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Outdoor PIR Sensor

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I've been trying to capture motion activity on a camera I have on the front and back doors of my house. The problem is that if a shadow moves, or a bug flies into frame, I'm getting "false positives" in my e-mail. Some days, my e-mail account is flooded with images of nothing important.

 

My question is, what do you recommend I use as far as a PIR? I notice some of the PIR sensors are over $100 and I think the price is a bit much.

 

My front door is next to a mailbox and post. I am sure I can mount the PIR low and point it across the walkway instead of down the walk. This way, when someone comes up to my step they are triggered. OR - would the best thing to do is mount something over the eve of the front door opposite my camera (located in the corner) and run it that way?

 

I don't have any type of overhang by the back door, so I will need to get creative with placements.

 

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks

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With PIR, placement is important. I have one on a fence, pointed out toward the street. It is high enough that street level traffic does not trigger it but approaching the fence does. Except on trash day. The garbage trucks are big enough to be seen. So, every trash day I get three predictable false alarms. I can live with it.

 

Optex brand.

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We had the same issue with ours detecting motion from moving trees & shadows.. I've switched one camera over to be completely controlled by a single Optex HX40 wireless sensor which you may not find cost effective but if you need to have multiple sensors this is the way to go.. I've got my Inovonics receiver mounted in the garage approx. 75 feet away from the battery powered transmitter inside the HX40. Eventually I'll put a few more of these in place.. I just purchased a used HX40 from 'thebay' for $26+shipping.. I don't believe it's got a transmitter but that can be rectified I believe.. The price was certainly right since these sensors are in the high $100 range when new -- without any transmitter+battery.

 

Anyway, I now only see false positives occasionally now (reduced by about 70-80%) -- usually when it's windy out and blowing a swing around that we've got in the yard. Our side yard gets late afternoon shadows and is breezy so I usually get a few hours of recorded video everyday from the shadows moving due to wind.. I suspect that another HX40 over there to control the camera would be a HUGE improvement and would likely reduce the amount of CPU power Avigilon is using to examine incoming camera data for motion -- hence possibly saving some $$ in consumed power -- that's my theory anyway!

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I suspect that another HX40 over there to control the camera would be a HUGE improvement and would likely reduce the amount of CPU power Avigilon is using to examine incoming camera data for motion -- hence possibly saving some $$ in consumed power -- that's my theory anyway!

 

All motion detection is done in the cameras or encoders. you will not reduce any CPU power with motions and you should not be using much to begin with.

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I suspect that another HX40 over there to control the camera would be a HUGE improvement and would likely reduce the amount of CPU power Avigilon is using to examine incoming camera data for motion -- hence possibly saving some $$ in consumed power -- that's my theory anyway!

 

All motion detection is done in the cameras or encoders. you will not reduce any CPU power with motions and you should not be using much to begin with.

 

Ahh.. Learned something new then.. In this case it would be in my encoder since the cameras are analog

 

Thanks for the clarification!

 

P.S. You're correct that, in this case, the Avigilon software does NOT use much CPU regardless and was one of the reasons I specifically selected that software over the rest..

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