actually woolgathering about this on my drive into work, and if you had the LEDs mounted on a flexible circuit board, you could approximate a "focusing" feature with a screw/bolt/thingamajig to flex the center of the board inward or outward to make it concave or convex. It wouldn't have to be very accurate or uniform, because we're not trying to form a true optical image, but it could angle the individual LEDs inward or outward enough to change the size/shape of the spot.
 
That worked pretty well. Unfortunately don't have a before and after trying to diffuse it some since I wasn't expecting the thing to work to begin with. Below is before/after putting it up where I did with camera settings left the same. More even lighting than they come I think given this would usually be a worst case (as above) pointing down at a big grassy area where you'd typically end up with a very bright spot right in front of the cam :

T2431 @ 1/60 with on-cam IR only:
Screenshot 2023-02-07 184254.png

T2431 @ 1/60 with DI10 only after diffusing:
Screenshot 2023-02-07 184415.png

That cam doesn't show it so much as it's set up but on others you can see that it's still putting out a ton of IR. Leaves a big bright IR beam across the yard and lights up the house across the street.
 
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What abrasive did you use?
 
I have the old style and they work great after 2.5 yrs. From what I can see not much difference here with the 20watt maybe even not as good as the old one. I need max range and max width so which should I order new or old style?
 
Here is what the DI20 looks like with it tilted all the way up...can't tilt it up any more than that. It's mounted about 8.5 feet off the ground.

View from HDW5231R-ZE with IR OFF
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View from HDW5231R-ZE with SmartIR ON
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