Univivi 8-LEDs IR Illuminator 850nm Infrared Flood Light for Night Vision

You Get what You Pay for (This product replaced my cheap made of plastic unit which started to burn out after a year.) Upon recieving unit I was amazed at the build quality. * Hefty weight * Dimensions approx. 4.5" X 3.5" depth approx. 3 1/8" * Glass front enclosure and sealed * Adjustable mounting bracket, for all your mounting needs (used camera tri-pod). *Power brick 12v1amp * Bright and large IR LEDS For My Use The only thing that made it better was using an old power supply with Integrated On/Off switch to accommodate my indoor only use. (12v 1amp) same as supplied with light. My Experience Amazed at the motion smoothness and in MHO: it made the Graphics, details and Colors Pop when using the Oculus ! Great for complete darkness and defused daylight gaming indoors. (Though a few Reviewers have complained about the Power brick being under powered, I've yet to experience any problems.) Well worth the purchase price and more than Satisfied.

It works well. I put a wattmeter on it (I needed the measurement to run it out of a 16-port electrical box) and it pulled approximately 12.3w with the LEDs lit up at night. It is advertised as having a 12v/1a adapter, which would put the device as being powered near the very end of the transformer's power range, however I have had absolutely no problems with it. The transformer and device do run a little warm but not hot. Again, no harm or problem with that. It is smaller than it looks but puts out a nice flood of IR at night. I mounted it under the soffit. The picture on the left shows the patio camera which has a weak IR (only 2 LEDs), so most of the lighting is coming from the IR illuminator, mounted about 6 feet away. I connected with a 16.5 ft cable extender sold by WildHD, although you can also get those extensions in 33 ft lengths that can be daisy-chained. During the day, you will not see much on the IR even with the photo-sensor fully covered -- I had to look very closely with my hand cupped around the edge to see that they were glowing. But it is a whole 'nother story at night -- very obvious that the IR is on (there is no switch, just comes on and off by the photo-sensor). I recently added a second Univivi illuminator to light up the cars in the driveway; as you can see from the pictures on the right, the IR illumination makes a big difference. Be careful about turning off your camera's IR; apparently there is a mechanical switch inside most cameras that blocks IR from *any* source if you turn off the IR on the camera. Think of the Univivi as augmentation, not replacement. Edit 3/19/19. Bought my third one of these recently and it works as expected, even with extender cables. I'm not sure about the range, but where I have this one aimed, I would estimate to be about 50 feet. The other two are still going strong. Edit 12/04/20. The oldest one (approx. 2 1/2 years old) finally had a transformer fail. Illuminator still works great. I swapped in an extra transformer (same 12v/1a output) I had from a camera that now runs out of a power panel and the illuminator is working again. These are definitely outlasting the IR in my cameras, which seem to flame out after a year or so.

UPDATE: The IR Illuminator works very well, however the 1 amp power supply is undersized and likely to fail. When this happens the LEDs will become power starved and begin to blink or fail to light. I have four of these and two began to blink the same week. I have upgraded to a 2 amp adapter of slightly larger dimensions. It is a 12-volt 2-amp SANSUN UNIVERSAL AC ADAPTER that runs about $7 here on Amazon. It runs cooler and seems to light a tad brighter at 12.2 volts under load. Will update if there are further issues but the illumination provided is a big boost to the quality of security camera images. ORIGINALLY: I have a Swann 4K Camera system and added this to an area that needed additional night illumination. It's important to note that although the directions state that the Illuminator should be mounted close to the camera and aimed in the same direction, this is not a requirement. It can be mounted closer to an area needing supplemental lighting further away or from the side. It is illuminating a wider area than expected and a 2nd camera on another side of the house is picking up some of the additional light. It is a solidly built product, easy to mount and connect.

As I've only been using them for a couple of days, I can't speak to the longevity of these IR lights, but they seem to be built very well. The rear of the case has heatsink fins, the entire case is metal and the power cord has a nice weatherproof grommet sealing it. These put out a tremendous amount of IR light and work perfectly with my Lorex cameras. 850nm is the standard IR wavelength that most manufacturers use, so while it's not guaranteed these will work with other brands, there's a very high probability that they will. These are true floodlights and not spots. I have two of them mounted on either side of a PTZ camera. This side of the house gets almost no ambient light from the streetlights and at night it's pitch black. You can see the before/after photos. The difference is striking. I'm very, very happy so far with these. The mounting bracket is a sturdy piece of metal and mounts to the light with substantial bolts, not screws. These lights seem to be very well made. They come with a wall wart power adapter, but in a true home security install you have to figure some other way to power them. I'm using a 12v power supply and 12ga cable that I bought here on Amazon. Here are the links: 12ga wire: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072BXB2Y8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Power Supply: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IHNE746/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 If you've installed your POE cameras, this is the exact same install...a real pain in the butt. But totally worth it. Highly recommended!

I bought four of these units to use in my house and after about a year, two of the four units quit working. The issue is that the infrared LEDs would blink on for a split second and then turn off for several seconds instead of staying on continuously. Totally useless. The construction seems to be very sturdy. When working, they do illuminate the area pretty well. To be fair, I bought these units about 2 years ago so they might have fixed the electronics to resolve this issue. (Update) After reading more reviews, it was discovered that the wall power adapter could not handle the power that the unit draws. I replaced the power adapters and the 2 bad units came back to life and the units work well. The power adapter that came with the units are 12v / 1.0 amps and I replaced them with 12v / 1.2 amp power adapters. I'm leaving this review with 1 star because these were failed units. If the manufacturer would have shipped a better wall adapter, I would give this unit 5 stars.

I was on the fence as to purchase this model, reviews were split on it. I purchased it and installed it, providing more than ample amount of visibility for my ring cameras. It lit well over 50 feet behind my house covering the shed, green house and area where my wife has her mini farm . The directions said not to keep it exposed to direct rain. So I had it under the section where rain gutters were attached, behind the cameras. I ordered a spare one not expecting it to last, well that was 2 years ago. It worked 2years almost to the day. I haven’t confirmed if it’s the power supply or light that went bad . It just flashes on/off. This light far surpassed what I expected for its price and ease of setting up. I just installed the spare and am ordering a spare this week. When it got dark it lit my back yard very well. Able to see all sorts of creatures passing through down to mice size . It worked well in the NY freezing temps too. I usually don’t do reviews but this product deserves a review. The amount of area it lights far surpasses the ring light which I don’t bother to use anymore . Based on this performance I highly recommend this unit . Price is good and apparently it lasts a long time.

2 out of 5 stars The price wasn’t bad, and this IR illuminator worked great with my night vision camera for almost a year. It provided good infrared coverage and noticeably improved nighttime visibility. Unfortunately, it completely stopped working after about a year. While the initial performance was good, I expected it to last much longer, especially for a product advertised for outdoor use. If you’re looking for a budget option, it may be worth considering, but don’t expect long-term reliability.

I needed some assistance for my Security cameras over my driveway, but I have no electricity source for an IR light there. I mounted this light at my nearest source which is about 50 feet, about 12 feet up a tree. This light throws very good light into my driveway in addition to the rest of my yard. from reading another review, I also caulked the seams to hopefully prevent water incursion, along with taping up the power plug at the extension chord. Assembly is plugged into a dusk to dawn yard stake with my flag pole light, which does not interfere with the light sensor. Edited to add: Now 1.5 years later, I needed to temporarily take down my light for some tree trimming work. I discovered that the Mounting bracket has developed corrosion around the mounting holes and the protective coating is flaking off. I would speculate that by next summer a good breeze or a slight limb strike would have knocked it down. I will need to sand it down, drill some new holes and put some type of coating on it, if I am able to use the same bracket. I may have to resort to metal strapping mount. I would now suggest that any new purchaser apply Plastic dip or something similar on the bracket. The light is working like a champ, but bracket needs additional protection.

I bought this to use with my camera at the shop to light up the area at night. It worked perfectly, and we were able to see what was coming around at night on our cameras. It was however stolen by my son who realized it was the perfect addition to his PSVR2 setup, and now can play in complete darkness with just this light sitting out front of him. He loves it, I'm not getting back, we've had it for nearly a year, no issues. Good Quality, and looks like it should last a long time. It came well packaged, and arrived quickly.

works ok. as advertised

It helped my outdoor camera see further at night, it really added a large area that I couldn't see before

Using it for VR. Helps improve tracking in low light areas.

Very weak and not able to light 8-10 feet away