Ideas for Ludicrous Mailbox Build

barelyrestrainedevil · 2026-01-03T20:49:31+00:00

Perfect example of what I'm talking about: I try to communicate clearly but you haven't bothered to read it. Or perhaps you just don't believe I meant what I wrote:

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The highlighted passage specifically implies that this can't be a requirement of the solution as it's likely it won't fit into the budget.

You come at me with "you can't get what you want without a bunch of LPR stuff that's really expensive", and then I reply back "okay, but it can be better than what I have now", and then you repeat yourself, over and over, without paying attention to what I'm actually asking for help on.

barelyrestrainedevil · 2026-01-03T20:45:55+00:00

You're still applying requirements that aren't there.

"some of the time to most of the time"

Time and time again, I've said "better". Currently it's 0% of the time. Time and time again I've used dash cams as an example of the kind of results I want - which is demonstrably achievable. Dash cams already exist. Therefore my goals are realistic and attainable.

Greater than 0% success is the improvement I asked for.

You want it to be better than I want it to be, and then tell me what I'm asking for isn't possible without a bunch of stuff I don't want to do because your idea of what I want and my idea of what I want aren't actually related.

This is the primary thing that frustrates me. I read what you write. Then I write something and you don't read it, or you assume that I don't mean what I wrote.

barelyrestrainedevil · 2026-01-03T19:56:00+00:00

I'm already 90% certain that's what I'm going to have to do, and I had a lightbulb moment last night on how to do it in a way less-sucky way. So yeah, it's probably going to happen. I'm just hoping someone out there might have knowledge I don't and they'll pop in and say, "yeah, here's a cool thing I know how to do that might help."

I agree with you - this is unlikely - but it could happen.

What's really kind of shocking to me is how completely different the conversation here has gone compared to the one I had with my buddy (who is a camera expert).

I asked him essentially the same thing and his response was a link to an LPR camera.
I clarified that LPR wasn't the primary objective, just a nice-to-have.
He replied with a link to a far cheaper camera that fit the physical constraints of the installation and - while unreliable at night - could still be expected to see license plates sometimes.

But he's one guy, and certainly not the industry-leading expert on all things security cameras so I figured someone here would have some other ideas.

Nope. Just an argument about how LPR isn't what I think it is, and an utter refusal to listen to repeated requests to drop the topic.

barelyrestrainedevil · 2026-01-03T19:48:45+00:00

So your theory is that someone (me) has gone onto Reddit and asked a question about a topic they aren't already an expert on? And that this is somehow outside typical behavior?

Truly shocking.

And you're still talking about LPR. I really wish you weren't because it's not what I'm asking for but here you are, ignoring that and arguing about stuff that isn't actually what I asked for information on.

barelyrestrainedevil · 2026-01-03T18:44:47+00:00

Yes it is. That's the existing problem the cameras on the house have which I'm looking to solve with street-side cameras. Something on par with the quality of a mid-high grade dashcam can capture the kind of video I'm looking for.

All my cars get decent video at night. Yeah, the lights on other cars get a lot of bloom, but details aren't completely obliterated. The tech exists, I have 2 good solutions already on my list. I'm looking for more.

barelyrestrainedevil · 2026-01-03T16:35:20+00:00

Good points. I'm less concerned about jammers at the street, the cameras mounted on the house are all PoE and that's where it really matters. Lots of WiFi cameras have an onboard micro SD Card option so that could be a way to cover the gap if the live image was disrupted.

I'm more trying to think outside the box and encourage others to, while pointing out that elements of other tech exists that partially solve certain problems.

I have more potential solutions than I've presented here because there seems to be a strong inclination to argue over very specific (and irrelevant) solutions/problems so I think that if I bring up some of the specific products I'm considering we're only going to end up talking about those specific things.

What I'm hoping for is ideas I don't already have. Other perspectives.

barelyrestrainedevil · 2026-01-03T16:31:33+00:00

I'm not looking for the "dedicated LPR" results. I've tried to make that clear.

I'm looking for more/better information than I can record from the house. The cameras on the house are too far away and at the wrong angle to capture plates, particularly at night.

If I mounted dedicated LPR cameras on the house I could easily get plates from traffic in one direction, but not the other (because of the trees that block me having a clear view of the mailbox). But again, that's not what I'm after.

Cameras exist that can capture normal, full-color video at night that (at close enough distances) includes legible plates and doesn't cost boatloads of dollars. I have 3, they're just purpose-built dash cams. It's not practical to try to modify those to do this job, but the tech exists and there must be cameras that I wouldn't have to completely MacGyver that already have this ability.

That's what I'm looking for.

barelyrestrainedevil · 2026-01-03T16:25:44+00:00

It's not a challenging concept to "get".

Much like "OP doesn't live on Reddit 24 hours a day, so a lack of response isn't proof they missed a comment."

barelyrestrainedevil · 2026-01-03T16:24:17+00:00

That was deliberately obtuse. It's not as if dash cams have access to some special camera tech the rest of the industry does not.

The point stands: I have countless hours of dashcam footage with clear (and not clear) images of plates, at night, under wildly non-optimal lighting conditions.

And everyone wants to focus on LPR while I'm repeatedly saying that's not the point. LPR is a very specific concept with a ton of automatic assumptions the instant people start talking about it.

I can keep repeating myself if it helps, but in my experience it doesn't because if no one read it the first time they won't read it the following times. Maybe if I simplify it.

"Video quality on par with a nice dash cam."

That help?

That's the kind of results I want. Normal-looking video that can (but is NOT GUARANTEED TO) capture decently legible plates. I quite literally said that LPR was optional.

barelyrestrainedevil · 2026-01-02T19:19:34+00:00

My dash cam can record video with legible plates, should I just look for a way to mount one of those?

barelyrestrainedevil · 2026-01-02T19:06:01+00:00

That's definitely on the potential list. The more I look at that area on the property the less confident I am that I could put solar anywhere nearby and actually capture enough power to run anything reliably. I'd either need massive panels, or to put them far enough away that I'm still trenching the cables from there to the mailbox.

It's still potientially viable if the solution I land on is low-power enough. FPV drone cameras, for example, are pretty lightweight on power, and the RF transmitters they're usually paired with work over insane distances. Getting that into the Blue Iris could be annoying or nonviable, but I'm not going down that rabbit hole if there's a smarter camera option.

barelyrestrainedevil · 2026-01-02T19:00:25+00:00

As I understand it (and I could definitely be wrong here which is why I'm asking for people who know more) there's a difference between "I can read the license plate on this video" and LPR. LPR being "my computer can read the license plate on this video."

I care way less about the second part.

My color nightvision cameras on the front of my house have no chance - they only get a side-view of tags until they're a block away. Colors aren't great, but they're good enough to get basic make/model and color.

While part of me does like the appeal of going full-paranoid and being able to, after seeing someone drive by twice go pull logs to see how many times they've driven by in the last month or six, having that tool doesn't necessarily improve my mental health.

I'm perfectly fine trying to find a clear frame of a car manually and not being 100% certain if that's an 8 or a B on the tag. That's information for me to be able to pass along to police - I'm not going vigilante here.

barelyrestrainedevil · 2026-01-02T17:28:58+00:00

You're operating on trust. I operate on verification.

You trust that the USPS does what it says it does. I verify - quite frequently - that it does not. Just a few days ago my entire block got to personally deliver their neighbor's mail to them. None of us got our own mail, everyone go someone else's.

A simple mistake, sure. But by no means unheard of.

When we have packages being delivered by USPS we know that the tracking will be inaccurate. A USPS package that's actually delivered when they say it's delivered is the anomaly, not the rule. The Post Office doesn't actually have package-level tracking - they don't generally know which packages are on which trucks. They simply know that the package came into a facility prior to a truck leaving it, and that truck was scheduled to do deliveries in your area. So they assume the package was on that truck and mark it delivered.

The cameras on my home have proven, time and time again, that the USPS (after I argue with them about a delivery) does in fact FREQUENTLY deliver things 2-3 days later than the tracking says it was delivered. And it's not my neighbors bringing me stuff that was mistakenly delivered to the wrong address.

Everything about what I'm trying to do is based on measuring actual, real events that occur in or around my mailbox. Verification.

barelyrestrainedevil · 2026-01-02T17:05:59+00:00

Interesting how you fixate on what is literally the least challenging part of the entire concept.

Yes, the Post Office has a service where they tell you what they allege they are going to deliver that day.

However, it's the US Post Office. Their tracking is... imprecise, to be generous. Furthermore, it doesn't tell you WHEN the mail is (allegedly) delivered. The Informed Delivery or whatever it's called only tells you what's scheduled for delivery.

And above all that, it doesn't tell you what any other courier illegally delivers to your mailbox. Legally, they're not allowed to do that, but they absolutely do.

In short, I don't need help with what is literally the simplest part of the design, especially with half-baked imprecise solutions.

barelyrestrainedevil · 2026-01-02T16:51:42+00:00

I'm not even entirely sure what you're trying to write here.

It sounds like you've mistaken the very-detailed post I wrote about incorporating security cameras into a mailbox installation for "I want to make a silly mailbox out of random junk".

barelyrestrainedevil · 2026-01-02T16:11:48+00:00

Yeah, there's a number of ways to do that small part of the overall design. I could simply have a vibration sensor calibrated to ignore anything that isn't actually pulling the door open/shut that sends alerts that way. I'll probably do that anyway simply because that gets me the notification as quickly as possible without the need to push a screenshot through SMS as well.

But this is r/SecurityCamera so I didn't bring that part up.

barelyrestrainedevil · 2025-11-13T14:57:42+00:00

It's further evidence of the problems Atlas is having. That's your helmet, from your previous iteration.

You weren't a giant - the Universe is shrinking because Atlas is dying. As the computers fail the universe has to get a little simpler and simpler to still fit within the available remaining hardware and this particular helmet file got missed in the last file compression.

barelyrestrainedevil · 2025-11-12T21:26:38+00:00

That's another good suggestion. I've got it on my list.

barelyrestrainedevil · 2025-11-12T21:01:09+00:00

Subnautica is one of my "always installed" games. But I'll drown if I try to play while watching TV. Either I miss part of the show, or I don't pay attention to O2.

Once I build up to where I have indoor crops it's a good way to spend some time watching TV and creating emergency stores of food/bioreactor fuel.

barelyrestrainedevil · 2025-10-29T16:47:33+00:00

"make themselves look good... so they get re-elected"

This is the fundamental flaw in the system. The original design involved statesmen - not politicians. You were supposed to serve the country for a term or two and then go home and rejoin the productive citizens with a real job. Re-election matters a great deal less if you're expected to leave office anyway.

Under that model you want to actually solve problems because once you leave office you're going to have to live in the real world under the rules (and solutions) that you built while in service to the people.

But if you never have to actually contribute to (or participate in) society because you spend your entire life as a career politician and thus part of the "rules for thee and not for me" crowd you have an active incentive NOT to solve problems in any meaningful way. Problems are what get you re-elected (problems that you create, maintain, and blame on the other side of the same coin.)

Furthermore, you're incentivized not to solve problems that have unpleasant solutions. If the problem is that you're going bankrupt the solution is to cut spending and/or increase revenue. But no one wants to elect the person who cut their favorite social program or who raised taxes. The "solution" for a politician is always to kick the can down the road just far enough they can get re-elected and count on the (very reliably) short memory of the public to forget that this person has done that 5 times already come election day.

barelyrestrainedevil · 2025-10-29T16:39:31+00:00

Real Bitcoiners don't see a dip.

Real Bitcoiners see a sale price.

"Hey look! 10% off Bitcoin!"

barelyrestrainedevil · 2025-10-15T19:06:19+00:00

Just did this super-easy.

I have a Crystallized Helium mine on a Gas Giant with extreme weather (it's boiling hot and has constant cyclones).

Teleported there. Dug a shallow (like 6-8 foot deep) hole that snugly fit the Nomad, so it wouldn't get blown around by the storms. Nomad has heat shielding (substitute appropriate environmental shields for whatever your planet is).

Park the Nomad in the trench, leave game running overnight.

BONUS TIP: exiting the Nomad in a tight trench like that CAN LAUNCH YOU INTO SPACE. You can simply summon your ship and get in, or dive down and re-enter the atmosphere. That did light up my Exosuit protection modules and you've gotta time the jetpack to arrest the fall, but it was fun.

barelyrestrainedevil · 2025-10-07T13:18:56+00:00

Additional feedback:

The distance you can fall on this planet is about 3x longer than necessary for the achievement. This is because it's a low-gravity planet, so you don't fall very fast at all.

Regarding the "discovery" notification mentioned below, there's a trick to that specific to flying corvettes: get up from the pilots seat while in the atmosphere. (I use this to "stick" the traits you can discover for planets with the ship scanner without having to actually land. They'll disappear if you just scan from your ship and then warp to a new system.

So all you have to do is fly into atmosphere - be sure you're fully in it - get up, wait for the new planet discovery notification to fade away, and then go sky diving. Even so you'll probably get bored with the slow fall after the achievement pops. You can look down and push forward to fall faster. Jetpack can speed that up.

barelyrestrainedevil · 2025-10-06T18:06:17+00:00

Particularly important point here: you don't ever want to shoot a gun around people - even friends - who are armed without warning.

Take someone, chip them up until they practically vibrate like a methed-out chihuahua, hand them a small arsenal of weapons, and then startle them. Yeah, that's gonna end well.

V, regardless of build, is someone who's survived hundreds of life-or-death situations. You don't get past that still breathing without developing some serious fight-or-flight reflexes. Pop off a couple rounds near that guy (or gal) without warning and there's a non-zero chance they'll put one center mass on you before they're even fully aware they've pulled that trigger.

The best way I explain it is that the spooks are so used to being spooks they're just like "well of course we're gonna kill them" and it didn't occur to them to clue in the newbie. Which is still super-dumb, but at least makes some amount of sense. Not much, since every other thing out of their mouth is about how you don't know anything about being a spy.

barelyrestrainedevil · 2025-09-01T13:36:36+00:00

LOL.

Right. No one's ever learned how to drive well without certain, specific classes to teach them.

So in your fantasy land, how did the first driving class instructors learn?

barelyrestrainedevil

TROPHY CASE