Solar IR beam fence

tangent said:
if you want to use something like this, go for a hardwired model not a solar one.
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For my application I have to go wireless. I'm curious if any of the solar ones can trigger an alert in Milestone Xprotect when they are tripped. It appears that some of them just transmit the signal to a wireless reciever that just plays a sound but I would imagine some of the expensive ones could generate software alerts with well known VMS's.
 
Before you worry about any of that, figure out if it even functions reliably at all. I'm skeptical these meet the requirements for a minimum viable product.
 
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tangent said:
Before you worry about any of that, figure out if it even functions reliably at all. I'm skeptical these meet the requirements for a minimum viable product.
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As am I. That's why I was hoping someone here may have experience with them and know if they are worth the money or if they have too many false positives, etc.

I was thinking of just testing one out myself but I don't know yet if I will.
 
it looks like an unbranded Dakota Alerts BBA-2500 Kit, but at a lower price (same specs, even a max of 4 pairs for creating a mesh, but what about quality???). I had installed several DA products, with excellent results. These products are mostly designed for remote locations were batteries are required, specially targeted to the hunting market

https://www.dakotaalert.com/manuals/BBT-2500.pdf
 
bababouy said:
We use a lot of optex devices. We have quite a few of these out in the world: SL-350QFRi | OPTEX You will need one of these as a receiver which has form-c outputs: EN4216MR | OPTEX
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Now that one I would expect to work as opposed to the no-name one at the start of the thread.

I wonder what the duty cycle is on this optex, I'm betting the IR beam isn't on 100% of the time to save battery.
 
All I know, is the battery life is 3-5 years from 2 cr2 batteries. They come with 2 batteries but have room for 3 batteries, which we fill up when they are installed. The photobeams themselves are about $800 our price and the receiver is about $200 or so. The receiver can be placed about 2000 ft from the built in transmitters. We usually put in a repeater close by to strengthen up the signal, especially if the receiver is in a commercial building.
 
I use a few of the Dakota Alert BBA-2500 solar beam break sensors for perimeter alerts. They have been installed for two years and have been almost perfect. I have three receivers to cover my needs. I have one next to the NVR to flag events with the wired inputs, one in the house for audible alerts, and one in the garage for the same.

In two years, I have never had to mess with the batteries or solar panels. If you run very quickly through the sensors, you can miss an alert since you need to break the beam for about half a second. Dakota can apparently tune that feature for you as it is not user adjustable if you'd like it shorter.

As of yet, I have never had a false alarm from the Dakota beam break sensors. We had a middle of the night alarm a few months back that turned out to be caused by a cat climbing the post it was attached to.
 
3-phase said:
I use a few of the Dakota Alert BBA-2500 solar beam break sensors for perimeter alerts. They have been installed for two years and have been almost perfect. I have three receivers to cover my needs. I have one next to the NVR to flag events with the wired inputs, one in the house for audible alerts, and one in the garage for the same.

In two years, I have never had to mess with the batteries or solar panels. If you run very quickly through the sensors, you can miss an alert since you need to break the beam for about half a second. Dakota can apparently tune that feature for you as it is not user adjustable if you'd like it shorter.

As of yet, I have never had a false alarm from the Dakota beam break sensors. We had a middle of the night alarm a few months back that turned out to be caused by a cat climbing the post it was attached to.
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Can you actually see the beams on a camera at night? For example, a regular infrared illuminator is at 850nm and you can see that light on a camera at night. Curious if you see the IR beams in a similar manner as 850nm ir illuminators.

Like I would imagine you would see this glowing line that could be used in the camera images but I would imagine you would only see it if the wavelength was near 850nm or so.

And if you could see the beam on the camera, from how far away could you see it?
 
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The light is only visible by a camera in night made when the camera is pointed at the device. You don't see a beam, you just see a light at the device, almost like it is a small light bulb.
 
bababouy said:
The light is only visible by a camera in night made when the camera is pointed at the device. You don't see a beam, you just see a light at the device, almost like it is a small light bulb.
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Night mode is the only way I have my cams at night. So your saying it's not an actual beam of light but more like a large swath of light? For some reason I always thought it was more like a laser beam versus a light swath because it's labeled as having beams (3 of them). If they aren't truly beams but instead light swaths, than that is disappointing. Have you tried to zoom in with one of your cams by any chance?

I figure if I can't have sharks with laser beams, at least I could have light beams.
 
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LittleScoobyMaster said:
Night mode is the only way I have my cams at night. So your saying it's not an actual beam of light but more like a large swath of light? For some reason I always thought it was more like a laser beam versus a light swath because it's labeled as a laser in the description. Have you tried to zoom in with one of your cam by any chance?
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You will not see a beam of light. You will see a small light coming from the device. Just enough to tell that it is there and on. Not a large swath, whatever that means.
 
bababouy said:
You will not see a beam of light. You will see a small light coming from the device. Just enough to tell that it is there and on. Not a large swath, whatever that means.
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So even with a Dahua Starlight camera, all you will see is a small area or swath of light but you won't actually be able to see the nice neat 3 beams of IR light?

How does the thing work if it can't get the light from one end to the other? How does the one sensor pick up the light if it can't see it at the other end some 200 feet away?

And if the one device of the pair can see the light somehow at 200 feet away, how come a starlight camera couldn't see it? They are some of the best low light cameras and usually detect even small traces of IR light from IR illuminators.

I could understand the starlight not seeing the beams if they were not around 850nm wavelength. Do we know what wavelength the beams are for these types of devices?
 
Here is a Dahua starlight turret looking at an Optex photobeam. The beam is on the pole, about three feet high on the pole in the upper left hand corner of the shot. You can see a swath of light coving from the photobeam once the camera goes into night mode. This will be the third time that your question has been answered.

 
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LittleScoobyMaster said:
So even with a Dahua Starlight camera, all you will see is a small area or swath of light but you won't actually be able to see the nice neat 3 beams of IR light?
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We cannot see the actual beam of light from any light source visible to humans; we can only see the light source itself or the light from that source
reflected from an object.

Surveillance cameras are the same in that regard; the biggest difference between them and humans is that the cameras are also able to see infrared light (IR) within a certain spectral range. What this means is viewing IR (by IR-receptive cameras) or laser light is not like it is in Hollywood. You cannot see the 'laser' beams guarding the priceless artifact in the museum from the side, you can see the light source and where it hits a reflective surface. In order for us to see the beam, particles of some sort (like fog, dust, etc.) must be introduced so the laser beam can hit them and reflect into our eyes. That's how they do it in TV and the movies...for our benefit so we will understand that the actor has to avoid the beams.

It's the same for the surveillance camera when it comes to the IR light; it sees the IR's source or the reflected IR light; the IR beam itself would only be seen by the camera (or another IR-receptive camera) if there was fog, dust or some other particulate in the beam's path to cause it to reflect into the camera's sensor.

Good Demo:
 
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bababouy said:
Here is a Dahua starlight turret looking at an Optex photobeam. The beam is on the pole, about three feet high on the pole in the upper left hand corner of the shot. You can see a swath of light coving from the photobeam once the camera goes into night mode. This will be the third time that your question has been answered.

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Thanks for posting an actual demo shot. So it is very odd that no beam is seen, only the light swath. Trying to understand how this tech works. I thought it actually transmitted beams of IR light and not just swaths of IR light. If that is truly the case, then the tech seems misleading. So I'm left to wonder if the sensor just senses the light swath at the other end and doesn't really transmit a beam of light.

How about on a super foggy night? Can you see the beams of light then?
 
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