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Piggy Smalls posted:Any recommendations for a good out door security camera setup especially one that is somewhat clear at night. I read infrared cameras are the way to go. I'm a complete noob so be nice. Dahua Starlight cams are basically the cream of the crop. Protip: buy a PoE switch and run your cams off that. Way easier to run a single 100 ft CAT6 cable then to try and tap into mains power for every cam you mount. Edit: I just realized you don't have much experience with this. You're looking for something that's rated to be waterproof, and your typical cost for a camera with good night vision, waterproof and vandal proof, but fixed (and thus NOT pan/tilt) is $100-$150, depending on where you buy it. Then you'll need a < $50 power over ethernet (PoE) switch, an appropriate length of CAT6 cable ($5-$15 depending on length), and a way to monitor that camera. If you have an always-on computer, Blue Iris ($40-$50) is a good consumer software solution. You could also forego all this advice and pick up one of the cheap all-in-one solutions from Costco ($300+ for 4 or more cameras, all needed cables, and a DVR-style box with a small hard drive), but the cams will suffer in terms of resolution and night vision ability compared to a Starlight. bobfather fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Jun 1, 2017 |
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Jun 1, 2017 20:52
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Dahua starlights are the poo poo. Get a variable zoom one, that way you can set up the FOV perfectly. The resolution isn't super great, but the low-light video quality is amazing for the money.
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Jun 1, 2017 21:52
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Trip report: Abode Starter Kit and Schlage Connect Deadbolt I finally got my Abode starter kit installed and my door lock installed. Both were extremely easy to set up and to pair with one another. I can control the door lock from the Abode app in my phone and it seems to work perfectly so far. The Abode starter kit comes with two door/window sensors, a remote, the base "gateway", and a motion sensor camera with fairly crappy quality. It also has all the wires and plenty of pre-cut double sided 3M tape. Also got it connected to the Nest system, which for now is just a thermostat so it feels redundant, but hey, why not? I have not yet tested all of the features, but it has proximity rules that arm or disarm the system based on phone location. So if I drive up and open the garage door, it won't alarm because it sets the system to Standby. The front door will also lock automatically if I get out of the user-selected range. Seems pretty slick. One thing to note is that the web portal offers much more functionality / control / options than the phone app. If anyone has any questions I would be happy to try to answer or conduct whatever experiment is needed to do so. Waiting for my first unintentional alarm that causes pants making GBS threads, cause the siren is loud.
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Jun 4, 2017 18:18
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Im looking for some type of electronic cat door that I can close or lock automatically. Ideally it would be something that I could trigger using my phone and ideally Alexa. It would also be nice if I could build in some type of automation to tell it if the garage door is open the lock the cat door, otherwise leave it unlocked. This may be a bit specific so not sure if ill find anything. Basically we keep the litter box in the garage and have a cat door already, but the cat is in the habit of bolting out the door the second we open the garage and running down the sewer so Im trying to figure out how to stop him.
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Jun 5, 2017 02:34
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Keystoned posted:Im looking for some type of electronic cat door that I can close or lock automatically. Ideally it would be something that I could trigger using my phone and ideally Alexa. It would also be nice if I could build in some type of automation to tell it if the garage door is open the lock the cat door, otherwise leave it unlocked. Well, I am not sure there is an easy way to do it. They make electronic pet doors but I think they are generally battery powered (honestly probably for good reason). If they were powered via outlet, you could probably use whatever automation solution you use two control two different smart plugs. Like for instance in Apple Home you could create a scene that runs when within your home geofence that deactivates the power to the cat door while activating power to the garage door (although you actually probably would just need to depower the pet door when you were in range of home). This is also something you could probably solve with an audrino or two if you have the knack for that sort of thing. Combining maybe an audrino garage door opener (which I almost feel like I could handle if I could solder) and a battery powered audrino controlling an electromagnet (a bit beyond me but people do it) that held the car door in place once the garage door was triggered seems like a way to me to maybe do this but I don't really know.
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Jun 5, 2017 13:21
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Rick posted:Well, I am not sure there is an easy way to do it. Apparently Lowes sells one that's set up for use with their Iris system. It looks like it uses Zigbee, so you might be able to get it working with ST or whatever. My understanding is that the Zigbee setup for Iris devices is kind of unique, so it's kind of hit or miss on communication with other hubs.
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Jun 5, 2017 18:31
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stoko posted:Apparently Lowes sells one that's set up for use with their Iris system. It looks like it uses Zigbee, so you might be able to get it working with ST or whatever. My understanding is that the Zigbee setup for Iris devices is kind of unique, so it's kind of hit or miss on communication with other hubs. That looks like it might work except it says they dont carry it anymore. I tried lookind around and didnt see it offered anywhere else either.
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Jun 6, 2017 00:56
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Keystoned posted:That looks like it might work except it says they dont carry it anymore. I tried lookind around and didnt see it offered anywhere else either. http://www.ebay.com/itm/PetSafe-Lar...DEAAOSwu1VW5DGl
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Jun 6, 2017 02:07
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Keystoned posted:Im looking for some type of electronic cat door that I can close or lock automatically. Ideally it would be something that I could trigger using my phone and ideally Alexa. It would also be nice if I could build in some type of automation to tell it if the garage door is open the lock the cat door, otherwise leave it unlocked. I saw something interesting when I was at CES this year. Its a smart switch for dumb appliances that can be controlled from Alexa. Check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faV56ZvRkoQ It might work if you have some sort of power switch or something for your cat door(?). https://prota.info/prota/
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Jun 6, 2017 19:50
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"Controlled by Alexa" meaning via IFTTT and a custom hub in this case, in case you were hoping to integrate it with zwave or ST or similar.
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Jun 6, 2017 20:09
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Anyone using the Sonoff Touch switches? They look very interesting for the price and aesthetically would be nice to get rid of the switches altogether and have touchscreens. I just wish they made a 2 or 3 gang model as I only have a couple single gang switches in my house.
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Jun 6, 2017 22:07
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bobfather posted:Dahua Starlight cams are basically the cream of the crop. Protip: buy a PoE switch and run your cams off that. Way easier to run a single 100 ft CAT6 cable then to try and tap into mains power for every cam you mount. Frank Dillinger posted:Dahua starlights are the poo poo. Get a variable zoom one, that way you can set up the FOV perfectly. The resolution isn't super great, but the low-light video quality is amazing for the money. Which model(s) are you guys talking about? and at what price point for non-PTZ bullet? Don't know much about cameras, but I can fumble my way through the networking end, and setting up a server. Thanks.
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Jun 9, 2017 13:38
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The Starlights tend to be on the pricey side for DIY. It would probably help if you started with your budget and how many cameras you think you need. It also wouldn't hurt if gave some idea of what the project was for.
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Jun 9, 2017 14:22
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BeAuMaN posted:Which model(s) are you guys talking about? and at what price point for non-PTZ bullet? http://s.aliexpress.com/yeAjEjqA This is the 2mp variable zoom starlight, and the seller I bought mine from. He's a respectable seller, does a lot of sales on the IP cam forums.
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Jun 9, 2017 14:29
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Thomamelas posted:The Starlights tend to be on the pricey side for DIY. It would probably help if you started with your budget and how many cameras you think you need. It also wouldn't hurt if gave some idea of what the project was for. Well we have been having some car breakins in the early morning hours like 2am. I live in a culdesac but for some odd reason we get plenty of car traffic. Last night once again a car alarm went off at 3am and I looked out my window but couldn't see anything. I hate to say it but I'm a noob and don't mind learning or buying recommended equipment and attempting to put it all together. I looked up the starlights on amazon and saw many different models and the amount of stars (reviews) were disappointing. Evidently some people are having issues with the cameras. Shrug. Can anyone maybe put together a decent system that I can then search out on my own? I'd like a camera overlooking the front door as well as maybe 2 cameras maybe pointing ina way that it will look at the whole front (criss cross pattern??) yard and driveway. How about those fancy license plate readers? Also maybe on in the backyard overlooking the yard. The yard is fenced in but you never know.
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Jun 9, 2017 15:04
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You're gonna have to give us a budget.
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Jun 9, 2017 15:09
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Frank Dillinger posted:http://s.aliexpress.com/yeAjEjqA I was getting confused because the manufacturer website referred to them as "eco-savvy 3.0". This works nicely, thanks. Thomamelas posted:The Starlights tend to be on the pricey side for DIY. It would probably help if you started with your budget and how many cameras you think you need. It also wouldn't hurt if gave some idea of what the project was for. For the farm. I get my internet via WISP, and currently I have it shared between the house and the workshop via UBNT Nano M5s doing a point-to-point link. I've been meaning to get some cameras for a while. My two concerns are: 1.) Thieves (especially god drat tweakers who steal everything both not nailed and nailed down) 2.) Critters coming up from the river and attacking my cats. So I need outdoor cameras that are NV capable, PoE powered for convenience (probably UBNT PoE Switches?). I think I'm okay with spending $180 to $200 per camera if I roll it out slowly (like starting with 1-3), though other cheaper suggestions to throw in the mix (especially for shorter distance around the house) are very much welcome. Above $200 starts really making me cringe. Probably will start with the outside of the house, adding cameras and getting my feet wet... then setup outside the workshop, then setup a Point-to-Point (Probably going to need to do a pole for that) to the final part of the farm. Not a lot of ambient light out here. Central Valley in California means hot summers reaching ~112F ambient temperature with low to high 90F mostly. Rains in the winter. Two story house. So from my understanding, the bullet housing is made to resist outdoor weather better, right? IPC-HFW5231E-Z is No Zoom IPC-HFW5231E-Z5 is 5x Zoom IPC-HFW5231E-Z12 is 12x Zoom Not sure how that translates into distance exactly. Any networking security concerns for these cameras (someone mentioned some backdoors in some of the cameras earlier)? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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Jun 9, 2017 15:24
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FCKGW posted:You're gonna have to give us a budget. 1000.00
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Jun 9, 2017 16:13
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BeAuMaN posted:I was getting confused because the manufacturer website referred to them as "eco-savvy 3.0". This works nicely, thanks. Zoom doesn't directly translate to distance. It's a ratio between focal lengths. So if the camera was 2mm to 14mm then you'd have a 7x zoom. Generally from there I can set a focal point (how far away is my optimal focus) and I can figure out what the field of view will be. If someone really wants the math formulas for this I can post them but generally most people would use a calculator. This one: https://ipvm.com/calculator has a nice google maps integration for doing the calculations. As for the form factor, bullets used to be cheaper but now it really just means integrated housing. What you're looking for to determine weather resistance a combination of the IP rating and the temperature ratings. For IP rating your looking for something between IP65 to 67. 68 is a bit overkill and generally has a cost attached to it.
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Jun 9, 2017 19:17
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That's a nice calculator. Is there an accepted minimum PPF for recognizing people?
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Jun 9, 2017 20:07
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Thermopyle posted:That's a nice calculator. Kinda. For recognizing people it's around 40. Under ideal lighting conditions and assuming sane quantization levels. But that is a person you'd recognize because you know them, and you'll be mentally supplementing their face with other details. Like Bob has that Guy Ferri haircut. For identification that starts in the 60's. But this is fairly dependant on lighting levels. And at night you basically need to double it to be useful. It's best to think of it as a loose guideline. For instance for Foscam, I'd adjust the the minums up by about 10 ppf because their sensors tend to be a bit crap. For Dropcam or any of the cloud recording cameras I'd shift up 20 to 25 because they tend to have really aggressive quantization levels. If I'm using WDR for a camera looking at an exterior door I might go 15 higher because WDR tends to reduce contrast. So it's a useful rule of thumb but like most rules of thumb it's not a precise thing. But if you do understand it then you can do a lot of more sane design stuff. For instance with entryways I can often get a really good facial identification shot with a sub 1 MP camera. And it helps to explain to people why you can't do the same with a 10 MP camera with a field of view set to capture a parking lot.
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Jun 9, 2017 20:32
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Thomamelas posted:Kinda. For recognizing people it's around 40. Under ideal lighting conditions and assuming sane quantization levels. But that is a person you'd recognize because you know them, and you'll be mentally supplementing their face with other details. Like Bob has that Guy Ferri haircut. For identification that starts in the 60's. But this is fairly dependant on lighting levels. And at night you basically need to double it to be useful. It's best to think of it as a loose guideline. For instance for Foscam, I'd adjust the the minums up by about 10 ppf because their sensors tend to be a bit crap. For Dropcam or any of the cloud recording cameras I'd shift up 20 to 25 because they tend to have really aggressive quantization levels. If I'm using WDR for a camera looking at an exterior door I might go 15 higher because WDR tends to reduce contrast. Thank you, you are a good and helpful poster! What about being able to read license plates?
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Jun 9, 2017 20:57
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Thermopyle posted:Thank you, you are a good and helpful poster! In the US it's 40. Outside the US and Canada I'd have to look it up. But that's an example of being really, really dependent on lighting conditions. I did a lot of stuff with LPR for schools and for most of their stuff they only really need plate reading during the day (they didn't care about sporting stuff after hours) and that was really simple and easy. I could use standard cameras without much issue, but it did require swapping out the lenses for some with long focal lengths. But if I'm trying to read plates at night then it gets really hard. More so for the front plates than the rear. With a camera looking into a pair of light sources in the front then you really want to be looking at specialized cameras that do fun things with IR and how IR reflectivity works with licence plates. Rear plates can usually be done with a standard camera at night but aiming it can be a bitch. If the vehicles are moving at speed then you need to start adjusting shutter speeds. Honestly, it's not impossible for a DIYer to do, but it's probably past the cutoff point where hiring a professional to do it is the better and cheaper option. If someone insisted then I'd make sure I was well stocked with popcorn and hope they updated frequently.
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Jun 9, 2017 21:38
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Thomamelas posted:In the US it's 40. Outside the US and Canada I'd have to look it up. But that's an example of being really, really dependent on lighting conditions. I did a lot of stuff with LPR for schools and for most of their stuff they only really need plate reading during the day (they didn't care about sporting stuff after hours) and that was really simple and easy. I could use standard cameras without much issue, but it did require swapping out the lenses for some with long focal lengths. But if I'm trying to read plates at night then it gets really hard. More so for the front plates than the rear. With a camera looking into a pair of light sources in the front then you really want to be looking at specialized cameras that do fun things with IR and how IR reflectivity works with licence plates. Rear plates can usually be done with a standard camera at night but aiming it can be a bitch. If the vehicles are moving at speed then you need to start adjusting shutter speeds. Its funny that you mention LPR. One of the reasons I asked was that I was thinking about writing my own ALPR for fun to read them outside my house. I figured it'd require fiddling around with different cameras and stuff since I don't know what I'm doing on the camera side, but having some sort of PPF to guide me seems like it's useful.
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Jun 9, 2017 22:17
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Thermopyle posted:Its funny that you mention LPR. One of the reasons I asked was that I was thinking about writing my own ALPR for fun to read them outside my house. I figured it'd require fiddling around with different cameras and stuff since I don't know what I'm doing on the camera side, but having some sort of PPF to guide me seems like it's useful. ALPR isn't radically hard to write. There are a couple of dozen small one or two man shops that have done it. And you have stuff like http://www.openalpr.com/ if you want to look at it. From what I've been told by developers it's the plate patterns that are hard and the rest is just off the shelf OCR. And they walked me through how they did the plate pattern stuff and it's a bit out of my coding league but apparently it's machine vision 101. But the physical camera set up can be really tricky and you really want the vehicles going slow. Ideally you want a speed bump for this. Although your city might not approve of DIYing that.
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Jun 9, 2017 22:27
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Speaking of Foscam, they are still full of security flaws. They still have hard coded passwords, telnet access, etc. http://images.news.f-secure.com/Web/FSecure/%7B43df9e0d-20a8-404a-86d0-70dcca00b6e5%7D_vulnerabilities-in-foscam-IP-cameras_report.pdf
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Jun 9, 2017 22:33
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Thomamelas posted:Zoom doesn't directly translate to distance. It's a ratio between focal lengths. So if the camera was 2mm to 14mm then you'd have a 7x zoom. Generally from there I can set a focal point (how far away is my optimal focus) and I can figure out what the field of view will be. If someone really wants the math formulas for this I can post them but generally most people would use a calculator. This one: https://ipvm.com/calculator has a nice google maps integration for doing the calculations. Thanks, that's really helpful! I'll keep a lot of that in mind. This calculator is really awesome, looked through the tutorial... What does the black shaded part of the viewing triangle close to camera lens mean in the calculator? I'll probably play around with the calculator for a while and come back with more questions. Thanks again for the help. Edit: Example of black shaded part of viewing triangle: 
BeAuMaN fucked around with this message at 12:14 on Jun 10, 2017 |
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Jun 10, 2017 01:37
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CharlesM posted:Speaking of Foscam, they are still full of security flaws. They still have hard coded passwords, telnet access, etc. One thing I did to address this was put them on their own wifi network on an old router without internet access. There's a server in the middle (behind a VPN) for outside-in access, but there's no route to the internet via that network.
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Jun 10, 2017 15:37
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BeAuMaN posted:Thanks, that's really helpful! I'll keep a lot of that in mind. This calculator is really awesome, looked through the tutorial... What does the black shaded part of the viewing triangle close to camera lens mean in the calculator? It represents the blind spot for the camera. Depending on the height the camera is mounted at, and the angle of it's tilt you get varying blind spots.
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Jun 10, 2017 15:59
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Dropped by Best Buy and noticed the 3rd gen Hue BR30's are out. They changed the from factor a bit and the box now has the "richer colors" sticker the 3rd gen A19's have. I was one BR30 from finishing my condo and now the new ones  Oh well, should be able to snag the last 2nd gen Flood I need to call it good for now.
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Jun 11, 2017 18:37
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Do they have the candelabra bulbs (e12 i think) yet? They were released in Europe but I havent seen them available in the states yet.
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Jun 12, 2017 15:07
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Announced "Late 2017" release so probably around the holidays.
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Jun 12, 2017 22:25
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I posted a long time ago about a home I brought where the previous owner was into some Home Automation. I have a new story for that Saga... I picked up a Smartthings hub and 2 Z-Wave switches to start dipping into Home Automation. I wire it up, and ask Smartthings to discover poo poo and... It finds 37 separate GE Link LED bulbs throughout the house. (I believe this is ZLL not Z-Wave so in theory would work with a Hue Bridge.) Each bedroom/den has 2. Bonus Room has 4, Outdoors has 6, Kitchen has 2, Hallway has 5 etc... Never once disclosed or noticed. So now my issue is... I really don't like the idea of the always on bulb in high traffic places with switches (Even 3 and 4 way switches!) I had already planned to get into things with switches rather than bulbs so this is a bit of a downer... My ideal world would be if there was a switch that always provided power to the lights so they could be controlled by the smartthings, and just had a rocker that acted as a scene controller to tell them to go on/off. Is there anything like that on the market? I guess this in general goes for adding Hue to an existing home. I'd like a switch to be a switch while still being able to address the bulb through home automation, and be up to code for fire/insurance purposes. What are the options?
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Jun 13, 2017 20:44
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Hughlander posted:My ideal world would be if there was a switch that always provided power to the lights so they could be controlled by the smartthings, and just had a rocker that acted as a scene controller to tell them to go on/off. You could make it a Z-wave switch, hard wire the light on behind it, and use some customized Z-wave/SmartThings responder to flip the light when the switch goes. Or you could hard wire the light socket and use one of the standalone wireless switches as long as you don't mind a dead switch on the wall.
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Jun 13, 2017 20:59
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Amazon has a 3-pack of Philips Hue bulbs on sale for $36 https://www.amazon.com/Philips-468058-White-3-Pack-Amazon/dp/B01M1S6I1Y
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Jun 13, 2017 21:37
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Hughlander posted:I posted a long time ago about a home I brought where the previous owner was into some Home Automation. I have a new story for that Saga... I picked up a Smartthings hub and 2 Z-Wave switches to start dipping into Home Automation. I wire it up, and ask Smartthings to discover poo poo and... Sylvania/OSRAM have a Lightify switch that screws over the existing switches, hiding the rockers so you can leave them always on. Work with Smartthings with a user device type and app. https://www.amazon.com/SYLVANIA-LIGHTIFY-Osram-Dimming-Products/dp/B0196M620Y/ Edit: I've used the Lightify switches and they work fine, very quick and simple to install. If you do want to go the hardwired-on route, I BELIEVE you can use the Lutron Pico remotes, which can theoretically be wall mounted in the switch plate over the top of the hardwired switch. https://www.amazon.com/Lutron-PJ2-2B-GWH-L01-Remote-Control-White/dp/B00KLAXOE8/ Red Warrior fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Jun 13, 2017 |
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Jun 13, 2017 21:40
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Subjunctive posted:Or you could hard wire the light socket and use one of the standalone wireless switches as long as you don't mind a dead switch on the wall. I wouldn't recommend this. I have GE Link bulbs and they're the least reliable smart appliances I own. They eventually stop responding and occasionally need to be powered off hard before they'll work again. So definitely keep the switch and maybe put a cover over it.
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Jun 14, 2017 05:57
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FCKGW posted:Amazon has a 3-pack of Philips Hue bulbs on sale for $36 I thought about getting this because that would basically mean every light in my apartment was smart. But honestly the lights that currently aren't don't need to be so that's probably a bad idea.
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Jun 14, 2017 11:10
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Rick posted:I thought about getting this because that would basically mean every light in my apartment was smart. But honestly the lights that currently aren't don't need to be so that's probably a bad idea. I've been putting my older Hue bulbs on the few spots I have no need for them so now so now I can turn on my closet which is really dumb in practice but I have it set to turn on around the time I get ready for work so it mostly works? Plus all the lights are now geofenced to turn off when I leave so there's that?
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Jun 14, 2017 12:29
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FCKGW posted:Amazon has a 3-pack of Philips Hue bulbs on sale for $36 It says regular price for that is $40. Did they cut the prices recently? I thought they were $20 each normally.
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Jun 14, 2017 13:05
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