What's your Blue Iris Setup like? (List Specifications)

[VorlonFrog]

I ran a Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 w/Xeon E3 1225v3 for a few years.
Downsized and got a better processor earlier this year.
For $300, an HP EliteDesk 800 G2 w i7/6700 and 16GB RAM

 

[th182]

BI Computer
HP EliteDesk 800 G1 SFF running Windows 10 Pro 1903
i5-4590CPU
32Gb RAM
120Gb Crucial SSD
8TB and 6TB Western Digital Surveillance HDDs
Dual NIC
Blue Iris tools and DahuaSunriseSunset utility
CPU usage between 45-50%, spikes around 80% when reviewing/exporting, RAM usage aprox 3.75Gb
- I actually just had BI crash/freeze on me this morning. Had to hard restart the computer to get it back. Not sure what happened as it has been rock-solid otherwise.

Networking
Main switch: TP Link T1600G-28PS
Secondary switch: Cisco SG300-10PP
Everything on a UPS and automatic standby generator.
Use OpenVPN for remote viewing when away from home.

Blue Iris
Version: 5.2.5.10
Status window streaming totals: 6150 kB/s - 590 MP/s
I have an 8x HDMI splitter that feeds various monitors throughout the house for real-time viewing.
I also have a powered USB over Ethernet adapter that goes to my office so I can use the console from there.
For PTZ control I have a Logitech "Extreme 3D Pro" joystick that I have experimented with. Sometimes it works well, other times it doesn't. I use the "PTZ w/ mouse cursor" more often than not.

Cameras
Currently 18 Active Cameras - all recording at 15 FPS except the 49225 at 30 FPS
1 x SD49225XA-HNR PTZ 25x zoom - autotracking and IVS alerts to Blue Iris
5 x 2MP IPC-HDW2231RN-ZS starlight cams
2 x 2MP IPC-HFW5231EP-Z12E (LPR Cameras)
2 x 3MP Amcrest IP3M-941 PTZ
5 x Lorex HDCVI Bullet Cams on Lorex DVR streamed to BI (Replacing with below)
8 x 2MP IPC-T3241T-ZAS (5 still in box to replace above Lorex HDCVI when the attic cools enough to run Ethernet)
I am looking to add another 49225 PTZ and a couple 3241s in the future for my back yard to keep an eye on the dogs with.

ALPR
I have a second HP EliteDesk 800 G1 SFF running the open source ALPRD daemon. It receives the 30FPS mainstreams of the Z12E cameras.
DahuaSunriseSunset utility does the day/night change on both cameras.
Process: ALPRD reads the plates and posts to a beanstalk queue which is then read by a python script someone posted on IPCT a while ago. ALPRD also saves a JPG capture of each read to a folder. That script dumps into a MYSQL database and posts each plate read to MQTT. I have a PHP website I built to view/search the plate results and their photos. I also have Home Assistant subscribed to the MQTT topic and automations alert me if certain plates are found (i.e. the prowler we had a year or so ago, posted elsewhere on here). Another python script, also from someone on IPCT is ran regularly to delete the older JPG images so the disk doesn't fill up.
I began using ALPR April 2019 and currently have 715,303 results in MYSQL. Granted, that includes all "reads" on a plate, including the partial reads before it captures the full plate. I have been meaning to add some routines or scripts to clean the MYSQL database but never got around to it so I manually purge records every few months, basically any plates under 4 characters get dumped.

 

[Carl]

I have 5 hik vision cameras, one bullet and 4 dome (3 are
Hikvision IP Camera 4MP DS-2CD2142FWD-I )

Im in the process of switching to all bullets as I could never fix the glare on the domes

I have the same domes and fixed the glare by putting a homemade foam ring between the lens and dome. I used sticky back foam weather stripping and cut two half circles and stuck it to the front of the lens housing. Putting the dome on the foam compressed a little a sealed off the glare for good.

My earlier Hik cameras had a foam gasket tall enough to seal off the glare but the newer ones didn't and were where horrible.

Hope this helps.

Carl

 

[Flintstone61]

I have the same domes and fixed the glare by putting a homemade foam ring between the lens and dome. I used sticky back foam weather stripping and cut two half circles and stuck it to the front of the lens housing. Putting the dome on the foam compressed a little a sealed off the glare for good.

My earlier Hik cameras had a foam gasket tall enough to seal off the glare but the newer ones didn't and were where horrible.

Hope this helps.

Carl

View attachment 67796

Good job dude!

 

[wpiman]

I have a Xeon E-224G and ESXi 6.7 and iGPU passthrough is working fine for me. Let me know if you want to try doing passthrough again and I will share my settings.

I installed Windows natively on that machine with a raid. I am probably going to leave it as is.

I don't even recall the issues I had. I think Windows wasn't booting when I turned on the pass through. I have successfully passed through loads of hardware in the past, but this alluded me to the point of frustration.

 

[julez]

BlueIris 5.2.6.5
OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Version 10.0.17763 Build 17763
System Model HP ProDesk 600 G3 SFF
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6500 CPU @ 3.20GHz, 3192 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB
Model Samsung SSD 970 EVO 250GB
Model WDC WD81PURZ-85LWMY0 8TB

CPU usage between 20-30%, RAM usage around 4Gb

6 Cameras
Cameras are all 1080 @ 20fps short of one which is 1440p @ 26.

UniFi Switch PRO 24 POE

 

[jrbeddow]

Wow, I was excited to find this thread, but disappointed to see so few people answering the questions regarding actual power usage in watts (and cost). I keep looking for this info, but find very few references across many threads here. By my calculations, realistically I would likely use at least 50-60 watts for the B.I. computer, and roughly 25-30 watts for 4-5 cameras (including the POE switch, and differences from day to night).
In my area (N. California), we are charged about $.33/kwh for any realistic "add-on" use (above baseline use). So at a minimum I am looking at $20-$25/month additional per month, certainly much more than those of you lucky enough to live in an area where you pay only $.11 to $.13 per kwh.
I do occasionally run across some of you that claim only 30-40 watts average for your B.I. computer, but have a hard time finding enough backing info that would allow me to duplicate that. I know that my main desktop system (a Ryzen 7 3700x, 32Gb ram, older Nvidia 1050 GTX (not a TI, the plain low power use one), three "spinning iron" drives, plus one SSD) that never sees 24/7/365 use pulls at a minimum (at idle, and monitor off) about 80 watts. I am sometimes tempted by the latest NVRs that claim only 15-17 watts without a hard drive (so about 21-25 watts with one drive), but worry that they will have poor performance and flexibility compared to a proper full B.I. system. Anyone care to chime in here with their experiences?

 

[Flintstone61]

Only experience I can share about you're worry concerning the poor performance and flexibility of an alternative NVR is that 4-5 Cams on an NVR should perform decent.
But you will not have the Flexibility of BI. Correct.
I have been using 4 different DVR/NVR devices, and 1 Blue Iris machine.
After becoming semiproficient with all of them, I can scrub/find, view, and export critical data on BI many times faster than the User interfaces of NVR's.
Result is less time at the console and more time on the rest of my Job.
A poe nvr will probably save you in electricity. If you can deal with the interface.
I get irritated with the timelines they offer to scrub thru video.....rudimentary.
I have no data for you on watts used.
I have read some threads where " kill a watt" devices have been mentioned.
They may be searchable.

 

[Flintstone61]

Kill-a-watt results

For anyone that cares... A typical Hikvision IP camera (on its own POE injector) uses approx 5w in night mode, and approx 3.3w in day mode. Depending on your area, a 100w constant a month is around $10 worth of electricity. I suspect an NVR draws a lot more than the camera. Could be...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[Flintstone61]

How much power does an NVR use?

Tried looking around but not finding the answer I'm looking for. My PC uses about 160 watts of juice when turned on... it adds up when the computer has to run 24hrs a day. So I'm wondering, has anyone ever put a kill-o-watt meter on their NVR system to see how much power it ACTUALLY uses...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[Flintstone61]

CUDA power consumption...

Just setup new open box XPS 8930 16GB I7-8700 machine that I got for $499 (it came out last year). It replaces a Sandy Bridge i7-2600s (lower power version). BI was running at about 25% of cpu consuming about 85 watts on the Kill-O-Watt on the Sandy Bridge machine. The new machine with Intel...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[Flintstone61]

google ipcamtalk.com kill a watt