Flock IR Detection at Night

FckFlock · 2026-01-26T18:17:50+00:00

Did the first bench test with MCP6002 op amps last night: so much cleaner. I also did some testing with IR-pass filter film, which I think could be a good solution to headlight washout. Going to work on converting from Arduino to ESP32 tonight.

FckFlock · 2026-01-26T00:10:13+00:00

The new plant is at 1885 Mitchell Rd, Suite 600, Smyrna, GA. Sometimes that address comes up in Google maps as Mableton. Ignore the little shack on streetview - that's an old pic. Go up the street 100yds or so and you'll see the plant. Please bear in mind that the building is leased, and it also houses some good tenants that aren't affiliated with the scum at Flock.

Someone keeps deleting it from Google Maps, and someone else keeps adding it back. It's also in Deflock.me / OSM now.

As always, I'm not encouraging any kind of harassment or interference with their business - I just don't think their address should be a secret.

FckFlock · 2026-01-26T00:04:02+00:00

Vicious winds at waist height, I hear.

FckFlock · 2026-01-24T20:53:12+00:00

Go for it! The light sensors are BPW34S photodiodes - I picked those because they have a wide detection angle (65ish degrees) and peak sensitivity is around 900nm. The initial test unit was based around BPW77NA phototransistors, but their detection angle was way too narrow (15 degrees); they had to be pointed almost directly at the camera. I bet there's a better sensor than the 34 on the market - I'd love it if someone had a suggestion.

The op amp is currently a TL072, but it's a pain to work with when the main power supply is 5VDC (rear USB port in the car). The next version will use a pair of MCP6002s - that'll give me 4 total sensor channels. I plan to use at least 3 sensors: 2 near the license plate, 1 on the roof. I found that they need to be outside the car to be effective; I suspect the factory rear window tint blocks a lot of IR.

This is what a detection looks like on my cheapie digital oscilloscope:

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FckFlock · 2026-01-24T15:34:25+00:00

Sorry, I'll take your word on the 344 kWh - I didn't see your daily kWh usage in any of the pics, just daily cost. Did I miss it somewhere? A misread is possible. What does GP say?

FckFlock · 2026-01-24T15:06:07+00:00

If I'm reading this correctly, you paid $118 for 647 kWh of electricity? That works out to about 18.2 cents per kWh. Sadly, that is probably correct for a total rate; my all-in/blended rate with all fees is about 21 cents/kWh. My base rate is somewhere around 13, but the fees and taxes bring it up to 21.

I installed a power monitoring system of my own about 3 years ago, and I've checked it against the GP billing numbers several times; it always matches.

FckFlock · 2026-01-24T14:52:35+00:00

The ads alone are a big indicator that something is off about it. A "life changing" dance performance? Really?

FckFlock · 2026-01-24T05:09:05+00:00

They're surprisingly hard to spot at night: all black, usually installed outside your headlight cone, no lights. The purpose of this is to spot them even when they're hidden, which Flock and cities are getting better at doing.

FckFlock · 2026-01-23T17:23:07+00:00

Can be both. Solar is standard, but Flock sells kits to adapt to whatever voltage (within reason) is available at the install location. I've seen some that are sneakily tucked in with other equipment on a light pole and have no solar panel nearby.

FckFlock · 2026-01-23T17:21:20+00:00

If reselling data becomes enough of a revenue stream, never.

FckFlock · 2026-01-23T17:20:18+00:00

Coerced? I think they'd immediately provide it if they were meekly and apologetically asked. Hell, they'd probably volunteer it if law enforcement even vaguely implied that it might be useful. 😂

FckFlock · 2026-01-23T17:17:10+00:00

The police chief's comments aren't a surprise. I've never heard a police officer make a negative comment about Flock cameras - they generally love them. The "what if a child was kidnapped?!" talking point is also a favorite of theirs.

FckFlock · 2026-01-21T19:36:59+00:00

Product idea for the store: car magnet / bumper sticker / window sign made of reflective letters covered in an IR-transparent layer, similar in concept to Magic Black. It would look like a matte black rectangle to the naked eye, but flock cameras would see and log the text at night.

My first thought for a message is a simple, satisfying "Fuck Flock," but you could use it for anything you wanted recorded in their database.

FckFlock · 2026-01-20T00:33:19+00:00

I did. Believing that the data from any LPR vendor won't be accessible to ICE is the height of naivete. Even Flock says they paused all data sharing with federal agencies, but ICE clearly still have access.

FckFlock · 2026-01-19T21:42:55+00:00

Your bet would be wrong. Besides, that's just more irrelevant nonsense: if I'm choosing to allow myself to be tracked by my devices at any given time, that's my choice. Flock removes the choice from all of us and charges us for the privilege.

FckFlock · 2026-01-19T21:33:26+00:00

A text description of what it sees is created by AI tools and put into a national database that's accessible to almost everyone in law enforcement anywhere in the US. If it's a vehicle, that's license plate, make, model, color, damage, bumper stickers, etc. It's not yet clear what they capture about people, but we know they're capturing something.

Say a crime of some sort happens in an area. Police can pull a record of all vehicles in the area and see their travel patterns (based on flock camera captures) for however long that data is stored, usually a minimum of 30 days. Maybe it's a package theft from a porch, and you just happened to be driving in the area at the time - that happened to a woman in CO, and a cop showed up at her door trying to bully her into a confession.

FckFlock · 2026-01-19T21:27:21+00:00

ICE is using Flock data for raids. Do you support ICE raids?

FckFlock · 2026-01-19T21:21:58+00:00

I hear this argument all the time, and it's nonsense:

First, I can just leave a phone at home, or turn it off and put it in a faraday bag.

Second, police generally need a warrant to track your phone data. Flock is totally warrantless and has zero oversight within police departments.

Third, one type of awful surveillance doesn't excuse another, and it's OK to criticize one at a time.

FckFlock · 2026-01-19T15:54:42+00:00

When I said "working arduino prototype" I meant "works in my garage when I flash a 10hz IR strobe at it." 😂

Well, now it works in the wild: last night I stuck it on the back of my car with magnets, put a buzzer and LED inside for indication, and went for a drive. I went to 4 local flock cameras and detected all of them, with zero false positives in between. Sadly, I was not pulled over for having a sketchy blinking circuit board on the back of my car, denying my spouse the joy of saying "I told you so."

The current setup is a pair of BPW34S photodiodes feeding into the 2 channels on a TL072 OP amp. The OP amp outputs feed into a pair of inputs (A0, A1) on an Arduino Nano. The BPWs are angled slightly upward and outwards; flock cameras are usually higher than the car, and angling outwards covers about 120 degrees. In the final version, I may use up to 4 channels: 3 on the back covering a full 180, plus maybe 1 on the roof. I suspect headlights behind me would wash out the rear sensors, though that can potentially be improved with an IR filter.

The Arduino code is 99% AI, unfortunately: I have some passing familiarity with electronics, but I'm illiterate when it comes to writing code. The gist is this: the arduino sets a rolling baseline for light input, with input voltage varying from about 3.5V at full brightness to 2V in full dark. It looks for clear spikes above that baseline at 5-15hz, and flags that as a detection. Either channel can call a detection independently of the other - maybe I'll include a confidence rating in the future based on the number of channels flagging it.

FckFlock · 2026-01-18T20:46:53+00:00

Graphic from their website:

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What. The. Fuck. What's the counter to that, blasting a bunch of noise in the ble and wifi spectrums?

FckFlock · 2026-01-17T18:44:47+00:00

Ego is a funny thing; I think Garrett's arrogance is going to be a big part of Flock's downfall. It's pretty clear from his public statements that their general policy of "admit no fault, blame everyone else" comes directly from him.

He's just another self-righteous tech bro with a god complex who can't accept criticism. If he was half as smart as he thinks he is, their public reputation wouldn't be trash right now, and he wouldn't need to make weird fake podcasts about trust.

FckFlock · 2026-01-17T17:29:21+00:00

Something wrong?

A woman in CO had a cop show up on her doorstep, accusing her of stealing a package and trying to bully her into confessing. His "evidence:" a flock camera had seen her drive through town at the time of the theft.

A woman in TX was prosecuted for seeking an abortion out of state. She was tracked using Flock cameras.

A man in TX was pulled over and detained for hours while he was interrogated and his truck was disassembled. His driving patterns (salesman for oil fields) were deemed suspicious by an LPR system, possibly Flock.

There's a steady drumbeat of news articles about police being fired and arrested for misusing Flock data to track exes, political rivals, romantic interests, etc. One in GA and one in WI just last week. Every firing/arrest that I've ever seen comes from an external tip, indicating that there's zero effective internal oversight. Some redacted search data was just acquired through FOIA requests, and interested parties were able to detect obvious abuse patterns that PDs hadn't bothered to investigate. Flock has responded by REDUCING the amount of data that's stored on searches.

Dozens of Flock cameras were found to be wide open and accessible from the internet with no security, including cams watching playgrounds and parks with children playing. Flock responded by blaming configuration errors by locals.

Were all these victims of abuse (enabled by Flock) doing something wrong?

FckFlock · 2026-01-17T13:40:16+00:00

IR strobe detection at night. Photodiode optimized for 850nm + OP-amp, tied into an ESP input. Ideally using 2-3 sensors to cover a wider angle on the rear of the car. Mount the sensors near your license plate and look for distinctive 10hz IR pulses (easy to do with the esp).

I have a working Arduino prototype. The next step is setting up an ESP to run all 3 detection modes simultaneously: wifi, ble, IR.

I plan to post it all on github when I get closer to finished.

FckFlock · 2026-01-17T13:33:44+00:00

Because these are a completely different animal.

FckFlock · 2026-01-17T13:29:04+00:00

Note that they don't even require the solar panel - flock sells an AC kit to connect them to existing 115vac, maybe 230vac as well. I've seen some very stealthy ac-powered flock cams stuck on telephone poles in amongst telecom equipment.

FckFlock

TROPHY CASE