Turret mount runs out of vertical travel

P

PaulH

n3wb
Feb 3, 2018
16
6
Hi everyone,

I have a starlight in turret form which I wish to mount on my garage facing up the driveway, mounting under eaves. When mounting turret I run out of adjustment to be able to point the turret up enough so I miss seeing taller people's heads unless they come quite close to the camera. And I miss seeing all of the street views.

I was wondering if there is any way I could mount the camera on a wedge of some description, then thought this can't be the first time someone has had this problem. I'm thinking I'll instead need to use a bullet style starlight, but don't see a comparable 2MP starlight bullet with wide angle zoom lens such as used on IPC HDW5231R-ZE, the bullets I see all seem to have medium zoom range in varifocal, or are fixed focal length lens.

Anyone got any way around having to use a bullet cam?
 
Doesn't flipping the camera mount 180-degrees solve this problem?
 
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@PaulH, I've run into the same issue. I have one turret where the mount is horizontal under an eve, and the turret ball will only rotate "up" so far. I'd imagine a wedge between the mount and the eave would help with that angle, but I'm not sure how obnoxious that would look. A spin on Q's point would be to physically rotate the camera 90'... then you'd have a super-tall vertical image, but probably not-wide-enough for the horizontal.

This bullet should have the same zoom range as the 5231R-ZE turret:
Aliexpress.com : Buy 2MP WDR IR Bullet Network Camera IPC HFW5231E ZE , free DHL shipping from Reliable network camera suppliers on Empire Technology Co., Ltd
 
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With the turret, make sure you have a little slack with the cable. When you have to adjust it upwards, it gets tight due to the angle of the pigtail. Make sure the set screw is really loose and this should help.What I do is while I have the camera mounted to the lid, I push it up as far as it will go then secure the lid to the box, then adjust down as needed.
 
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PaulH said:
Hi everyone,

I have a starlight in turret form which I wish to mount on my garage facing up the driveway, mounting under eaves. When mounting turret I run out of adjustment to be able to point the turret up enough so I miss seeing taller people's heads unless they come quite close to the camera. And I miss seeing all of the street views.

I was wondering if there is any way I could mount the camera on a wedge of some description, then thought this can't be the first time someone has had this problem. I'm thinking I'll instead need to use a bullet style starlight, but don't see a comparable 2MP starlight bullet with wide angle zoom lens such as used on IPC HDW5231R-ZE, the bullets I see all seem to have medium zoom range in varifocal, or are fixed focal length lens.

Anyone got any way around having to use a bullet cam?
Click to expand...

Hi Paul

You should be able to get the turrent camera to have a wider range of angles, definitely check that the cable isn't hanging up on something and that you have enough slack.

The equiv. bullet would be IPC-HFW5231R-Z(ZE) or similar
 
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Q™ said:
Doesn't flipping the camera mount 180-degrees solve this problem?
Click to expand...

Do you mean rotate ball/camera within housing so it's upside down then flip image back with software? If so, I've already got it like that but still not enough angle. When viewing the camera sitting flat on a table top, the flat face is angled up slightly, whereas I need it angled at least vertical maybe even down a bit.

aristobrat said:
@PaulH, I've run into the same issue. I have one turret where the mount is horizontal under an eve, and the turret ball will only rotate "up" so far. I'd imagine a wedge between the mount and the eave would help with that angle, but I'm not sure how obnoxious that would look. A spin on Q's point would be to physically rotate the camera 90'... then you'd have a super-tall vertical image, but probably not-wide-enough for the horizontal.

This bullet should have the same zoom range as the 5231R-ZE turret:
Aliexpress.com : Buy 2MP WDR IR Bullet Network Camera IPC HFW5231E ZE , free DHL shipping from Reliable network camera suppliers on Empire Technology Co., Ltd
Click to expand...

Thanks aristobrat, not sure why I didn't see that on the website, but that's what I think I'll go with.

blake said:
With the turret, make sure you have a little slack with the cable. When you have to adjust it upwards, it gets tight due to the angle of the pigtail. Make sure the set screw is really loose and this should help.What I do is while I have the camera mounted to the lid, I push it up as far as it will go then secure the lid to the box, then adjust down as needed.
Click to expand...

mat200 said:
Hi Paul

You should be able to get the turrent camera to have a wider range of angles, definitely check that the cable isn't hanging up on something and that you have enough slack.

The equiv. bullet would be IPC-HFW5231R-Z(ZE) or similar
Click to expand...

Thanks Blake and Mat, yep, had the camera unmounted and pushed up as far as the housing allows, the cable's OK, not enough room with the design of the housing I think.
 
You're definitely missing something. The turrets is just a sphere (nearly) and can be aimed any direction, up/down/left/right, parallel or perpendicular to the mounting surface as long as you rotate the outer housing properly. It sounds like the cable it just getting hung up on one of the back plate supports. Try orienting it without the hood so you can see what you're doing and prove that you can aim it where needed.
 
The front of the turret is flat and when the mount is horizontal it will only tilt up so far. It’s not the cord stopping it from going up another few degrees... the flat front face hitting the hood is stopping it.

82537350-736B-442E-A374-B882490501D4.jpeg
 
aristobrat said:
The front of the turret is flat and when the mount is horizontal it will only tilt up so far. It’s not the cord stopping it from going up another few degrees... the flat front face hitting the hood is stopping it.

View attachment 31357
Click to expand...

What if you buy the PFB203 mount? You can either mount it to the soffit which I think will give you the range you need or mount it to the wall and flip the mount upside down. Idk sounds like it may work but idk how well it would look.
https://www.amazon.com/Dahua-IPC-HD...ds=PFB203W&dpPl=1&dpID=31n2InG6ugL&ref=plSrch
 
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blake said:
Man, I've never mounted a turret that needed to go past even the cutout of the hood before. That must be some kind of angle you have to work with.
Click to expand...

Yeah considering that cameras are typically mounted high (often too high) aiming up isn't a typical use case. In this case, you could aim up if the base were mounted on a wall instead.
 
You guys are the best! lol The picture was just to show that horizontally-mounted Dahua turrets do have an upwards tilt limit that isn't caused by the pigtail not having enough slack. Yes, that's an usual use-case. Yes, mounting vertically doesn't have this issue. Yes, using a test rig before mounting is a good idea.

For me, I did use a test rig before mounting this camera 1.5 years ago. Since then, like a lot of folks here, I have added more cameras than I originally planned for, so I've recently had the opportunity to point this camera at a different scene. This is where I've run into the upward tilt limit, which isn't impacting the scene enough to warrant remounting the camera. I just wanted to share with the OP that I've run into this (if this is what the OP is talking about). To me, it sounds like he has a steep driveway.
 
Thanks guys, as mentioned by atristobrat, you guys are the best. I didn't expect this topic to generate much response.
I have ordered a right angle mount to see if that helps, but I suspect it it's made as a true right angle it won't help much, as aristobrat mentioned, the front flat face of the camera interferes with the mount, preventing even reaching a true right angle between mounting surface to face of camera.
At the moment I'm at the stage of determining which points to mount my cameras, luckily I hadn't ordered more than the 2mp starlight turret I've been playing with, and a 4mp turret. The 4mp turret was cheap and it's plastic, but also doesn't allow a full 90 degrees,so I think it's inherent with this style of camera. It's not an issue for most installations as the camera is usually mounted high enough not to be an issue. In my case, our house is on the low side of the street, and the garage areas eaves are 7'6" high, so by the time the camera is mounted it's about 7'4" looking up the slope. To be honest, the slope isn't all that steep, probably 1 in 10 at a rough guess.
I do have some concern regarding security of the low mounted camera, all I can do is see if I can mount it in another position to the side of the opening of the garage door, which is a bit higher but doesn't offer as good a view up the driveway, or mount it low and hope no-one knocks it off (steals it).
 
PaulH said:
..
I do have some concern regarding security of the low mounted camera, all I can do is see if I can mount it in another position to the side of the opening of the garage door, which is a bit higher but doesn't offer as good a view up the driveway, or mount it low and hope no-one knocks it off (steals it).
Click to expand...

HI PaulH,

If you mount the cameras and cable securely you should have a good strong vandal resistant setup. The cameras themselves are fairly sturdy, and if the cable is not exposed ( either in wall or in conduit ) it should be hard for vandals to disable or steal it quickly or easily. I secured my cameras with a few 3" long deck/quality screws into the framing / studs of the building.
 
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