Sweet! LTS is releasing an ONVIF compatible doorbell with SD card slot and 940nm IR

[Optimus Prime]

Fruit, I’m anxiously awaiting a nighttime photo from you as well. It’s sitting on my desk waiting for me to take it out of the box. I have to figure out how to run a new doorbell wire because the original wires were ripped out at my house. I don’t want to go through that much pain and suffering just find out the image is going to be as bad as the ones with the bad glare.

 

[lagvoid]

Here's mine, i actually didn't install it yet...I notice you have to keep it spotless to get the best picture. (cleaned it with an alcohol wipe)

Thanks for sharing. Well lit, the camera looks good. The night shot is a shame...I guess if you leave the porch light on, it would do well.

 

[bigredaggie]

Thanks for sharing. Well lit, the camera looks good. The night shot is a shame...I guess if you leave the porch light on, it would do well.

Or maybe with an external IR illuminator if you didn't want visible light on the porch (assuming you can disable the onboard IR LEDs.)

 

[VorlonFrog]

Or maybe with an external IR illuminator if you didn't want visible light on the porch (assuming you can disable the onboard IR LEDs.)

You can't, so far as I can tell.

 

[nbstl68]

Wow that glare \ reflection on the night IR shots kills the deal totally IMO.
Right through the middle too where you would have the best chance of facial recognition when someone is near.
Too bad. It had a nice small form factor but if there is a cloudy reflection blob where you would expect to see a face it is kind of useless.

 

[VorlonFrog]

So this morning, we had a total power failure at our house. No big problem, the power company had it back on less than 90 minutes later. But the doorbell camera started sending motion detection notifications to my phone every few seconds. It's NEVER sent these, ever before. It was so danged annoying, I had to completely disable notifications from the HikConnect app.

 

[bigredaggie]

So this morning, we had a total power failure at our house. No big problem, the power company had it back on less than 90 minutes later. But the doorbell camera started sending motion detection notifications to my phone every few seconds. It's NEVER sent these, ever before. It was so danged annoying, I had to completely disable notifications from the HikConnect app.

So is that the cloud service not receiving a heartbeat from the doorbell and freaking out? If so it seems like that would happen every time you lost power to the doorbell. I like the idea of getting a notification that it lost connection (ie if somebody ripped it off the wall or something) but getting a constant flood like that seems like an oversight.

 

[VorlonFrog]

So is that the cloud service not receiving a heartbeat from the doorbell and freaking out? If so it seems like that would happen every time you lost power to the doorbell. I like the idea of getting a notification that it lost connection (ie if somebody ripped it off the wall or something) but getting a constant flood like that seems like an oversight.

No, these appeared to be legitimate motion detection warnings, but coming at the rate of one or two per minute, every doggoned minute. It was surprising because it's never done that in the last few weeks, and there's no configuration option to disable it, either. I had to go into my phone settings to disable the notifications.

 

[Pilot04]

Anyone else purchased a LTS or Clare unit recently that had better night IR results than what were shown in this thread so far? I'll need to replace an old chime doorbell and would prefer local storage wifi doorbell. Wishing there will be an unbranded version of this wifi doorbell for cheaper price this holiday shopping season to try out

 

[cameraman27]

There is an alternative to these cloud doorbell cams for local-only access, see my thread here with a Dahua VTO model: Cannot setup Dahua VTO2111D-WP

 

[concord]

Anyone else purchased a LTS or Clare unit recently that had better night IR results than what were shown in this thread so far? I'll need to replace an old chime doorbell and would prefer local storage wifi doorbell. Wishing there will be an unbranded version of this wifi doorbell for cheaper price this holiday shopping season to try out

To add information to this thread, I have the Clare Control cam.

It's night-time IR reflection is worse than what was shown on the HK version, this may be due to the outside wall near my door. You still can see the person if within 3 ft of the doorbell, but with no one there, you can't see much but the wall and the IR reflection.

When the IR does come on the doorbell chime has a low hum and will get louder when accessing it live. When the doorbell button is pressed, the hum goes away and the IR turns off. I've sent this to Clare and they haven't figured it out yet. Even though I have 19V AC at the doorbell, I'm thinking it's not enough watts (old transformer) or something. Plan on getting a new transformer and try it out.

Also, the browser app for accessing the camera is very limited. For example, there is no way to turn off IR, like other IP cameras.

I can live with the IR reflection by using motion sensing modules for the porch lights, however there is no way to turn off the IR. The web browser app has limited options. Also, when you loose internet and someone presses the doorbell, it announces that it can't connect to the cloud.

I have BlueCherryDVR software and it will live stream the camera, but it won't record. BlueCherryDVR guys won't be able to get to it for a few weeks and they'll need rtsp access to the cam. Recording/modect works fine with ZoneMinder and iSPY. For those that get the Clare, to access the RTSP stream, use rtsp://usernameassword@IP_Address:554/Streaming/Channels/101 (1920x1080, no sound), use 102 for lower res and sound.

 

[cameraman27]

Here is a downsampled (bad JPG quality) screenshot of my doorbell cam with no lights on and no IR

 

[Pilot04]

To add information to this thread, I have the Clare Control cam.

It's night-time IR reflection is worse than what was shown on the HK version, this may be due to the outside wall near my door. You still can see the person if within 3 ft of the doorbell, but with no one there, you can't see much but the wall and the IR reflection.

When the IR does come on the doorbell chime has a low hum and will get louder when accessing it live. When the doorbell button is pressed, the hum goes away and the IR turns off. I've sent this to Clare and they haven't figured it out yet. Even though I have 19V AC at the doorbell, I'm thinking it's not enough watts (old transformer) or something. Plan on getting a new transformer and try it out.

Thanks for the info that the Clare version of this same wifi video doorbell exhibits similar IR views like the LTS variant. I have an old doorbell transformer so may have low current and get the low hum as well.

Significant other prefers slimmer profile like the Hikvision/LTS/Clare wifi doorbell compared to Dahua VTO which is more bulkier commercial looking model in their mind. Besides not having ONVIF and bad IR, the Hik/LTS unit is still on our interest list.

Does anyone know if there will be any Black Friday sale from Hik/LTS?

 

[concord]

I've been digging through the doorbell firmware file this morning, and it appears to be mostly one or two completely self-contained binary executable files. I still need to dig more, but there's no sign of any lua/nginx/httpd or any other web server.

On the Clare Controls version, there is an activex plug-in (will not work with microsoft edge, firefox, chrome, etc)...only IE. You may want to try IE if you are on Win 10 and just type in the IP address. When I first did it, it asked if I want to download an activex plug-in. Note that I have a Win 10 laptop that I plan to wipe and re-install. So I turned off all IE security to ensure that the plug-in will run. I've included the screen shots in the attached file.

There are some options missing, mainly you can't turn off IR, no option to add another user account, no way to turn off announcements that the doorbell can't get to the Clare cloud when internet access is down.

Also, I use DHCP, but assign IP addresses in the router based on MAC address so that they always have the same IP address. I initially used the MAC address on the doorbell, but it actually had a different MAC address, so I used the one that showed up in the router.

I had issues trying to get the camera to see the QR code on my phone. After reading the QR on the camera, you put in your wifi creds, then it should produce a QR code on your phone. After emailing Clare support (responsive), they told me to choose the regular IP camera option instead of the doorbell and manually add the doorbell.

 

[Ookie]

Mobotix T25 is also an option, but big $$$. They also sell a PoE screen/intercom until called the MxDisplay, which in addition to ringing like a doorbell (your choice of ring), allows you to talk to the person on the other side without opening the door. It is also sold as a door station combination set.

Huge negative here is the screen size/resolution. 3.5", resolution 320 x 240 pixels. It's small to the point that I regret buying our demo unit. Honestly, an iPad (mini or full-size) mounted in the wall is going to get you a lot more screen real estate and be a better bang for the buck.

Will be interesting to see if Mobotix turns the corner. We currently using this product on a large enterprise level project, but I am having second thoughts. Video quality has not kept pace with the Chinese stuff, and calling the software (MxManagement Center) would have to improve to be described as "not great." We may very well end up jumping ship.

That said, Mobotix is moving in the right direction. They just announced that they are getting out of proprietary stuff toward ONVIF. And they have a new CEO who gets it.

Will be interesting to see what the next two years bring. But for now, the door station is solid.

 

[Ookie]

We typically leave the front porch lights on all night, so ultimately, IR isn't a huge issue for my use. Plus, the IR is only rated to 15 feet from the camera, also a rather short distance.

Smart move. VERY smart.

From the law enforcement perspective, I cannot for the life of me understand why so many people depend on IR. I'm guessing lots of people who talk cams have never testified in court in support of video footage. I have. In general, the perp's defense attorney will constantly request adjournments hoping that the owner/system admin of the NVR does not show up. Prepare to take 5-8 days off of work. You learn the hard way that proactive crime prevention is much better than catching people and trying to prosecute them.

Having an appropriate amount of white light is one of the best things you can do to prevent crime in the first place. If even mid-grade modern IP cams are having issues, your first priority with regard to your security plan is to rectify lighting issues, not upgrade the camera system.

Again, very smart move to leave at least one porch light on. Very dark places are like a welcome mat to the criminal element.

 

[Thomas Kenny]

Very dark places are like a welcome mat to the criminal element.

I've been thinking a lot about this because I recently put up a cam on my garage facing into an alley with no lighting at all in it.

Last week some shifty looking guy comes right up to my garage, takes off his backback and stands there with the (red) IR light from the camera hitting him in the side of the face from 3 feet away and he never once noticed the camera. He then goes away without the pack carrying something that looks like a fire extinguisher only to duck back towards my garage 3 minutes later when a car comes down the alley. Puts the pack back on and leaves, again no notice of the camera lights.

Got a great look at him but if the criminal element is too stupid to even look for the cameras I'm going to have to rethink things a bit

 

[flynreelow]

I've been thinking a lot about this because I recently put up a cam on my garage facing into an alley with no lighting at all in it.

Last week some shifty looking guy comes right up to my garage, takes off his backback and stands there with the (red) IR light from the camera hitting him in the side of the face from 3 feet away and he never once noticed the camera. He then goes away without the pack carrying something that looks like a fire extinguisher only to duck back towards my garage 3 minutes later when a car comes down the alley. Puts the pack back on and leaves, again no notice of the camera lights.

Got a great look at him but if the criminal element is too stupid to even look for the cameras I'm going to have to rethink things a bit

Post the video....

 

[Thomas Kenny]

Post the video....

lol, ok....

https://kennycloud.ca/index.php/s/40aEkrGdLRuHpYR

Not sure how long I'll leave that up. The 4 minutes in the middle is nothing but then he does come back at the end.

I'm really only posting it because I want to know if someone knows what the hell he holding in his hand.

I still can't tell if he is casing or if he is just one of those "interesting nocturnal people" who carries all his possessions on his back. He looks a little out of it

 

[alastairstevenson]

Well, he certainly doesn't want to be seen.

I want to know if someone knows what the hell he holding in his hand.

I think it could be almost anything.
A canister with a lever actuator as opposed to the top button of a paint spray.