Review-SD4A425DB-HNY 1/2.8" CMOS 4MP 25x Starlight Auto-tracking MiniPTZ

[Mike A.]

Yeah, that's all set up. Just BI being weird since the changes re ONVIF. For this cam, sometimes works, sometimes not. Still playing with it to try to narrow down what's up.

It's strange... Got it working last night, then it stopped at some point. Maybe after I did the firmware update and changed the tripwire lines. This morning I loaded up ONVIF Device Manager to see what events the cam was sending. I pick the cam and get a BI trigger as soon as I select "Events." Car drove by a minute later and it also triggered. Don't know how or why that works but seems to have "jump started" it. Nothing changed in the cam or BI. Then was working fine all morning until I went in and deleted the working IVS rules and created new ones and then it stopped working again. Open the cam and select Events in ONVIF Device Manager as before and it works again. Don't understand but at least it seems repeatable.

For the other cam (5442) ONVIF triggers stopped working with one of the updates and I can't get it back again. Have a bunch of other 5442s all working fine. Need to look at that one again. It works fine with BI motion where it is so haven't gotten back to it.

 

[wittaj]

Oh yeah I keep forgetting the newer BI versions are having issues and one needs to do the "hack" to make them work.

 

[Mike A.]

I tried the "hack" with that cam but still doesn't do it for whatever reason. I did try the ONVIF Device Manager thing with it just now and as soon as I pick Events it too generates a trigger in BI in the same way as above. Unfortunately, it doesn't make the ONVIF rules work for it beyond that.

This cam seems to be fine as long as I don't change the IVS rules. I tried it again and it works the same way. Delete and make a new rule, no go. Load ONVIF Device Manager and pick events, immediate trigger. Then the IVS rules work fine from there.

 

[wittaj]

You probably need to do the find/inspect every time you make an IVS rule change now?

 

[looney2ns]

Report these issue's to BI support.

 

[Mike A.]

Find/inspect should be at a higher level than individual rules I'd think. But I'll try it while I'm messing around with things now. Cam's up in a temporary spot and I'm just playing with it while waiting for the mount to come.

 

[Mike A.]

Back to being inconsistent. lol

I deleted the rules. Created a new one. Was in the middle of making another new rule and before I could finish and try Find/Inspect or ODM it worked with the first newly created one without doing anything. Which is what it should do so good I suppose. See if that continues...

One clarification re above. Don't need to select Events in ODM. ODM triggers BI when it does whatever initialization connecting to the cam without doing that. I was just moving quickly picking Events and with the alert delay assumed that was what caused the trigger. Why that triggers my non-working 5442 cam but the IVS rules don't, I don't know.

 

[Mike A.]

After messing around a lot with things most seems to be working now. Updating firmware fixed the 5442 that wasn't working with BI with ONVIF triggers. Not sure what fixed the ONVIF inconsistency with this cam. But it's working now so I'll take it. One thing that still doesn't work right is drawing tripwire lines. That did work fine once after updating firmware but is back to limiting drawing lines again. As a work-around I can draw the lines inside where it lets me with a bunch of nodes then rearrange the nodes/lines. It still limits where things can be moved but can mostly get what I need with a few tries.

What controls how quickly the cam initially gets on target and zooms in? e.g. Cars moving down my street... When it sees a car hit one of my rule lines it activates pretty much instantly but then kind of does a little head shake before moving in and starting to tracking. By the time it does that and gets there, the car is pretty much gone. Is there a setting that controls that acquisition speed or is that just a function of scene/how rules are drawn/vehicle speed? For people it works great. Plenty of time to get there.

 

[bigredfish]

I’ve noticed similar, and up close, within 10-12 ft I’ve had it lose perfectly good tracking with no obstructions on people walking too often. Not sure.

Biggest effect is going to be the target tracking size. I’ve dialed mine back to 20

 

[DsineR]

What controls how quickly the cam initially gets on target and zooms in? e.g. Cars moving down my street... When it sees a car hit one of my rule lines it activates pretty much instantly but then kind of does a little head shake before moving in and starting to tracking. By the time it does that and gets there, the car is pretty much gone. Is there a setting that controls that acquisition speed or is that just a function of scene/how rules are drawn/vehicle speed? For people it works great. Plenty of time to get there.

I have the same issue, and guessing this is a function of how the camera locks onto a person or vehicle.
My typical senario: Spotter cam senses movement & calls PTZ preset, PTZ moves to preset, 2 or 3 or 4 second delay until PTZ recognizes target, then zooms & tracks.
Agree - cam loses tracking if target too close or too large. Changing to lower tracking size does help, but a the sacifice of smaller captures.

 

[wittaj]

Keep in mind that when the PTZ moves to a preset, it does need some time for it to queue up the IVS rules and then see the object.

If you have the clearance, try to have the spotter cam move to an area ahead of where the person is moving to so that by the time they get into the preset field of view, the PTZ is set and ready to go.

For example, when my spotter cam swings the PTZ to the preset, it is usually 5 seconds or so before the person enters the field of view, and that gives the PTZ long enough to set up and be ready to go.

 

[Ri22o]

Keep in mind that when the PTZ moves to a preset, it does need some time for it to queue up the IVS rules and then see the object.

If you have the clearance, try to have the spotter cam move to an area ahead of where the person is moving to so that by the time they get into the preset field of view, the PTZ is set and ready to go.

For example, when my spotter cam swings the PTZ to the preset, it is usually 5 seconds or so before the person enters the field of view, and that gives the PTZ long enough to set up and be ready to go.

You can see most of this in my video. The PTZ has to be called, stop, settle, initiate the IVS rules, detect, and then start tracking. I tried to set up my spotter and IVS rules to give my PTZ enough warning to go through the steps and be ready.

Video of how my spotter cam's IVS rules call my PTZ to auto-track.

With more people looking to get a PTZ and asking about it moving to a preset and auto-tracking I decided to put a video together. This shows how the PTZ goes from parked to a preset based on an IVS trigger from a spotter camera. From this preset the PTZ has its own IVS rules to tell it to...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[bigredfish]

Yep get all that, I’m talking about the PTZ tracking by itself without spotter cam initiating.
Target enters Intrusion zone which is well inside boundary of FOV, starts track, hesitates, catches up and often loses the target either because target is moving too quick or PTZ just acts to slowly in following.

Im guessing it’s mostly due to distance for me, very close targets once they get within about 15-20 ft of cam. (Camera is parked at Z1 zoom)

I’ll try and back down the target size even more.

 

[wittaj]

Yep get all that, I’m talking about the PTZ tracking by itself without spotter cam initiating.
Target enters Intrusion zone which is well inside boundary of FOV, starts track, hesitates, catches up and often loses the target either because target is moving too quick or PTZ just acts to slowly in following.

Im guessing it’s mostly due to distance for me, very close targets once they get within about 15-20 ft of cam. (Camera is parked at Z1 zoom)

I’ll try and back down the target size even more.

Maybe we were replying to @DsineR post LOL

But yeah in your case I suspect it is that short distance you have. Mine works fine at distance but as the person gets closer, it sometimes looks like the camera cannot keep up like my other PTZs can.

I ended up loosening up the screws holding the dome in place as I saw it was rubbing on the outer case and that helped a lot with not hesitating, but it still seems to have a little when objects are close.

 

[DsineR]

For spotter cam calls, best practice to MOVE or to MOVE & TRIGGER the PTZ tracking camera?

 

[Ri22o]

For spotter cam calls, best practice to MOVE or to MOVE & TRIGGER the PTZ tracking camera?

View attachment 165882

I MOVE & TRIGGER because it is already recording when it has landed and doesn't need to be triggered again.

 

[bigredfish]

I have a working theory I'm testing today that its a combination of running IVS AND MD/SMD simultaneous.
I'm beginning to believe some combination of SMD/IVS at the same time is creating issues. So I'm turning off SMD and we'll see how things go


I'm noticing it almost never loses track on a vehicle only humans (which SMD was set for), and I was also noticing tearing on humans occasionally, again not on vehicles.

View attachment Home_ch7_20230520113845_20230520113914.mp4
















Fast moving isnt the problem...

View attachment Home_ch7_20230530115902_20230530115918.mp4

 

[Mike A.]

If you're moving it to see something, most likely you want to trigger it. Not necessarily so though.

 

[samplenhold]

and I was also noticing tearing on humans occasionally,

That is NOT a human. Humans do not blur like that. It is an alien. Whoops, is this the UFO thread?

 

[samplenhold]

You guys are taking too ling to work out all of the kinks in this cam. I have been waiting for a long time for that so I can order one.