Maybe your neighbor will learn.
Unless it is one of the oddball proprietary Lorex units, Andy's cams pull right into Lorex.
Unless it is one of the oddball proprietary Lorex units, Andy's cams pull right into Lorex.
Stack video frames to enhance face and catch Truck Thief?
- Thread starter TheWaterbug
- Start date
Excellent. I will hit my neighbors with a stick until they buy some frickin' AndyCams.
Good news! After I got all the wireless bridges configured and tested in my kitchen, I rigged everything up with a tripod, jumpstarter, and an inverter for a real-world test in front of 301:
The tenant in 301 came out, and we talked, and he's actually negotiating with the landlord to move his warehouse needs from 203 to 302 (not marked, but just to the right of 301), and he's 100% on-board with me using his AC power and mounting my bridge and camera from the awning of 302 to point directly at the southern driveway off of Western. We should get the go-ahead next week.
In even better news, I was running the same test at ground level in front of 104/105:
and got the go-ahead to mount that camera from the balcony! Here's the view from the 104/105 shared balcony to the northern driveway in the daytime:
and my first plate captures at night (yes, I changed the camera name overlay). This is my car, so no concerns about privacy. Plates leaving are good at 1/30,000 exposure :
and plates entering at an artificially sharp angle (e.g. me, trying to avoid the LPR camera) are just makeable. I'm currently focused too close, so I need to fiddle with that tomorrow. I have a dummy plate for testing, too:
Regarding the 223rd St. driveway, since I won't be able to mount a camera at 203/204, I also did some testing from the back end of my own unit #107:
facing North, about 230'
I'm parked just the left of the driveway, but at this distance the slight difference in angle won't matter. Daytime plates should be good:
and I'll have to see about nighttime plates. I don't know if the IR illuminator will throw that far. But I've got a 3rd AndyCam on order to see if I can make this work. I already have a $50 Amcrest eyeball up on that exterior wall, so I can run a POE splitter and power a 2nd camera, and point that eyeball more towards the driveway as my overview camera.
Madflamethrower
Pulling my weight
Excellent tutorial 
with specific camera ID to read plates at a distance. For that alone I thank you as it will aid me in setting up what I hope to achieve.
with specific camera ID to read plates at a distance. For that alone I thank you as it will aid me in setting up what I hope to achieve.
looney2ns
IPCT Contributor
Have you read the LPR thread? There's gold in that thread.Excellent tutorial
Flintstone61
Known around here
Maybe you could leave the cabling holes you have already but run Raceway down the side of the wall to lower the cams?
20V hammer drills: i have an old $149 Rockwell cordless drill, it doesn't make decent progress on speed 1, But the thing rips thru 12" block wall pretty fast on speed 2.
you can get a hammer drill for $99 or less now i think. make tiny camera mount holes with like , 3/16 bit. can be filled it easily later if needed.
Madflamethrower
Pulling my weight
Yes, but what got my attention here and I should have clarified, was the 150' distance and the suggestion of exposure correction. And with wittaj's and bigredfish's usual comments, it helped understand what it took to get what the OP needed. I can appreciate what each different camera is capable of.
No doubt there is s steep learning curve with this level of cameras, but I am determined.
That also looks weird because my front plates were all bent up. Here's my first natural night-time entry, at a normal angle:
Maybe I have the focus point correct, where the cars need to complete their turn before running into the curb that runs parallel to the driveway. If I focus further out, where the driveway meets the street, I might get only the sideways view.
Possible, but the cameras need to be high enough that vagrants can't reach them by standing on the bollards or the electrical panel
:They haven't brought a ladder. Yet.
It's up:
Here's my car, after making a left turn into the lot from 223rd St (scaled down):
and a 100% crop of my car:
Here's someone leaving:
I can actually zoom in even further, but I don't think I need to, and I would lose part of the driveway anyway (scaled down):
I should be able to catch most plates, no? Well, as long as the delivery trucks aren't in the way :
Here's my car, after making a left turn into the lot from 223rd St (scaled down):
and a 100% crop of my car:
Here's someone leaving:
I can actually zoom in even further, but I don't think I need to, and I would lose part of the driveway anyway (scaled down):
I should be able to catch most plates, no? Well, as long as the delivery trucks aren't in the way
:Attachments
bigredfish
Known around here
Is there a step-by-step tutorial on how to focus a IPC-B52IR-Z12E S2 for night captures? Every time I think I have it right, the next night's clips are out of focus again.
I've turned off PTZ in BI for all user except Local_Console and admin, including turning it off for myself, as I don't log in as admin.
I'm logging directly into the camera's web UI, doing digital zoom on my own car in the driveway, and attempting to get that well-focused, and then it's set to Manual focus for both Day and Night profiles.
Does the focus point change when the IR filter moves in/out? If yes, can I store a separate manual focus point for each mode?
Or am I just doing this wrong?
Yes the focus can be different day and night. So set it during the day and then again at night.
bigredfish
Known around here
You have to do this twice. Once for each profile
Set to Manual for profile, Save. Before you start below steps
Go to Zoom control, with a real target (plate) in view
Set Steps to 1 on zoom slider page
Use Zoom to get clear image, stop.
Go back to main page verifying its in Manual (and you are in the right profile) and hit SAVE again
Set to Manual for profile, Save. Before you start below steps
Go to Zoom control, with a real target (plate) in view
Set Steps to 1 on zoom slider page
Use Zoom to get clear image, stop.
Go back to main page verifying its in Manual (and you are in the right profile) and hit SAVE again
I'm still not getting good captures. I've got the exposure and focus dialed in on my dummy plate, (5XOZ099, on the right) that I mounted on a U-stake, adjacent to the driveway. But here's a real car coming in at 6:50 PM:
resulting in "No plate found." And here's a car coming at 6:07 AM, also resulting in "No plate found":
In both cases my dummy plate is nice and crisp for 230' away:
but the real vehicle is unmakeable. Exposure is Shutter Priority at 1/2000, w/3D NR at +23, Exposure Comp at +51, and both Illuminators on this IPC-B52IR-Z12E S2 at 100%.
What can I tweak next? Thanks!
resulting in "No plate found." And here's a car coming at 6:07 AM, also resulting in "No plate found":
In both cases my dummy plate is nice and crisp for 230' away:
but the real vehicle is unmakeable. Exposure is Shutter Priority at 1/2000, w/3D NR at +23, Exposure Comp at +51, and both Illuminators on this IPC-B52IR-Z12E S2 at 100%.
What can I tweak next? Thanks!
I would like more zoom at night for starters.
Get off shutter priority and make it manual - right now with shutter priority the gain is too high trying to brighten the picture.
Try gain at like 0-35
Get off shutter priority and make it manual - right now with shutter priority the gain is too high trying to brighten the picture.
Try gain at like 0-35
bigredfish
Known around here
^^^^^
+1
CBR, Manual not Shutter prio, 1/1000 - 1/2000 exposure,
Not enough zoom (or too much distance)
You're trying to view too much of the scene, common mistake, it wont work until you come to grips with narrowing the FOV to a specific small choke point
In that top full size image it becomes clear. There's at least 60ft difference between the car in the foreground, your test plate, and the car with the bad plate. In bright daylight with slow vehicles you might get away with that but at night you're going to have to choose a choke point. The camera's Depth of Field simply isnt that big with fast exposure to see everything in that scene with the same clarity.
And forget the digital zoom and cropping stuff. It just magnifies the bad focus
If the FOV is any bigger than the length of a car its not zoomed enough
+1
CBR, Manual not Shutter prio, 1/1000 - 1/2000 exposure,
Not enough zoom (or too much distance)
You're trying to view too much of the scene, common mistake, it wont work until you come to grips with narrowing the FOV to a specific small choke point
In that top full size image it becomes clear. There's at least 60ft difference between the car in the foreground, your test plate, and the car with the bad plate. In bright daylight with slow vehicles you might get away with that but at night you're going to have to choose a choke point. The camera's Depth of Field simply isnt that big with fast exposure to see everything in that scene with the same clarity.
And forget the digital zoom and cropping stuff. It just magnifies the bad focus
If the FOV is any bigger than the length of a car its not zoomed enough