thoiboi

Yeah, definitely a bummer... Maybe Blue Iris has some cross compatibility / hacking with Kuna and Ring and the like..

CCColtsicehockey

So with just figuring this stuff out Blue Iris then is just a software company for camera interaction?

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

I had the same concern since my doorbell is 90 deg to the right of the door, but my coworker showed me his video view and the fisheye was actually quite impressive. I had been planning to buy one and put it straight on the door, but the wires are obviously to the right, so there's that...

nfnsquared

Amcrest 3MP, dual band (IP3M-941) for $120 with code K8KF7GWH on Amazon. White or Black. ($30 savings).

CCColtsicehockey

So my Netgear Arlo-Q showed up last night. Now that it is setup it works great. It seems to pickup motion and sound well for triggering recordings. It is a little slow to launch live as in it isn't instant. You load the app and then have to click launch live view and then in about 15 seconds more it finally loads the live feed which seems to be delayed about 2-3 seconds.

The one major issue with the camera is setup. When reading the reviews the setup sound amazing and easy. Well when it arrived it was anything but easy. Setup of this camera uses a QR code. You put in your SSID and your password for your wireless. It turns those into a QR code that you are supposed to show to the camera and it will read the information from and set the camera up. Sounds cool in design but I never ever got it to work.

Through reading some forums I found out you could also set it up using the WPS button on your router. At first even that didn't work. The reason that did not work it turns out that the initial firmware that comes on the camera does not support having symbols even _ in your SSID and wireless password. Seriously no symbols in my password is ridiculous. How easy do I want my password to be to crack. I wasn't about to go changing my network passwords just to make this device work. That was definitely out of the question. Did a little more digging and found out that later firmware fixed this issue. Problem is you need the camera to connect to your wifi to update the software. So I reluctantly took my 5ghz portion of my network set a new ssid and simple password. Used WPS to get the camera on the network. Did not 1 but 2 software updates. After that I did a reset of the camera and was able to use WPS to have it connect to my regular network using my normal password and set my 5ghz network back the way it had been.

I went through all of this because this camera has great reviews and it keeps 7 days up to 1gb of recordings for free. The quality of the hardware is wonderful and the picture is just as good as any from the Nest cameras which are similar price. I also think the Arlo-Q blends in better on the inside of the house. Hopefully they make an outdoor sealed Q as I would consider going that route.

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

SDSilverM3

Blue Iris pretty much becomes your main interface and NVR control center. As many will find out, the UI on EVERY single camera on the market will leave something to be desired. BI gives you much more granular control and rules especially in the motion detection department and alerting. The cameras, however, has to support RTSP otherwise BI cannot connect to the video stream. Some cameras are completely proprietary and cannot be used in conjunction with BI. It is best to email the developer (Ken) to confirm ahead of time.

CCColtsicehockey

Anyone interested in the Arlo-Q camera they are now down to 139.99 on Amazon. Of course Amazon won't give me the difference back after only 7 days since I bought it. I am thinking of buying another and then returnining it in place of the first order so I don't have to do the setup again. Eating $7 dollars or so in shipping still saves me $30 from what I paid.

thoiboi

Really..?? I've never had an issue doing this

CCColtsicehockey

Not sure why it happened but I ordered another one. Wasn't going to get a second one just yet but Best Buy is matching the price on Amazon and there is currently a $25 or $100 if you use Visa checkout so you can get one for $115 + tax right now.

nfnsquared

FYI for those considering a system with Blue Iris:

Monoprice just dropped the price of the newly released Kaby Lake i7-7700K to $330 shipped:

Intel Core i7-7700K Kaby Lake Quad-Core 4.2 GHz LGA 1151 91W BX80677I77700K | eBay

And there's this Kaby Lake Dell Laptop for only $500, which I think would handle BI just fine (unless you have a butt load of cams):

http://www.officedepot.com/a/product...00-Laptop-156/

CCColtsicehockey

I'm kind of curious how many cameras are in a butt load?

brian2

I tried last night and could only manage one.... and good thing it was wired or it'd still be up there.

thoiboi

Don't sell yourself short... You're being modest...

nfnsquared

Yeah, good question....It actually depends on resolution and number I would assume.

My ancient AMD Phenom II was pretty much maxed out with 9 cams, non-HD at that.

I'll see how the Dell handles my 9 non-HD cams and post an update

...

brian2

​​​​​​​think so?

CCColtsicehockey

So my second Arlo-Q camera showed up yesterday. Setup worked exactly as it should out of the box. I had it up and running in less than 5min including unpacking it. So my first one definitely has an issue but oh well I am not going to return it or anything since I am still use WPS to set it up and now that they are online I don't really need to change anything anyways.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

I'll have to come back and read this more thoroughly... looks like a good thread.

My quick chime in is that we have the Arlo system with 4 cameras and we love it. Only reason we don't go with the "Q" is b/c it's wired (power). I may pick one up though and just put it near an outlet. We'll see...

nfnsquared

For your Blue Iris users, is anyone running BIT (Blue Iris Tools)?

https://ipcamtalk.com/forums/blue-iris-tools.35/

CCColtsicehockey

So I am going to be a guinea pig and see if Arlo-Q cameras will last outside under a front porch roof. I installed one last night. tried to hide the power wiring as much as possible but yes if anyone wanted to they could just unplug it.







Don't know if I have it mounted to high to have a good usable picture though. I like how out of the line of site it is but might be to high for use as well. Could maybe move it a little more towards the middle to try and get full view of the sidewalk leading up to the door. Was just trying to keep it as hidden as possible. If the camera last a good while with no issues I might try my hand at running a wire from the ceiling down inside the wall to the outside box so I don't need an extension cord and someone would need to then reach the roof to unplug it.

nist7

^^^ Seems like a great and very inconspicuous location, but the captured frame may not be the best? Dunno. Just thinking out loud that if you could have cam facing directly above the main door frame you can have a great shot catching perps in view/clothes/face/etc. ?

But yeah that may be too obvious and too easily disabled (sprayed painted, broken, smashed over) if it's in too obvious of a location....

SDSilverM3

Nice job with the installation and it looks discrete. If the porch is fully covered, it is unlikely there will be any issues with it. If it has IR and puts out any amount of heat, just beware of spiders (webs) and other insects. There isn't really much you can do about the height given your physical dimensions. Bringing it down would help with the angle but potentially compromise the cleanliness of the installation. Even though the angle is not ideal, I've found that most people look around including upwards so there's still a good chance you'll capture a good shot. It's better than nothing.

nfnsquared

It's plenty well sheltered IMO and nice installation!

What's above that soffet?

CCColtsicehockey

I could move it towards the door a little and maybe mount it to the white trip instead of the soffet but I think that will only gain me about 4in of being lower. The camera has about 8 or 10 IR LEDs so I am sure probably puts out some heat so I will have to keep an eye out for that. It also has a small speaker grill on it that I am worried could let some moisture in. I am thinking of getting a piece of matte white vinyl to cover up the grill and hopefully keep moisture out of the camera in the hot summers.

I am not exactly sure what is in the soffet. I think it is just open to the roof trusses above. I don't believe any bit of the house walls are open to it. I was able to tuck the wire into the soffet without having to pull it down at all. There is a light fixture on their that maybe I could tap into but it is on a switch.

nfnsquared

FYI, the Kaby Lake mobile I7 handles 9 non-hd cams with ease. 30% CPU utilization. All are running at 15 FPS....

CCColtsicehockey

Hmmm so had my first recording today when I package was delivered. It might be too high to be any good. Not sure what I will do about it now.

thoiboi

Wait, do you have the Arlo camera plugged in to the outlet that's in the frame?

+1 on it being a tad too high but similarly , if it's too low you risk someone just grabbing it and ripping it off.


Have you considered a eye-level Ring doorbell in addition to this?

CCColtsicehockey

Yes it is plugged into that outlet via the white extension cord. I know it is far from ideal but it is the only way I have to get power there. A doorbell camera could work as well but the frame of my door where the doorbell is is only like 3/4in wide and putting one of those that is so much wider there would just look terrible in my opinion.

That is my fear on putting it too low is making it reach able. I have to measure but right now it is 9 or 10ft off the ground. I am thinking if I maybe move it about 1-1.5ft closer toward the door I might be able to see someones face as they walk up to the door out on the walkway. It would then though make the camera more visible at all times though.

thoiboi

can you run wires into one of those columns and install doorbell there?

CCColtsicehockey

I don't know. I want to remove the soffet at some point and see what my options are for up there. Idealy I hope to be able to drop a wire down the wall maybe to the lower outlet and install a ceiling outlet up top. It would be a good help for my Christmas lights as well not having the only outlet down at ground level.

CCColtsicehockey

Looking at the Ring Pro I am going to go home and measure and see how bad it would be to fit. I think it will still be to big though. If I went with it I would get rid of my Arlo-Q outside and use it somewhere else.

nfnsquared

Amcrest ProHD 1080P for $80 shipped. Looks like a limit of only 1? Currently, they are $90 shipped on Amazon:

https://www.yugster.com/todays-deals/daily-offer

SDSilverM3

Yikes. That is a little high and the dynamic range in shadows and sunlight might be an issue too at certain times of the day. Is there an HDR option in the Arlos that can be enabled?

Since there's already a cable being run for power, if you're considering moving the camera, is penetrating the wall from within the house and running POE an option? Running an Ethernet cable for both data and power can be more flexible than trying to run an extension cord plus max distance is ~100m with a lower profile cable.

nfnsquared

Interesting note, Blue Iris has added Alexa integration. It's pretty primitive at this point, using device emulation because the API has not been universally released, but it's an interesting development....

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

I like the location, and the installation but was thinking the same as nfns that it's probably too high, after seeing the video it definitely appears to be too high to capture faces or people clearly.

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

Talked to my home security company, and they wanted to sell me the Ring doorbell for more than Amazon, and an extra activation to tie it into their app... Thanks, I'm good using my own app and saving an extra 50-75 bucks

Still planning to buy one unless you guys have other recommendations

thoiboi

There's also Kuna:

https://www.getkuna.com/

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

Dammit, those won't work with the LED lamp I installed last year

nfnsquared

Even lower now: $65 shipped (or $62.50 each if you buy multiples of 2):

Amcrest IP2M-841 ProHD 1080P (1920TVL) 30FPS Wireless WiFi IP Camera | eBay

nfnsquared

And now with 3 HD (1080P, 2MP) cams and 6 SD cams (all running at 15 FPS), it runs at 16% utilization. With H.264 cams, you can use "direct to disk" in Blue Iris , so now I almost tripled my MP (from 2.7 to 7.8) and basically cut CPU utilization in half. (Memory usage is ~25%).

I'll be swapping in 4 more HD cams to replace 4 of the remaining SD cams shortly. Update to follow.