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  1. wtimothyholman

    How many of you live in a "safe" place?

    My neighborhood is considered pretty safe, but several of my neighbors have been burglarized, two of them have had their cars stolen, one has suffered through a home invasion, one has been mugged, one has had her catalytic converter stolen twice, and one has had a wanted felon in a stolen car...
  2. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    That's a good question, and one I can't answer. While Axton says that their Pulsar unit supports some camera brands, I've found no indication that Dahua is among them.
  3. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    The idea is that it would be as effective as a 3000 lumen floodlight to the camera, but only look like a 300 lumen light to the human eye. These lights will be aimed at the road for LPR, and the last thing you want is people complaining that your floodlight is blinding them as they drive by...
  4. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    Not if it's continuously pulsing at 50 to 60 Hz, or higher. It will be no different than a fluorescent light. The light will not turn "on" or "off" to the human eye; it will just be "on" constantly. I've seen enough from my tests so far to think that it is at least feasible.
  5. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    From my simulation, an fps of 60 would intersect with a 100 Hz strobe between 19 and 21 times per second, no matter the phase shift of either. What you don't want is to run both at 60, or one at 30 and the other at 60. Then you have the possibility of extended "dark" times when the shutter and...
  6. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    I'm looking at modifying some very low-cost LED strobe lights as illuminators. Assuming that the camera is free running at 60 fps with a shutter time of 1/2000 seconds = 0.5 ms, and that the strobe light flashes 100 times a second with an "on" time of 2 ms (20% duty cycle), I ran a quick...
  7. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    There are times when you kick yourself and say, "Why didn't I think of this before?" I am happy to report success with my initial test of the Dahua -Z12E camera in color mode. The shutter speed was set to 1/2000 second, but the camera was forced into color mode, with IR turned off. In effect...
  8. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    The ideal case would be where the LED is integrated with the camera to ensure that the shutter speed and frame rate are coordinated with the pulses of light. I typically get multiple frames of the same license plate as it moves across my field of view. Assuming you select a pulse frequency that...
  9. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    No, the light would run continuously. But if it has a low duty cycle and a high frequency, it will simply look like a regular white light to anybody who sees it.
  10. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    My only concern is that it not distract passing drivers. In that respect a pulsed white light may be better in a residential neighborhood, but I’ll take anything that works.
  11. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    I second this. I've had people in law enforcement ask me if I know of any 730nm or 740nm cameras that can be purchased for license plate capture. The situation is already bad in Tennessee, and it will only get worse. Dahua could make a lot of money if they offered a -Z12E varifocal camera...
  12. wtimothyholman

    Hmmmm check this out... FLOCK Safety LPR

    $25,000 per year is much less than the cost of a single additional officer. Properly located, they'll be far more effective than that extra officer, too. Plus Flock Safety handles all the maintenance and repair. In the bigger picture, it's money well spent.
  13. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    If it is flashing at 100 Hz, it will just look like a dim white light to your eyes. The retinas of your eyes simply don’t respond that quickly to very bright, very brief flashes of light.
  14. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    Several hundred dollars, at least. But I'm looking at a different approach. There are tactical LED flashlights available at very low cost. Some of them have strobe switches to create a flashing light. They can also be focused to a narrow beam. The question is: can the strobe effect be...
  15. wtimothyholman

    Hmmmm check this out... FLOCK Safety LPR

    The 3M process is completely capable of producing plates that are visible under 850nm infrared light, but it requires making some intelligent design choices, which seem to be entirely missing with the people managing the process in most states.
  16. wtimothyholman

    Hmmmm check this out... FLOCK Safety LPR

    As someone told me, it's essentially a trail cam with solar power and a cellular modem attached. It has to be mounted very close to the road. The infrared illumination wavelength is 850nm, which is creating a lot of problems with several states using 3M's license plate printing process, as the...
  17. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    I haven't given up on finding a solution for the contrast problems in the TN plates. My latest thoughts: keep the camera in color mode (no auto or B/W), with the IR filter remaining in place. Then use strobed white light illumination. Axton claims that their white light pulsar illuminator...
  18. wtimothyholman

    An LPR success story

    You need to set up a "Person committing crime" rule on that menu. Get to work! :lol:
  19. wtimothyholman

    An LPR success story

    That's still 2 years in prison instead of 2 years doing more crimes.
  20. wtimothyholman

    An LPR success story

    One of them is a convicted felon who crossed state lines with a firearm to commit more felonies. My wife is a social worker who has handled cases in the prison system for part of her career. Her opinion is that he is going to do at least 5 years due to mandatory sentencing laws. We shall see.
  21. wtimothyholman

    An LPR success story

    The -Z12E is the standard for reading license plates, and a 5442 series camera works extremely well. It would be hard to go wrong with those models. But I do understand your reluctance. It is very easy for people to screw things up, and then blame the vendor.
  22. wtimothyholman

    An LPR success story

    I just got subpoenaed for a Tuesday morning court appearance with both defendants. My neighbor across the street also got subpoenaed, and has already been talking to a victim liaison specialist in the DA's office. We're both pretty surprised the court case is moving so fast. Neither perp...
  23. wtimothyholman

    An LPR success story

    Precisely. Lower cost, easier to install, and easy to maintain. It would be perfectly adequate for 99% of the people who ask me about it. All @EMPIRETECANDY has to do is decide what equipment to include, bundle everything with a single price, and then advertise it as a system specifically...
  24. wtimothyholman

    An LPR success story

    You misunderstand. The camera package would not be for LPR, but for LPC. LPR is pure overkill for most residential roads. In my case I have thousands of cars that pass my home every week, but most residents might have only a handful of vehicles drive by each day. They can get by just fine...
  25. wtimothyholman

    An LPR success story

    @EMPIRETECANDY, have you ever considered selling a license plate capture bundle? In other words, sell a good NVR bundled with one or two Z12E cameras plus a 5442 camera for overview. That way when people ask about getting a camera system, you can tell them to buy the bundle for the basic...
  26. wtimothyholman

    An LPR success story

    I doubt these guys have two dimes to rub together. Probably every spare cent they find goes into buying drugs. From what I can tell with online records, they couldn't make bail, they've got a public defender, and they have another court appearance scheduled on Tuesday. As far as my neighbor...
  27. wtimothyholman

    An LPR success story

    I think that's pretty much it. Out of state address, out of state license. Note that these guys lived in Louisville, but were driving a vehicle with an Indiana plate. I suspect that was deliberate, to throw off any investigations into a dead end to an address they didn't live at. But that's...
  28. wtimothyholman

    An LPR success story

    They have a court hearing today. Bail was at $25,000 for one and $50,000 for the other (felon with a gun), but more charges may be tacked on. I suspect that if these guys make bail, they'll be back over the border to Kentucky in an hour, never to return for their court dates. Hopefully...
  29. wtimothyholman

    An LPR success story

    The thing is, lots of people on IPCT have used their cameras to solve some serious crimes. But for some reason this story is resonating with the public because so many folks are mad as hell about catalytic converter theft. By the way, it appears these two perps were actually recording the...
  30. wtimothyholman

    An LPR success story

    I have been directing people to Andy's Loryta cameras on Amazon. I think maybe I deserve a percentage of the increased sales. :)
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