Standalone camera - noob questions

[Deckard_80]

Hi guys! My friends and I are into meteorite hunting and we thought we could install some cameras to watch the sky. We won’t need them to secure our homes..
Can I install a Dahua camera with 128/256gb sd card with a the dc power adapter only? Once I know there’s been a meteorite sighting I would go to the camera, plug the ethernet cable and watch/download the video images to a laptop. Is it feasible?
Thank you!

 

[TonyR]

Hi guys! My friends and I are into meteorite hunting and we thought we could install some cameras to watch the sky. We won’t need them to secure our homes..
Can I install a Dahua camera with 128/256gb sd card with a the dc power adapter only? Once I know there’s been a meteorite sighting I would go to the camera, plug the ethernet cable and watch/download the video images to a laptop. Is it feasible?
Thank you!

Yes.
Set up and test cam beforehand, assign it a static IP (and write it down!) so that when you plug in laptop, also already set up with a static IP in the same subnet as the laptop, you can bring up the cam.
Remember to protect the camera's pigtail (12VDC connector and Ethernet/POE connector) from the elements which may complicate your access to the Ethernet connector later unless:

Since you must power the cam anyway, why not install a POE-powered cam, mount cam on appropriate junction box to hide/protect pigtail, run CAT-5e or 6 outdoor-rated cable from box to an easily accessible location, power the cam with a POE injector? Plug the POE injector into AC power indoors, plug your laptop Ethernet into the POE injector to access the cam.

 

[Deckard_80]

Since you must power the cam anyway, why not install a POE-powered cam, mount cam on appropriate junction box to hide/protect pigtail, run CAT-5e or 6 outdoor-rated cable from box to an easily accessible location, power the cam with a POE injector? Plug the POE injector into AC power indoors, plug your laptop Ethernet into the POE injector to access the cam.

This was going to be my second question. Thanks TonyR

 

[Deckard_80]

How many hours would a 128gb sd card record on a dahua 4Mp camera at max specs? And what about at 1080p/30fps?
Thanks.

 

[TonyR]

How many hours would a 128gb sd card record on a dahua 4Mp camera at max specs? And what about at 1080p/30fps?
Thanks.

You can do the math here on IPCT 's calculator ==>> Calculating Required Hard Drive Size

 

[lewic]

Depending on how you have it set up. You could do a event recording so it would only record when it detects any motion. That way you would get more recording time and be easier to search for footage since it would note at what specific time a motion happened.

 

[Deckard_80]

Depending on how you have it set up. You could do a event recording so it would only record when it detects any motion. That way you would get more recording time and be easier to search for footage since it would note at what specific time a motion happened.

I don’t think a meteorite 200 miles away would trigger the motion sensor. I think I’m better off with 24/7 recording.
Would a shooting star trigger the motion sensor in the night?

 

[Deckard_80]

Our cameras won’t be used for detection... once we know there has been a meteorite event we will then look at our images and use them for triangulation

 

[lewic]

I don’t think a meteorite 200 miles away would trigger the motion sensor. I think I’m better off with 24/7 recording.
Would a shooting star trigger the motion sensor in the night?

Motion detection is set off by pixel changes. So if any pixels change colors then it would set it off depending on how sensitive you set it up.

 

[lewic]

I am intrigued by what type of camera you will be using. IR will not do you any good since it will be pointed at the sky so it is probably something with a super low lux rating like a starlight or a nitecolor camera. I would suppose a dahua nitecolor since it has a good lux rating and bigger sensor to absorb more light to get a good picture at night. Since it is meteorite then would it need high FPS since maybe it will be moving pretty fast or else the video will be skipping?

 

[Deckard_80]

I am intrigued by what type of camera you will be using. IR will not do you any good since it will be pointed at the sky so it is probably something with a super low lux rating like a starlight or a nitecolor camera. I would suppose a dahua nitecolor since it has a good lux rating and bigger sensor to absorb more light to get a good picture at night. Since it is meteorite then would it need high FPS since maybe it will be moving pretty fast or else the video will be skipping?

We need 20fps minimum
Talked to Andy a few days ago and he recommended
IPC-HFW5442T-ASE-NI 4mp full color
IPC-HFW2831T-ZS 4K
IPC-HFW5442E-ZE

if you have any other recommendations feel free to name them.

 

[Deckard_80]

Motion detection is set off by pixel changes. So if any pixels change colors then it would set it off depending on how sensitive you set it up.

Don’t want to risk missing a meteorite..I’d rather have the camera recording 24/7 and if I can get 2 or 3 days in my 128 sd card it’ll be enough.

 

[Deckard_80]

Keeping in mind that we need the cameras for meteorite recording, would you help me decide on the best configuration?
For instance, smart codec On or Off?, Dvr or vbr?
At the moment I have it like this

 

[lewic]

Smart codec seem like it would be encoding in H265+ which compresses video more so you can get more video on the amount of space available. I would have that on. Then change to VBR. That is for variable bit rate. Use less for times with less movement and more when there are changes happening to what is being viewed.

 

[Deckard_80]

Smart codec seem like it would be encoding in H265+ which compresses video more so you can get more video on the amount of space available. I would have that on. Then change to VBR. That is for variable bit rate. Use less for times with less movement and more when there are changes happening to what is being viewed.

Thank you Lewic. I’ve read about VBR.. but would the Vbr react that fast uping the bitrate in case of a meteorite? I’m afraid it won’t be that quick and record at low bitrate.. sorry I don’t know how Vbr works and I might be talking nonsense

 

[lewic]

If pixels are not changing then it doesn't add anything and reuses the previous frame. Any pixel that changed then that is basically the only thing that is "saved". It basically just uses what it needs to save the video. It will do everything in the background so you would not know that it is doing it. If you are afraid of it not being "quick".... The FPS (frames per second) takes care of that. I wouldn't worry about it. Just make sure to invest in a surveillance grade SD card. Needs to be able to sustain high enough read and write speeds and have the endurance of being used continuously 24 hours a day.

 

[Deckard_80]

If pixels are not changing then it doesn't add anything and reuses the previous frame. Any pixel that changed then that is basically the only thing that is "saved". It basically just uses what it needs to save the video. It will do everything in the background so you would not know that it is doing it. If you are afraid of it not being "quick".... The FPS (frames per second) takes care of that. I wouldn't worry about it. Just make sure to invest in a surveillance grade SD card. Needs to be able to sustain high enough read and write speeds and have the endurance of being used continuously 24 hours a day.

Thank you lewic I first discarted the vbr because I was watching a live video with vbr on and the bitrate count was something like 400kb then I moved my hand in front of the camera and it took 5or6 seconds to reach the 6000kb. Thought this was too slow for what we needed... The laptop I’m using is quite old and slow and this could be the problem. I’ll have to buy an ethernet adaptor for my other and better laptop (Mac)