Flashing IR lights on IPC-HFW3300C

[salesguy 0]

I have a Dahua IPC-HFW3300C that has been malfunctioning at night and wanted to see if anyone else has had this issue or come up with a solution.

 

At night, the IR emitters flash on and off. Not sure if this is an issue with the light detecting sensor or the IR lights themselves, but it would be nice to not have a flashing picture at night. Daytime use works fine.

 

Before I break open the camera body and poke around, wanted to see if there is an easy solution. If I could just have the IR on all the time that would be fine.

 

Running 2.420.0000.0.R, build : 2014-04-14 firmware and I don't see any settings that might apply.

 

Thanks in advance!

[codyormoe 0]

We had a similar problem with a Q-see cam, swapped it to another location as a trouble shooting move and it stopped doing it but the one we swapped into it's place started. It ended up being the ir lights kicking on, reflecting off the white siding and tricking the cam into thinking it's day, then going off, then cam thinks it dark and the whole process repeats.

 

Before I had time to do any trouble shooting I just set that one cam on a day/night schedule, set sunrise and sunset times and the nvr told the cam when to kick the ir's on and off.

 

Since the mounting location couldn't really be moved, very tight area, next to an industrial garage door, in a corner at the ell of the building the only solution was to change the cam angle a bit. It didn't take much, just a little to the left and no more flashing. Made up for the slight loss of visible area by tweaking the other cams going around the building a bit.

[salesguy 0]

Thanks, that is a good idea. Unfortunately Dahua doesn't allow a dynamic schedule so I'll have to adjust it a few times per year but hopefully forcing night mode stops the flashing. Will see tonight.

[codyormoe 0]

The NVR interface itself doesn't have the settings for scheduling the ir's on and off on our Q-See system. I actually found it by mistake when I was messing around on SmartPSS from home. I clicked on "Web" in Device CFG. It brought up the web interface, basically it's http://ip-of-nvr:85/, it has way more options and settings than either the nvr interface or SmartPSS.

 

I've read that Q-See is just rebranded Dahua so maybe try using the web interface and see if it's in there.

 

Web interface, setup, remote, image, pick your channel, change from normal/day/night(whichever yours is set to) to "switch by period". That's where I could put in sunrise/sunset times.

[salesguy 0]

I tried setting to night only on the Dahua camera itself (my NVR doesn't control the camera itself) and the IR lights still flash all night long regardless of settings on the camera.

 

I think in addition the IR filter may be flashing as well, I need to get close to listen for the click. Either way it's not working well at night. Changing exposure to a longer amount of time seems to limit the frequency of flashing.

 

Oh well, I might take it appart and mess with it or i may just order something new and repurpose it to a daytime only location. The HIK stuff is so cheap its not worth messing with an old camera for too long.

[tng5737 0]

I had a similar problem with one of my cams last night. the IR switch was constantly cutting in and out. I took it inside and the cam was fine - put it back out and it started up again. I checked the cam settings and switched it from WDR to BLC and the problem went away. I don't know why that fixed it, but it worked for me!

[salesguy 0]

Thanks I'll give BLC mode a try tonight!

[salesguy 0]

Unfortunately none of the settings seem to help the constant flashing of the IR lights on the camera. Oh well.

[finalwish 0]

try black electrical tape to shield the led which is near the ir sensor; you don't need much; just a small piece to isolate the ir sensor from the nearest led and maybe that would help

[dopalgangr 1]

Hey Salesguy, did you ever figure this out? I have one doing it now and I cant fix it. here is a link to that post viewtopic.php?f=19&t=39504&start=15

[salesguy 0]

I did not, currently I ignore it but the only fix I'm looking at when I get around to it is replacement. Not worth the time otherwise to try and do more to it. Works fine during the day

[dopalgangr 1]

I did not, currently I ignore it but the only fix I'm looking at when I get around to it is replacement. Not worth the time otherwise to try and do more to it. Works fine during the day

 

Hey did you get my PM? Did yours come with that firmware on them or did you upgrade them yourself? I'm curious because mine came with 2.100.0000.6 R build 2012-05-07 and I upgraded two of them to 2.212.0000.0 R build 2013-12-06. The one that flashes and the one that the IR goes out when it gets really cold were both updated to the newer firmware listed above. I left the other cams at the original firmware and have not had any issues. Maybe just a coincidence? And they had been running on the newer firmware for quite some time without issue before I started having the IR problems.

[djadam 0]

found this

hope it helps you...I am about to give it a go

[dopalgangr 1]

I did this and it worked for a little while but they are doing it again. I wish Dahua would send out the proper shrouds for that U1 sensor. I remember many years ago I purchased cheap cameras and they had a lot of IR backwash. I wrote the company and they sent out the shrouds that had a peel off tape to adhere them to the PCB. They worked on that great but the ones I made for the Dahua not so good. maybe they have shrunk from the heat and I need to redo them? Either way a total PITA. Good luck