Home Improvement

+1 for PoE cameras. I just had my son spend a weekend pulling cable through the attic with me. Totally worth it.

fris said:

I couuuuuuuuuld, but it's prefer not. I know some use poe. I'll probably end up at that point

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POE is the way to go. If you have access inside your garage you could do it easily, with a handful of cameras and some storage.

fris said:

What's y'all's go to for home security cameras and lights? My neighborhood has had a pretty steady steam of punks walking the street and night checking for unlocked car doors. The guy is using his cell phone light to look inside the cars.

1. Any recommendations on something that records go at night?

2. So they make wall mounted lights that have a motion sensor to turn on a 2nd light? I want my driveway always lit, there 2 lights on either side of the driveway, but I want it to get brighter if it senses motion. I could get a 3rd light installed in the middle of there's no option for that

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No chance of parking in the garage?

lurker said:

No chance of parking in the garage?

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Between gym equipment and storage, I could fit a normal car but not my truck

Here's a heads up for you DIYers who do some basic household electrical stuff.

If you look closely at the screws on an electrical outlet or a switch or even a breaker, you'll see what looks to be phillips head screws.



They're not. We've all used phillips screwdrivers to tighten them but they are actually ECX head screws. They have a square drive center with a slot running corner to corner and beyond. Here's a picture on the handle of the correct screwdriver.



Harbor Freight sells this thing. LINK. It's less than $10 including a straight and phillips driver all of which are also insulated. They have a 30% off coupon running this weekend for items under $10 but even if you can't get the coupon, buy them anyway. It is amazing how much torque you can put on those little screws with the correct driver and you don't want those screws to get loose. That's one way house fires start. Do yourself a favor and go get a set.

Kajiimagi said:

One day I was in an electronics warehouse store somewhere south of Myrtle Beach SC. They sold fire alarm parts and such, all low volt (as in NOT an electrical supply house). Don't recall what I was there for but on a whim I bought a specialty screwdriver & bit set. Had all the security screw bits in it. I wish I could have gone back and bought 100000 more. I still have it and use it all the time. Pic below.

View attachment 580190

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Security Bit Set from HF

The handle is not included but I have a bunch of those. I used the allen with the hole in it to take apart/repair a microwave. Very handy.

lurker said:

Security Bit Set from HF

The handle is not included but I have a bunch of those. I used the allen with the hole in it to take apart/repair a microwave. Very handy.

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Wait until he finds out about Amazon

For electric you just need a green-handled Robinson screw driver. That's square head. That is exactly what that is designed for. I believe that's Roberson #2.

Unifi has great cameras and all the other stuff if your going to go a step up from random amazon cams

fris said:

What's y'all's go to for home security cameras and lights? My neighborhood has had a pretty steady steam of punks walking the street and night checking for unlocked car doors. The guy is using his cell phone light to look inside the cars.

1. Any recommendations on something that records go at night?

2. So they make wall mounted lights that have a motion sensor to turn on a 2nd light? I want my driveway always lit, there 2 lights on either side of the driveway, but I want it to get brighter if it senses motion. I could get a 3rd light installed in the middle of there's no option for that

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For the good cameras there is no one size fits all solution. Every house is different and it depends on how much coverage you really want. In the city the mid level twilight cameras work really well, with a combination of streetlights and flood lights they can see nearly as well as day time.

China's CCP has prioritized camera tech, for obvious reasons, so they have the best cameras with some crazy AI processing. The AI can notice when things are moved, new objects (cars) enter, and to ID humans that will in turn timestamp/alert, depending on how it's set up. The other brands like Waze are using a generation or more behind for roughly the same price, but afaik, all brand internals are still Chinese shit.

It's been a while since I bought cameras but 5+ years ago the Dahua and Hikvision were the two most recommended china cams with good/great night performance. The Dahua I've seen under a floodlight has almost daytime color performance. In areas you want to stay dark, you can use IR floods and the cameras can do well, abiet in black and white.

You can get a full DVR, WD purple HD, plus two cameras for probably around $500 all in. If you don't have a PoE switch, you can also buy cheaper PoE in-line injectors. To fully secure the system, I would isolate the cameras on their own network that can not connect to the internet then use custom firewall rules to access the system. Some routers have a second hardline network available (UniFi) or by using a virtual network (VLAN).

I used tutorials from the following channel to set up my network, he also has videos on setting up cameras:


For Cameras, I used this site. They have a ton of info. The BlueIris program they talk about looks neat and has it's own security built in it, but I'm not sure if there is a way to get it w/o a subscription. You can get to the forum from the top taskbar:

Zoomed in so y'all don't see my plate. New camera and 2500 lumen bulbs in the lights. Much clearer.

Only remaining issue is the latency for these cameras to pick up movement. This camera will pick up waking out the garage to my truck only a step or two from the truck door.

Previous camera bulb for reference

fris said:

View attachment 580377

Zoomed in so y'all don't see my plate. New camera and 2500 lumen bulbs in the lights. Much clearer.

Only remaining issue is the latency for these cameras to pick up movement. This camera will pick up waking out the garage to my truck only a step or two from the truck door.

Previous camera bulb for reference

View attachment 580379

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What camera did you end up going with?

I'm thinking of picking up a dumb bulb replacement PTZ one since I have 3 lights on my porch and only need 2 really.

Palum said:

What camera did you end up going with?

I'm thinking of picking up a dumb bulb replacement PTZ one since I have 3 lights on my porch and only need 2 really.

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I'll post another pic tonight. It won't let me download the video while I'm not on the home network. That was just Android screen shot while watching the video stream.

Here is an example of what the high end China cams can do, set up with various light conditions at night. EmpireTech is just the Dahua rebranded for the US due to import embargo. This one is ~$240. The cameras that track and zoom when they detect people are neat, but they are $500+. Those cams can also be set to track and zoom license plates too.

Timestamped to where cam footage starts, details are at the start. No need for sound.

If you dont want China eating and snooping your packets - again, Unifi… and then you may as well do all your network unifi.

Siliconemelons said:

If you dont want China eating and snooping your packets - again, Unifi… and then you may as well do all your network unifi.

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Pretty sure all the "western" cameras are using Chinese internals, so they are all unsafe to allow to access the internet. The stuff directly from China just allows you to get a newer chipset for the same price.