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  1. wtimothyholman

    video surveillance for home please help

    The problem with Blink, Ring, or any other motion-detecting battery-powered camera is that it will inevitably miss important information. Motion detection is not particularly reliable with WiFi cameras. No matter what camera you choose, my advice is to pick one that supports continuous...
  2. wtimothyholman

    video surveillance for home please help

    Likewise, I've got 5442 cameras along with Dahua PTZ and -Z12E cameras in my setup, with 16 TB of video storage and an LPR camera setup. But I also have a few Wyze Cams. Cheap, reliable cameras have their place, particularly for people who can't or won't commit to the time or money for a...
  3. wtimothyholman

    video surveillance for home please help

    Don't waste your time. You want a camera that is weatherproof and can be mounted outside. The Wyze Cam v3 is about as cheap as you can get and have a working outdoor camera.
  4. wtimothyholman

    video surveillance for home please help

    The Wyze Cam v3 has good night vision, and can provide color images even under pretty dim light. There are lots of reviews with video examples on YouTube. But there is a limit to what they can do. Many people will tell you that wired PoE cameras are a much better solution, and they are right...
  5. wtimothyholman

    video surveillance for home please help

    If you have good WiFi, a very cheap solution is the Wyze Cam v3 with a memory card. That will run you about $45 per camera with a 32 GB card. You can run the power cable under a window sill and mount the camera outside. You're not going to get video quality sufficient to identify who is on...
  6. wtimothyholman

    Vehicle identification needed from IPCamTalk

    Thanks, and much appreciated.
  7. wtimothyholman

    Vehicle identification needed from IPCamTalk

    I have LPR. The original vehicle had an Indiana plate that corresponded exactly to the vehicle model the thieves used: a 2001 Chevy Suburban. The vehicle was parked in full view of my cameras when they stole my neighbor's catalytic converter, so there was no doubt about the identification...
  8. wtimothyholman

    Vehicle identification needed from IPCamTalk

    Agreed. So what is the second red vehicle?
  9. wtimothyholman

    Vehicle identification needed from IPCamTalk

    I've been playing around with the shutter speed settings, but the roadway in front of my home is fairly dark with just the illumination of the one streetlight. The image gets too dark at shorter shutter speeds. I keep this particular camera in color mode for identification of clothing /...
  10. wtimothyholman

    Vehicle identification needed from IPCamTalk

    Here's an image of the vehicle from the recording, which may be useful.
  11. wtimothyholman

    Vehicle identification needed from IPCamTalk

    Once again I have a case where I'm trying to identify a car, and I'm hoping that someone can assist. Two catalytic converter thieves hit some cars in my neighborhood last week, including my neighbor's Prius across the street. I provided the video and the license plate of the perps' vehicle to...
  12. wtimothyholman

    Need suggestion for hidden camera

    I got a laugh about the "daughter" telling her "Daddy" that some of her sex toys were missing. Yep, totally normal family behavior. What's the old saying? "Disbelief should be suspended, not hung by the neck until it is dead."
  13. wtimothyholman

    Camscript - a sunrise / sunset camera utility for MacOS

    Although many people have used the excellent Windows sunrise / sunset utility written by @bp2008, as a Mac user I wanted to create something that integrated with the SecuritySpy system on my iMac, without the need for virtualizing a Windows machine. The result is Camscript, a utility written in...
  14. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    Unfortunately, this entire mess was a combination of bad decisions and bad politics. The Dept. of Revenue screwed up because it never occurred to them to test the plates. Once the nighttime visibility issue was revealed, Flock Safety screwed up by claiming they could fix the problem in...
  15. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    Read the rest of this thread. I've already gone down this path. You can buy 730nm or 740nm illuminators, but the Dahua camera models that most of us use for LPR are insensitive to those IR wavelengths, as confirmed by @EMPIRETECANDY. They are optimized for 850nm IR, and are essentially...
  16. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    It's very much a hardware problem, but it can only be solved if you illuminate the truck at a different infrared frequency than 850nm, and if your camera is sensitive to that new IR frequency. If two colors reflect equally well at 850nm wavelength IR light, then they will appear to be the same...
  17. wtimothyholman

    LPR In The News

    You seem to have the advantage of low traffic past your property, so LPC instead of LPR is entirely appropriate. An average of 1000 vehicles a day pass my home, so LPR is necessary. But having said that, I don't share my LPR records or images with anyone unless it is relevant to a crime...
  18. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    @EMPIRETECANDY, this is one time I wish I had been wrong. So there is no hope of using the 5231 camera with a 740nm infrared source. Do you know if the newer 5241 camera has the same limitation? Will any Dahua camera with an adjustable focus have this limitation?
  19. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    Your best chance of catching a Tennessee plate will be early in the evening, while there is still some ambient light but your camera is in B/W mode. Search for B* as a wildcard.
  20. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    What you may find is that the standard plates are readable, but specialty plates with different color combinations are not.
  21. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    The white "IOWA" on a blue background will have the same reflectivity issues as the new TN plates in general, so no surprise there. It could be that Iowa is aware of this issue, and takes care to use color combinations that work with LPR cameras. No such awareness or testing took place in...
  22. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    At least in Tennessee, any color except for black has about the same IR reflectivity, so it all blends into similar shades of gray under 850nm IR light. So light letters on a black background would work, but only if the same black ink is used as the letters in the old plates. That could explain...
  23. wtimothyholman

    Rekor Edge Pro - anyone recognize the camera?

    That's why I was hoping someone might recognize the camera itself. Rekor's spec sheet isn't very informative.
  24. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    Any non-black lettering of any color fades out. Only the black ink provides good contrast.
  25. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    Here's the thing - those plates have black lettering. Tennessee has also been using the 3M process for years, but up to now the standard plate was black lettering on a colored background. Those showed up just fine. When the plates switched to white letters on a blue background, everything...
  26. wtimothyholman

    Rekor Edge Pro - anyone recognize the camera?

    The $1500 includes a free year of their commercial license, which isn't so bad. The question is if you'll be allowed to downgrade to the home version after the year is over. There's some appeal to being able to just buy a camera, mount it, connect it to a PoE cable, and then have an LPR camera...
  27. wtimothyholman

    Rekor Edge Pro - anyone recognize the camera?

    Rekor just released their own all-in-one LPR camera, but one that runs the Rekor Scout client and integrates into their subscription service. https://www.openalpr.com/product/edge-pro I assume that Rekor is selling some other company's camera, and branding it as their own. Does anyone...
  28. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    It doesn't work that way. The IR LEDs are optimized for a particular wavelength. A 730nm illuminator would only generate a small amount of infrared light at 850nm. So it would be a $300 gamble on my part.
  29. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    The 5231 is all I have. If I had some assurance that the 5241 worked better, I would consider buying one. But even then, I'd still need a decent 730-750nm IR illuminator to be sure it was working. I am making some inquiries to see if I can borrow a good 740nm illuminator. Fingers crossed on...
  30. wtimothyholman

    Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

    I did some indoor testing of a Dahua camera (not a varifocal, but fixed lens) with a test plate, and now I'm beginning to again wonder if much of the problem may be that my cheap no-name illuminators are generating very little infrared light at 730 nm or 740 nm. I would hate to spend $300 on...
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