We had a thief.. And now I want a better system

[samplenhold]

So, IR illuminators, are they just pointed into the field of view of the camera? Or do they have to be pointed along the camera axis? Like, if my camera is pointing North, do I have to place the illuminator above/below/just to the side of the camera pointing it North also? Or, could the illuminator be 20 feet away, out of the field of view of the camera and pointed West? Like in the mock-up attached?

 

[bigredfish]

Yes, you can place them wherever they provide the IR light you need. Experiment with them on temporary mounts before you fix permanently. Often a bit of an angle helps.

 

[Q™]

Hmmm...placing better cameras in the same poor locations. Maybe you'd have better results if you tried locking your car.

 

[bp2008]

Remember, having the light source offset some distance away from the camera will create shadows. Probably won't be a problem, but it depends on the location I guess. If the light source is closer to the camera, shadows are lessened.

However something you may not have thought about is how IR illuminators light up particles in the air, whether it be insects, dust, pollen, rain, or snow. A normal night vision camera can't see through these things well at all because the built-in IR reflects very strongly off nearby things. But if you turn off the camera's built-in IR and use only separate IR illumination that is mounted sufficiently far away, the cam should see through any such particles in the air very well because they won't be lit up bright.

 

[J Sigmo]

Exactly. @bp2008 has that dead on.

The problem with the built-in IR illuminators that most cameras have is that they are so close to the lens that any particles near the lens are also near the illuminators, so they are illuminated intensely, and show up huge!

I would highly recommend switching off any built-in illumination from the cameras themselves, and use external light sources mounted reasonably far from the cameras to eliminate the "driving into a blizzard" effect and reduce the problems caused by spiders and their webs, etc.

It's nice to just have some "on at dusk, off at dawn" white lights so you can run the cameras in color mode full time. But if you want to go with IR, and have only black and white at night, I'd still use separate IR illuminators and position them somewhat away from the cameras.

Either way, if you provide a couple of lights (one to either side of the camera in a one-camera setup) , you can get shadow-free lighting and still avoid having the light coming from too close to the camera itself.

In photography, light and lighting are incredibly important. And this is, after all, photography!

There are some great tutorials on photographic lighting on the 'net. It really can't hurt to check some of those out if you're new to photo work.

And if you're experienced in photography, just remember that security cameras at night are no different than setting up any other shoot where you will be using artificial lighting.

After all, we want to make the most flattering images of our "customers", right?

 

[djernie]

I have four of these sensors at my place, i live on a corner so a lot of traffic, they have helped me a number of times. My wife complains about the ringing but she understands now. I have one at front of garage on the ground so it only goes off if there is walking around my cars. One on the porch, one on the side window ledge facing the street and one on the ground at back door of house. i have no pets so this works great for me. Search results for: 'driveway alert'

 

[eggsan]

besides upgrade your camera system, consider installing a good car alarm. Same situation happens to my car. Installed an alarm with led blinking in the dash, solved the problem

 

[TLCTimFL]

When I had kids up to mischief in and around my cars and yard, I printed their pictures and hung them in our community center with the title, "Are These Your Children?" That got them noticed and recognized. The mom was mad that I posted the pictures and my answer was, "Ok, next time I'll just give them to the police." The same 2 boys came a month or so later into my yard peeping in windows so I called the police. By the time the police arrived, the kids were no where to be seen. So I'm talking to the officer and who comes walking around the corner? Yep, the same boys. I pointed to them and said, there they are now. The officer called them over and of course they denied being in my yard. I told the officer, "Hang on, I have proof" and printed out the pictures. When they saw their pictures, they came up with a new story. The officer had them call their parents to come pick them up. I haven't seen them for months now.

My county has had a group of kids planning flash mobs in various neighborhoods doing exactly what this kid is doing in the video which is canvasing neighborhoods looking for unlocked cars. If the car has keys, they take the car. If it has any valuables, they take them. Our police dept. is very active using an app called "Nextdoor" keeping us up to date and asking for any help we can give in our various neighborhoods across the county. I can tell you this. We no longer live in a world where we can leave our doors unlocked. So every evening, we get a reminder at 9pm to lock our doors. I even had an officer stop by one night after 11pm and suggesting I close my garage door that I'd forgotten about.

 

[aristobrat]

When I had kids up to mischief in and around my cars and yard, I printed their pictures and hung them in our community center with the title, "Are These Your Children?" That got them noticed and recognized.

In our neighborhood, the routine was that the homeowner would share the video clip on the private neighborhood Facebook group. That's now gotten to the point where some of these honor roll students look forward to seeing the videos, so they'll do a lot of dumb stuff like ding-dong-ditch .. throw in something cute, like a little dance on their way out ... and then wait a day or to two the see the video on the Facebook group... which also means their parents are seeing the videos, so it all sounds like a big joke for some families.

So now nobody shares the videos, and like you, it's straight to the police if they're really acting up.

 

[j4co]

Here kids do ring bells and run away when they are 8 years old and i can see the fun in that. Also that is during daytime.

I gues you need remote motion controlled sprinklers

 

[jrf]

I gues you need remote motion controlled sprinklers

That is genius! Home automation to trigger sprinklers when motion detected on camera....

 

[CCTVCam]

Then when your local PD comes knocking to tell you of an incident next door, you soak him! Not going to end well....

Got to be careful how you do this.

 

[Soladaddy]

My county has had a group of kids planning flash mobs in various neighborhoods doing exactly what this kid is doing in the video which is canvasing neighborhoods looking for unlocked cars. If the car has keys, they take the car. If it has any valuables, they take them. Our police dept. is very active using an app called "Nextdoor" keeping us up to date and asking for any help we can give in our various neighborhoods across the county. I can tell you this. We no longer live in a world where we can leave our doors unlocked. So every evening, we get a reminder at 9pm to lock our doors. I even had an officer stop by one night after 11pm and suggesting I close my garage door that I'd forgotten about.

Present day life in Florida. We get door checkers 4-5 times a year and recently had two teens who would vandalize cars with whatever they find in the car. One car they poured motor oil on the dash. Another they dumped out a bag of top soil and watered it in with a hose. Another had laundry detergent dumped on the seats. They the went old school and started puncturing tires. Finally were caught went they knocked a camera off a house. The first swing knocked the bullet style camera straight down and made it point right to his face from about 2 feet away. Gave a very nice mug shot before the second swing took it out.

 

[jrf]

Then when your local PD comes knocking to tell you of an incident next door, you soak him! Not going to end well....

Got to be careful how you do this.

I don't have a sprinkler system...but if I did...I would have no issues setting that up while the house is armed. If the local PD walks through my yard while I'm away..they will get wet too.

 

[J Sigmo]

There isn't any legal problem triggering a sprinkler remotely or by motion detection. At least not around here.

People have problems with deer, in particular, and other pests munching (and damaging or killing) trees, hedges, gardens, potted plants, etc.

You can get these at several of the local "home stores" here:

Orbit Yard Enforcer Motion Activated Pest Deterrent Sprinkler-62100 - The Home Depot

Using your security cam setup to trigger a sprinkler would be no different. The cops wouldn't have any problem with it. Someone might get razzed back at the station, but they certainly wouldn't have any legal issues with this sort of thing, as long as it's not a lethal "man-trap" as defined in the law.

Now, you rig up a shotgun with a tripwire, and that's an entirely different story!

 

[Dudester]

Sure looks to me you may have fingerprints near top of door. Doesnt look like he wiped off up there where his hand was.

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

Your typical car door checker. Wearing gloves and has a backpack. I have 3 cameras to cover the driveway. I also have 3 cars in the driveway. They are all Starlight or better.

What's better than Starlight?

 

[mat200]

This happened in the early morning on Wednesday. Unfortunately, the video is too grainy to make an ID. Now I am looking to add/replace the cameras/system with more and better components.

I am a newbie and this is the first system I've had.

..

Hi @digdoug

Did you get a chance to upgrade your setup?

 

[PeskyPete]

Agree with both @aristobrat and @looney2ns

Lower the cameras, get more face less top of head
Use two crossing cameras to cover the drive
More zoom
More IR or white light

Example: (change to player 1080p, skip ahead to :50)

That's nice lighting. Is there a post with some description of what was used for this setup? Thanks!

 

[mat200]

That's nice lighting. Is there a post with some description of what was used for this setup? Thanks!

Hi @PeskyPete

Looks like the camera model is listed in the video title.

If you want the IP POE version look at the IPC-HxW52xx models or IPC-HxW42xx models.

Remember he has ambient light to help keep the cameras able to see a clear picture in color.