Mounting Two Varifocals Atop Existing Post with Two PTZ's

[guykuo]

I have two PTZ's on a post that are used for license plate capture, but of course that means they get basically no scenery at night. Adding two more cameras was the solution for getting simultaneous license plate exposure and visuals of vehicles. The problem was mounting two more cameras without the ugliness of usual pole clamp mounts. My solution was to 3D print a pole top mount for two new varifocals.

 

[guykuo]

Took 40 hours to print in PETG. For scale, the diameter of printed mount is 122 mm to match the cameras. Final touch was putting some brims (not pictured) to protect the varifocal lenses from rain and sun.

A bit of thin neoprene is sandwiched between my 3D printed mount and each camera base.

Worst part was adding two more 160 foot cable pulls through underground conduit. It was tight. Thank heaven's for pull gel. Used two whole containers.

 

[guykuo]

Here are the varifocals with brims attached. The brims are merely aluminum flashing cut to shape, painted, and zip tied onto the varifocals. A strip of rubber sealing tape is between brim and camera lens barrel. They must be shaped to avoid vignetting at your particular max camera zoom setting. I find that adding brims make a huge difference in the rainy, western Washington state weather.

 

[guykuo]

ZIP archive of STL and F3D model files for mount in case someone else needs to print up a mount. I did mine in PETG at 0.15 mm layers. Print with a brim to secure to print bed. No supports needed. DEFINITELY dry your filament prior to printing.

This is sized for base of EmpireTech (Dahua) IPC-T5442T-ZE varifocal cameras (122 mm diameter), but other Dahua eyeballs with 42 mm radius bolt holes will also fit.

Diameter of intended lamp post is 3 inches.
Bolt holes and nut recesses are for M3 sized hardware. I recommend stainless steel for the hardware.

 

[looney2ns]

Here are the varifocals with brims attached. The brims are merely aluminum flashing cut to shape, painted, and zip tied onto the varifocals. A strip of rubber sealing tape is between brim and camera lens barrel. They must be shaped to avoid vignetting at your particular max camera zoom setting. I find that adding brims make a huge difference in the rainy, western Washington state weather.

Do you have any issue with IR reflection from the brims?

 

[guykuo]

No IR flaring problem. The black paint I use on the lower (inside) surface of the brims happens to absorb IR pretty well. That's on another two same model cameras on in the yard that use IR illuminator.

For these two particular pole top ones, their IR illuminators are of anyways. They have plenty of IR from the PTZ's below.

 

[sebastiantombs]

I'm using a brim made out of a slat from a vertical blind from a sliding door. Same attachment technique with a zip tie and mine is significantly longer. The camera is a 3241T-ZAS with IR off and it works really well. When I find a "round tuit" I need to make some more of them from some 5442T-ZEs and a 5231-Z that get hammered with rain on the lens.

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

woooo, looks awesome !@guykuo

 

[Flintstone61]

Looks really Pro....
As your local caveman, without 3d printing... I would have had to drill and screw and hacksaw some pfa-130's or something similar into a Franken-Mount.
Or maybe two round junction boxes on a Popsicle stick with a 1/2 lb. of caulk....

 

[guykuo]

A couple tips regarding adding more long pulls in a tight underground conduit. My 1 inch conduit already had three direct burial ethernet cables. Adding two in there was going to be tight. Adding to the fun isa total of 270 degrees of turns in the conduit. Recall that 360 degrees is basically unpullable.

1. Pull lube is your friend, but my old way of adding it a bit at a time into the conduit opening was inefficient and not always continually coating.

Solution was to do the new pulls through a funnel. I keep the funnel 1/3 full of lube. As lines and cables went through the funnel, they naturally got well coated.

2. Because I was unsure of the existing pull line's condition after 7 years in the ground, I didn't want to stress it with a new cable. First pull was a fresh pull line. That had the advantage of loading the old line the least possible AND pre-lubing the entire pathway as the new line traveled the entire 160 foot distance.

3. Pulled ONE new cable at a time instead of getting greedy and attempting two at once. This used up a lot more pull line with each cable pull, but a bottle of pull line is cheap compared to getting two cables jammed half-way. One 500 foot bottle of pull line and two bottles of pull gel later, both cables were pulled through.

4. The amount of force needed exceeds what I can do pulling up on a cable. So, I put a pulley on a post above the destination post. That me me pull down with my weight - much easier than being up on a ladder pulling up with all my might.

5. A foot long piece of wood was essential in getting a good grip on the slippery pull line. Wrap the line a few times around your wood piece and use the wood as a handle as you pull. Unwrap and reposition after each stroke.

BTW, make sure your funnel tip is the right size. It must pass the cable, but not be so large that gel just falls through.

 

[looney2ns]

Wrapping cable around a piece of wood to pull, would most likely damage the twists in the cable. Not advised.

Pulling that hard with a pulley, again could damage the cable.

 

[105437]

A couple tips regarding adding more long pulls in a tight underground conduit. My 1 inch conduit already had three direct burial ethernet cables. Adding two in there was going to be tight. Adding to the fun isa total of 270 degrees of turns in the conduit. Recall that 360 degrees is basically unpullable.

1. Pull lube is your friend, but my old way of adding it a bit at a time into the conduit opening was inefficient and not always continually coating.

Solution was to do the new pulls through a funnel. I keep the funnel 1/3 full of lube. As lines and cables went through the funnel, they naturally got well coated.

2. Because I was unsure of the existing pull line's condition after 7 years in the ground, I didn't want to stress it with a new cable. First pull was a fresh pull line. That had the advantage of loading the old line the least possible AND pre-lubing the entire pathway as the new line traveled the entire 160 foot distance.

3. Pulled ONE new cable at a time instead of getting greedy and attempting two at once. This used up a lot more pull line with each cable pull, but a bottle of pull line is cheap compared to getting two cables jammed half-way. One 500 foot bottle of pull line and two bottles of pull gel later, both cables were pulled through.

4. The amount of force needed exceeds what I can do pulling up on a cable. So, I put a pulley on a post above the destination post. That me me pull down with my weight - much easier than being up on a ladder pulling up with all my might.

5. A foot long piece of wood was essential in getting a good grip on the slippery pull line. Wrap the line a few times around your wood piece and use the wood as a handle as you pull. Unwrap and reposition after each stroke.

BTW, make sure your funnel tip is the right size. It must pass the cable, but not be so large that gel just falls through.

What kind of pull string did you use? I see the container but can't see a name. Thanks

 

[sebastiantombs]

If I needed to improve grip on a lubed cable I think an eight inch, or larger, diameter piece of PVC would be far better than a board. When I've made pulls that required "horsepower" in the past the trick I used was a snatch block on the cable, multiples to avoid sharp bends, so I or the other team members had a straight pull with feet flat on the ground. Some of those pulls were over 300 feet and with ThickNet, back in the day. Preserving the geometry of the ThickNet was extremely important so we had to get creative to avoid too much stress and too sharp radius turns when pulling it that far.

I've lucked out with pull string. A friend gave me a whole roll, 5000 feet, of pull tape with a 1500 pound tensile strength. Now I've got to figure out what to do with it

 

[guykuo]

Wrapped around the wood (stick) "handle" was the pull line, NOT the cables themselves.

Pull line was by Klein

 

[Arjun]

PD and DOT should work together to put these cameras on the corner of every block on every busy intersection, there is no excuse. How is it that traffic cameras are blurry pixelated piles of garbage when better cameras can be had for cheap. Our taxpayer money goes away in thin air

 

[DanDenver]

Poor man's brim