Jump to content

buellwinkle

Members
  • Content Count

    3,866
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by buellwinkle

  1. Yes, in theory 5.1 can record to an SMB/CIFS mount. Works for some, not others.
  2. What not use a camcorder or a GoPro?
  3. buellwinkle

    Control Your Garage door opener

    The idea would be that you are not sure if you left it open/closed or you are just looking at your cameras and realize it's closed. That very same camera can trigger alarm out to close the garage door and I would assume you would see it close via the very same camera, no? All camera alarm out does is close a circuit, same as if you used a button to close a circuit to close your garage door as most have. You really don't need anything else other than the URL to momentarily trigger alarm out on your camera. We use alarm out on an Axis camera to trigger a gate to open, works well and consistently in commercial use. There's an Axis URL command that triggers alarm out for a specified amount of time. There are devices that can do as you suggest, open/close door and display the state of the door but they can cost as much as a camera like the Liftmaster internet connect or they are experimental projects with Arduino or Raspberry PI, so why not use the camera. When I get around to it, I'm decommissioning an old ACTi ACM-3511 and that has alarm out, so I'll put it in the garage and hook it up to the opener, but probably not for 2-3 weeks or so until I have time to switch out the camera as the camera I want is not available for a few weeks.
  4. buellwinkle

    Control Your Garage door opener

    Here's what Buellwinkle would do. Get a camera with Alarm out, preferably in the garage so you can see what you are closing the door on, just sayin. When you see the garage is open, send an URL command to the camera close the garage via alarm out. This can be as simple as a favorite on your cell phone browser. Cost to do it (assuming you have a camera with alarm out already) is just for the piece of wire from the camera to the garage door opener. We use alarm out on a camera to open the gates to the community, I think it can handle a simple garage door. There's even an app for it for Axis cameras, but would imagine you can develop an app for it to work with other brands of camera with alarm out and URL triggering, simple app to write, one button, click it, sends URL command to trigger alarm out. https://itunes.apple.com/mg/app/garage-door-axis/id751412884?mt=8
  5. Why not get the ds-2cf2732F-IS that has the alarm I-O and audio?
  6. Does anyone need 1080P, no, we can go back to analog TV's, flip phones, VHS VCRs, 8-tracks and walkmans. Seriously, 1080P is the new low end. 2K (1440P) and 4K (2160P) TV & monitors are the new thing. The idea behind megapixel cameras is to get higher pixel density to cover a larger area and still have enough pixels to identify someone. To me, 3MP is my minimum and starting to implement 5MP (2K).
  7. buellwinkle

    Milestone X-Protect Go

    If you have the latest version and device pack, try deleting the camera and add it like new. This will pickup the latest driver for it.
  8. buellwinkle

    Dahua firmware

    It's not that one is better than the other, it's that they are different. The 3200S uses the Sony Exmor sensor, very nice looking picture from it but the issue I had with it is that it's too contrasty and over saturated which makes a prettier picture if that's your goal, but to me the new Aptina sensor in the 4300S has a naturally wider dynamic range but has a duller, less prettier picture but to me has more value for security. They sell both kinds, so the choice is yours to make, but I can see the value in the 4300S over the 3200S. You can tweak the settings on the 3200S to look more like the 4300S and vice-versa but it won't be 100% the same. For example, you can set WDR on the 3200S but it's done in software, so it won't be quite as good as the 4300S and may actually look duller to achieve the same results. You can set the contrast and saturation up on the 4300S, but will never look quite as good as the 3200S. Since I can't decide, I use Hikvision and ACTi, LOL!
  9. What I do is change all the port numbers in the camera config to consecutive numbers, say 5000, 5001, 5002. Then open range of ports like 5000-5002 to the camera's IP and that usually works. Doesn't matter what the ports are for, sometimes it just needs them. Someday this will all go away when it IPV4 goes to IPV6 and that should be accelerated with the Internet of Things gaining momentum. My ISP is not quite there yet, keep hoping.
  10. Linux will definitely limit your choices. But here's the delio. Cheap software, meaning open source or lower end products (under a few hundred USD) is going to use generic ways of getting video from the cameras usually via RTSP, it has to decode that usually from h.264 and then evaluate the frames for difference to detect motion. They tend to be CPU hogs, so the trade off is price of software vs. price of hardware. Step up to a commercial grade product and the entry prices for their low end tends to be $50-100 per camera. But what that pays for is to have a solution engineered for each camera that lets the camera do the heavy lifting and that gives your CPU a rest. The only one I know of that I would recommend that runs on Linux is ExacqVision. Their economy version is about $50/camera. Here's the download - https://exacq.com/support/downloads.php and it should give you a trial period so you can validate it works with your cameras. Not saying Exacq is the best, just a good one that runs on Linux. All the other commercial grade products run on Windows, sort of the standard for this. Yes, I know Linux is cool, it's what I've worked with at work since version 0.9 in 1990, but for some reason, the CCTV industry is not in love with Linus Torvalds and his baby, they are more on Bill Gate's side
  11. I save the events on an microSD card inside the camera, been doing it for a few years, but on an older model.
  12. Different brands require different ports to be opened up from 1 port as you probably opened up to 3 ports. It's best if you contact the place you got it from and ask them because there are many unknown brands from small companies in China and they all work differently.
  13. buellwinkle

    Axis software selection

    Axis has a partner app they recommend called EyeSpyFX but when I looked into it, the reviews were really bad so I didn't want to waste the time or money to try as I'm happy with my NVR solution and it's apps. Here's the Android version - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eyespyfx.cc&hl=en
  14. If it worked as expected, I would switch out Mobotix D15's for them because they are better, but it does not, but I'm hopeful they will resolve this in time for my next project.
  15. buellwinkle

    Milestone X-Protect Go

    I rarely have it automatically find my cameras, and it may be me, but I just enter the IP address, username and PW of the camera and it's always figured it out. But I agree on the Device Pack, should be current. As for support, not really there for the GO version, but I get excellent support for my pay version. There is a support forum that's helped me out before.
  16. buellwinkle

    Can i get better?

    Dahua has changed, they have authorized distributors that provide support now. Not saying all are good, but the ones I've worked with do provide support and warranty in the U.S.
  17. $299.99 is not that good how come? Not when you can get it for a lot less, I'll PM you the link.
  18. Not that good of a deal actually for OEM Hikvision.
  19. buellwinkle

    Dahua HFW3300C IR issue

    Never had that problem and probably one of the first here to have an IPC-HFW3200C (1080P version) but also had the IPC-HFW3300C, but not as long. But that's very odd they all failed at once, maybe it's a PoE switch problem, not able to supply the power it needs. Maybe try unplugging them all except one to see if that's the problem. Lastly, try forcing the camera in night mode from the menus, although Dahua tends to separate these functions. Maxicon had a similar problem where banks would go out, meaning if one bulb failed it caused the bank of like 6 bulbs to fail as they were wired in series. His was the cheaper version, I believe the IPC-HFW2100. He was able to find the bulbs and installed new ones. It could be your model has just one series and one bulb can take them all out, like cheap holiday lights. How handy are you with a soldering iron? Trying to get through to China now may be fruitless as they are celebrating New Years for the week. And yes, crazy expensive to ship it back to mainland China, especially a bad boy like that.
  20. OK, send me the large one, already have the small one. I like the concept of EXIR but don't think it makes a difference sensor wise. It's like the EXIR eyeball I reviewed, it performed the same as the bullet, but the EXternal IR LED was bright, like a red indictor light, not as discrete as the ring of LEDs on the mini-bullet. But it also seemed to illuminate more evenly than the IR ring.
  21. buellwinkle

    Record to SkyDrive

    I don't believe you can do what you want with ordinary cameras. Some let you FTP or mount to a CIFS, NFS or Samba mount, but Skydrive, Dropbox use WebDAV. So as a developer, you can write a program to use the API for Skydrive and get the RTSP feed from the camera, but you would need a platform to run it on. Maybe what you want is a cloud enabled camera and there's a whole bunch of them out there. Dropbox is the original, but very limiting as they only make one camera and not an impressive one. Sony is releasing a nice system that allows for multiple cameras feeding into one that is cloud enabled. Also Samsung is releasing or has released their cloud cameras. These cameras record directly to the cloud and has the infrastructure to make it easy to view the cameras and recordings remotely. On the lower end, there's D-Link and Netgear jumping on this wagon. Can't speak of network throughput as it depends on your activity for motion detect recordings. I don't even think it's as much as people may think, especially if you are using PIR motion detection which is pretty accurate and also indoors where there's less movement. For example, we keep a camera with PIR motion detection at our lake house and haven't had a false alarm in years and I know it works because my phone starts beeping like crazy as soon as I step inside.
  22. buellwinkle

    Multiple Cam Viewer!

    Send an email to their support, Ken the author is pretty responsive and helpful.
  23. You can record whatever cameras you want, but to see them all together, to have the POS integration, you should have licenses on each camera. I suggested the Hikvision's, good 3MP camera at a good price. For example, the ds-2cd2532f are small, discrete, good indoors. The ds-2cd2732F are better outdoors (brighter illuminators). Both cost about $250-260ish, have onboard SD card slots for recording. The latter is varifocal. Try one to see how it works out. You can have them just record to a 64GB microSD card until you figure out your recording strategy. You can playback straight from the camera with a timeline, very cool.
  24. Milestone XProtect works well. I believe you need to get at least the Express edition to use any of their add on products like Retail. Not sure you need a huge system, but if you are going commercial grade, a single chip xeon e5-2650 with 8GB RAM should be fine. Of course disk usage is based on how much activity and you already have experience with analog, just assume a heck of a lot more for 2-5MP. Figure with that many cameras and future growth, a nice 24 port PoE GigE switch will keep you busy for a while. As for cameras, depends on your budget. If money is not a concern, the Axis P3367 is a nice 5MP camera, good low light sensitivity, remote focus and varifocal. ACTi has some new cameras that came out that are cool, the B series that are mini-PTZ and come in various resolutions as well as their regular line of domes. Hikvision also has some very nice domes in the lower price range that compete with the higher end.
  25. buellwinkle

    Multiple Cam Viewer!

    You can run a PC with software like BlueIris that can connect to analog cameras and IP cameras. Cost is reasonable at under $40 on eBay but would first download it and test the trial version. If you turn motion detection & recording off and just use it to display, it's pretty efficient.
×