Kawboy12R

Good question! Aside from being cheap, I don't really know! I do have PIR lights around the house and yard, but they are solar powered and completely independent of my system. My ideal set up would have .... All LED lighting, at least 4 channels; spots, floods, background and it would be PIR activated, controllable from my android AND it would have to be controlled via wireless remotes while we're at home... ugh, I just got a headache from pondering how to hook all that up! Simple way is to swap the cams you have that don't have IR for ones that do. Or at least swap your front door and back door cams for IR ones. They are the ones most likely to "see" intruders. The builtin IR doesn't use much power but is on all the time. I live on the grid though so you'd be the best one to know your power "budget". PIR sensors turning on 850nm IR floods for cameras that don't have built-in IR is probably going to give the cameras the best view at night for the least amount of power. You can get IR floodlight bulbs to screw into PIR floodlight assemblies to simplify things. Maybe even get a dual-socket PIR-activated floodlight assembly with a small white LED bulb on one side and IR flood on the other. That'll help you walking around, warn intruders a bit, and give quite a bit of light for your cameras because of the extra IR "punch".

Why do you have security cameras set up that can't see at night unless you manually turn on the lights? Even off the grid I'd think that some low-power IR lights would be worth the energy footprint. Not much sense having cams that only catch bad guys during the daytime, right?

I wonder if these ones were posted at the same time as the 2mp mini-bullets? I've seen them on their site for a while but still no dice looking for them on Alibaba. I didn't mention these models specifically but Kyle at Empire said not that long ago that he had no IP cams available to him that saw infrared but didn't throw it.

These new domes (IPC-HDB3101 and IPC-HDB3200) look like a good cheap way to cut down on the time for me to be scanning false positives at night from bugs, fog, rain etc. IR floodlights are worth the extra expense if they're needed. CNB analog dome plus IR floodlight = productive scanning, so these should do the same but with much better resolution. Anybody heard when they'll be available? The website says "new" but I can't find anybody selling them yet. http://www.dahuasecurity.com/products/ipc-hdb3101-223.html http://www.dahuasecurity.com/products/ipc-hdb32003202-219.html There are new IR bullets too but no documentation on if the IR is able to be turned off. I'm guessing no.

Nice cam Groucho. It even does non-PoE power and has SD card storage so it could be mounted just about anywhere there is space and a bit of power. This version is even sweeter for disguising. Both are good down to about 1.0 lux. Shame the pinhole version isn't IP66 rated like the -E version is.

You'd know more about that than I would. I was more worried about the up/down, left/right controls to aim the spotlight, but maybe there are some universal PT camera controls that could get hooked into the spotlight wires. I love the idea of a remote control spotlight. Great harmless way to make trespassers nervous. I suppose maybe someone could even use a PT camera mount and put any old spotlight on it. Camera controls might be more precise for long distance aiming than the worklight controls and could be controlled directly from the PTZ controls of the DVR.

Depends on how far away you are. Simple if you're in the same building as the spotlight. Use the stock controls but extend the wires. Different building? Good luck. Kind of a redneck solution that'd work in limited applications.

12v spotlight like power companies mount on their trucks to search for problems? They use remote joysticks and you could control it while watching the dvr screen as long as the spot stayed in the fov.

I'd guess the 8ch QSee will be out at Costco sometime in the next couple of months based on what I've read on here. It's a rebranded Dahua system, so the following link shows some places to get them. viewtopic.php?f=5&t=31620 QVis rebrands something other than Dahuas now, so scratch them off the list. Not sure what they ARE selling (their policy is not to divulge their supplier or why they changed- I asked), but I was told in an email that they definitely aren't Dahuas any more. Not sure what their warranty and support is like, but I've read here that Kyle at Empire Security Cameras on EBay does some after-sale updating and support. Might ask him his policy on flashing updated firmware to add new features instead of fixing problems. Some places won't flash unless something's not working. His NVRs and IP cameras are rebranded Dahuas like QSee. Ask him what lens options he can get you on his 2100 bullets so you can maybe mix and match and see what fits your different locations the best. The 3200 bullet is varifocal but twice the money.

Close. The slime got lucky. I offered a cam to cover a neighbour's car but it's way too far away for ID help using the cams I have available.

Day burglaries? I'm guessing there's a good chance that they'll be using the back door or rear windows if they're doing it during the day. You're probably looking for an 8 cam system or better. Cam 2 might be better moved away from the corner a bit and sweeping the front side of the house completely. Cam 3 IS providing coverage of cam 2 if someone wanted to whack it from behind, but nothing is covering cam 3. The other 3 look good, but what about the back yard?? You CAN swap lenses out, but you'd probably be better off waiting for the 8ch system (or buying a non QSee 8ch system now) and mixing and matching some 6mm, 3.6mm, and maybe a varifocal or two. I'd put up signs as well if you want deterrence. Intruders on my property haven't ever even noticed my cameras yet. You might hide the DVR too, and have an alarm system so that they've got sirens or something speeding them up so they can't look for it. You have woods in back of your house or more houses? Trees might be a good travel lane for them. Signs on your back fence wouldn't hurt either.

Check this guy's reviews of the Gadspot stuff. Not saying they're the best by any means but they seem to be better at night than the cheap IR bullets I've tried. Anything else I like is way out of your budget.

You must live with a nice crowd then. A few miles from my place is pretty crackhead-eat-crackhead. http://www.prosecuritys.com/kt-c-kpcex230hl.html This is more like what I was talking about. No colour at all and no need for sense-up to magnify light but blur moving objects. Hard to tell if you have enough light without trying one though. IR is needed if it is REALLY dim. If you think that nobody will wreck anything and it is really truly dark then feel free to run some IR cams wherever you want. The Samsung SDE-4001 kit comes with short-range but invisible IR cameras (940nm). Useless through glass though, so outside mounting and additional 940nm floodlights will be needed beyond about 20'. According to another poster those cams don't see the normal red 850nm IR floodlights. I use a CMVision 940nm floodlight from Amazon. $80. Gadspot makes some decent inexpensive IR cams that use regular IR if you don't mind drawing attention with the red glow.

Got any sample pics or video?

As far as what cam to use, try Googling LPR cam and see what comes up. WDR would be a requirement because of the moving car with lights on (probably done at night), and expect to put in an additional IR floodlight to help counteract the headlights anyway. There have been a few threads on here about lpr cams, but I can't remember anybody finding a cheap good one. You might want one or two lpr cams on the street with IR floodlights and a few cheaper IR cams to catch them in the act but tie ID to the timestamps on the lpr cams.

I bet it is a cabbie or designated driver who is probably yelling "DON'T PUKE IN THE CAR! USE THIS!" and then gets the drunk to ditch the bag. Pretty disgusting form of littering though. Worse than the pee bottles truckers are always throwing beside the highways.

I'd say just about any DVR with remote capabilites. Just plug your USB 3G stick into a computer for net access and plug the DVR into a switch attached to the computer. Might even get away with plugging the DVR into the network port in the back of the computer. Setup the DVR for remote access via some kind of free dynamic dns server (dyndns or something) just like anybody with wired internet access would, and you should be good to go. Tell your cell company salesguy what you want to do with it and make sure that the internet stick won't go to sleep when not in use for a long or something inconvenient like that. Set up the DVR for a slooow framerate so that when you connect to check on the stock you don't overwhelm your upload speed. 1 fps might even do it. Again, ask your cellular provider what they recommend. Not sure how long or how often you'd want to check on your stock either, but I bet staying connected to the dvr from your home 24/7 would scare you over the long run for bandwidth costs though. It shouldn't be too inconvenient or expensive to connect a few times a day though. Certainly beats driving out every time you're worried. Also, I'd set up the dvr, computer (or laptop), and usb 3G stick first at home or at your favourite nerd's place so you aren't out in the boonies. If you buy the dvr from a local cctv shop they might even set it up to work in their shop and you could just move everything out to the farm and plug it in out there already to go. Just run camera wires from wherever you stick the computer to the pens. Either that or call a place that sells cell-enabled game cameras and see if any can be set up to email you a pic at home every, say, half hour or whatever and compare the hardware and operating costs to the computer/3G stick/DVR/camera solution.

Good luck installing the cameras in good close locations covering your vehicles and running the wires in protected locations to a hidden DVR while keeping this secret from the folks that'll be crawling all over while you're doing it. I bet vandal domes mounted outdoors will get smashed, let alone what'll happen if you try and install cheapo IR bullets. I'd bet a dollar that the junkies are smashing the lights in the area, so guess what'll happen to your cameras? Then they'll start looking for the DVR and whoever put it there. Oh yeah, remember when some of the locals were watching while you installed the cams and wires? Then YOU will have a nice big target on your forehead. If you think you can hide them in the building and run wires to a DVR somewhere close so nobody can see you run them, get yourself some B&W bullets with no IR and stick them in a window looking out of, say, a birdhouse sitting on a 2nd or 3rd floor window ledge. No IR means no glow for a hidden cam AND it'll look through glass if you want to keep the cam inside. Google ".0003 lux exview" for B&W cams that're really quite good in low light. aliexpress.com will probably give you the cheapest prices and more options than EBay. Probably 12 or 16mm lenses or better to get closeup facepics if you can always park your cars in the same spot, plus one with, say, a 3.6mm lens for broader coverage. Also, the lower the fstop rating of the lens the better it'll be in low light. You'd probably get by with 3 cams. Look for a full D1 DVR, or maybe flip a coin with your friend over who gets the single D1 channel that is common on the cheapest DVRs. Do not get one that's full CIF (horribly low resolution) if reviewing video afterwards is what you're after unless you can get the person to walk right up and look into your camera. Google cctv lens calculator to give yourself a better idea of what lenses you'll need after finding out how far your car is from where you'll mount your camera. Good luck getting good stealthy lowlight performance for three cams plus a DVR with adequate playback quality for under $400-500. You might make it on aliexpress. Try looking for a Dahua full D1 dvr. I'm sure the best fix though is to move. You'll end up as a target for every criminal and paranoid if they find out you've got cctv cams set up. I bet your room isn't secure for the DVR because the door kicks in easily.

I'll throw CNB into the ring.

You might want to think about mounting 30 $400 indoor domes outdoors with their potential unwarrantied failures and shorter lifespan and compare it to either getting more expensive outdoor domes that'll work there or cheaper outdoor domes and an NVR that supports them. Seems to me that there should be a bit of wiggle room in the budget on the NVR or cams if you're thinking of making 12 grand worth of indoor stuff work outdoors.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=cellular+coverage+map+uk&rlz=1C1GGGE_enCA502CA502&oq=cellular+coverage+map+uk&aqs=chrome.0.57.19049&sugexp=chrome,mod=10&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

PoE cam on non-PoE router maybe??

Different chipset, different lens, different low-light capability, different power consumption. The LCM-24VF is a Mona Lisa chipset cam, the LKM-20VF isn't, despite what your link says (or at least doesn't claim the LKM-20VF to be one on their site but DOES mention that the LCM-24VF is). Compare the specs of the two side by side to see the differences. CNB says that the LKM-20VF performs better in low light before the IR kicks in but won't give as wide a view as the LCM-24VF if you need a fisheye closeup view. http://www.cnbusa.com/en/html/product/product.php?inc=spe&seqx_prod=1264#p_v1 http://www.cnbtec.com/en/html/product/product.php?inc=spe&seqx_prod=1376#p_v1 Reading the specs, the 20VF is the better cam if you don't absolutely need to have the wider view. edit- I just plugged the two model numbers into pricegrabber because usually the MonaLisa cams (24 series) are more expensive than the 20 series. Guess what? The 20VF IS the cheaper cam according to pricegrabber (but not your two different sites), so despite the slight lux performance differences listed on their site, the 24VF is probably the better camera but switches to B&W and then IR slightly faster in failing light than the 20VF. I've got two 24VFs here but I've never tried a 20VF to compare.

If you can't see the IR from the cameras and you're sure they're working then it's probably 940nm IR. I put a 940nm IR floodight under my deck to shine up my driveway. It is really dark at night under my deck where it is mounted and I can't see even a hint of red coming from the LEDs. I don't have Samsung cams but it works fine with my CNB VCM-24VF dome and cheapo Lorex bullet. $80 from Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-IR-200-940-CMVision-Wavelength-Illuminator/dp/B004PLOPDS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352984241&sr=8-1&keywords=940+cmvision

There's a ton of information to absorb, that's for sure. I've spent a lot of time reading online the last few months and am starting to get a decent feel for what I want for IP cams, coupled with watching the strengths and weaknesses of my analog domes and bullets under different conditions.