IPC-T2431T-AS – 2.8mm Issues

[Richdem]

Hi All,

Merry Christmas.

Last week I purchased a IPC-T2431T-AS – 2.8mm to go along side my Garage camera which is the IPC-T2431T-AS - 3.6mm version. For some reason I have been having lots off issues with this new camera, the recorded footage is rarely smooth unlike my other Dahua which has been awesome. I set up the new camera with exactly the same settings through the web interface and then when I added the camera to Blue Iris (I am still using version 4) I used my existing camera as a starting point. One thing I have noticed is that the FPS/key seem to be erratic along with the bitrate. These are the settings I used for the camera:



In the Blue Iris status window what I see is that the bitrate seems to rise above 1000kB/s and then it drops whereas my other Dahua sits fairly constantly around 750 - 800 kB/s. This new camera just seems to be really erratic. Both cameras are connected to the same POE switch with brand new cables along with another 4MP camera which I never see any issues with.

Anyone have any ideas what might be going on or should I just return this camera. I got my other Dahua from Andy's Amazon store back in October and I have had zero issues.

Regards

Richard

 

[wittaj]

Even though you run CBR, it is not uncommon to see the bitrate fluctuate, albeit not the same as with VBR. It is scene dependent and the compression deciding how to handle it. That part I wouldn't be concerned with.

The FPS and KEY changing more than say 0.1 leads to another issue that is usually not camera related. I have seen FPS do major swings when the camera is starved for power. I would suggest unplugging the other cameras and see if it stabilizes, then you know it is the switch.

And it could also be a network issue that adding one more camera has hit the bottleneck in the system. How are the cameras connected to your system - are they connected to the router or are they VLAN or Dual NIC separated from the rest of your system?

What is the CPU demand for the computer. Running V4 you would not have the substreams option and that has stabilized a lot of systems.

And sometimes a good ole factory reset 3-4 times on a new camera can do wonders.

 

[Richdem]

Even though you run CBR, it is not uncommon to see the bitrate fluctuate, albeit not the same as with VBR. It is scene dependent and the compression deciding how to handle it. That part I wouldn't be concerned with.

The FPS and KEY changing more than say 0.1 leads to another issue that is usually not camera related. I have seen FPS do major swings when the camera is starved for power. I would suggest unplugging the other cameras and see if it stabilizes, then you know it is the switch.

And it could also be a network issue that adding one more camera has hit the bottleneck in the system. How are the cameras connected to your system - are they connected to the router or are they VLAN or Dual NIC separated from the rest of your system?

What is the CPU demand for the computer. Running V4 you would not have the substreams option and that has stabilized a lot of systems.

And sometimes a good ole factory reset 3-4 times on a new camera can do wonders.

I just performed a full hard reset on the camera to see if it made a difference. Currently the cameras are on a VLAN (Running an Asus AC86 with DD-WRT) In total I have 3 X 4MP POE camera's on the same switch, 1 Amcrest 1080P WiFi indoor camera and a WyzeCam V3 mounted on my shed just catch our nightly wildlife visitors. I am running a Dell PC with an i7-8700 with 16GB of RAM I typically see the following in Blue Iris:



I also just went out and reset my POE switch. It just seems a little odd the other almost identical camera doesn't exhibit this issue. I will try taking one of the other cameras offline to see if that makes any difference

 

[sebastiantombs]

Look at firmware and hardware versions of both.

 

[Richdem]

Look at firmware and hardware versions of both.

Both camera's have exactly the same firmware installed (The latest version from Dahua) and in the info page everything is identical. I even tried flashing the original firmware I downloaded here but it was the same so I went back to the Dahua firmware. The only thing I did differently this time is I used the physical reset button on the camera once the firmware was installed rather than a factory reset from the Web GUI. I will monitor over the next few days.

Appreciate the help

 

[djernie]

i have this camera over my driveway as well. It has worked flawless for almost a year now. It's a great cam hope you get it sorted.

 

[Richdem]

i have this camera over my driveway as well. It has worked flawless for almost a year now. It's a great cam hope you get it sorted.

I agree,

I’ve been really pleased with my initial camera the 3.6mm variant. Hopefully the hard reset via the button on the camera does the trick.
Do you use any manual shutter/gain settings at night on your camera?

 

[djernie]

I agree,

I’ve been really pleased with my initial camera the 3.6mm variant. Hopefully the hard reset via the button on the camera does the trick.
Do you use any manual shutter/gain settings at night on your camera?

No i just have them on auto, and it works for me. I have tried manual settings but i have just not been able to get them the way I want them. I have had a number of incidents around my home in the past. And i have had no problem identifying the pervs. I have multiple cameras setup so if one camera doesn't get a good view another will. This cameras is being used as an overview and it does great. I actually have three of these Two are on the side street and they are on auto as well. Like i said i have tried the manual settings but i cant dial it in to a range that i like. I also run bright LED lights so the image is very bright and motion blur is still there but it's acceptable for me. And I was able to give video with acceptable identification for police. Here is a night time video of the two on the side of my house. They are set to auto and i am fine with the quality for my use.
Also in this video i will get a closeup of the pervs with my PTZ SD49225T HN that i have set for license plate reading. And i will get a closer view of them with the other two cameras i have set up with the 2431t-as cameras on the side. The other two models are the 2231t-as which are varifocals so i have them zoomed in to the area the 2431t - as cameras are being used as the overview. So for me I am just going to leave them on auto as that works for me with all the light i have. And even with the blur i still had usable video for the police. So i would try out the settings @wittaj suggested and see if you can get it the way you like, and change it back if it doesn't work for you.

 

[Richdem]

No i just have them on auto, and it works for me. I have tried manual settings but i have just not been able to get them the way I want them. I have had a number of incidents around my home in the past. And i have had no problem identifying the pervs. I have multiple cameras setup so if one camera doesn't get a good view another will. This cameras is being used as an overview and it does great. I actually have three of these Two are on the side street and they are on auto as well. Like i said i have tried the manual settings but i cant dial it in to a range that i like. I also run bright LED lights so the image is very bright and motion blur is still there but it's acceptable for me. And I was able to give video with acceptable identification for police. Here is a night time video of the two on the side of my house. They are set to auto and i am fine with the quality for my use.
Also in this video i will get a closeup of the pervs with my PTZ SD49225T HN that i have set for license plate reading. And i will get a closer view of them with the other two cameras i have set up with the 2431t-as cameras on the side. The other two models are the 2231t-as which are varifocals so i have them zoomed in to the area the 2431t - as cameras are being used as the overview. So for me I am just going to leave them on auto as that works for me with all the light i have. And even with the blur i still had usable video for the police. So i would try out the settings @wittaj suggested and see if you can get it the way you like, and change it back if it doesn't work for you.

It‘s a shame we have to go to these lengths to protect our properties, I hope you never have any issues.

I have one above my front door, one on my garage and the newest is mounted at the side of my garage so I can see anyone that comes up the driveway and goes either to the front door or too the side of the property. Hopefully these coupled with our alarm system will be a good deterrent. Oh there‘s also our 2 month old German Shepherd who will in time be an even better deterrent lol.

Stay safe

 

[djernie]

It‘s a shame we have to go to these lengths to protect our properties, I hope you never have any issues.

I have one above my front door, one on my garage and the newest is mounted at the side of my garage so I can see anyone that comes up the driveway and goes either to the front door or too the side of the property. Hopefully these coupled with our alarm system will be a good deterrent. Oh there‘s also our 2 month old German Shepherd who will in time be an even better deterrent lol.

Stay safe

Yes it is sad, but i sleep good at night. I guess they see the 17 cameras around this place and they move on.

 

[Richdem]

I thought I would update you all,

Since I did the factory reset via the button, set the camera up and also rebooted my POE switch it has been behaving much like my existing Dahua camera I am pleased to say. The connection has been rock solid and the FPS/key has been stable. Now I need to learn ow to get better night results with some manual tweaking

Thank you for all the help.

I hope you are enjoying the Christmas season and are staying safe and well

Richard

 

[Richdem]

OK it looks like my Gremlins are back,

Today while I was at my BI PC I noticed the yellow exclamation symbols appear on both Dahua cameras, when I opened the status window to look at the cameras tab I saw that the FPS was dropping to around 5 on both cameras and also the key dropped to 0.70 on both cameras. I have already run a brand new Cat5E from the router to the POE switch in my garage. I actually have a Reolink RLC-520 (Please don't hate me lol) on the same POE switch running the beta firmware that allows the I-Frame to be adjusted and this damn thing has never missed a beat, it sits there at a solid 15fps/1.00 while the 2 Dahua's tanked. This hopefully rules out the switch as when it happened it was just the 2 Dahua camera's that exhibited this behavior. I also have an Amcrest 1080P PTZ indoor camera connected via WiFi and this is rock solid as well.

When I looked at the camera properties of each Dahua even though I had Blue Iris find and inspect them it came up as Generic/ONVIF

Just out of curiosity I changed the following to this:



I was wondering if this is the best option to choose for the IPC-T2431T-AS.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

 

[Richdem]

I just had to go out the garage door and when I got back inside both the dauhua's FPS/Key had tanked again. After about 15 minutes they both recovered.

How in the heck can a garage door opener cause interference to a POE camera? I am stumped now. The $40 Reolink on the same switch never had an issue and remained stable throughout this happening.

Hopefully someone with some wisdom can shed some light on what may be happening.

 

[wittaj]

I am leaning towards a power issue. I know you say the switch works fine for the reos and the amcrest, but perhaps these Dahua are needing more wattage than those. Maybe the settings are higher or the field of view is more demanding.

Is the switch on the same circuit as the garage door opener?

I remember a member here once had two of the same camera, one on either side of the garage door looking at essentially the same field of view. One camera kept cutting out. He would switch sides of the garage and it would still be that same camera.

I mentioned about the power issue and he got a new switch and this switch would show the demands and their was a 4 watt difference in power consumption between the two cameras of the same model purchased at the same time looking at the same field of view all set on the same settings.

I would suggest trying one camera on a different switch, then a POE injector, and then the 12V power and see if it remains consistent with one of those troubleshooting options. I suspect it will.

 

[Richdem]

I am leaning towards a power issue. I know you say the switch works fine for the reos and the amcrest, but perhaps these Dahua are needing more wattage than those. Maybe the settings are higher or the field of view is more demanding.

Is the switch on the same circuit as the garage door opener?

I remember a member here once had two of the same camera, one on either side of the garage door looking at essentially the same field of view. One camera kept cutting out. He would switch sides of the garage and it would still be that same camera.

I mentioned about the power issue and he got a new switch and this switch would show the demands and their was a 4 watt difference in power consumption between the two cameras of the same model purchased at the same time looking at the same field of view all set on the same settings.

I would suggest trying one camera on a different switch, then a POE injector, and then the 12V power and see if it remains consistent with one of those troubleshooting options. I suspect it will.

Thanks for the reply,

At least I have some where to start troubleshooting.

To answer your question yes the Switch is powered from a receptacle that also powers my garage door opener. I also have a spare POE injector that I can try. I will experiment tomorrow, I can also try a completely different plug in the Garage. Funny thing is I had an old Amcrest 720P PTZ WiFi camera in the garage for a while and that was causing interference with my wife's garage door opener so that is currently plugged into a different socket via an extension cable. My wife told me she opened my garage door earlier when this issue first occurred as did I just now. So the evidence is pointing towards that.

Huh just when I thought I had seen everything lol

 

[wittaj]

Yeah, I suspect the additional draw of the garage door opener took just enough off the switch that the cameras struggled.

Wifi cams do strange things. A couple years ago we had an issue with our opener and my neighbor. After a few times of seeing their garage door go up and the exact same time as mine I got a little suspicious. I knocked on their door and said I noticed that my opener opens their door as well. Turns out they had plugged a wifi cam in their garage in the same plug as the opener and apparently was picking up other signals LOL.

 

[Richdem]

Yeah, I suspect the additional draw of the garage door opener took just enough off the switch that the cameras struggled.

Wifi cams do strange things. A couple years ago we had an issue with our opener and my neighbor. After a few times of seeing their garage door go up and the exact same time as mine I got a little suspicious. I knocked on their door and said I noticed that my opener opens their door as well. Turns out they had plugged a wifi cam in their garage in the same plug as the opener and apparently was picking up other signals LOL.

No way,

That is actually quite funny lol

Hopefully if it is not too friggin cold here in Toronto tomorrow I can move things around in the garage and test.

Appreciate your help