Ziegeid

Has anyone compared the two top end bullet cameras available from Costco? Specifically http://www.costco.com/AvertX-IndoorOutdoor-HD-1080p-2-pack-IR-Bullet-Cameras.product.100033050.html and http://www.costco.com/Swann-1080p-2-Pack-NVR-IP-Bullet-Cameras.product.100039914.html . I bought the Swanns as my first IR IP cameras and am, overall, pretty happy with them. Motion tends to blur at night, but other than that they work pretty well. I'm coming up to the end of Costco's 90 day return policy, but I don't want to replace them unless the AvertX is significantly better. Has anyone used both or done any comparisons? Thanks

If it manages to reschedule itself once, it should keep on rescheduling itself forever. At the end of every run the last thing it does is to call `at' with the next sun rise/set event time. The output of runq shows no job scheduled? DEBUG isn't set by any chance is it? That will prevent the scheduling. Of course, the computer needs to be on at the time of the event. Are you getting any email with the output? I get two a day, with a subject like: Output from your job 1016.

Excellent, that was going to be my first question.

You should be able to install it with:sudo apt-get install libdatetime-event-sunrise-perl If that does not work, then this should: sudo cpan DateTime::Event::Sunrise

Hey that's cool, thanks for pointing it out. It never occurred to me to look for an API. I just jumped in with packet captures.

I don't know of a better way. This works just fine. Your posting made me realize there is an easier way to do it, so now only the XML is needed and the URL gets auto-detected. This makes adding new controls easier. I've attached version 2 with the following changes: Add more controls, thanks FastEddy Auto-detect Windows and call appropriate at command Try to auto-detect lat/long Do a better job with DEBUG: > 0 will not schedule future actions, >= 1 will print URLs, >= 2 will run actions EDIT: Stupid logic error in v2, fixed in v3. hikvision-raptor-schedule-adjustments-v3.zip

Awesome, if you post the URL and XML bits I can work them back in and re-release. I'm working on auto-detecting Windows and lat/long (if not provided).

Beware, this is the path to the dark side. One little tweak here, add a little there, pretty soon you will be slinging out scripts like this from scratch. This is how I got into coding: had an itch, scratched it. It just builds from there.

That's great to know. I really though it would be much harder than that to get it to work on Windows. You are welcome. I don't often share my scripts so it's really neat to see someone else get use out of it.

That is certainly do-able. I'll see if I can carve out some time to add at least those, but no guarantees. If you do some packet captures (I've used Chrome's built in tool or Wireshark) you can pull the URL and the XML out and then add them to the script. Just put a %s in where the variable needs to go.

That's great. I'm not a Windows programmer so I was thinking it would be much, much harder than that. You are welcome. Glad someone else can get use out of it. I would be curious to know what you end up with for settings to compare against what I came up with.

Good to know. I'll stick with the Swanns then for at least the current generation. The script is written in Perl and uses a couple modules to do the sunrise/sunset calculations and the XML submission. Right now you can set NoiseReduceExt and WDR for the Raptor Firmware V5.0.0_130412. Significantly older versions and the original firmware from Costco would require tweaking. You can configure as many cameras as you need and set different values for each camera for day and night. You will need to set your local latitude/longitude, the login/password for you camera(s) and the IP(s) for your camera(s). I set my carport camera (lots of shade and dynamic range) to higher values of both NoiseReduceExt and WDR compared to the street camera (lots of light) for the daytime. At night they get the same values. The script assumes it's running on a UNIX like system and uses the at program to schedule itself for the next run. [ I had to Zip the file before it could be uploaded. ] hikvision-raptor-schedule-adjustments.zip

Blast! I figured if anyone here had any experience with them it would be you. Even though it is totally within Costco's policy for me to buy both then return the brand I like least, it just doesn't seem right to me. I bought the Swanns based on your review. I feel 2MP is plenty and that 3 would just fill the disks faster. I have one camera that gets good light, similar to your street shot. The other is in the carport so the WDR gets quite the workout trying to get the shadows and the area beyond. It does a pretty good job during the day, but motion during the night can be pretty blurry. I set them to 12 FPS, exposure time to 1/12th, and I Frame Interval to 36 frames. I realize that if I reduce the exposure time to 1/30th the blur will be reduced, but it gets really grainy. I was hoping someone had some AvertX experience to know if they are better, especially at night. I wrote a little script to modify the WDR and Noise Reduction based around sun up/down because the night time setting had to be significantly different than the daytime setting, which helps quite a bit, but a better camera would be a better camera. I don't have a basis for comparison, but for $350 a pair they are pretty impressive.