12V IR Illuminators..

[camera-newbie 0]

Since I'm still working out the details of our upcoming (first) home security system, I had been looking at IP cameras that had strong IR features to lighten up our backyard (which is ~50 feet deep).. However, it dawned on me that I've got a chicken coop in the backyard that has it's own 12V small car battery that is recharged during the day by a small solar panel. I was thinking that the backyard camera could have an IP camera with IR capability (e.g. Vivotek IP8362) but leave the IR off to not give away it's location and instead have this remote mounted illuminator (which would be about 30 feet away from the camera) lighting up the back half of the yard.. So, that brings a few questions to mind :

 

• I'm assuming I'd need to match the IR wavelength on both the illuminator AND camera's IR system to have the camera pick things up that it is not illuminating -- correct?
  
• Unfortunately many of the illuminators do not indicate what exact wavelength they cover -- and this particular Vivotek does not indicate it either making matching them up more difficult..
  
• I've yet to see any illuminators that indicate how much power they draw. I want to ensure they don't draw more power than the battery has or which can be recharged in a typical day -- perhaps I should couple it with some sort of low-power motion detector to trigger illumination.

 

Am I barking up the right tree? I guess I could consider this IF it turns out that the camera's built-in lighting is insufficient..

 

By the way.. How much glowing is visible from one of these IR camera's at night? It is really obvious -- something that would catch someone's eye from 30+ feet away? Is the light omnidirectional or is it only really obvious if you're in direct line of sight of the camera?

[smolek 0]

im curious too

[ronp 0]

Here are some power numbers to chew on:

 

A common IR Illuminator currently for sale on ebay has specs of 96 LEDs and uses 15 Watts at 12 Volts. That’s 1.25 Amps. Your car battery should have an AH rating on its label that will tell you how many Amp-Hours of capacity it has (not CA which is Cranking Amps). In practice, it’s really only half of that number since you never want to drain the battery completely. Divide 1.25 into that number and that’s how many hours you can power that IR light from the battery. That’s half the equation.

 

The other half is charging the battery during the day. Most solar panels are rated in Watts. You can get a 15 Watt solar panel at Harbor Freight for $60. Just like with the battery’s AH rating, you typically only get half the rated output of a solar panel due to dust, clouds, etc. So, assume the 15 Watt panel only gives you 7.5 Watts of power. That means with a 15 Watt solar panel you’ll need two hours of daylight for each hour that you power a 15 Watt IR light at night - plus or minus. That wouldn’t be enough except for long summer days.

 

Bottom line, choose a battery with enough Amp-Hours to get you through the longest nights of the year (assuming only using 50% of the capacity) and choose a solar panel that has at least twice the Wattage your IR illuminator uses.

 

Oh, and don't forget to use a solar charge controller between the solar panel and the battery or you'll eventually overcharge/cook the battery.

 

Ron

[Dipol_CCTV 0]

Well, I am working with cameras for a few years now, and I can say that IR is IR. There should be no need to specify any more details.

The wavelength however might or might not be visible by human eye. there are two types of illuminators on the market:

850nm wavelength - visible by human eye

940nm invisible from some distance, but when You get closer, it will be seen.

As for power consumption, it depends on the LED used in device. Most powerfull IR illuminator we have now is 10W power consumption. (90m range).

Same range 940nm consumes more power than 850nm.

[rayt 0]

i have a bunch of raytec illuminators, they all draw 20w+ each! got them used, but wow do they toss out a lot of IR.