New from Southern Ontario, Canada

[Injunfarian]

Hello there, Although I have had a basic eufy Cam setup for a few years now I recently just started to get into a more sophisticated setup for around my property.

I live in the Country/Rural area with little to no ambient light(although I do plan on fixing this eventually with my own lighting).

I recently just built a Blue Iris system using a Acer TP-1760 Machine(12th Gen Core i5, 16GB Ram, Intel HUD Graphics with QuickSync, 1TB SATA SSD for OS/DLNA Server, 256GB SSD NVMe for BI DB, New and Alerts folder, and 8TB 7200RPM SATA HD for Stored Video.

I blew my budget on the computer system since I feel like that was important to get something relatively decent for future expansion(we have 14 acres, so I assume Cameras will multiply).

So I just purchased Four(4) Budget Cameras for now Two(2) ReoLink 5MP RCL-510A and Two(2) EmpireTech IPC-T2431T-AS on top of my already existing eufyCams/Homebase.

I plan on keep the eufyCams off the BlueIris system and just keep them on the homebase for now since I believe adding them to the BlueIris system isn't too important since they will not handle continuous recording etc.

I am still very new to this and BlueIris but hopefully I can be a asset to the community later on as I get more familiar with everything.

 

[wittaj]

Welcome!

Simply put all video on the HDD and just use new and not stored.

Suggest you return the Reolinks unless all you care about is what time something happened. They will perform poorly at night and will be ghosts blurs with motion. Plus reolink and BI struggle together.

 

[Flintstone61]

Hi , Welcome. I wish I had asked more questions here before I bought stuff.
But I get it...who wants to be the dummy asking dumb questions...
The i7-8700 and i5-8500 generation Used HP elitedesks sff from ebay would have given you more Cam budget.
( hindsight) fuck it now.
you have great PC....build on that....you ask me anything your not comfortable asking out the main forum, I'll be glad to help.
I could or "we" could save you some headaches. or expensive learning curves.

 

[Injunfarian]

Thank you, yeah I was thinking about just putting it all on the HDD would have saved me the purchase of the 1TB SSD for Windows OS and just used the 256GB for the OS but I got both Harddrive on sale relatively cheap.. the 1TB SSD was $75 CAD and the 8TB HDD was $179 so after watching a Youtube video of another gentleman's build I decided that it maybe worth it to have a dedicated lightning fast drive for the database, alerts etc... and keep them off the OS drive, plus it allows me more space on the OS drive to house media files for the DLNA server using the native windows setup.

However yeah I have heard some bad things about Reolink but it was the only camera that I could get to my door this weekend to test and play with since I originally wanted 4 of the Dahua 2431's but they were all a week or more out until I found this forum and seen Andy's Amazon shop.

So I do got a 30 day return on them so if they really do perform badly I will definitely be returning them and replacing them with more 2431's just for now.

Also I was looking at a used Core i5 9400 which was less than half of what I paid for my new system which was $599(before the RAM, HDD upgrades) but I knew I would be adding a decent amount of camera's to the system with CodeProject AI etc I figured I might as well spend a bit more now instead of upgrading later.

Thank you for the offer, but yeah I have pretty tough skin so I don't mind looking like a fool sometimes asking questions plus my day job I am a Web Developer so I catch on pretty quick but definitely will take any advice offered especially if it will save me headaches and expenses lol.

 

[Flintstone61]

I have a 2431 ( audio version I believe) AS
it catches some good action out in front of the Condo. it also " heard" gunshots one night. from a White Jeep stopped in the street. So it has a been a valuable asset. in my 3 cam coverage of the front of the property. I have the luxury of a few 9 watt 5000k LED buld in lamps out there so I can run in color at night. but it does just fine in IR there too.

 

[wittaj]

Check out this comparison a member recently did:

Reolink - good & bad

I was looking for comparison between Reolink and something else because I want to put some security cameras in my newly created house. I see that in almost all the pages you state how bad Reolink is but I somehow fail to see a side by side comparison made by somebody. Also technology is...

ipcamtalk.com

Now with that said, why buy a 12th gen computer and put consumer grade poor quality cameras on it?

Reolinks will perform poorly.

The 2431 is a 4MP on a 1/3" sensor that is great for 720P, but horrible for 4MP. It will be blind at night.

Being rural, you need cameras that can see at night.

And do not chase Full Color, ColorVu type marketing - those cameras need light, either light you provide or use the built-in white lights. These types of cameras do not see infrared.

You should be looking at the 5442 series cameras that EmpireTech sells.

Do not chase MP, chase sensor size.

See this thread on the importance of sensor size and focal length over MP. The cameras recommended in this thread represent the mostly commonly recommended cameras based on price, performance day and night, and reliability.

The Importance of Focal Length over MP in camera selection

At the urging of several folks here, I created a thread to show the importance of focal length and how focal length can be more important than megapixels (MP). I mentioned some of this in the post regarding The Hookup’s latest video demonstrating different cameras, including one sold from a...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[Injunfarian]

Nice, yeah that is the main issue with my location is lack of lighting it basically is just the moon.. eventually I would like to setup Home Assistant add some soffit pot lights so when the camera's do detect and people it would light up the whole house.. However that won't be for awhile since I want to focus on camera's at the moment so ones with good IR are ideal.

I really want to get a couple IPC-B5442E-ZE but no budget for them at the moment... they are likely my next purchase though unless there are other recommendations of some really good Low Light cameras(and not the colour view ones.

 

[Flintstone61]

here is captain Jackass leaving ( bolt cutters and all)
on the 2431 AS

 

[Injunfarian]

The 2431 is a 4MP on a 1/3" sensor that is great for 720P, but horrible for 4MP. It will be blind at night.

Being rural, you need cameras that can see at night.

And do not chase Full Color, ColorVu type marketing - those cameras need light, either light you provide or use the built-in white lights. These types of cameras do not see infrared.

You should be looking at the 5442 series cameras that EmpireTech sells.

Do not chase MP, chase sensor size.

Yeah it is funny that you posted this just as I was writing a reply about the 5442 series.. those are the plans however I figure just get some cheap camera's now to do me until I am ready to do another big purchase... main thing right now isn't soo much RI in the DORI but Detect and Observe since I am usually within 5km from my property so main thing is I just want notifications if AI detects a person.. However once I get some more funds the 5442's are definitely #1 on my wish list.. I would ideally like atleast 3 of them for the most important parts of my property...

 

[Flintstone61]

Heres the Toyota Tundra converter theft attempt. caught in the act by owner. they saw thru the front half though. on the 2431AS

 

[Injunfarian]

here is captain Jackass leaving ( bolt cutters and all)
on the 2431 AS

I like how you named your Camera's with the Model # I may steal that idea so I can keep track of which is which and know which ones to rebuy and which ones to avoid lol.

 

[Flintstone61]

Yeah I started a trend.

 

[Flintstone61]

The 5241 z12 captured his plate.

 

[Injunfarian]

Nice now have you setup a LPR/License Plate reader yet? I have been considering doing that so that it will cancel notifications if it identifies our personal or "friendly" vehicle plates.

 

[Flintstone61]

No, the system is not connected to the internet. and I have left that job as of Jan31st.
Oh ( edit) that cam is the dedicated LPR. I dont run in color anymore though ( focus issue flip-flopping from day to nite) missed some bad guys....
If you truly want LPR and NO issues with focus, stay in one mode. NIGHT.

 

[Injunfarian]

You still could have used CodeProject AI or similar to do so no? but I don't know how well that integrates into Blue Iris to cancel notifications.

I have my setup separated as well, the Camera's are on a VLAN that does not have access to the internet and then the Blue Iris server has dual NIC so it does have internet access for notifications etc. Which I researched is the proper way of doing it... I still yet to decide if I am doing VPN or ZeroTier I am leaning towards ZeroTier though...

 

[Flintstone61]

I went with zero tier recently due to the Verizon supplied 5G router/modem.
So I took the Asus rt-ax55 router which was running VPN under Comcast cable internet.... and put it in AP mode.
And all the iphones and tablets etc, use that for home surfing.
The cams come from the garage ethernet to a 5port switch where my PC is the only thing on that switch.
then I've played around with the WAN connection to that switch via the Asus's onboard 4 switch and/ or the Verizons 2port switch.

 

[TonyR]

Welcome to IPCT !

 

[Injunfarian]

Thank you Tony!

Flintstone yeah I plan on going with ZeroTier myself since based on what I know of it all the connections are not routed through your home network when you are away just the connections that you require(BI Server) which is ideal especially while trying to connect via my phone since sometimes reception isn't the greatest where I live... So I would hate to try to use that with a VPN.

Right now my system is setup with 2 NIC's one to my main home router and one to a 4port POE switch for the cameras.. eventually I will likely put just a regular switch in between the PoE switch and the BI server so I can add more PoE switches including out to my shop etc.. likely will look into ePOE to get further back on my property as well.