Panasonic 502 keeps choking

[cglaeser 0]

Perhaps the JPEG detail and fps settings are too high, so I've reduced those settings to see if there is any improvement, but my Panasonic 502 has been choking with increasing regularity. The Exacq client indicates that the 502 data rate starts to drop well below 100 kB/s, and at that point, it no longer records motion. Sometimes the camera will clear the backlog within tens of minutes and sometimes it takes a couple hours. Any motion during that period is lost. Cycling power clears the problem until it happens again. The problem usually occurs at night, but does occur during the day, and happens two or three times every 24 hours.

 

Is this normal? If the data settings are too high for the NVR, shouldn't the camera degrade some of the parameters (e.g. JPEG compression and/or fps) so as not to drop everything on the floor?

 

Best,

Christopher

[cglaeser 0]

Well, I dropped the fps from 15 to 10 and the JPEG compression from 10 to 8, and that did not seem to help. It's starting to slow down again, and motion is not being recorded as it begins to choke. Three other cameras, all different types, continue to run fine.

 

Best,

Christopher

[cglaeser 0]

I may have isolated the problem so I'll post the solution for future reference. The 502 is capable of producing multiple streams, including JPEG and two H.264 streams. Several weeks ago I was doing various experiments and comparing the detail of JPEG vs H.264. At the conclusion of the experimentation, I set the camera back to JPEG. Although the Exacq server was only accessing the JPEG stream, the camera continued to produce the H.264 stream, even though it was not being consumed, apparently causing the intermittent problems. Yesterday I set the H.264 configuration to off, and it appears that the camera has not had a hiccup for about 24 hours. I am running JPEG with maximum detail at 1.3 megapixels (I use 1.3 mp instead of 3 mp for improved night performance). It can run 15 fps, as best I can tell, without any problems. Fingers crossed.

 

If the problem was indeed caused by the H.264 configuration, then I would submit this is a defect. Over the course of several hours, the JPEG stream would slow to a crawl, motion was not detected or stored, and then an hour or more later the camera would heal itself, only to repeat the cycle again a few hours later. FWIW.

 

Best,

Christopher

[cglaeser 0]

The problems with the 502 persisted so I contacted Panasonic technical support. They sent me firmware 1.10 and application 1.07 to install on the camera (these releases are not available for download on the Panasonic website and must be requested). I installed the new releases yesterday and thus far seems to be working better, but won't know for certain for a few more days or so.

 

Best,

Christopher