Identify discarded camera

nighteye

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a fly in the ointment:
the unit does not keep the correct time.

Much like discussed here Dahua cameras not holding correct time except my unit resets itself back to year 2008, which was the date showing when I got it. I wonder if there is a fix for a computer that is permanently offline?

I have searched Dahua's site for updated firmware but no result for the IPC-HDW1220C

BlueIris (BI) is not free, but not that expensive either ($55 currently through this forum - which usually has lower than retail prices).
yes, I have seen this on the forum but I am only playing around with cameras and can't justify the cost (particularly with the Australian dollar being so weak relative to the USD). I have heard this is good though, so thanks for the suggestion. I don't have all the mounting bits so am just placing the camera around the house, supported by household items.

I might try Zoneminder and MotionEyeOS soonish. Grateful for any opinions.
 

CCTVCam

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unfortunately I don't so I might be living with wonky timestamps for the foreseeable, haha. I did download NetTime just in case though.
Thta might be why it got dumped. The evidential value of the photos could be challenged if it doesn't capture a 100% clear image as the perp may be able to prove he was elsewhere at the time.

Maybe could have some use as an overview camera if there's a 2nd camera with a correct timestamp covering the area concerned, or could be useful for other uses such as wildlfie spotting.
 

nighteye

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Thta might be why it got dumped.
Yes It could be. I am pretty impressed with what the IR can do at night because I have never owned a night vision cam before. I probably had this cam sitting around for a year or more before I finally decided to buy a PoE switch and test her out. Though it's a shame that through glass windows the IR results in reflections. I'd love for it to work without work-arounds and external lighting.

Years ago I found an analogue camera thrown out too. Still untested. I can sort of understand why someone would want to toss out the older analogue cams for digital. A lot simpler to work with. I suppose now many people are upgrading from 'Full HD' to 4K so this might have been a reason to let go of this one too. Or simply the fact it was spray-painted black. Either way, it's a shame what can end up in the landfill these days. All the good tech that can be used, just rotting away. This camera is fairly decent (lens barrel distortions notwithstanding) and heaps of fun to mess around with, despite not keeping the time. File naming and file modified dates are my only real clues when something happened. Haha.
 

alastairstevenson

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the unit does not keep the correct time.
What are the network settings for camera IP address, subnet mask, gateway IP address, DNS IP addresses, NTP server address or name?
Are there any 'Test' buttons in the camera we GUI network configuration pages?
 

nighteye

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What are the network settings for camera IP address, subnet mask, gateway IP address, DNS IP addresses, NTP server address or name?
Are there any 'Test' buttons in the camera we GUI network configuration pages?
Hi alastair
ip address is 192.0.0.30
subnet 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.0.0.1
the ntp servers cannot help because the machine is not connected to the internet (there is no internet at the residence at all), hence the discussion earlier about workarounds for keeping time. Though there is a selection of NTP servers to choose from in ConfigTool, this area was ignored. The PC is completely offline 100% of the time. It receives some internet love from an android device which sometimes connects to external wifi & downloads things for it. Hah.

Camera web gui is all in chinese, unfortunately. Dahua web page from camera offers a plugin to download to see a live image of camera inside the browser (the box where the plugin is supposed to display a live image shows english text suggesting to download the plugin, if my memory serves... but that's the extent of the English text). This did not work on my Firefox, so I get no live image in web gui. I don't care too much about that. ConfigTool has Time pc sync but camera goes and does its own thing before too long despite no power being lost (or doesn't change time at all). ConfigTool seems to work in other respects despite confusing me in several areas. I am not sure if there are any test buttons in the (web gui) network pages since everything is in Chinese.

I am a tad baffled that these sophisticated devices cannot maintain simple time offline but I am not knowledgeable enough to comment on why. Thank you for your help.
 
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nighteye

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Last night I synced the canera's time to the PC again, but this time using ONVIF Device Manager ONVIF Device Manager The camera managed to keep the time without going back to 2008 While recording overnight. I hope it lasts.

I like ONVIF Device Manager even though it hasn't been updated in a while. I could have used this app earlier, to discover my cam on the network. Apparently it can discover cams from multiple brands as long as they are ONVIF compliant. Isn't that most cams? Anyway, a very nice free app that's worth a download.
 

wittaj

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Cool deal!

Most cloud based cameras like Ring, Arlo, etc are not ONVIF compliant.
 
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