sadly we have seen an increase in home break ins and with that i am looking to up protective capabilities.
recently purchased two pan cam v3s with the goal of mounting them on the side of my house which faces the main road.
with this said, if i mounted them about 20ft high each overlooking a specific section, would this work in picking up motion detection? i am unable to find technical specs on the camera optimal operating conditions.
thank you in advance for your help in keeping my family safe.
20 Feet high . Not me because I donât like high ladders. I have most all of my outdoor cams mounted 10-11 feet off the ground. How far away is the area you want to detect.? This cam is at 10.5 feet and will detect all the critters on the ground and the cars in the street.
goal is to mount them to the tie in and run electrical down this âgutterâ that houses hvac piping to get a full spread across the entire side of the house.
One of mine is mounted outside a 2nd floor window that is around 25-30ft off the ground. It picks up motion just fine, even someone walking across the street. I do not have âsmartâ detections (person, package, vehicle, etc), it would probably be too far for that to be reliable except for maybe vehicle. Obviously at this height, youâre sacrificing some detail when you zoom in on something since it will naturally be further away. I have other cams that are at ground level that can catch more detail in the areas Iâm most concerned with.
Another âgotchaâ is that if it needs to look down at a sharp angle, the base of the cam will get in the way (and if you use the IR lights at night, they reflect off it when it looks downward). You can mount the cam upside down, but the one I did that on ended up getting water in it. If you do that, at the very least try to get some silicone/dielectric grease all around the power plug and the rotating circle base, but better to actually fashion some sort of cover (top and sides) to basically block the entire base from exposure to rain.
Iâm able to track the dog for about 20 feet as she leaves the patio door into the backyard.
PS V3 is mounted about 7ft high using the following mount. Highly recommended. Solves the upside down water issue and allows the cam to follow almost straight down.
Yeah I saw a few mounts like that and definitely more elegant than building a box to go around the cam. The problem is the one I would need it on is mounted on my garage near ground level, and it would make it stick out (literally and visibly) way too much. Mine is mounted under an eave but strong wind during rain apparently was enough to get water up in there. In my case, mounting it right side up covers everything I need it to, and putting a non reflective coating on the top of the base mostly solved the IR light reflection issue.
But in @sg9âs desired mounting areas that mount may work out perfect, not as visible/obvious. Honestly in my case, when I was considering ways to keep it upside down, I was looking at potentially just having some sort of upside down cup/cylinder shaped object mounted between the cam and bracket, just large enough to allow the cam base to rotate. A hole would be needed for the screw but thatâs easily sealed, and the wire could just run down and back up, or even out a small hole in the back of the cup (preferably a couple inches down). But I had too many other projects at the time, and there isnât much room to work with so would have had to find something pretty precisely sized, so just took the easy route.
Looking at your picture, one other thing to mention is you can NOT limit the automatic motion tracking on the cam, so you wonât be able to set say Cam1 to track only to the left, and Cam2 to track only to the right, theyâll both probably end up tracking the same things. However setting them each to different âhomeâ positions will allow them to monitor (and thus begin tracking) a much bigger area. If they end up both tracking the same thing, not a big deal, and youâll probably have more footage than if you just had the one, even if there is some overlap.
You can also use the pan/scan feature instead of motion tracking to cover a larger area without any overlap, but generally I find the track motion feature more useful, as long as you donât have stuff that will cause it to falsely track all over the place (some have complained about blowing tree branches, etc).
Yea, mines in the backyard. The reason I went with this solution was I belive it was you that proposed the yogurt lid. It started me thinking as I had it upside down for the past year. Better safe than sorry.
I canât recall if it was me or someone else in that thread, but a large Greek yogurt lid was definitely one of the items in the recycling bin that I considered (I raid that surprisingly often for various needs).
I did consider removing the rotating disc base and putting silicone grease on the seals, but again, just took the simple route since it still covered the area I needed. Upside down was a bit less conspicuous, didnât have the base in the view ever, and actually got a bit better wifi signal, but I figured any of these solutions would negate most of that (more conspicuous, block the wifi signal a bit, potentially cause the camera to look upward when the IR reflects off, etc). Plus when it went dead it was winter and cold out, so the easy solution won out.
Unfortunately a reality for just about everyone these days.
Thinking about your scenario more, my concern is just that the distance is not going to yield you the detail you might need. 2 or 3 v4s will give a bit better image quality, but not a huge leap up. I wonder if this might be a good use case for the OG Telephotos. Iâve had stuff happen on my Panv3s that Iâve then grabbed more detailed images from the OG Tel that can better make out facial and clothing features. Obviously the catch there is that you might need more to cover the same area since their field of view is narrower.
You donât have any way of getting them mounted down lower? Out of reach but closer. Iâm not saying theyâll be useless or wonât work, Iâm quite impressed with mine, but if your hope is to make out faces or details of clothing/backpacks/etc, just know that youâll hit some limits.
There are cams from other companies with higher resolution and even optical zoom, guess it depends how much you want to spend and how much detail youâre looking to catch.
My 2 cam pan v3âs are mounted upside down with 180â° enabled. I use included mounts and they both have some roofing overhang protection. No signal interference or reflections issue. Iâm in the northeast (CT) and weather has not been a problem with operation in almost 2 years. I have seen other protective shields/covers than posted by @ronl4625 on Amazon if you want to check.
One cam pan is mounted about 15ft high and points down driveway to the street. End of driveway at the street is approx. 15yds. I get good results with person and vehicle detection on the street with a occasional pet detection when a dog is being walked. I do have CP+unlimited. Do have to bring out the extension ladder when something needs troubleshooting.
If youâre able to install a junction box, this case is perfect for either a floodlight V2 or pro. Either one has a wide FOV to cover the whole side of the house. And a much better protection from the elements.
. Not me because I donât like high ladders. I have most all of my outdoor cams mounted 10-11 feet off the ground. How far away is the area you want to detect.? This cam is at 10.5 feet and will detect all the critters on the ground and the cars in the street.
