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[gicu812]

I had written a nice detailed review, but  when I clicked post, it told me my attatchement was too large, kicked me back and everything I had wrote was gone. So, unless I get back to it later, for now you are getting the short crude version.

1: Even with 4 x 100 watt lights, the night vision is abysmal, can barely make out the shadows of the cars. Seems this is the primary purpose of the camera, so therein it fails miserably.

2:Whenever the camera is on, the lights are on, so you are burning the lights during the day, and anyone you are looking at knows it.

3: The field of view is too small at close ranges.

[gicu812]

Next Pic

[gicu812]

Well after some more tinkering..

If you rearrange the camera and lights, put the camera on the outside of the mount, the angled hole, for one, you can angle the camera to mount it horizontally instead of vertically, and two, you can aim the light on the other angled mount on the same line as the camera. The camera works acceptably if it is pointed right where a light is pointed.

The first picture is before I moved the light. The yard is well lit to the eye, but is barely visible to the camera

The second picture is what I first witnessed on the TV. I noticed about 60-90 seconds later, the redness had gone. I can only assume the camera needs to "warm up" Its about 60 degrees outside, so I dont know if it is a thermal thing. It makes the camera again, somewhat useless because by the time it has started working, anyone would be gone.

If it is a thermal issue, I could just mount a small heating element in the housing right below the camera. This would help it to work below the specified 32*f as well.

[gicu812]

after "warmup"

[Brian H]

  Thank you for sharing your experiences and findings.

[gicu812]

Im working on a solution to the lights coming on with the camera problem. Id like to be notified of the motion, then decide if I want the lights on or not. So, Im planning on controlling the lights on a diffrent channel, incase anyone else is interested...

When you put the floodcam (or floodlights) together, there is a blue wire, this is the "hot when on" wire that powers the lights. Cap this wire off, not connecting it to anything.

Then run 14/3 wire to the fixture (3 conductor and ground)

Connect white and black to the motion sensors white and black input. Connect red to the lights' black wire where the blue was supposed to connect.

Then back at a distrobution point where I get the power for the circuits, Connect white and black as usual. I would plug in a lamp module, and connect the red wire to a plug and plug it in. Then the motion sensor \ camera will have power all the time, and the lights will only have power when the lamp module fires.

This is sort of how they should be designed in the first place, with the light power on a seperate address wheel. If you dont care about this, just set it to the same address wheel as the motion sensor, then they come on with motion.

I have to run 14/3 becausae I want both the front lights and both the back lights on at the same time. If you just had one light, you could put the lamp module or just a switch module right at the fixture and run regular wire to it.

[gicu812]

Thought I might update this.

I ran 14-2 wire to a X10 light switch at each end of the house. I then ran 14-3 wire from the switch to the floodlights. At the lights, black is constant hot, red is switched by the light switch. Connected black to the black into the motion\camera box. Then connected red to the two black wires for the 2 lights, blocked off the blue wire from the motion sensor, and hooked up white as usual.

This way, the motion sensor and camera always have power, and the lights only get power when the light switch is triggered.

Now I can run the camera whenever I want without burning the lights, and without people knowing the camera is on. Also, I can chime inside the house on motion without the lights coming on, so I can decide if I want the lights on, or a suprise attack

There is no doubt there should be the option for having the lights seperately addressable on the camera models.


Also, im having a HECK of a time with the floodcam, there is a spot right at the edge of its vision, that shoots out WAY farther than the rest of the FOV. So I keep getting cars setting it off even as I adjust the range lower and lower. So I eventually just put a little piece of tape over the corner and turned the sensitivity back up, works fine now.

I also have a MSA16? (the grey outdoor motion sensor) that goes off literally, constantly from about 11 AM until 3PM, and frequently other times. Its perfect at night, but useless during the day. I know I could set it not to go off during the day, but I wanted it for that. The sensor is pointing at the house, theres no way there is anything moving in its FOV, and the sun is at its back, but it is literally firing every second or so, I have it turning on a light, and I can sit there pressing the button as fast as I can and I can hardly get it to go off for 1-2 seconds before it fires back on again.

[pomonabill221]

I know this is an old post, but I had the same problem with the MS16 detector going off during the day.
I connected a scope to the output of the opamp from the PIR detector and found that the heat from the side of the house was being detected by the MS16, and a wind chime would move with the slightest breeze, and the MS16 would see it!!!!!
All I did was mask off the top row of lenses on the MS16 (that was looking UP), and problem solved!!!
A slight breeze would also stir up the heat and the MS16 would see that also, so take a close look at what you have between the house and the MS16, like wind chimes, bushes, anything hanging that would move, and the type of siding on your home and how the sun is hitting it.

[dave w]

Pomona, very helpful.
Should be a paragrapgh on the MS instruction sheet....yeah, that could happen.   .