dvarapala

I have seen at least one install posted on the web where the owner mounted his cameras inside of short lengths of PVC pipe which were then painted to match his house. The cameras were Vivotek IP8332-type cameras (i.e. cylindrical and already weatherproof) so his pipes are just left open at either end. If I could find a similar solution that is weatherproof it would actually be perfect for my needs.

What did you use as the "window?" I actually thought of doing this, but couldn't find anything like a clear polycarbonate pipe cap to cover the end of the pipe that the camera has to see out of.

Thanks for the reply. I'm in SoCal, so I can probably get away without the heater and blower.

FWIW, I have a 940nm RayMax illuminator and all of my cameras with switchable IR cut filters are sensitive to that wavelength. I don't have an 850nm illuminator for comparison, so I can't comment on the sensitivity drop-off aspects.

buellwinkle's post is spot-on. What he describes is essentially the setup I'm using to capture license plates, although I also have an IR-pass filter on the lens to filter out visible light (e.g. from headlights). Even under non-optimal conditions (my camera is WAY off to the side of the street) I can still capture legible plates most of the time.

I use an app called TinyCam Monitor to view my cameras from my Android phone over the Internet. It scales the images down to fit the screen, and the frame rate is basically a slide show, but at least I can kinda see what's going on back at home. For reference, I check my cameras for maybe 1 minute per day on average, and I've never even come close to using my full 2GB monthly bandwidth allotment.

You wouldn't say that if you had to work in my attic...

Ideally both would be mounted near each other and the FOV of the lights would coincide very closely with the FOV of the camera. I have an Axis cam mounted about 5' away from a dual-100W floodlight with no issues. In this case they are mounted on different structures and are aimed across each other somewhat. I just made sure the bulbs were not within the direct FOV of the camera.

FWIW, If you register a domain name through Namecheap they will give you free Dynamic DNS. As for how often an IP address can change, it can happen at any time for any reason your ISP feels like, unless they have guaranteed you a fixed IP address (and they usually charge extra for this). My ISP is Cox Cable and while they typically don't change my address unless I swap out a network card, I can recall at least one occasion where it changed spontaneously to a completely different subnet. Apparently they rearranged some of their internal network and had to give customers new addresses. Bottom line, unless you're paying for the privilege, don't count on your IP address being fixed.

Glad to hear she's OK. From your description, it sounds like the package was still sealed when the dog found it. If someone wanted to poison an animal, I would expect they would take the meat out of the package in order to add the poison to it and to make it easier for the animal to smell, find, and ingest. If another animal filched the package and dragged it under your barn, it may have been interrupted by your dog before it could eat the contents. FWIW.

So how did you come to the conclusion that someone tried to poison your dog? Is there any particular reason someone would want to poison her? Is the dog showing any signs of illness? Did you take the dog to the vet as a precaution? Did you send the meat to a lab and have it tested? Is it possible that some other animal dragged the package under your barn and your dog either found it or stole it away? Just pointing out that there may be an innocent explanation for how the meat ended up under your barn. That's the right move setting up your cameras for full-time recording until you get your motion detection settings squared away. That way, if there really is a perp, you might have a chance of catching them on camera.

Have you tried: Disconnecting one or both of the other cameras temporarily? Moving the Avtech camera to a different port on the router? Swapping the ports used by the 9821w and the Avtech? If it is a bandwidth issue, removing the other cameras should reduce the bandwidth to a usable level. If it is the router, maybe just one port is bad. Also, you mentioned that the Avtech is PoE, yet AFAIK the airport does not provide PoE. What is providing the power to that camera? Is it possible that your PoE injector is bad?

Agreed - the extra 4 (HT) cores will make a noticeable difference.

I just built a similar system: i7 3770, 16GB RAM, 2 TB Barracuda as the boot/root drive, 2-3TB WD Reds in RAID1 for the DVR data, running Fedora 18 64-bit and ZoneMinder. I passed on the SSD for precisely the reason you state - for a system that's on 24/7 it's a waste of money to optimize boot-up time. As for the 16GB of RAM, Linux has no problem making good use of it. Anytime you can avoid swapping to disk it's a win.

Found this while browsing YouTube. Not as bad as some of the examples here, but seeing all those wires draped willy-nilly all over the place just makes me cringe. Mc9a-MYNtZk

Yep, Nevada has plates like that, and I think I've seen some newer Texas plates like that also. I wonder what police, toll road operators, and others ANPR users om those states do to read those plates at night?

that will change when using zoneminder. Been running ZoneMinder here for almost 2 years. The only time my system goes down is when I take it down.

Syscom -- not working in Firefox here, it just disconnects. Den Worked fine for me in Firefox, although I did have to select stream #2 to get an MJPEG stream (whatever stream #1 is (H.264?) I don't have a plugin for it). Framerate was pretty low, as the camera appears to be somewhere in Vietnam.

I agree, it would be a waste of a PTZ to put it behind a window because of the limited FOV. However, I have put several box and dome cameras in the window of my spare bedroom at various times and the performance isn't compromised too much. A black box or even a black blanket around the camera eliminates the reflection problems quite nicely. As for the IR, disable the built-in IR (if any) and then mount an illuminator outside the house. Not saying it's optimal, but it is one option for the OP.

^this CA issues highly reflective plates which normally glow like beacons under my IR illuminator. However, some older CA plates don't reflect IR well, and the plate area appears very similar to the OP's pictures. And the license plates from some states don't show up at all - the license plate area appears completely blank. If the OP lives in one of those states which issues non-reflective plates, he's basically hosed.

I use Arlington TL20 loop cable hangers. They're a bit more secure than J hooks in that the top clips together to form a complete loop so there's no chance of a cable being accidentally knocked out. Whether you use these or plain old J-hooks, you'll thank yourself the very first time you run an additional cable.

I agree with point 3 above, but if you do it correctly there should be no problem. Look at the front of pretty much any outdoor housing for a box camera and what do you see? A sheet of glass. If the OP were to put his camera inside a small box (open on one end), paint the inside of the box flat black, press the open end of the box against the window glass, and disable the internal IR illuminators (if any), what would be the problem?

It will mount to a ceiling just fine. I had mine mounted to the underside of a wooden beam for a while with absolutely no problems.

Have you noticed that the little punks that hang out in random places like this are almost always smokers? They're apparently not allowed to smoke at home, so they wander off to smoke in front of some stranger's house (and leave their cigarette butts in the street). Once they've had their nicotine fix they wander off. I wish I knew a way to make the street in front of my house less attractive to these punks...

A few people have noticed my cameras. I can tell because they look directly into the camera and do a double-take. Also, some of the neighborhood kids took great pleasure in finding each and every one of my cameras and pointing them out to all their friends. In some cases this has been a good thing, with an apparent deterrent effect; one of the neighborhood MILFs used to walk her dog past my house every evening until she noticed the camera; I haven't seen her since.