Speco 16ch DVR power on problem

[intelli-home 0]

Does anyone know what might be wrong with this DVR? I have a customer who has a Speco DVR-T16IP. When power is lost for what ever reason. It takes just over an hour before the unit "boots" up. When power is applied to the unit it takes about two minutes to show the camera displays then it flashes "Re-Analyze Database" for over an hour. After this time it finally stops flashing "re-analyze database" and resumes recording. This occurs every time power is lost.

 

Speco Technologies DVR-T16IP

Hardware version - 0A6-10A70405

S/W Version - 1.0.6.31m-11

275GB HDD

 

Thanks for any help

[CollinR 0]

I don't have Speco experience but that sounds rather normal.

 

It probably has some intellegent circuitry that has a time delay to keep it from repeatedly tring to boot during short power outages.

 

The capacity of the hard drive will dictate how long it take to verify the video and log files.

 

You might consider putting it on an UPS, which IMO is a basic part of all installs. MPEG files don't like being cut off between keyframes due to anything especially not power failure.

[intelli-home 0]

CollinR,

Wow, over an hour to start recording is "normal". It is on a UPS, about 3000VA but it only last about 2 hours. Unfortunetely the area the system is in loses power more than average. I know I can get a bigger UPS but I had know idea that a DVR would take that much time to start recording after a power failure.

I was at the ISC East in NY last month and mentioned it to a rep from Speco and he said it should only take a few minutes. Although he said he wasn'nt a tech guy. I have installed a cheap supercircuits 9Ch DVR with a 120G HDD. When pwr is interrupted on this unit it takes about a minte to start recording.

Thanks for your input.

[rory 0]

sounds like a hardware problem .. if they have power outages that much and its not on a Voltage Regulator then chances are its fried .. a Generator sounds like it would be better for that location actually.

[CollinR 0]

PC based systems with P4 processors and 256MB+ RAM will scan a whole lot faster then the single use systems like that which are probably on the order of 300Mhz/32MB RAM.

 

I know one of mine takes about 15 minutes to scan and verify 350GB of video and log data.

 

If the DVR was new/empty it would go alot faster if not instantly.

[kensplace 0]

If its doing a dvr equivalent of a scandisk, then it probably will only do that if power was lost whilst recording. Try stopping recording, so its not doing anything, then pull out the power plug to simulate power loss.

 

Now plug it back in, if it boots up and works without the one hour delay then you *may* be in luck.

 

What you would need to do in this instance is get the UPS to signal the DVR that its power is about to fail completely, and tell it to stop recording. Course, I dont know what UPS you are using, nor am I familiar with the dvr in question, so this may not be possible.

 

If the DVR has a input on it to stop/start recording then you would need to wire this to the UPS. Now the fun begins - being able to do this depends on the ups in question.

 

If the ups has a simple output that signals power failure, then its straight forward, as long as both are the same voltage levels (probably ttl compatible, check in the manuals) then its just a straight connect usually.

 

Some UPS models will use the serial port, there are 'dumb' ups models that use the serial port, but dont actually transmit data, they just use the CTS/RTS etc pins on the port to signal various states.

 

Smarter UPS devices will actually communicate via a serial protocol, in which case its going to be harder to interface.

 

It could be possible to get a program on a pc to monitor the ups, and output a signal on the parallel port to turn of the dvr's recording if its a smart ups.

 

No idea if this is possible, like I say, not familiar with the equipment, but if you can get them talking to each other it may well do the trick.

[CollinR 0]

You could also put an NC relay to an alarm port that stopped recording, have the relay trip when power is lost. Then you will have the runtime of the UPS for it to stop.

[intelli-home 0]

Yes a generator would be better for this clients application.

I will try to shut the system down (disconnect power) when it's not recording and see if that's the deal.

The UPS is a APC BX1500 with an additional BRP24 (1500VA) battery. It appears to only communicate to a PC via serial communication and S/W.

I guess if the unit comes up fine when power is lost during a NON-recording scenario then it is in fact a "scan disk" type of operation and I don't have many options other then better power backup.

Thanks for all your help