Sgsecurity

As a fellow self employed security system installer/supplier, I thought it would be wrong of me not to report the issues I have encountered using cheaper Chinese manufacturers (in particular Cantonk CL) to source my stock. The obvious reason for ordering stock from a Chinese supplier is the reduced cost for the customer and increase profit margin for myself. This sounds all good in theory but it will soon turn around and bite you in the ass. As times are getting tight, I decided to attempt to increase my profit margin by ordering my stock from a chinese manufacturer rather than through my normal local suppliers. Since my local suppliers sourced their products from china and a few other asian countries, I thought it would be a smart move. After many hours of homework and conversing with a very eager Cantonk sales rep over skype. I decided on purchasing around $4,000 dollars worth of stock from Cantonk. I chose to make a small order to "test the waters" so to speak. It took over 3 weeks for my products to arrive after payment and apparent shipment date. On the day my stock arrived I made the mistake of only partly testing a few cameras. Due to limited stock I had a backlog of orders to fufill I only checked to see if the cameras powered on and produced a picture, re-packed, then mailed them to customers. That same day I was to install a system. I decided to use the new Cantonk cameras for this install because a higher resolution camera would be required. That evening after I completed the system installation, I received a phone call from the client in which he described an issue with the cameras that I did not see after I finished install and configured the DVR. The next day I checked on the installation to troubleshoot the issue. After reviewing the night footage recorded on the DVR, I was shocked to find the camera image flickering light and dark contrast. As though the camera couldn't decide if it was day or night. The flickering was so intense that the image was almost impossible to make out. Watching it for more than a few minutes would give you a headache. Thinking it had to be a power issue, I upgraded the system power supply, rechecked power cables. The same problem continued, eventually I had to replace all the cameras that where installed. This cost me a full day. This is an example video I made using one of the Cantonk day/night cameras, showing the flickering issue. As you can see in night mode the flickering is severe and when in day mode the image is actually very good. ufvH3Kz8IfY The cameras have OSD config options. Tweaking these settings in every possible configuration did not help solve the issue at all. To make matters a lot worse, every customer that order I had filled with a Cantonk camera requested a refund. Cantonk support insisted it was the power source of the camera causing the issue and went as far as to say the issue may be caused by local police bugging the power supply... What a joke. This is a quote from a Cantonk support email I received. Quote from an email regarding Cantonk QC (quality control). I have concluded that Cantonk quality control obviously do all their camera testing during the day or a very well lit environment, ignoring the night function. It isn't possible that its an external environment issue like the power source because I have tested the cameras on every device possible and nothing changes. I also couldnt imagine that all the customers that requested refunds had a faulty power supply also. I then had 18 cameras that I couldn't sell to anybody. I've then had to disassemble all 18 cameras, remove the video modules and return them to Cantonk for testing. So I set out to increase my profits only to have it cost me 10 fold in lost time, refunds, bad reviews and the general head f*&k of it all. Here is a photo of the camera board used in all of the latest 800tvl - 1000tvl camera range Is anybody else experiencing this with their cameras? To anybody considering this. Just remember that you get what you pay for and youl pay even more with your time.

Bravo gz-cctv, Very good attempt at trying to defame me on this post after I denied your constant requests to remove the post. You have quoted a few paragraphs from dozens of emails between us and then twisted the words and added a few of your own to make me sound like the bad guy which is just rubbish. This is one of many emails that I received from you that I decided to respond to. I have underlined the words that I would like to emphasize to people that read this. If you can decipher the poor english, you would read "Warmly you to test". I presumed this meant they were offering products for me to test first so I would continue purchasing from them. My response and conversation continued with... I dont want to boar everyone to death so Ill leave it there, but the emails continued back and forth while obviously getting more and more lost in translation. I was assumed they were offering me products to test so I would continue purchasing from them. Not only is it impossible for me to remove this post, I never had any intentions to remove this post on their request, as I thought everyone should be warned about their dodgy products. If anything they were trying to bribe me. Its quite funny how Cantonk continue to insist that they CMOS boards didnt have a problem and they just need IR to work at night. Biggest load of crap. I tried to convince them for months that the cameras had an issue, as a last resort I had to dismantle 12 of the cameras and send them back to Cantonk. Finally I got the answer I was looking for from the sales manager. So to sum it up, I was right and they were wrong. The updated boards did show a lot of improvement but they still have they flickering issue just no where near as bad. Also why would a CMOS board have Day & Night setting options in the OSD if it did not have low lux functionality. Image of OSD http://solidgoldsecurity.com.au/wp-content/uploads/cantonk.jpg Here is a few more video examples of their dodgy cameras. Eo06DhzUovk G4iE6eMWrB4

I never had an issue with their older 2012 stock which is why I made the second larger order of their new stock which have the ccd's with the dodgy firmware. I would love you to show me some proof of an LS-138 ccd board with stock firmware installed actually working well during day and night. Cantonk have since admitted to a firmware bug and suggested updating the CCD's, there is no way you could do that.

Thanks for the advice guys appreciate it I suppose ill have to take it as a lesson learnt just amazes me how a company like cantonk can still operate succesfully. There only solution to fix the faulty boards was for me to disassemble every camera remove the ccds, and to ship them back for testing leaving me with a lot mess and no stock & out of pocket for having to pay for shipping. What really cost me was the hours and hours of my time not to mention if I do hopefully get them back alot more time to reasemble them all. Is this normal I was not aware that manufacturers would solve an issue like this in this way I know importing products from china makes me the manufacturer of them here meaning I have to replace them with no questions asked if they do not operate correctly but why should a sole trader have to do this when a big company like cantonk does not? look at the quality of there boards they cant even put the ccd glass on straight

I think this may be the User manual for the camera mentioned it has been re branded a number of times but I eventually found it hope it helps. Dip switch and pin out configuration should be the same. Link to the user manual http://www.cop-eu.com/sections/downloads/files/15-CD53-CD53W%20USER'S%20MANUAL.pdf

Looks like could be this one - http://www.camsecure.co.uk/CamsecureMediumInternal.html Colour Internal Medium Speed Dome with 22x Zoom High resolution colour internal medium speed dome camera with a built in 220 x zoom lens. The pan, tilt and zoom functions can be controlled remotely either using a joystick controller or a compatible DVR. The camera uses RS485 PELCO-D / P to communicate. The camera has many advanced features including a digital slow shutter function for extremely low lux operation and a fully adjustable white balance function, these and other options are set-up in the on screen display. 1/4” SONY Super HAD CCD High resolution 500 TV lines 0.5 Lux - Normal shutter / 0.005 Lux - Digital slow shutter 3.9~85.8mm auto iris lens 220x zoom (22x optical zoom, 10x digital zoom) RS-485 protocol including Pelco D/P Pan range 360 degree, Speed 0.5~240 degree/sec Tilt range 0~100 degree, Speed 0.5~120 degree/sec 128 Preset positions 1 Patrol pattern On screen display for set-up Power input AC24v Type Colour Image sensor 1/4” Super HAD CCD Pixels 752(H) x 582(V) Lens 3.9mm (Wide) ~ 85.8mm (Tele) S/N Ratio 48dB Mini. Illumination 0.05 Lux Picture Effect Posi./Nega/Freeze/Cross Line/Mask Motion Detect/ H/V Reverse White Balance Auto (ATW/AWB) Video signal output 1Vp-p Composite Video (75) ohms Horizontal resolution High Resolution 500TVL AGC Auto (24dB Max) ALC Auto / Fix AES Auto / Fix BLC On / Off Optical zoom 22x Zoom Digital zoom 10x Zoom Focus Auto / manual External control RS-485 Pelco P/ D OSD control Zoom, Focus, Iris, AWB, AGC, Position, Language English Pan 360 °, speed 240 °/s Tilt 0 ~ 100 °, speed 120 °/s Preset 128 preset positions Patrol patterns 1 Patrol pattern Auto cruise 1 Auto cruising track Power source AC 24v / 2A Ambient temperature 0 °C~50 °C (Recommended 0 °-40 °) Humidity 10%~90%