mabar1

Thanks for the input. I can get additional cold weather rated cameras if needed for sure. Just wondering what my option would be to try to deal with isolated problems without the expense of replacing cameras.

Hello all, Many outdoor ip cams I have used are only rated to 0 Celsius / 14 Fahrenheit. We haven't had too many issues with cold weather causing outages, but sometimes in very cold temps some customer cameras will drop off until it warms up again. I was wondering if anyone has a simple product, or diy solution to add a small amount of heat to a camera to potentially offset the bitter cold. Most of what I find online is for external camera housings. I see what appears to be adhesive "heat tape" in some heated camera housings, or a similar heat sink that warms the metal housing of the camera. One issue I was thinking might be a problem is a camera powered by POE... one would need to know how to connect to power from the camera board to use the heater... and it would need to be proper power type (AC/DC) and voltage. This might also impact a power budget on a poe switch. Anyway, If anyone has suggestions, or has dealt with the same issue, I would appreciate feedback. Thanks.

Hello all, We have been asked by a customer to help build out a ONSSI system. We are not familiar with the software, so I am looking for any overview/assistance/gotcha advice you might offer. It appears they want to build an Ocularis PS, or potentially a CS based system. I understand that from a software perspective, there is a Base license, then a license per camera. There may also be optional costs that sound like insurance... meaning if you pay an add'l fee and they update their software to a new version, you don't have to buy all new IP camera licenses. There may also be support fees/charges, but I am not certain. I have a quote for a CS based system from a couple of years ago that they showed me. The hardware for 8TB Raid, Xeon based win 7 system was approx $6,000.00. I believe I could build this or a very similar system for under $2000.00 The Ocularis CS licenses look like they were quoting about $250.00 each. They then wanted some sort of warranty cost of about $350.00 and 1 year of support was slightly over $1000.00. All in all, approx 20 ip channels with hardware and support was going to be about $13,000. Can anyone share with me if the cost outlined above is excessive? Mid range? High? Low? Looking online, I can find base licenses in for under $200.00, camera licenses for about $85 each. I may be missing some things, but I ballpark being able to build and license the software for around $4000.00 give or take $500.00. I would mark the cost up so I can make some money, but going from $4k to $13k seems like someone is making a 300% markup, or I am missing something in the equation. Thanks for your help.

Hello all, Any help would be appreciated. We have a customer that previously used Ruby Supersystem II registers, and they are now using Verifone Topaz as their Point of Sale registers. We had sorted out connection details with the ruby units (From RJ45 com port at the register---take pin 1 to a DB9 Serial input on the DVR pin 2, and pin 6 from RJ45 to pin 5 on the DB9 connector) This would allow data to flow into our systems and record transaction data. Com settings of 9600/n/8/1 on the Ruby system and configure the port for journal printer. (jprt.ldm) The configuration above is not working for us with this new Verifone Topaz system. According to the tech, the system is set to push a journal print output to Com5 RJ45 port, and it is configured to 9600/n/8/1. Does anyone have experience or specific pinouts on both ends they know will work to get RS232 data out of this register? Thank you for your time.

It may be trying to synchronize time settings. I would check to see what the configuration is for how the camera should know what time it is. There are also some other protocols that you may want to disable if you are concerned about outbound traffic. UPNP could be trying to tell the router what port to open up for outside viewing of the camera. Boujour, or UPNP might also be protocols that might have an impact. If none of those suggestions help, you may want to use some type of monitor or sniffer on the particular camera to see what IP and information it's trying to get out to. I hope that helps.

Hello, Wondering if anyone has info on who manufactures "Fine" IP cameras. Just curious. I like their products. http://www.finecctv.com/ They have a series of camera that model starts with ACM a series that starts with TCP, and a series that starts with CDV... 2, 3, and 5 MP cameras. Any feedback would be great.

I wish I could share more details on the specific installations, (brands, lengths, cable type etc...) but I am reselling to various integrators in locations 3-5 states away. I don't typically get direct access to the facilities, and frequently deal with installers who have a High School education at best. They too are looking for a good camera at a decent price, but don't always understand the infrastructure they are dealing with, nor apply best practices. Bottom line, yes, it appears that the cameras seem to have a POE issues. I will look into the POE units you suggest. Thank you. However, one problem appeared to be related to Daylight Savings Time. Turning it off solved some of our testing issues. I think your overview is probably on target with the POE concerns. Zavio made claims that perhaps we were not using the proper switch type, and thus were having problems. I wish things worked out better with them. They tried hard, but overall, the products had too many issues to perpetuate the relationship.

Hello all, I've been out of the loop for awhile. There are some cameras from Zavio that seem to be allright. My fear is that you will be taking a bit of a gamble to see if you're going to have problems with them or not. We worked through the majority of our problems with Zavio' help.. firmware and their willingness to remote in to help. We probably have 8-10 cameras that simply would not work in the environments we placed them. We did find that decent mid-span poe units seemed to help quite a bit.. or directly powering the cameras when we could using DC power. We have been working with another group called FINE. Much better results out of about 150 units sold in the last 40 days or so. If anyone is interested in trying them out, we are bringing them into the country directly. PM me if you want info We've been selling the heck out of a 2MP Vandal Dome unit. 3MP cams are starting to come in too.

Hello all, FWIW, I have been continuing to work with the Zavio engineers and here is what we have found. 1. If you can ping the ip address of the IP camera, but can't access the web interface or use the Zavio Intelligent Installer application to see the camera, you need to update the firmware on the camera. Go to their website and download the latest build for the model of camera you need to update. Reboot the camera, and upload the firmware to the camera via the Intelligent Installer app, or from the web interface of the camera itself. 2. POE - Power over Ethernet appears to be a big issue with the various models of cameras that we have worked with. One of our integrators began using Altronix netway8 & netway16 mid-span POE units and saw camera drop-offs go away. We also hard wired power to some of our other customers cameras and it appears to have solved the problem. I don't know if Zavio didn't follow POE 802.3af standards, or if some of the POE switch manufacturers didn't follow the spec, but we saw camera drop offs using HP Procurve, TP-Link, and several other brands of POE switches. Also, make sure your POE switch has enough power to support all of the cameras connected to it. 3. Daylight Savings Time: I had some very odd issues with a B7210 I was testing. They disabled Daylight Savings Time and it seems to have fixed the issue on the camera.. (random disconnects and odd behavior). A firmware update is slated for June to address this from what I have been told. 4. Contact Zavio if you can, they will assist you as best they can. They will even tap into a system if you can set it up with Team Viewer. They can run a logging application to see what the problems are on your cameras and work on a fix for you. I will follow up when I am satisfied that we have resolved all of our issues with these cameras. I hope this helps.

Xellbuy, Unfortunately, Nuuo doesn't sell cameras, and we have been very impressed by the featureset that they provide. They support thousands of models of cameras according to their spec sheet. I guess we thought we could be the end to end provider to the integrator's and distributors that we sell to based on supported product listings and relationships. We also wanted to avoid paying a middleman on products that we won't be making a high margin on.. but will have to deal with the headaches on directly. Our integrator's and distributors like having a one stop shop for product that is supposed to work together. I guess this may just be part of the learning curve. If Zavio can't overcome the issues for us, we will take a long hard look at any potential other providers we consider carrying. How much margin do you like to make for a camera you sell.. considering you will potentially be babysitting it for a year or more? Just curious... Thanks!

Ben, The percentage is on the Nuuo HVR platform. We have seen small scale issues on the Embedded Nuuo Mini NVR platform as well. The cameras are listed as supported using the latest device pack from Nuuo, and are supposedly integrated with the entire Zavio camera lineup. We were actually introduced to Zavio by someone at Nuuo as a suggested camera partner. Xellbuy, We did sample a few basic cameras in a couple of test locations and our shops. It wasn't until we thought they were solid and started to expand with several customers that the drop off issues began to appear. We had had 1 camera that showed some problems, but we thought it may have been a wiring issue, or simply a bad camera. We purchased direct from the MFR and had them shipped. We have not discussed returning the cameras to them yet. We wired the money direct based on the relationship we were referred from. vin2install, Many of the cameras when they dropped off of the HVR software, we were able to ping, but could not bring up the web interface. We were provided firmware upgrades for this exact issue, but the cameras are still dropping off. Cycling POE power on the cameras brings them right back up. I have seen one instance myself where the camera dropped off of the HVR, but I could access the web interface. The HVR software was not recording however. At the exact same time I had an Axis IP camera that did not drop off, or lose any recorded video. (As I indicated previously, it could partly be poor camera integration in the software I am using.. and we will have to work with the HVR manufacturer to see if there is anything that can be done... my experience on this thus far is that all sides will point fingers towards the other, and we won't get anyone working on it very fast ) As I noted, this isn't to beat up on Zavio.... yet... they are trying to provide a solution to the many instances of issues. The biggest problem is turn around time and if our customers are willing to bear through another few weeks of trying to overcome the problem.. and us throwing money at installers and integrator's to see if the next fix works or not. It costs money to have to make changes on site. Thank you for your feedback and follow up

Thanks for the advice. I have been working with their engineers. They are professional, and they are trying to help us out. They are thinking that this may be an issue with PoE of some sort. We have seen the problems on various manufacturer PoE switches. We have been installing firmware updates, throttling bandwidth, and running log file captures. The problem is that I am sitting on $20,000 worth of IP cameras that don't seem to work properly in multiple different environments with multiple customers. My customers are frustrated that they don't have reliable video recorded, and all of this makes them question the NVR product that I sold to record everything (This is what I built my business around). I don't see these kinds of problems when I use Axis, Sony, or Panasonic. (Literally side by side with Zavio, and the Zavio products drop off.) Either these manufacturers are integrated better into the software I am recording with, handle PoE better, or there are some fundamental issues with the Zavio product line. Worst case scenario, I will have to replace all of these cameras at my cost. I could end up losing $30,000 to $40,000 if I replace them with cameras that cost a similar amount. I'm not here to bash Zavio. They are trying to assist. This is taking a significant amount of time to drive to these locations, and test different firmware, wiriing, re-wiring. What would you do in this situation if you had sold these cameras and were having these kinds of problems? There.. I vented.. thanks for listening.

Looks like I may be in a dark cave here Update.. We continue to have more issues with these cameras. New Firmware has been provided to try to resolve some of the issues with drop-off. Did not resolve the issue as of yet. Now the manufacturer is telling us it may be the POE switches being used. Meanwhile the B7210 units have begun to flake out even more than before with the newer firmware. I invite any feedback in general on ANY issues like this that you may have experienced. Did you ever have IP cams dropping off.. and found a solution to the problem? Thanks for any input you can share!

Hello everyone, I would love to hear from any people who have worked with the Zavio product line and had issues/resolved issues with them. My company purchased about 70 of these cameras in the last few months for installation in various different customer locations. We have installed B7210 2MP outdoor bullets, B5110 1.3MP outdoor bullets, F7210 2MP box cameras, and some D5111 1.3MP indoor domes. The network infrastructure/hardware for each location is varied. None of these facilities use the same switches or share the same network layout. We are recording these units on 2 different NVR platforms (Nuuo NVRMINI2 and Nuuo Main Console PC based NVR). All of these NVR's are running the latest 2.0 devicepack. We see similar problems with many of these cameras dropping off and requiring a power reset to re-connect. The customer will lose a few hours to a few days worth of video when this happens. We believe the problem rate is close to 25% of all purchased cameras showing these issues. We hope to check these cameras and update firmware to the latest available when we can get onsite again. All of that being said, does anyone have any suggestions, or have you dealt with cameras dropping off of your NVR's? We have other installation sites that we used Axis, Sony, or Panasonic IP cameras in.. that have been running solidly for months and even over a year. No camera drop off's. I am worried that this may simply boil down to "You get what you pay for." If anyone has specific brands they have had solid success with, Please share. Any help will be greatly appreciated. I am stumped!