Towallmark Crazy Cart 48-LED CCTV Ir Infrared Night Vision Illuminator

I bought this to replace the IR lighting from my Foscam F18910W now that it sits inside a dome and the IR lighting reflection from the dome washes out the view.First, it works great. Provides excellent illumination out to about 50' and its field of illumination is pretty close to the above camera. Of course its not going to track the camera movement so if I needed more areas illuminated I would need to add additional units.One concern of mine was the number of reports of units burning out LEDs fairly rapidly. I did a little testing and found it draws abut 250ma at 12.0V, which is just about the sweet spot regarding input voltage versus illumination. The unit does not contain any voltage or current limiting device on the power input to protect it. Higher input voltages only increase light output slightly beyond that found from 12.0V while current continues to climb as a function of I=E/R where R is the effective forward resistance of the LED array. This means that voltages above 12V will cause the array of LEDs and resistors to have to dissipate more heat, which will shorten their lives...perhaps dramatically depending on the overvoltage.The reason I tested for and mention this is because typical 12V "wall wart" supplies are not regulated and this is a problem common with other LED lighting arrays, such as those strips intended for accent lighting intended for . An unregulated 12V supply may produce upwards of 16V when completely unloaded and only reach about 12.0V when loaded to their current rating. A sample of one of these supplies that I have on hand that is rated (according to the label) at 12V 500ma operates at 14V when loaded with 250ma. Higher rated units, say 12V 1A could be expected to to operate at similar or even higher voltage into 250ma. Another problem with unregulated supplies is that the DC output voltage varies proportionately with incoming AC voltage. So even a supply that is operating at 12V loaded may produce much higher voltages out with AC power surges. To prevent this from becoming a reliability problem for this iluminator - and I suspect many other low cost similar versions - I recommend only using a 12V power supply that is specifically labeled "Regulated". This means the output voltage from that unit will remain at 12V from 0ma to the supplies rated output current and be much more resistant to output voltage changes due to varying input AC voltage swings.

The customer service department of Crazy Cart made contact with me regarding my unfavorable original review of their 48-LED illuminator. They sent me another one at no charge and I did perform the same type of test that I did before: looking at a dark object using the Loftek Sentinel D-1 camera that I had purchased at the same time. Not much more could be observed. However, I was suspicious of the result. With regular daylight, the picture produced by the Loftek is reasonably good.The human eye is much less sensitive to IR light and regular daylight, and therefore you cannot depend on the observed light output of an IR illuminator using your eyes. Both illuminators appear to be only slightly on when it becomes dark.I tested the both Crazy Cart illuminators with two other security cameras, namely an ArecontVision AV1355DN (this is a fixed dome camera) and the Panasonic WV-SW395 camera (this is a PTZ dome camera like the Loftek Sentinel). Both cameras had no problem seeing the area lighted by any of the Crazy Cart 48-LED illuminator and did not see anything as soon as the illuminator was turned off.The conclusion:1) At least my Loftek appears to be totally insensitive to IR light and is therefore unsuitable for night vision. The suggestion that the Crazy Cart illuminator can be used with the Loftek as "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" per the Amazon.com WEB site is (at least for my Loftek) is totally incorrect. My suggestion to Amazon is that if this is not verified, the suggestion should be removed because it is clearly misleading.2) Based on my test results with different cameras: the Crazy Card illuminators do work as expected and likely work in conjunction with other cameras that have sufficient sensitivity to IR light.3) I respect the Customer Service of Crazy Card that went way out of their way to make the customer (me) satisfied. Since they were accommodating, I went out of my way to perform these tests with additional cameras.4) However, Crazy Card should include documentation with their product. It may avoid a lot of misunderstandings, like: the LED's do not seem to light up much in the dark. The reason for this that the human eye is not very sensitive to IR light. The box that the product comes it should be properly labeled as "IR illuminator" and not "Video Camera". This brings the rating down to 4 stars.

Previously: I got 4 of these for an interactive table project I'm working on. They work quite well for what I need them for. I had to cover the light sensor so they'd light up all the time, but being aware of that I can make them light up by switching them on. At first I thought they might've been DOA, but nope, just cover the light sensor and they work. I'm happy with the purchase. I did have one arrive with LEDs out, but the seller was quick to respond and replace.Update: After having them in use for a while now the IR leds are going out. I may see if I can fix them somehow but you will want to keep it in mind when buying these. they don't last.Update 12/18/12: I bought these several months ago but they have only been in use for maybe a max of 12 hours, and they are all starting to die. These things suck, don't waste your money.

My first night with it hooked up and I must say I'm impressed for the price! Using it above a back door and it's good enough to totally see faces. Came in a box that says it's a digital video camera! Guess that's one way to keep costs down. Was skeptical but pleasantly surprised! Lights up quite a large area of my patio! probably won't light up a whole backyard but a few will and at that price what's stopping you from ordering a dozen! Only thing that will make me unhappy is if the LEDs burn out too quickly! The auto on off daylight feature is awesome as well! A whole lot brighter than I thought it would be! No power supply so if you don't have a 12v adapter kicking around be sure to get one. Solid build on the enclosure too. It does glow red so not totally invisible but you have to be looking straight at it to see the glow. Don't hesitate....You couldn't build one this good yourself at double the price!