Dahua IPC-HDW5231R-ZE constantly switching from B&W to Color and Back

[Jose R.]

Morning, fellas.

I've had my HDW5231R-ZE up for over a year now, and it developed this new behavior out of nowhere. Under certain lighting conditions (front house light on), the cam goes into Color mode, then back to B&W, then back to color. I don't use IR in B&W mode. It's a cycle that repeats every 5 to 10 seconds switching back and forth and will do it all night if the outside light is on. If I turn off the front house light, it stays in B&W as wanted. So I'm assuming it's a light threshold thing since making it darker stops the cycling. The front face of the camera is clean.

Example:




So my questions are:

1. How could this type of issue happen a year later with no changes to position, light, scene, or firmware? Is the camera failing?
2. What setting should I play with to perhaps tune the switchover a little darker, if possible?

Any other thoughts on this one?

Thanks!

 

[handinpalm]

I had a few issues like that and used @bp2008 Dahua surise/sunset utility to fix any problems and works great. Just make sure cameras profile management is set to Full Time.

Dahua day/night switch utility - DahuaSunriseSunset

 

[c hris527]

The led flashing in the truck might have something to do with it, check your sensitivity level.

 

[Jessie.slimer]

There is a setting for day/night mode sensitivity in the camera's ui. Maybe try playing with that one first if you've been happy with the performance so far.

 

[wittaj]

If you want it B/W at night, then change auto to B/W and it will not switch based on light level at night.

 

[Jessie.slimer]

The led flashing in the truck might have something to do with it, check your sensitivity level.

View attachment 73975

Beat me to it

 

[Jose R.]

Thanks, all. The LED on the truck has been there for the past year and I never had this issue. Nothing in this scene is different at all from the last year, which is what perplexes me. Plus car headlights head on into this cam don't cause any issues...

As for the sunrise sunset utility, that forces B&W all night, correct? I'd like to still have the color switchover when the light is turned on. I'd lose that, correct?

I checked the sensitivity setting and it's greyed out. Changing Profile Management from Day/Night to Normal activated the sensitivity setting. I'll try lowering it and see what happens tonight.

Thanks, fellas!

 

[sebastiantombs]

Just a thought, but how about dirt/dust on the photo cell of the cameras? Additionally, things do "age" over time and can introduce changes like this.

 

[Jose R.]

Just a thought, but how about dirt/dust on the photo cell of the cameras? Additionally, things do "age" over time and can introduce changes like this.

Yes, the first thing I did when this started was clean the camera's face which unfortunately made no difference.

As for age of things, if she's breaking in, I guess that could explain it as time is really the only factor that has changed here that I can think of.

We'll see how turning down the sensitivity goes.

Thanks!!

 

[Jose R.]

Ok fellas I have an update and solution on this one after waiting a few nights to make sure it stuck. After changing the sensitivity as suggested, there was no change. However, what did do it was changing the Profile Management from Day/Night to Normal. My other cameras are set to Day/Night and this one was, too for over a year but now it seems it needs to be in Normal. I wouldn't know why but it seems to have fixed it. Thanks, all!!