Mail post LPR: Off the shelf? / HomeOwner Assoc concerns?

These are pretty expensive, but with a mailbox that big you could probably put something like this right in the side of your metal mail box and build a metal self of sorts inside the mailbox to conceal / protect it. Though end product likely would not meet the approval of postmaster general.

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Arecont Vision | Product Information

Someone else may make something similar, but I can't remember.
 
It appears from the picture of your mail box post there would be sufficient room for a turret camera to mounted up between the horizontal boards under the mail box. Then you would only gave a couple of holes cut out for the lens to view through. May consider getting a custom post made physically similar with camera mounts fabricated in it. A potential drawback of a low post mounting is a vehicle parked nearby blocking the view.
 
tangent said:
These are pretty expensive, but with a mailbox that big you could probably put something like this right in the side of your metal mail box and build a metal self of sorts inside the mailbox to conceal / protect it. Though end product likely would not meet the approval of postmaster general.

View attachment 26192
Arecont Vision | Product Information

Someone else may make something similar, but I can't remember.
Click to expand...

Ehh 1/3" sensor and the camera doesn't have IR. http://www.arecontvision.com/marketing/contents/ArecontVision_MegaVideoFlex_DS_001_ENG_001.pdf He'd need additional lighting. I do like the small package though, might make for a good discreet front door camera.
 
mlapaglia said:
Ehh 1/3" sensor and the camera doesn't have IR. http://www.arecontvision.com/marketing/contents/ArecontVision_MegaVideoFlex_DS_001_ENG_001.pdf He'd need additional lighting. I do like the small package though, might make for a good discreet front door camera.
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I probably wouldn't actually buy this camera, but just popping a hole in the side of the metal mailbox and threading something like this in place could be an interesting way to hide something like this. You'd probably be a bit too limited in your ability to aim the camera though.
 
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Frankenscript said:
Hi folks,

Sorry for the long title... but that pretty much sums it up.
..

Marc
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Hi Marc

Due to the HOA issues I would try to be stealthy with regards to setting up the cameras - and probably look at modifying the mailbox to house the cameras in such a manner that they are not noticeable.
 
Lots of good feedback here.

I was planning to buy a Hik turret with 6 mm lens anwyay, to give me a better front facing view from my house, so I've ordered that and once I have it in hand I can mock up some scenarios about how I might put them into the mail post. Meanwhile I'll research that "LPR from 137 feet" thread and come up with an alternative plan with house-mounted zoomed cameras such as the Z12 model mentioned above. However, from ~100 feet in the dark, I'm surprised you'd get good reads. More research to do!
 
I got my IPC-HFW5231E-Z12 in the mail yesterday, here's what I'm experimenting with right now, distance is about 70 ft.

upload_2018-2-7_9-32-23.png

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I am going to try and move the camera back as far as I can on the garage to get the best angle, but my "test ethernet" cord is too short.
 
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Thanks for this. Based on the multiple concerns about putting cams on the mail post (HOA stuff, fears of cam theft or vandalism, etc.) Im seriously rethinking it, now leaning to using those zoomed cameras from back at the house. I do worry about getting enough angle. How much is considered enough? Looks like you have about 45 degrees or so?

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mlapaglia said:
I am going to try and move the camera back as far as I can on the garage to get the best angle, but my "test ethernet" cord is too short.
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looks like you could gain about 8 degrees which takes you to about 45 degrees (0 degrees would be a line orthogonal to the plane of the plate). 30 degrees is the maximum recommended in the OpenALPR docs, but it looks like you'd be able to at least manually read most plates.
 
Actually I didn't realize there was a gain setting unless in manual. Standby lol
 
Ya, I didn't realize there is a controllable gain setting when I was trying to use shutter priority. I'm waiting for another car to drive by now.
 
Looking forward to the picture. It wasn't in the post... :-)

I've never gone into the camera UI... the Hik NVR autoconfigured my cameras so far. Maybe this weekend I'll dig in and tweak my existing cameras.
 
You'll definitely need to adjust them for LPR.

Here's one when the driver is on the farthest side of the road (delivery newspaper to mailbox on opposite side of the road) upload_2018-2-9_12-27-18.png

Here's one with the car on the closest side of the road (driving like a normal person). I still need to adjust the positioning to get all the license plates, but you get the idea.

upload_2018-2-9_12-28-22.png
 
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Very respectable!

Do you have a link for where you bought the camera? I might get one to try it out.
 
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