I have recently expanded my system to five cameras. Over the last month, I have become very familiar with the software and cameras, and effects with my X10 network. Actually, there have been no effects with my X10 devices and the Lukwerks system. My X10 has been running at 100% for 3 or 4 months now. The only anomaly I have had is my BVC program occasionally stops functioning. All of a sudden it can no longer respond to the commands being sent. I can get it to answer me, but it won't control anything X10. It might work fine for 4 or 5 days, or just one day. Restarting the computer always corrects this. I never had this problem until I installed the Lukwerks, so it must have something to do with that.
Camera # 4 in the picture is an indoor camera I recently got. It has a suction cup which attaches to the window, and lens you can manually focus. It also comes with a stand, and a ceiling mount. There is a slight distortion of going through a window that obviously needs to be cleaned.
Last fall we had a break in here. He forced the poolroom window on the deck side of the house. We didn't have the window locked over the kitchen sink, and once in the poolroom, he simply lifted up that window and crawled in. I have the camera that looks like a clock, covering the sink window, and sliding doors now. He got about $50 in change, and fortunately, didn't damage anything, ( other than the poolroom window). I have a steel door on my bedroom which I always lock when I leave. There was an noticeable dent at the bottom where he tried to kick it in, but was unsuccessful. I have a motion sensor on the basement steps ledge that triggers a BVC wav that says "welcome" through the basement speaker. I've always wondered if that spooked him, because all he took was the change. This is my first layer of security. Even though there's very low crime where I'm at, I'm planning on adding others.
March 3, 2008
I purchased a 48 led IR illuminator on E-Bay to see how sensitive these cameras are to IR. On the kitchen (the "spy"/clock) camera, I turned off every light in the house so the kitchen was pitch black. The monitor just showed black. When I plugged in the IR illuminator, it lit up the kitchen very good on the monitor. Not like daylight, but enough to see someones features. My kitchen is normally quite dark with no lights on, but you can see the illumination I'm getting from the IR illuminator in the picture I posted. It's more enhanced when it's completely dark. You can't see this illumination with the naked eye, only on the monitor. On the indoor camera and outdoor camera, I had limited success. If I pointed the illuminator at the camera, it shows up as a bright white light. But it didn't do much for illuminating the surroundings. I ordered a 140 led illuminator, and should have that this week. Both models are 850 nm. The Wilife site says you can get a IR lens for the indoor model to make it more sensitive, but as of yet, they don't have anything for the outdoor one.
I'd like to add, I've had 4 or 5 opportunities to try out the remote viewing from other computers. And it works real good.. It's kind of cool being 100 (or thousands) miles away, yet able to take a look at your house if you want.
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Topic: Lukwerks powerline cameras (Read 81851 times)