Infra Red illuminator problem

[atropine 0]

Hi,

 

I have an ebay infra red illuminator. Think it's about 40 LED's, The problem is that when an intruder walks into my yard, the person is washed out, and white. However if I did not have in illuminator, it would not be light enough to see any distinctive features either, because the the only lighting comes from the road.

 

2 questions. What can be done so that a person walking into the yard is not too bright to see with the existing setup, and Would a high dynamic range camera fix this problem, or do they only work in day light conditions, not at night. I am using an old day/night camera.

 

Please look at the video on youtube here to see the problem i'm talking about.

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=r5Y-UpEEUUo

 

Thanks for looking.

 

bye

[bike_rider 0]

Can you turn down the gain on the camera? The image is tuned to make the driveway and grass look good. But as you see, those don't really reflect much IR compared to a person.

 

If you can't tune the gain, another choice is to kill a few of the LEDs with wire snips.

[atropine 0]

Well it has no control to turn it down, but I could probably just use a variable resister to get the exact light output I need. If I turn it down though I won't be able to identify cars on the road as readily but really the priority is to identify people entering my yard at night. So good idea i'll just turn down the voltage on it.

 

If anyone knows if High dynamic range cameras work in the black and white night setting I'd be interested to hear, because then I could have the infra red light on full power and hopefully it would be able to see people close to the camera as well as cars with both being illuminated ok.

[scorpion 0]

You have selected the wrong illuminator.

 

You have replaced a "flashlight" with a "light canon"!!!

 

If the road is important to you then I would move the illuminator to an area that lights up the road, and not the yard. I would get another illuminator that would light up the yard.

 

How far is that person in the video from the camera?

 

It is not a perfect science, and it depends on the camera, but I would measure the distance from camera to the sidewalk, and then I would double the distance for my IR illuminator distance.

 

It looks like the illuminator you are using can light up at 250 feet? Is this about right?

 

I would like to know what illuminator you are using. PM me if it is a store link.

 

I am glad that you bought LED illuminators, as some people are not aware that other illuminators have bulbs in them that only last 2000 hours, and you have to change the bulbs.

[Scruit 0]

You have selected the wrong illuminator.

 

You have replaced a "flashlight" with a "light canon"!!!

 

If the road is important to you then I would move the illuminator to an area that lights up the road, and not the yard. I would get another illuminator that would light up the yard.

 

 

I can't see the youtube video here from work.

 

My LP camera uses an IR illuminator that was too bright, causing hte plates to wash out. The answer for me was to aim the illuminator at the ground in front of the car and allow the plate to be lit indirectly. Worked for me, and had the added benefit of provinding more IR light for a different camera that provides and overall view of the same area.

 

So, in this case, would it be possible to aim the IR illuminator in a way that the person's face is lit indirectly? Just like a photographer would not aim a flash directly at the subject, but would instead bounce it off a wall or one of those silver umbrellas...

[cachecreekcctv 0]

Does the camera you are using have built-in IR? A motion sensor, with floodlight does a lot better than an IR Illuminator, in a residential application. I "redesigned" my motion sensors so that the lamps are away from the sensor. Just run EMT conduit underneath an eave, etc. to a lamp fixture, pointed at what you want it to light up. I have been using the new CFL type lamps here at home. 16 watts instead of 75. A little different type of light, but for residential it works great. Also "startles" anyone or anything that makes the light come on. I used to have the IR illuminators on my home, but were just way too powerful for residential. I lent them to a friend out in the country, and they do just fine out there. Just a thought.

[zmxtech 0]

don't worry easy to fix, this stems from over zealous sales "1mega watt" IR range 50 foot " etc etc too bad if your 5 foot away !

 

The guys are correct you have too much IR light, to test the theory use some black tape etc and block off 90% of the LEDs this will reduce the IR down to a nice contrast.

 

One of my test cams an `Ebay special` works well if you block off the IR LEDs all bar 2!

 

Also you can move your IR blaster 10 more metres away

 

z