Need help with AD Ultra 8 PTZ addition to Geovisision GV-800

[dan63129 0]

I have a working Geovision GV-800 PC based system that I'm trying to add a used American Dynamics Ultra 8 PTZ to without much success. The camera has great video and goes through power-up contortions but isn't PT or Zooming. (After power-up the lens ends up pointing straight down which seems a bit odd though.) The GV-800 already has an Ultra IV and a generic Pelco D PTZ installed and they're working fine. I have some questions that hopefully some of the "been there/done that" guys can help out with.

1. Can the Ultra 4 and 8 be disconnected from their bases with power on? I can't find anything in the manuals that says either way for sure.

2. Can the Ultra 8 camera be plugged into the Ultra 4 base and vice versa?

3. Can the comm wires (T+,R+) be connected/disconnected with power on?

4. The GV-800 has a protocal listing for Ultra 4's but not Ultra 8's. Should the GV-800 Ultra 4 protocal work with the 8? (It didn't but neither did the Pelco P so that didn't prove anything.)

5. The comm setup is a serial port/RS485 converter with two wires run to the orange/yellow T+/R+ RS422 connections. It works fine with the Ultra 4; is it ok for the 8? Reversing the wires didn't help. Camera address is 002, termination jumpers are set up per manual. (Camera base terminated, camera unterminated, I think.)

6. After power-up, the Ultra 8 has a message on the screen that says "VERIFICATION RESEAU". It goes away as soon as any GV-800 PTZ control softkey is pushed. That says to me that there's some communications occurring, at least to the base. Is that correct? The strange part is that it acts exactly the same with the T+/R+ wires reversed.

7. The previous owner had the compass (N, NW) directions screen text enabled on the Ultra 8. When (if) I get this thing working, is there a way to get into the camera menu from the GV-800? If not I'll have to pick up a Touch Tracker or some other controller to get at it.

Any info at all would be greatly appreciated. This one's kicking my butt. Thanks