Nelboy

Hello, I am replacing a few old analogue cameras and have come across a little niggle when it comes to one location. The outgoing camera is a Pelco Spectra IV and will be replaced with an IP PTZ, but the Pelco has a time task schedule set up to switch the AUX1 output on and off at certain times, as security lights are connected via a suitable relay to the Aux output - this has meant the lights can switch on and off at times of useage after dark, the time task programme can be altered remotely as and when sunset times have changed, and the lights can be switched on remotely if there is activity outside of the normal periods of activity.... as far as I can see, any IP PTZ cameras that offer a Time Task feature only do this for preset/scan/tour and do not offer switching the AUX1 or AUX2 outputs on a schedule independently of other operations. Is there a way to work around this so as to keep the scheduled switching of the lights but with an IP PTZ camera? For example, are there fixed turret/eyeball/mini dome IP cameras which have a time task function for their Aux output (as this could be installed next to the PTZ and simply focused on the door, for example).... or could a signal be sent from the DVR to the IP PTZ (the liklihood is that a Hikvision DS7200HUHI-K series or DS7300HUHI-K series or iDS7200HUHI type hybrid DVR will be used as there will still be analogue cameras in use)

Hello, it looks like I will need help to unbrick a Dahua IP PTZ. It is labelled as an IC Realtime ICIP-2001HD-IR but shows up on the network as Dahua and is basically a rebadged Dahua SD6982 type unit... kinda old but it **WAS** working 2 days ago before the update. I had contacted IC Realtime support who offered me a firmware file, it showed "UPDATE FAILED" and I then eventually had to use the manual reset button on the camera body and then navigate via the IPv6 address to access the webUI - however the camera would still show a video feed via he local CVBS connection; the only thing that had changed is that during the camera startup prcedure, the camera ball would tilt down as normal and then tilt up to maximim elevation and then judder around for ages as the gearing caught up with the on-screen information showing the elevation not being at "-1.5" but at "57" below horizontal, not corresponding to the *actual* position..... I did get the unit back on the network and contacted IC Realtime support stating the update did not work, they sent me a different file which not only DID NOT WORK but now has screwed up the unit so there is no local CVBS video feed. The camera still does it's startup routine, and the PTZ movements can be controlled locally using RS485. On the network the "Advanced IP Scanner" programme finds the camera at both 192.168.1.108 *AND* at 192.168.4.48 but both are shown as "dead"... using the "Advanced Port Scanner" programme find *NOTHING* at either of those addresses. Attempting a connecction with PUTTY brings a fatal timeout error on both addresses at port 3800, and using the Dahua IP Config tool to attempt a connection over the same port also brings a connection failure. My network is through an Amazon Eero so the network segment is 192.168.4.xx - does the camera network connection have to be through the Eero router or would a direct connection to the computer work? I'm not sure if there's any particular entry in PUTTY which is needed to connect to the camera. The original link for the port scanner utility is dead - http://tinyurl.com/q53pojg

some cameras do offer a noise reduction option in the audio settings, I have a Wisenet fisheye cam with this option though I have yet to test how effective it is. It may be that other hardware is available that can then provide audio line out which you can then plug in to the camera - mobile phones and noise-cancelling headphones have a second microphone fitted to the back of the device which is mounted specifically to pick up background noise which is then fed to a comparator type circuit, and those frequencies/noises picked up by both the 'dialogue' microphone and the 'background' microphone are then cancelled out. If you are able to source such a device then you could located the microphone designed to pick up background noise slightly further away from the area of interest.... depending on how good you are with soldering and small electronic components, you could experiment with a hands-free headset from a mobile phone and take it apart so as to replace the dialogue microphone with wires coming from your own unidirectional microphone for the area of interest and then site the circuit (with the background microphone still on the board) slightly further away. I cannot guarantee it'd work, but I've generally found that experimenting here and there can bring sometimes surprising results.

Hello, I'm wondering if anybody here has a quick way to download newer firmware for the IP camera in the title, as mine randomly restarts itself without warning.... sometimes it might be 3 or 4 hours between restarts and other times it can do a restart 3 times in 20 minutes - the system log shows "Sentinel time has expired" which I believe is an issue that can only be resolved by a firmware update. I did searches for the firmware and version 3.28.0.168 is shown on the Avigilon website as if available to download, but the links simply redirect to a Motorolla login page - and to create an account requires a business email, business name, and USA Zip code or Canadian province information of which I have none of those things. Other websites appear to "have" the firmware and yet simply redirect to the Avigilon FTP server which also asks for login credentials. The current firmware version is 2.6.0.168 so any version higher than this is what I'm after.... it is the 2.0C-H3A-DO1 type camera (not the IR version) Thanks

Hi All, I have a COP Inspire 16-channel DVR system (INS-DVR-16P) which I am currently testing and have a couple of questions. My current system has 3 monitoring stations all in different locations to where the DVR itself is housed... Can the DVR be controlled by a remote keyboard/joystick combo, and if so does it have to be a specific type or any which have the right protocol output? (if not, how far can the 2-wire data leads for a USB mouse extend before there's too much loss? power for the mouse would be supplied at each monitoring station) The telemetry socket for this is marked as RS422 and has both transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx) terminals.... menus show the system supports Pelco-D and pelco-P protocols, but would an RS485 converter be required on the Tx terminals if I were to want PTZ controls for operating my speed domes? Is this unit capable of operating Aux1 and Aux2 outputs at the cameras - either as-is or with a firmware upgrade? Both my speed domes and a static camera require the Aux commands - the rear dome has Aux1 operating external lights, the static cam has Aux1 operating a mag lock, and all three cameras use Aux2 to connect an external loudspeaker to the interior microphone for talkback (the talkback system is standalone and does not feed through a DVR).... alternatively, are there specific presets which would universally operate the Aux functions which can then be put into a list for fast recall? (I am aware that Pelco Spectra 4's have preset 88 and 89 to switch to and from IR cut for example). I am aware these units are a few years old, but potentially this may be (at least temporarily) replacing something a fair bit older if this can work as I want it to. Thanks in advance.

Hello, An associate of mine has a patch of land with 3 or 4 old shipping containers in and a veggie patch, the land is away from houses so has no mains electricity. He's after a simple CCTV system to watch the containers and I've suggested something could be done with solar - be it 12v or 24v, I have suitable devices which can step up or step down the output. There is a basic DVR with only a relatively small HDD so would likely only be able to record a single camera at a decent rate - I have a Bosch MIC550 and a 360vision Predator available (and a Redvision X somewhere in my loft) but these are just the cameras so no official PSU's... and I also have a couple of complete Genesis wirelsss PIR systems with battery-powered PIR's and masthead receivers. The idea I had was to use the 360 Predator as it has a really good IR light and obviously has PTZ functionality, then the Genesis system set with a PIR above each container sending a signal to the masthead receiver so as to create alarm inputs for PTZ presents on the 360 Predator..... *BUT* the missing piece in this is that I require some sort of translator board which would take these alarm dry inputs and convert into a suitable Pelco D or Pelco P transmission sent over the RS485 line to the 360 Predator - and I say 'Pelco D or P' simply because then it can easily be transferred across should a different PTZ camera be used in the future. In addition it would be ideal if the board had an onboard relay which could be set via DIP switches to run for a set time - this would be outside of RS485 control so would not operate with the Aux1 or Aux2 commands that some DVR's can send, instead only switching if the relevant alarm input has been triggered; the relay could be used to switch a couple of LED lights, or perhaps trigger some sort of 'voice box' recording (if there is anything around like that) - or alternatively the relay would latch and so could switch a zenon flasher which would keep flashing until the container with the solar system inside was opened and a manual reset button pushed. Such a translator board could also be useful for my home cctv, as a lack of such an item has prevented me installing the MIC550 before now. I've attached an image of roughly what I'm after, the address on the board would be set the same as the camera (in this example it would be address 1, Pelco P, 9600 Baud)............ If such a board is not available to buy, how easy would it be to make one? (I'm trying to do this on a budget so if it gets too complicated then the land might just end up with a couple of basic turret cams and reduced recording time/quality on the DVR. I've seen a page selling the Alarm/Relay add-on board for the official 360 Predator PSU, but it's price is out of range for this project)

Hello, after several google hits for various thoughts I've had I have finally decided to sign up here. Long read alert! I am more along the lines of 'hobbyist' rather than 'professional installer' in the CCTV field, but this comes within a wider umbrella of electrical-based interests for me. I have a number of cameras which have come from various sources such as demolition sites, skip finds, ebay buys, a couple found on the floor during the odd urbex trip, and one supplied by a mate who is a professional installer; my first cameras came from a demolition site of a former swimming pool that I was working on at the time, the access road had two Altron hinged masts with a pair of fixed box cameras at the top (the cameras themselves being COP Security branded with f1.6 adjustable lenses) and so the double crew of myself an a colleague took both down and we took a pair of cameras each (and from inside the facility I found an unbranded static dome camera and two display screens). With those bits I set up a simple system at home which was 'live view' only as there was no DVR, one camera sat under the front door canopy to view who may be at the door, and the other camera was on my garden room wall so I could see where my cat was in the garden (she's a house cat, I made sure she can't escape out of the garden but she had a habit of hiding under the holly bush).......... after my absolute delight of a neighbour threatened to knock my head off if he saw me welding again then I decided to expand the system and added a camera for the side door and another in the garage (where I had been welding), the screens I got from the demolition site were located in front bedroom and in the garage - I also created a sensor-based system so that as soon as anybody set foot on the front of the property it would switch a relay which sent an impulse down to the garage and that would turn on a relay that discharged 4x 4700uF capacitors to sound a fire alarm sounder set to a low volume and in 'bleep' mode to act as a sort-of automatic doorbell (ideal for when I have stuff to do in the garage but also expecting a delivery). At the same time, the garden camera was upgraded to a Honeywell Acuix PTZ and the front camera upgraded to a Pelco Spectra 3 mounted on a corner bracket I welded up myself from street light bracket offcuts - this was done in December 2016. Fast-forward to 2021 and my barrel of laughs neighbour suddenly decided to take exception to the Pelco Spectra.... I had suspected for a while there was something up, because he would find random excuses to come out his side door whenever I was down the side of the house; the sort of thing whereby he comes out, goes to the front garden, then comes back and fills the watering can, goes to front garden to water a single plant, then comes back to water a single plant in the back garden, then to front garden, and so on, then back inside, then outside to put one thing in the bin, back inside, then out to put a different item in the bin; and everytime he came out he was giving me the right evil eye. With my suspicions about him I reached out to a mate with whom we share a different interest, and he provided me with a Dedicated Micros DS2 and associated equipment so I could start recording images - I had fully rewired my system away from cat5 cable (which had been causing cross-channel ghosting) to shotgun coax, all running in conduit to the location where the DS2 now resides, in the process of doing this rewiring I had ye olde arsehole next door watching me from his upstairs bedroom window on one occasion, and on another he had his kids (I think the oldest is 12 or 13 but don't really know) pointing a torch through their side hall window and taking photos of me as I was trying to do the wiring........... when he eventually did decide to vent his spleen, it was about the Pelco Spectra IV SE (I upgraded it from the Spectra 3 as a cooling fan died on it and the chip overheated) - he tried to insist that having a PTZ camera on the front of the house is "illegal", that I was using it to spy on his kids in their back garden, that I'm a paedophile and all that blahblah, including threatening to knock it off the wall with a baseball bat - for reference, this is a guy who wears a baseball cap on inside his house. I modified the Spectra with a paper mask inside the dome so as to blank off everything above the fence line, and was clearly visible.... but that wasn't enough, he still went on about it being 'illegal' and that he wanted to be neighbourly but would take us to court over the camera (the irony is hilarious); he referred to us as council estate scum and kept shouting 'Mongee' at me as well for good measure. Under duress and against my better judgement, I moved the Spectra 3 to the front wall of my house and brought one of the box cameras back out from storage to replace the view of the side of the house no longer available to the Spectra (the box camera looking forward from the back of the house, whereas the Spectra was on the front corner beforehand). I recently changed the box camera to a Vista anti-vandal minidome on an L-shaped wall plate that is mounted to a backboard and has the same view as the box camera but with better night vision - well Mr Arsehole doesn't like it and the situation escalated to the point where I had to get the police out. The DS2 has apability to record audio on 2 channels, so I'm now considering adding that on so as to provide more evidence for as and when I see a solicitor regarding taking out an injunction against my neighbour... The only issue comes in that my conduit runs are full so trying to add audio may be tricky - especially as one part of the cable run will have audio from the front camera area to the DS2 then audio return which will then split off to go to the screen in the front bedroom. Ideally I'd like to use some sort of Audio Over Coax system whereby the audio and video from my existing camera are combined by an encoder and sent down the line to a decoder in the room with the DS2 so that I don't have to replace equipment (as I can't afford it) or spend notable periods of time down the side of the house pulling wires through conduit in full view of Mr Arsehole. I'm also wondering about an Audio Challenge function, having a switchable microphone in the front bedroom and a loudspeaker outside - but again, lack of space in the conduit for more cables is the problem. ----- Away from all that the other bits of note about my CCTV is that the Honeywell Acuix broke after a power surge took out the top board - it still provided a video feed but all telemetry stopped responding - and so the innards were replaced with a Pelco Spectra 4 SE, which fit remarkably well within the Acuix housing. The timer schedule function is put to use by switching relay 1 (using the NC connection) to provide a 12v feed to a power relay that in turn handles the 230v feed from a photocell so that my garden lights can be switched off partway through the night, but can be turned on at any time using the 'wash' toggle button on the DS2 keyboard..... relay 2 on the Spectra would I assume be operated by the 'lights' toggle button on the keyboard, but I'm not sure on how to wire it up - the instruction manual for the Spectra simply states that the relay "provides a ground supply" but when I put my multimeter over the terminals I don't get different continuity readings nor a voltage, and I'm not sure what it would provide a 'ground' to anyway seeing as the Spectra runs on a 24v AC supply and so a 'ground' would need a DC +'ve voltage through something that is being switched. I also have a Bosch MIC500 but not the official PSU for it so I can't use any associated alarms or relays functionality with it at the moment. At the other end of the scale, I have some vintage CCTV in the form of 2x Baxall ZR3 and 1x Baxall ZR4 telemetry boxes and associated box cameras along with their Videmech motors, all of which can be controlled on a Baxall ZT5 keyboard. The main chips on the ZR3's have a date of November 1985 and the ZR4 dates to 1984 whilst two of the Videmech motor heads date to 1988.... and it turns out they can be controlled from my DS2 using the BBV-Coax protocol, though I can't seem to get the Aux relay on the ZR3 to activate using any of the appropriate toggle buttons on the DS2 keyboard (the relays on the ZR4 work though, but one is switched using the 'auto pan' button whilst the 'lights' toggle button does nothing. ......... So that's how my interest in CCTV has progressed, where and why it is at the current level, and one or two queries mixed in. It is likely I'll have other queries which in due time I'll post in the appropriate sections, but for now I'll just say thanks for reading. Chris.

Hello, one of the cameras on my home system is a Vista VVRD2V6CM analog vandal-resistant mini dome camera and I installed it to replace an older (and much larger) box camera. The camera has the usual connections for BNC Coax and 12v power, but also a pair or wires marked in the terminal block as "AO" and "G"... my assumption is that this is "Alarm Out" and "Ground". Using the on-screen menu system, I set up motion detection and activated certain parts of the area grid for active detection; however on putting my multimeter over the 'AO' and 'G' terminals I get no change in either voltage or continuity (resistance) for when there is activity detected versus when there is not... have I missed part of the steps to set up an output? In addition, I would ideally like a UTC controller which works with this dome so as to set up the menus remotely from either of the viewing stations - is a compatiable controller still available or does it use some wierd obscure long-since-discontinued protocol?

Hello, My home system uses a DM Digital Sprite 2 DVR for recording, which I currently have no intentions to replace as it's a decent unit which does everything I want it to at the moment.... However I am now looking to add in audio on the system. As far as I can see from looking at the unit there are only 4 audio ports in the form of RCA sockets - 2 inputs for recording audio on camera 1 or camera 2, and 2 outputs with one being for an exterior speaker and the other for a speaker at the monitoring station. The unit specifications state a functionality for audio challenge, wereupon using a microphone at the monitoring station would output to the exterior speaker, and yet there doesn't seem to be any input port for such a microphone in the form of a 3.5mm jack or an RCA socket....... So is it possible to attach a microphone to the DS2 system for audio challenge without having to connect the system with an ethernet cable? (I'm pretty sure all the LAN sockets on my wi-fi router are in use for system extenders and a networked printer).... Really I want to have this connected up within the current week.