ACTi 5611 connection issues are killing me!

[Razer_SE 0]

Has anyone else been having a lot of issues with ACTi 5611 and or 5211e cameras not staying connected for whatever reason? I have about 30+ of these at separate locations and recently have been having a lot of problems with them staying connected, and just power cycling the switch fixes it. ACTi camera utility cannot even find them, so it's not a software problem on the DVR side.

 

I use Cisco 300 series business class switches mostly and they seem to have the most issues so I've been tweaking the switches lately to see if I can cut down the issues. I turned off green ethernet, set the the power on that port to critical, upgraded the switch to the latest firmware and such. Most of that was done this week so time will tell if that helped or not. The other brand switches I use is ZyXel though, and there is no management on those, or fancy features, just all power all the time and I still have this happening. Literally just power cycled a ZyXel switch via a ups remotely right now which reminded me to post this. Also important to note that I have other ACTi cameras on these switches, at times all 8 ports filled and the only camera that ever has this issue is the ACTi 5611 and or 5211e.

 

I have always had this issue with this series of ACTi cameras, but maybe only every 90-180 days or would a particular camera need the boot. This last week or two I've rebooted almost every one I have! Most are running the newest firmware on the camera also, that may be the issue as I did upgrade them all here recently. I know they have mentioned that in the firmware notes before, where they were fixing the dropping of connections, but for me it seems there is still a lot of work needing done! Anyone else?

 

I'd open a ticket with ACTi if it were not such a brutal process to get understood - hoping someone else has heard of the issue and that they are working on it. I need a better contact than the stupid help ticket system as that has proven useless for me anyway.

[buellwinkle 0]

Funny you say that as I had the same problem with an E33, they sent me a new one and it's fine. That camera should be warrantied for 3 years, tell them you want an RMA and send it to them for repairs.

[Razer_SE 0]

I would but I'd have to RMA 30 cameras easy! I literally just found another one that needs rebooted. Sigh.

[buellwinkle 0]

Did you recently apply a firmware update?

[ando 0]

It is recommended to use industrial grade switches, to have the safe performance. Industrial grade usually means that the maximum power (e.g. 15.4W for Class 3) is guaranteed on ALL ports at the same time. Lower grade switches may support 15.4W on each port separately, but the total power is not "15.4W x number of PoE ports."

 

Some brands which have been well known for their industrial grade in the past, may also offer lower grade products nowadays due to competitive pressure or business strategy change. So please rely on the spec sheets to be sure.

 

KCM-5611 requires 10.7W via PoE when IR LED is on (refer to KCM-5611 datasheet).

 

Cisco 300 series does not even guarantee that much power when you use up all the PoE ports!

 

Example: SF302-08P has 8 ports, with total power of 62W, that is an average of 7.75W per port when all ports are in use. If all ports are used by KCM-5611, you do not have to blame the camera for disconnection due to lack of power.

 

I hope this helps..

[Razer_SE 0]

Yes, but this is a newer widespread problem, so I cannot believe it is switch induced. On the 300 series switch you can set power on individual ports, so the port for the 5611 is set to critical, and set to class limit, not port limit. Also, on several switches we are using the SF302-08MP and the same issues are there. Only one camera at any site is a 5611 or 5211, the rest are e31, 1111, or the like that all use way less power. Many sites right now have only one or two cameras, the one I power cycled this morning has only two cameras, one e31 and one 5611. Power used is not even close to limits.

 

The one I just looked at has 4 cameras, one 5611 and three 1111 models. Current power being used, during the day, is 16w. 46w available. Three of those do go into night mode, and one of the 1111 stays in day mode. The 5611 is getting 15400mw power dedicated to it, and is set to critical power so it would be last to have power loss.

 

Some of the 5611 cameras are never going into night mode, so no IR use to make the power go up?

 

Lastly, the other brand switches are full POE power too and having the same issues. I had rare issues before the last firmware update and now they are happening all the time. Fixed another one this morning.

 

Thanks for the reply Ando, I do appreciate it!

[Razer_SE 0]

Did you recently apply a firmware update?

 

Yes, about three weeks ago I installed 5.09.15 on the vast majority of them. I'm starting to look that direction as many of the cameras had been up for months before the upgrade with no issues, and some have had to be rebooted two or three times since.

 

I just checked one I know I've not had to reboot for a long time and it is running 5.06 firmware. I may look at rolling them back if this continues. I had not thought about it but I am having the same issues with a few of my 3911 hemispheric cameras too, and they are using the same firmware as the 5611 and 5211 cameras. I know I upgraded all of those to the newest firmware and I've rebooted three of them a few times recently for the same connection issues and a reboot of the switch fixed those also.

[vin2install 0]

What VMS are you using? Sometimes the VMS will send certain CGI commands to make the cameras lose connectivity until a reboot of the camera is done to restore functionality.

[Razer_SE 0]

I am using Exacq, latest version on all of my servers. I've been installing a few servers a month for 1.5 years now, so I started with 5211e cameras then started using the 5611 as soon as it came out and have never had major issues with connectivity until now. Something has changed, so I'm going to keep hammering away until I find it! I'll figure it out eventually I'm sure.

 

This is affecting sites installed 1.5 years ago and sites installed this last month, and it all started about three weeks ago or so with the real issues.

[thewireguys 3]

 

This is affecting sites installed 1.5 years ago and sites installed this last month, and it all started about three weeks ago or so with the real issues.

 

So what changed in the last three weeks?

[vin2install 0]

Did you upgrade some new firmware or update the Exacq software within the last three weeks?

[buellwinkle 0]

Definitely go back to the old firmware except for 1-2 cameras so ACTi can fix this. Maybe Ando can look into it once you have a ticket number.

[ando 0]

Did you get the answers from our tech support team regarding this case? I am very curious about this case, too.

[Razer_SE 0]

I have yet to contact tech support, I've never had great success with making them understand what is going on - I will try to get a ticket opened up today I guess.

 

I came in today and found two of the 5211e cameras off line this morning at one of my locations just down the road from my main office. I've never had them both go offline, one of them has never gone offline before and the other one only twice in a little more than a year.

 

I found another one in separate location that was offline, also on newest firmware and it is the only IP camera there, so it has the entire switch all to itself as far as power goes. This one was also a 5211e.

 

Lastly, I found a 5611 offline at yet another location, after reboot it also came back online but it has lost all it's settings and is back to factory defaults. Static IP address and all is gone so I'm starting over on that one. It is on a switch with one one other camera, an E31. Everything else at that location is analog currently. Has never been offline before, it's only about three months old. The E31 is working fine, in fact every single one of my ACTi bullets was working fine this morning, and I have about 200 of those currently.

 

I rolled every one of them back a version or two in firmware to see what happens.

 

Not bad for a Monday morning huh?

[ando 0]

Wow! That's really tough. The system level troubleshooting is always a challenge. However, our tech support team will help you solve all these problems very quickly, I am very sure of it.

[Razer_SE 0]

Well I did get a reply from ACTi,

 

We've currently noticed a higher than usual number of such reports since the release of v5.09.15. If you still have cameras using this version and are currently down, please try connecting to their last known IP address -- when this happens, the IP Utility would not find the cameras but if you try to connect to the cameras on IE you'll see a "debug" screen, from which you can reboot the camera.

 

So at least I'm not crazy - I've done three more reboots and rollbacks this morning. If nothing else I'll not have many left on this firmware at this rate I guess. Hope the update comes quickly, they said they are releasing an update soon.

[shockwave199 0]

How have the ones you rolled back been doing?

[ando 0]

Yes, it appears to be the issue of 5.09.15 firmware when used under ONVIF 2.2 protocol. (no problems when using ACTi protocol). It is now considered as a known issue, and is already fixed with 5.10 version (beta). Rolling back to 5.08 will also solve the issue, but it only supports functions defined by ONVIF 2.0. If that is not your concern while using Exacqvision, then 5.08 should be fine.

[Razer_SE 0]

The ones I've rolled back are running fine now, so that is good.

 

I'm not using ONVIF at all, I am using ACTi protocol but still getting the lost connections so I'm not sure whats up there. Seems to be more widespread than just when under ONVIF just so you are aware. Think I'm rolling back and waiting for a while again!

 

 

The same bug affects the 3911 cameras also, which I can understand as they are running the same firmware. At least I know it is definitely firmware related and not something specific to the camera itself I guess.

[Razer_SE 0]

So I finally had to roll back about 20 more of the cameras yesterday as they all were offline. I got them all done and then got a link sent to me with the new 5.10.01 firmware where it is supposed to be fixed. Man, I sure wish I had that about 8 hours earlier....

[ando 0]

Now that the cameras are online, you can upgrade all 20 cameras via IP Utility 4 at the same time. All done in 5 minutes.

[Razer_SE 0]

I wish it was that easy! I am accessing all my sites remotely, and I have currently 63 separate remote sites. I have to VNC into each site, then update the cameras from there and most only have on or two of the 5211 or 5611 cameras!

 

Many of the sites have 6-10 acti bullets though and upgrading them all at once at a single site is easy, I love that for sure.

[blnonline 0]

My ACTi E53 has exactly the same problem.

 

Running firmware: A1D-500-V6.03.17-AC.

 

My switch is GS108PE ("802.3af power consumption: 45W maximum (Ports 1-4)", which is about 11W per port). I have connected the ACTi E53 to one of the four ports, and non-PoE devices to the other ports.

 

The problem has also happened to the FS108P (32W, only two connections: uplink and the camera).

 

My post: http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=36093&p=221562&hilit=acti+E53#p221562

 

Thanks.