Need Help tweaking HFW5231E-Z12 for night @ 240ft

[biggen]

Are you guys doing this as more of a hobby to see if you can build a good IR illuminator? I only ask because Axton makes wonderful IR illuminators in a multitude of sizes and power inputs. I have the PoE model that draws about 12W of power and throws a beam of IR out to 500'+ at a 10 degree arc.

 

[Bitslizer]

Are you guys doing this as more of a hobby to see if you can build a good IR illuminator? I only ask because Axton makes wonderful IR illuminators in a multitude of sizes and power inputs. I have the PoE model that draws about 12W of power and throws a beam of IR out to 500'+ at a 10 degree arc.

A bit of both. I'm also a cheapskate not willing to pay for even the blackoak much less the Axton lol.

Also love finding a good bargain or diy hack/tweak

 

[Bitslizer]

Permanently Mounted the backyard lpr as high as my ladder will reach, hoping that helps with the lens flare. Only thing left is the IR light. Waiting for the laser illuminator to arrive from China

 

[Bitslizer]

I think the higher height is helping, getting decent capture tonight (knock on wood). This one was just the z12 IR too, as I didn't have a chance to aim El cheapo v1 yet

 

[wittaj]

That one does look better than I think any of them you had lower.

 

[Bitslizer]

That one does look better than I think any of them you had lower.

Make me tempted to mount it at the second story soffitz too bad my ladder won't reach. Maybe if I pay the construction crew a few bucks....

Nah take too much work to aim it and I won't be able to reach it

 

[sebastiantombs]

Simple solution, get a traditional extension ladder. Multi-ladders do have their limitations. A 30 footer should work out fine.

 

[biggen]

Simple solution, get a traditional extension ladder. Multi-ladders do have their limitations. A 30 footer should work out fine.

Yeah, I was looking at that ladder like "WTF is that?!?". Looked like scaffolding.

 

[Bitslizer]

Yeah, I was looking at that ladder like "WTF is that?!?". Looked like scaffolding.

It's one of those little giant type ladder, the wide angle lens made it look funny

On other news, last night capture rate was very good even with the rain. I'm calling this a success but waiting for the laser illuminator as the final piece of the enhancement

 

[Bitslizer]

So slight hicup with the laser (guess the laser is v3)... The AliExpress vendor actually don't have any in stock. And AliExpress don't send me mail when I get a message on their platform so wasted like 5 days between not knowing about it and asking the vendor what they have(no laser at all....).

Ended up ordering a 10w version off eBay which just got shipped. Will see if it's actually anything closed to what it claims to be.

The lens for the lonnky v2 is clearing US custom but at v1 4w vs V2 6w I'm not holding out much for much improvement

 

[Bitslizer]

So like I suspected, the v2 lonnky was worse than the v1. Spent the evening performing lens surgery.

1) I could not find the exact replacement lens anywhere... It's a weird 16mm OD housing (13mm ID) with 15mm lens.

Best I could find was 10 degree lens with 13mm OD housing which drop into the 16mm housing (the 16mm housing have the 3 mounting legs to secure to the pcb). Test with these 13mm housing lens was not good, I popout the lens and wedged in wind 12mm lens I also brought for testing tinkering. Basement result was much better.

I ended up filing away the "lip" of a 20mm lens to fit the 3w bottom led. That one the lens can be hold on place by the external metal housing.

2) initial basement test was promising, but mounting it in real world show it is worse than the v1. I can tell the IR is reaching to 240ft, but it's quite spread out... Diameters is easily 2-3x of v1.

Mounted v1 and v2 side by side to see if the little additional light improve results.



Although v2 seem to be a disappointing bust.... V3 (10w vcsel IR laser with 7 degree lens!) tracking info shows that it has landed in the USA and I may even get it tomorrow! Crossing my fingers!

Probably going to de-convert v2 back to a wide angle IR illuminator.

 

[wittaj]

Can't wait to see the laser test!

 

[Bitslizer]

Can't wait to see the laser test!

Pictures to follow, typing this up on the PC but the pics are on my phone.

So the unit was delivered today, to my surprise nothing at my door (doh!) After 2.5 hours I figured out that I forgot to change the shipping address and the package went to my old house.

Luckily the old house was only 10mins away, the new owners put up a ring doorbell already...... I show the package label close up to the doorbell lens hoping they don't see me as a package poacher lol!!!

Some dissection pix. pretty typical construction, a plus is that every opening have a gasket to keep water out. The glass is actual glass (not plastic) and pretty thick too.
The Lens looks like convex lens with silicone glue to the PCB, I was able to take them off with a little twisting action. The LED PCB appears to be glued to the housing somehow, I guess this will help with heatsinking.
Driver PCB looks clean but typical of this type of illuminator, its attached with 1 screw and a stand off, so any heat sinking will mostly be by convection to the housing (ie not good)

The "laser", on the surface have the same "packaging" as the 1W IR LED from the V1. The chips do have a primary lens already... Hard to tell if they are really VCSEL or IR LED...
Kill a watt shows it drawing 8.6w so not quite 10w as the description claim. worse case its 4x 2w IR LED, but probably not.

Basement picture (fix orders later)
1) V1 with 8 degree lens
2) V3 with 7 degree lens (no modification, tighter spot than V1 yay!)
3) V3 with no (secondary) lens (very well focus/defined edge compared to V1 or V2 with no secondary lens)
4) V3 with 8 degree lens (same lens as V1)
5) V3 with 60 degree lens (originally taken off the V1, interestingly very very similar to the 8 degree only give was the ground reflection with the 8 degree being very well defined vs the 60 is diffused)

a common misconception is that all laser is a tiny beam by default, that's not the case, laser need to be focus/collimated to get that laser beam. Many IR flashlight also use VCSEL with a convex lens

https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/uploads/articles/VCSEL_vs._other_semiconductor_light-emitting_devices_.jpg

especially in this case with the primary lens on the chip it will spread the light even more, but with fairly focused the well define edge with no secondary lens give me hope that this is indeed 2W VCSEL and not just IR LED.

initial basement test looks promising, but then so did the V2 loonky which flunk the real world test.

Waiting for night fall to test it in real world

 

[Bitslizer]

Well on closer examination I do believe it is vcsel. The enlarged view show the typical vcsel grid/array that I don't think we see on ir led chips. Tried my best to take a pic but you can see the stagger grid pattern toward the bottom of the chip, it is much more visible to my naked eyes

 

[wittaj]

Dang that looks concentrated. Can't wait to see if it can hit 240 feet!

 

[Bitslizer]

Dang that looks concentrated. Can't wait to see if it can hit 240 feet!

Evil maniac laugh muhaha

Did that give it away?

This is the holy grail....!

It's so dang bright! It's so tight! And It's only 8w! I'm so giddy like a kid in a all you can eat for free candy store! I am actually going to tweak my exposure to increase the speed or lower the gain

Imagine if the AliExpress seller had the 18w 6x3w version I originally ordered.... Or imagine the 48w 24x2w laser..... Nuke explosion sound

Pics:
1) z12 led only
2) v3 laser aimed slightly off to show the brightness and tightness at 200+ feet
3) v1 with 8 degree TIR lens
4) v3 aimed where I want it
5) both v1 and v3 laser aimed
6) this is a shot typically had been very hard to read, the license plate light usually overwhelm and blow out everything, this time the laser was able to burn through the plate light to give decent result!
7) so clean! And bright! This is enough headroom to give me space to tweak my exposure for faster shutter speed or lower gain. Where without the laser I was pushing at the borderline of getting consistent result.
8) if only these were in stock ...... Sigh

Long term I'm actually comfortable enough to remove v1 all together, but I will experiment with both v1 and v3 over the next few days

 

[Bitslizer]

Oh in case anyone wonder why my lpr is going through the backyard between 2 houses. That T intersection is one of only two entrance into the sub area of my sub division. It is very high traffic. If anything happens here there's a good chance the culprit would be using this exit

 

[wittaj]

You might just be able to send it through the dining room window now and bounce it off the china chest mirror

But wow that looks like a cheap way to get more IR!

 

[Bitslizer]

You might just be able to send it through the dining room window now and bounce it off the china chest mirror

But wow that looks like a cheap way to get more IR!

About $40 shipped and only took 6 days from China! If I managed to get the 48w version I will hack it into an IR bat signal

Compared to $2-300 for the high end long range IR illuminator.

I will repurpose v1 and v2 into regular short range illuminator

 

[bigredfish]

Yeahbut does it leave piles of molten plastic from burning a hole in the front bumper?

Congrats!