Author Topic: StarDot vs HikVision (Read 3182 times)

CaptMike · « **on:** November 19, 2015, 02:06:06 AM »

I am waiting for StarDot's Black Friday sale, to get a 5MP SC H.264 Day/Night cam, plus outdoor cable, and enclosure. I will be using it as a webcam, to attach to my Davis VP2 WU page. I became interested in StarDot after reading posts on it, reference it's cold weather rating. I live in Alaska, and it will get down to sometimes at least -30F...for days. Performance is much more of a concern, than money. Having said that, they aren't cheap. The only downside I see to the StarDot is that you have to add IR lighting if you want a night picture. And there is a lot of that in the Winter.

Lately I have been reading reviews on the HikVision cameras. They get pretty good reviews, and there is quite a difference on price. I believe I have read that they are rated down to -20F?

Anyone have experience with both? Also, I am a Mac guy, so need to set it up as such. Thank you for your time.

http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KAKWASIL87

ValentineWeather · « **Reply #1 on:** November 19, 2015, 09:46:03 AM »

I've had both and would never go back with the Stardot, unless prices dropped drastically. But if -30 was common I would consider the Stardot over the Hikvision.
Check California PC for prices vs BlackFriday special. The everyday price, & bundled specials were on par with the sale price.
http://californiapc.com/IP-Cameras-Enclosures-Lenses-Accs/StarDot-NetCam-Bundles/
http://californiapc.com/IP-Cameras-Enclosures-Lenses-Accs/StardDot-H-264-Box/
http://californiapc.com/IP-Cameras-Enclosures-Lenses-Accs/StarDot-NetCam-SC/

Bushman · « **Reply #2 on:** November 19, 2015, 09:54:24 AM »

I am a long time user of the Stardot Netcam SC5MP Pretty fantastic camera. Image quality, construction etc. Silly price, but BF sale makes it palatable. The other nice thing about it is the ability to add the weather module and overlay that on the pic/stream with almost no effort. I would look into getting a wider angle lens though.

CaptMike · « **Reply #3 on:** November 19, 2015, 10:23:34 AM »

Bushman, what do you mean weather module? Thanks for the replies and information.

ValentineWeather · « **Reply #4 on:** November 19, 2015, 10:32:53 AM »

Quote from: CaptMike on November 19, 2015, 10:23:34 AM

Bushman, what do you mean weather module? Thanks for the replies and information.

http://www.ambientweather.com/stseauxwx2.html

Bushman · « **Reply #5 on:** November 19, 2015, 11:07:31 AM »

Quote from: ValentineWeather on November 19, 2015, 10:32:53 AM

Quote from: CaptMike on November 19, 2015, 10:23:34 AM
Bushman, what do you mean weather module? Thanks for the replies and information.

http://www.ambientweather.com/stseauxwx2.html

That'd be the one! IIRC I paid $75 for mine on the BF sale. Some info here: http://www.stardot-tech.com/kb/index.php?View=entry&EntryID=91

Bushman · « **Reply #6 on:** November 19, 2015, 12:51:45 PM »

The nice thing about the AUX weather module is that no PC or software is needed. The camera is completely standalone.

CNYWeather · « **Reply #7 on:** November 19, 2015, 02:46:53 PM »

The Hikivision is a great camera for the price. I've had 0 issues with mine. PoE is awesome!

CaptMike · « **Reply #8 on:** November 19, 2015, 09:53:20 PM »

How does that jive with my VP2 that I have linked to WU? You just add the image to WU, and imposed onto the image is the new weather? It made mention on the link, that "Since the weather station plugs into S0 on the back of NetCam, it is not designed for NetCams connected to serial modems". My plan was to hook the NetCam into my modem, and thereby the image onto my weather page on WU. Can that still be done while using this product.

Also, were you adding a separate IR light for night viewing? That's the only downside I see to the StarDot - the need for a separate IR light. Thanks.

ValentineWeather · « **Reply #9 on:** November 19, 2015, 11:34:45 PM »

Quote from: CaptMike on November 19, 2015, 09:53:20 PM

How does that jive with my VP2 that I have linked to WU? You just add the image to WU, and imposed onto the image is the new weather? It made mention on the link, that "Since the weather station plugs into S0 on the back of NetCam, it is not designed for NetCams connected to serial modems". My plan was to hook the NetCam into my modem, and thereby the image onto my weather page on WU. Can that still be done while using this product.

Also, were you adding a separate IR light for night viewing? That's the only downside I see to the StarDot - the need for a separate IR light. Thanks.

This is saying the weather station uses the serial port on the camera. Won't you be using (POE) Power Over Ethernet?
If so there is no conflict , you plug the POE ethernet cable into (router) not the modem.

CaptMike · « **Reply #10 on:** November 20, 2015, 10:11:28 AM »

As you can see, setting up computers and any add on's are not my strong point. So it is possible to use the weather module, and attach that image to WU? I have to think about that. Now you have two competing reports on your WU page. Maybe that's a good thing.

ValentineWeather · « **Reply #11 on:** November 20, 2015, 10:17:50 AM »

If I had a weather station already, I myself wound't use the module. I started with the Stardot's and never had any interest in the module but that's just me. I'm one of those accuracy fanatics.

Bushman · « **Reply #12 on:** November 20, 2015, 10:48:30 AM »

Somewhere I have the tech specs for the SD wx module. It is pretty decent IIRC. But like the old proverb "A man with two watches never knows what time it is!" I am not sure adding the wx info to the WU pic makes much sense. However, I use mine in a more standalaone (and for linking to other sites where they only want the pic)

CaptMike · « **Reply #13 on:** November 30, 2015, 06:50:49 PM »

Randy,

I pulled the trigger on the California PC Stardot 10MP H.264 bundle. Thanks for the link. They were good to work with. It seems like a pretty good deal, especially with free shipping to AK. I needed the 100' cable - the bundle from StarDot had a 50', and they wouldn't switch it out for the 100' with a cost adjustment. The CA PC deal had the 100' outdoor cable. Small point, but it got me looking over there. I don't know if 10MP is overkill, but what the heck. StarDot didn't have any specials on the 10MP H.264 camera. As a matter of fact, I didn't see a 10MP camera on their site. Now to get it up and running, and on WU.

ValentineWeather · « **Reply #14 on:** November 30, 2015, 07:30:05 PM »

Cool, hope you enjoy and it last many years for the price. 10 meg are 1/3 way down on this page. You do know WU has image size restriction so the 10 megapixel won't actually get used.

http://californiapc.com/IP-Cameras-Enclosures-Lenses-Accs/StarDot-NetCam-SC/

CaptMike · « **Reply #15 on:** November 30, 2015, 07:38:26 PM »

I know. It was just easy to do that bundle. Plus who knows how I might want to use it in the future. I see the 10MP on CPC, but didn't see it on the StarDot site, to compare prices. It was a good deal compared to the 5MP, so I am happy. Thanks for the information.

Mike

Bushman · « **Reply #16 on:** November 30, 2015, 08:00:38 PM »

Great! Hope it serves you well. Post a picture link when it is going.

CaptMike · « **Reply #17 on:** November 30, 2015, 11:08:44 PM »

Please forgive my ignorance one more time, but when you say "post a picture link", is that something that is above and beyond what you are doing when you link it to your WU weather? For instance if you wanted to start some kind of web page? Or just had a straight up link of the image? I will be having someone who knows what they are doing, install it. I'm sure I will get drift at that time

Bushman · « **Reply #18 on:** November 30, 2015, 11:34:37 PM »

I was hoping you would FTP the Stardot cam picture somewhere (in higher resolution than WU allows) and post the link.

CaptMike · « **Reply #19 on:** December 01, 2015, 12:09:53 AM »

I'd be very happy to do that. Can you do that, and send an image to WU? Or is it either or?

ValentineWeather · « **Reply #20 on:** December 01, 2015, 08:31:26 AM »

My Stardot would only FTP to one server at a time. I'm sure you can work around it like using Sebectec iptimelapse, you could have 2 sessions open and grab rtsp camera image uploading one image high quality and the other at lower quality.
This is only one solution sure there are others. Or just have one session open uploading reduced image to WU and use the Stardot internal server to upload higher quality image somewhere else.

Sebectec address bar will look something like this with the cameras IP address. There is a learning curve figuring all this out.
rtsp://192.168.0.8:554

Bushman · « **Reply #21 on:** December 01, 2015, 09:46:34 AM »

Quote from: CaptMike on December 01, 2015, 12:09:53 AM

I'd be very happy to do that. Can you do that, and send an image to WU? Or is it either or?

http://www.stardot.com/kb/index.php?View=entry&EntryID=117

ValentineWeather · « **Reply #22 on:** December 01, 2015, 10:18:44 AM »

That will work but he needs away to send different image resolutions. With the 3rd party software you can reduce image prior to sending WU server.

Bushman · « **Reply #23 on:** December 01, 2015, 10:26:09 AM »

True. But a server side applet like ImageMajick's "RESIZE" http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/resize/ can easily do the required scaling. Since they operate as standalone modules this is easy-peasy on the server. (BTW, this is the software that is embedded into Meteobridge do do picture annotation and manipulation. Works in Unix and Windows exactly the same. I have used it to process insanely massive images)

Bushman · « **Reply #24 on:** December 01, 2015, 10:35:01 AM »

To clarify, the actual module of IM is CONVERT http://www.imagemagick.org/script/convert.php

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Author Topic: StarDot vs HikVision (Read 3182 times)