IR Vs Light Sensor

[Stevefrehey 0]

So Ive set up 2 cameras with IR leds and Ive also setup a 2 spotlight motion sensor.

When the motion lights activate, it looks like a nuke has went off, and takes awhile for the cameras to adjust....even though its not really that long, I live in the city and the gate to the door in only a few steps, so it doesnt give the cameras long to adjust

Know Any tricks to combat this?

Also, would the sudden flashes of strong light damage the IR leds overtime?

they are not pointed directty at the cameras!

[Kawboy12R 0]

Dimmer lights in your spotlights? Add a big external IR illuminator? Change cameras to something that reacts quicker?

[Stevefrehey 0]

Thanks for the ideas Kawboy

 

Ive since worked out its caused from Lag...

But Im unsure why this happens, as the Wireless indicators are on full strength??

Any ideas at all appreciated

[Kawboy12R 0]

Lag from what and in what? Even if there's a delay in getting the image from the camera to your monitor, if it takes 3 seconds for the cameras to adjust, your monitor will be whited out for 3 seconds even if your monitor is lagged, for instance, a second behind realtime to allow for digital encoding, transmission time, or whatever. Wireless indicators? Are we talking about wireless IP cams or wireless analog cams? Make/model?

 

Oh, and floodlights coming on definitely won't damage the IR LEDs in your cameras.They don't "sense" anything, so they can't burn out. There's probably a light sensor in your camera (small dot that's probably at the edge of the IR LEDs) if the cameras switch to B&W mode at night but that won't be affected by floodlights, either. The only thing that is light sensitive is the image sensor at the back of the lens, and it won't mind floodlights coming on either. I don't think I'd shine a laser into the lens for long periods of time but other than that you're fine. It just takes some cams time to adjust to the sudden drastic change in light.

[MaxIcon 0]

This is usually due to the camera firmware. My Vivoteks react quickly to light changes, while my Dahuas take 7-10 seconds to get their exposure back under control when a bright light turns on.

 

On the Dahuas, when the only light is turned off in a dark room, the IR LEDs light up immediately, but the camera has to think for a few seconds before it switches out the IR filter, then for some seconds more while it adjusts the exposure settings.

[Stevefrehey 0]

Lag from what and in what? Even if there's a delay in getting the image from the camera to your monitor, if it takes 3 seconds for the cameras to adjust, your monitor will be whited out for 3 seconds even if your monitor is lagged, for instance, a second behind realtime to allow for digital encoding, transmission time, or whatever. Wireless indicators? Are we talking about wireless IP cams or wireless analog cams? Make/model?

 

Sorry for being so vague. Im not sure what the technical term is..I thought it was lag..but if a person is in view of the camera it can kind of freeze up for a second or two and sometimes to the extent they can disapear from view,..thats the worst case..Moving trees sometimes dont appear to be an even natural flow when they are in the wind..is this normal?

The setup I purchased is the Uniden Guardian 2720...For the price and my needs it looked like a good cheaper alternative, but I dont know anything about this stuff, (painfully obvious)

Wireless Indicators for the cameras are on the tablet.

 

This is usually due to the camera firmware.

I just downloaded and installed the latest firmware, no joy.

[Kawboy12R 0]

Sounds like you are dropping frames if moving trees have skips in them and people freeze and disappear. Analog wireless easily tells you that you have poor signal by increasing video static. Poor _digital_ signal usually results in blockiness in the picture, dropped frames, or loss of signal (and probably some more weirdness occasionally as well). Dropped frames in general can also be caused by not enough CPU power (in camera or in the dvr/computer) or bandwidth from cam to dvr/computer (wireless quality in your case).

 

With a wireless system like yours, I bet that the cams are too far from the tablet and can't deliver much content to it. With digital compression, generally when a scene changes dramatically (say a person steps into the frame and starts walking around), either the data needed to be transmitted increases or the CPU power needed to compress the data does, and usually both. Try bringing the tablet right next to the cameras and see if performance gets better. I bet it does. Also, try both shutting off your home's wireless router as well as running LOTS of traffic through it (dloading large files wirelessly or viewing a hidef movie) and see how that affects your Uniden tablet. Wireless traffic (routers, cordless phones, etc) from even your neighbours can also interfere with communication from camera to tablet. Some cordless phones can COMPLETELY shut down ALL wireless IP traffic nearby. I troubleshot a wireless home network once at my inlaws that had intermittent trouble with their wireless. I couldn't find a thing wrong until their phone rang. When they picked up a cordless phone the laptop dropped completely off the network. When the call was finished the network automatically reconnected at full strength. Strangely, the phone and base station weren't between the laptop and the router. When they answered with a different cordless phone(different brand) then they had no trouble with their wireless. If I remember correctly, their GE killed the network and their Panasonic worked fine. This was AFTER they'd had their ISP send in a troubleshooter and had recommended that they replace their router, which they did. If their neighbour was the one using that phone I never would have figured it out. Our Panasonic microwave knocks some laptops off the net while running and not others. Wireless can be trouble.

 

Moving the tablet away from your router and closer to the cameras (if possible) should help. Changing the channel settings in your wireless router might improve things a bit if you find that it is interfering with the 2.4ghz signal of the cameras. Some routers have an auto select option in the firmware to get around conflicts. If it has one and it's not set then tick the checkbox in wireless settings for auto. Dual band routers run 2.4 and 5ghz signals. If you've got one and you find that your router gives a lot of camera interference you might want to switch off 2.4ghz and just run on 5 if you don't really need both bands running and all of your other wireless gear can run on 5ghz.

 

Hopefully you'll be able to get your system to work decently for you. The best bet though is to skip wireless if you want really reliable camera coverage. It'll save you trying different wireless packages in the hopes that one is better than another (most aren't). Good fairly reliable wireless is much more expensive than running wires and usually involves hooking a wired camera to a dedicated wireless transmitter. There is no bulletproof wireless if any old cordless phone or microwave or failing electric motor (or whatever else you can't control) can knock them off the air. You can even run wires out a window to wired cameras if you aren't allowed to drill.

 

I'd be interested in knowing if you can tune your system well enough to work for you and how far your cams are from the tablet.

[Stevefrehey 0]

The cameras are not that far from the tablet really..2 at the front are roughly only 10 meters away & I have one at the side of the house which is the closest where the tablet usually lives at 3 to 4 meters away. Also, the signal bars for all the cameras on the tablet indicate full strength most of the time.

 

Just as I am typing this a car flew past the front and froze in the middle of the screen for a second and re appeared at the end of the screen.

 

I think your onto something with the Wireless traffic...this house runs 4 wireless laptops almost continiously, also a phone, iphones, Ipad...god knows what else the kids use!

Thanks for you help again mate, Ive logged into the modem, I will do a bit of research and

report back.

 

(UPDATE)

Channel Selection was already set to automatic chanel 1

Unfortunatley,its not a Dual band router... so its running 2.4G Hz same as cameras

was hoping for this easy fix...shoulda known

thanks anyway Kawboy worth a try