Previous versions of Starlight cameras at 2MP were awesome in the dark. Starlight cameras are well worth the extra cost if you are looking for bad guys at night !

TimG wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 3:30 pm Previous versions of Starlight cameras at 2MP were awesome in the dark. Starlight cameras are well worth the extra cost if you are looking for bad guys at night !

You mean without IR?

I'll probably end up putting up some separated IR emitters around the house eventually - while sensitivity is wonderful, bright light and fast shutter is better.

Yes, even without IR. Starlight cameras are awesome. Part of the reasoning behind not always using IR, is that the bad guys all carry a device to locate the IR from CCTV cameras so they can avoid them. That's the IR sensitive camera on a mobile phone. By having some cameras with, and some without IR you may be able to get a clear image of them. If you see somebody walking around your property at night in the dark looking at houses through a mobile phone, they are looking for CCTV cameras.
I then use MQTT from BI5 to tell Homeseer to turn on lights. Doing it that way means you can either turn lights on with any movement, or only when a BI5 Alert fires. Homeseer looks after day/night as well as timing and re-triggers. Using CPAI my drive lights will turn on for "person" but not for "car" which prevents them being triggered by cars driving past the house.
IR emitters - good idea. Insects LOVE camera IR as it keeps them warm. Turn it off and they go elsewhere.

Yeah, I had mine integrated with Home Assistant at the prior house, will do that here eventually, though I only have cameras at the least important areas now because that's where the electricians have run cables. They plan to come back but it's been REALLY hot and I have a horrible attic so it may actually be fall before I get them on the sides and front. In the meantime I can get acclimated to these cameras.

I need to get the lights under control though.... the prior owner put bright floods around the outside but did not put a switch in for them (or more precisely, for some there was a switch but the lights themselves are motion lights only, I can't find a way to turn off the motion detection). I am going to take one more run at defeating the motion detection then need to replace them. That's actually a bit of a job to do reasonably as these are in a self contained junction box, so I need to replace it as well, and I can't get access behind so far to the real junction box.

But the plan is to put all the outside lights under HA control, as well as some IR emitters. Eventually. It's a tough house for wiring - brick, 60+ years old, on a slab and with an attic so shallow I won't go up in it.

FYI, the comment about Chinese cameras is not so much that they are like many consumer good manufactured there but that they are embedded compute devices that call home to china and are susceptible to nefarious hacking.

That being said, I do use them but I do not allow them access to the internet.