magohn

Hello all, Ive searched but cant find any information on the ACM-1231's option of a "Profile Pack". What is this and what benefits will it give me to use a profile? Where can I downlaod a profile pack? Bit of an ACTI newbie - any advice appreciated. Thanks all

Hello all, I purchased the ACTI 1231 after reading excellent reviews on the net. Since installing the camera I have always been majorly disappointed in its night time performance. The lens seems to pick up reflections from the circle of LED's around the camera. I tried tightening the lens cover to make sure the rubber seal that lives around the lens is blocking out any reflections from the LEDs. This made no difference. The camera cost $500. By comparison here is a pic from the ACTI (top) versus a pic from one of those cheap Chinese eBay PTZ cameras ($75). What am I doing wrong? Thanks! ACTI CHEAP PTZ

Yes, the whole camera was requested. Fast turnaround though - just over a week form me to them, and back to me...

To finish the story off - Acti issued a RMA return and I got the camera back yesterday and repaired. As the prev poster, they replaced the glass to the one pictured above. The rubber IR ring now protrudes through the glass - issue seems to be solved. Only set it up last night and so I still need to dial in my settings. but as you can see the "spots" are now gone...

Update: After contacting Acti, they sent me a RMA # to return the camera. I sent them screenshots and they immediately issued an RMA - I will check back to report any progress.

I agree - not sure i can support attaching "small pieces of sticky tape" to fix a $500 camera. I contacted Acti support and filed a support ticket - fingers crossed for as new glass. THANK YOU so much for your post and information. I would still love to see a night shot with the new glass attached...

PLEASE do fit the new glass and report back. I would be very interested in your results!

Hello all, Thanks so much for all your feedback on the camera. It has really helped as there is little info on the net for the 1231 other than the manufacturers blurb. I semi-fixed the issue by installing a "dawn-dusk" auto-security light. I can see what I need to see (side of the house) and so I am content. I still need to fix the IR bleeding into the lens by either: a) Finding a rubber washer to add more packing between the glass and the lens. b) or Disabling the IR's Here's a pic of how the camera works now: Thanks again! P.S. I doubt I would buy the Acti 1231 again - $500 for these issues is not acceptable.

....and a full res picture:

Hello, I dont run the camera in megapixel because the other 5 cameras on the network are all 640x480. The CCTV software I am using resozes the viewing window to the resolution of the camera and so if one camera is at a different res than the others, the viewer has to manually resize the viewing window to see the full picture. Here's a pic from last night without the glass cover over the lens - no more IR reflections but still weak quality compared to your excellent shots. I need to figure out why the IR's are reflecting into the lens with the cover on. I have screwed the cover on as tight as possible but the IR's still bleed through. Thanks all.

Well it has a var-focal lens so its not possible. Could you post full res images please. What is the compression set to? Can you take a pic of the lens cover and a pic of the lens with the lens cover off? What firmware is in the camera? If its OK I will post the full res tomorrow as night-time is here and the image is degrading fast. I will take one tomorrow in full daylight. Thanks for all the help! Firmware Version = A1D-220-V3.12.13-AC

I would hope the engineers at Acti would match the angle lens to the IR's on the camera. I will post a new night image (without the glass on) as soon as I get one - thanks! Daytime pic of the Acti -

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will attempt to address a few: AFAIK - I cannot turn off the IR lights on the Acti. I see no option to do this in the latest firmware. Lighting - The eBay cam has an extra LED illuminator as we have a coyote problem and we needed to see across our fields. The Acti is using the stock IR's BUT there is a large "normal" secuity light on that corner in the pic but the Acti is still almost unusable at night. Im most disappointed on the level of reflection into the lens of this Acti - I will try tonight leaving the glass cover off the lens and see how that works. Its warm and dry tonight so a night without the cover on should not do much harm. I guess I just feel that for a $500+ megapixel camera the quality at night is akin to my $25 USB cams I have. Please keep the suggestions coming - much appreciated.

Hello all, i have a 9 month old outdoor Axis 215 camera that has worked perfectly for the last 9 months. In the last few weeks it seems to be going "offline" and disappearing from the network. If I unplug/replug the camera back into the wall socket the camera comes back online. It will stay online anywhere from 20 mins to a full day going offline again. Any ideas? Thanks for your time!

Thanks all - turns out I fixed it accidentally. I had to re-route some CAT5 cabling and since then its been perfect. One of the cables went to the Axis 215. Im guessing a bad connection someplace in the cable.

Will do - thanks!

Sorry wrong forum...

Hello all, I am having a network issue with my CCTV system. I am using PC based software to run 7 IP cameras, 6 cameras are 640x480 resolution and one camera is megapixel at 1280x720. Up until I added the megapixel camera I experienced rock-solid performance with all cameras running to a Netgear FS726TP switch. Since adding the megapixel camera, 2 of the existing cameras drop connection to the switch and I have to reboot the switch to get the cameras online. As the cameras are IP cameras (non-reliant on the PC to work individually),I am assuming that the issue is with settings in the switch because I cannot access the individual IP cameras viewing/settings page after the drop. Does anyone have any ideas as to where to look to fix this issue? After a switch reboot everything works perfectly for 12-15 hours and then at least one camera drops connection - always the same camera(s) drop the connection. Thanks much.

Erron, THANK YOU so much. I changed the bandwidth port setting from "Auto" to the max available for all ports and the system has been up for 24 hours now without a drop - I usually get a drop within a few hours . I'm very hopeful ... Thanks to all!

Thanks for all your replies: This system has "evolved" over the passed two years from a single camera in a window to the following: 2 Sharx IP Cams 1 Axis 215 PTZ 1 Chinese no-name IP (Foscam clone) Acti 1231 - megapixel (only mega on network) - only cam using POE. As I stated, everything has been rock solid for months with no dropped connections. However, a few days ago I added the Acti 1231 to the system and now the Chinese cam and one of the Sharx has become unreliable in terms of keeping a connection. If I reboot the switch all the cams come back to life and stay active for 12 hours or so - but then the Chinese cam or/and the one particular Sharx drop the connection and stay dropped until I reboot the switch. All cams are wired - any suggestions welcome!

I have all cams set to 5fps....

Thanks for your reply - however, only the megapixel cam is running POE - any other ideas?

Hello all, I have setup a CCTV network consisting of the following. i-Catcher Console Software Standalone PC for the CCTV Linksys WRT54gL Router (DDWRT) Linksys WRT54gL Client - Bridge (DDWRT) 2 Y-Cam Wifi Cameras (capable of 30FPS) DLink 900 Wifi Camera Axis 215 PTZ - E All cameras are in 640x480 mode. The system is setup with the 2 Y-Cams and the DLink connecting wirelessly to the router. The 215 and the PC running the i-Catcher software (that monitors all cameras), both connect wirelessly to the router/network via the "Client-Bridge" linksys. All cameras are mounted outdoors except for the DLink that monitors the garage. The issue is that camera FPS improve greatly at night time whereas thru the day the Y-Cams have low (0.5) FPS and sometimes drop connection all together. At night they get the full 10FPS. I believe the issue is that the Axis is draining the bandwidth in color mode (daytime) and when it switches to night mode the other cameras have a chance to grab extra bandwidth. The Axis ALWAYS maintains a strong FPS no matter what time of day. Am I missing something in regards to setup - I have the Y-cams dialed back to only 10FPS and the Axis set to 10FPS. The Dlink never gets above 2FPS. I seems I should easily get 10FPS on all cameras no matter what time of day. From the same setup I can stream movies to the xBox in full-screen for a 52" TV. Please suggest any ideas for improvement. Thanks! Magohn

Thanks Soundy. To test, I ran a 100ft CAT5 cable from the Axis 215 directly into the router and the whole system came back to life. Expected FPS returned and the network in general returned to being snappy. I have decided to mount a Netgear switch in the garage and route CAT5 cable to any camera that I can. Luckily all my cameras will work in WiFi or cable mode. Thanks again, magohn

Hello all, I am about to purchase the Axis 215 camera and in the spec it states "removable IR filter" . Does this mean the 215 has the ability to "see" IR light? I know the camera comes without IR lights but I do have standalone IR floodlights. It would be great if the camera could be assisted by my floodlights for nightime viewing. Thanks, magohn