NetCamPro cameras have built in IR illumination that comes on at night and glows a faint red. It announces to anybody casing your property that you have night vision cameras and is a great deterrent. However while IR light is invisible to humans, it is quite visible to certain flying insects that are attracted to it like any other outdoor lighting. This can cause problems in that spiders build webs in front of the camera to catch the bugs. Spider webs reflect IR light and thus activate the motion detection.

Our solution for this is to install separate IR lamps and turn the IR lighting in the camera OFF. Spiders then build their webs in front of the IR lamp which do not trip the motion detection.

Here is a picture of a side mounted POE camera with external IR lamp:

Side mounted outdoor POE camera with external IR

Here is a picture of an under mounted outdoor POE camera with an external IR lamp.

Under mounted outdoor POE camera with external IR

When using external IR lighting it will be necessary to use a second cable to power the IR lamps. Typically a CAT5 cable will work. Most IR lamps are 12VDC and draw about 5ma (milli-amps) of current. A one amp 12VDC adapter (such as comes with our cameras) can easily power up to one hundred 5ma IR lamps.

Power connections for the IR lamps should be made using automotive crimp “butt connectors” or other mechanical type device. Twisting and taping will not work long term due to corrosion. It does not take much to disrupt a 5ma power signal so quality connections are important.