IPC-HFW2431SP-S-S2 firmware update failed

jaybee

n3wb
Joined
Jun 24, 2021
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Location
ger
Hi,
how do i update the firmware of the IPC-HFW2431SP-S-S2?
There is a popup saying "upgrading" but nothing happens für half an hour...
if i choose the squashfs it will upload fine.
is there an special firmware other than that of the dahua site?
i bought it from amazon in germany and it has 2.800.0000000.14.R, Build Date: 2020-02-29
tia
jay
 

wittaj

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
24,445
Reaction score
47,568
Location
USA
^+1

So you really need to ask yourself, why am I updating? If it is just for kicks, then stay with what is working.

A common theme around here is don't fix what ain't broke. If the unit is working and meets your needs, in many instances an update breaks what you had working and provides you with something you didn't need. A Z12E that someone updated and then constantly reboots comes to mind, and a certain PTZ that loses autotracking with an update come to mind, a Hikvision ANPR camera losing half the FPS and ability to read US plates - those are big deals to have happen. Don't do it unless it is fixing a problem you are experiencing or adds a feature you really need.

Further, it is best to obtain any firmware updates from the vendor you purchased it from so that you do not run into issues. Any firmware you find here or elsewhere is obviously proceed at your own risk. We have many threads here where someone tried an update with a firmware they found on the internet and bricked their unit.

Many units being sold are Chinese hacked units that will either brick or go into Chinese upon updating. Some vendors will be upfront and tell consumers that as part of their website, but many do not or the consumer forgets...here is one such example....


1614546148413.png
 

jaybee

n3wb
Joined
Jun 24, 2021
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Location
ger
why am I updating?
because i expect that there will be major differences between DH_IPC-HX2XXX-Molec_MultiLang_NP_V2.820.0000000.30.R.210508.bin and the one it was delivered with.
there are 2 (or 20?) major releases or at least 16 sub versions and more than a year of time between...
i dont want to fix something. i want to test the camera, if it fits my needs. and i want to do that with the most features and the up to date bugfixes.
obtain any firmware updates from the vendor you purchased it
amazon has firmware updates? :)
Any firmware you find here or elsewhere is obviously proceed at your own risk.
well, the one form the official dahua site should work, not?
Many units being sold are Chinese hacked units
this one should not. it is not from aliex and it has not one chinese sign on it or the package.
and it has the european ce, fc and recycling signs.
and it was delivered inbetween 2 days from amazon.
greets
jay
 
Joined
Aug 8, 2018
Messages
7,386
Reaction score
25,889
Location
Spring, Texas
amazon has firmware updates?
Just because you got it from Amazon, does not mean that is the vendor. Who is the actual vendor? I did a search for the model number in your title, IPC-HFW2431SP-S-S2, on Amazon and do not find that cam here in the US. But I do find a very similar cam, IPC-HFW2431S-S-S2, listed by various vendors none of whom are actually AMAZON. Most of them seem to be Chinese Ali type vendors.
 

wittaj

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
24,445
Reaction score
47,568
Location
USA
@jaybee - you missed the entire point of my post.

Just because a firmware is issued doesn't mean it is any good. Look at the problems I mentioned with some updates.

Just because a firmware is issued doesn't mean it will work with your camera - too many different regions hard-coded in the cameras, plus all of the hacked Chinese cameras on the market.

Imagine paying $450 USD for an autotracking PTZ that works for a year and then you decide to update the firmware just because and it loses autotracking because Dahua decided that camera was too cheap of a pricepoint to have autotracking and removed it from the next firmware.

Many of us here are running older firmware. Our cameras are not connected to the internet, so security risks are not there. Usually a firmware update is to address a security concern, but in doing so breaks something. Some of my firmware is from 2018. I am not going to fix something that isn't broke.

That is just stupid to think Amazon is the vendor - they are the seller of someone elses product for the most part.

You found that setik.bbiz is the actual vendor, so I suggest you reach out to them to find out if they have a firmware update.

Pulling some firmware off the internet can result in a bricked camera.
 

jaybee

n3wb
Joined
Jun 24, 2021
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Location
ger
so, dahua seems to be very special.
instead of missing the point of your post, i could say, that you missed the entire point of my question. :)
i did not ask "should i update or not", i asked for "why is the update of the gui working, and the update of the firmware from the same archive lasts forever?".
anyway. i dont want to test a new type of camera with an old firmware with the risk of getting another one with the next order.
so the answer for me seems to be "dahua cams are disqualified".
good to know.
is this the same chaos with other vendors? i.e. hikvision?
 
Last edited:

jaybee

n3wb
Joined
Jun 24, 2021
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Location
ger
The advice here is that if there is nothing in the new firmware that will fix a problem you are having, then do not update the firmware. Do not 'fix' what is not 'broken'.
is it normal, that with switching off the ir filter, the starlight feature is completely lost and the image is always b/w?
 
Joined
Aug 8, 2018
Messages
7,386
Reaction score
25,889
Location
Spring, Texas
is it normal, that with switching off the ir filter, the starlight feature is completely lost and the image is always b/w?
I do not know what you mean by that. Could you elaborate more? What do you mean by 'starlight feature'? How are you 'switching off the IR filter'?

i did not ask "should i update or not", i asked for "why is the update of the gui working, and the update of the firmware from the same archive lasts forever?".
Again, not sure what you mean here, especially the part about 'archive last forever'. It might be the language differences. Sorry I don't speak German, which might help?

Realize that
1. you bought a cam from a vendor no one here knows anything about. So it is hard for us to really help you there.
2. It is most probably a hacked Chinese firmware cam that may or may not be upgradeable.
3. If you want to upgrade the firmware, your best option is to contact the vendor, setik.biz, and see if they can help you there.
4. Just because there are no Chinese characters on the cam or box does NOT mean that it's firmware can be upgraded, including with official Dahua firmware. Many, many vendors have Dahua supply them unupgradable cams for cheaper than normal cams.
5. It would really help you if you were to read the Cliff Notes and check out the WIKI here. There is a mountain of info their that can help you.
6. The firmware issue is not just Dahua, but most other cam brands are more or less the same.

Sorry if you did not appreciate being told that upgrading firmware unless there is a specific purpose to do so is not what you were looking for from members here. But that is what most folks here will tell you. This is not meant to frustrate you, but rather to help you not get frustrated. We all here have seen so many folks brick a cam or just be totally frustrated with firmware updates.
 

wittaj

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
24,445
Reaction score
47,568
Location
USA
so, dahua seems to be very special.
instead of missing the point of your post, i could say, that you missed the entire point of my question. :)
i did not ask "should i update or not", i asked for "why is the update of the gui working, and the update of the firmware from the same archive lasts forever?".
anyway. i dont want to test a new type of camera with an old firmware with the risk of getting another one with the next order.
so the answer for me seems to be "dahua cams are disqualified".
good to know.
is this the same chaos with other vendors? i.e. hikvision?
Yes, Hik is the same way....the ANPR camera I mentioned in my first post that lost the ability to read USA plates was a Hikvision as I stated in that post....

Most cameras are going to be this way. Very few even provide updates at all. And in many cases it breaks something. You are benefiting from the collective experiences of members here who have seen it, but if you don't appreciate the recommendation, then try updating away...

You do realize that starlight is simply a marketing term. It means nothing. Sounds like operator error and chaning settings without knowing what they mean...
 

jaybee

n3wb
Joined
Jun 24, 2021
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Location
ger
Again, not sure what you mean here, especially the part about 'archive last forever'. It might be the language differences. Sorry I don't speak German, which might help?
maybe i missed some commas. :)
the part is "the firmware from the same archive".
the download from the dahua site is an zip archive, that contains 2 .bin files.
one for the firmware, and one for the sqashfs with the webinterface.
if i choose the squasfs binfile, it updates fine.
if i choose the firmware file, the same popup (updateing, please dont close) appears, but it never get finished.
there is no brick, there is no lock (the abort button works).

We all here have seen so many folks brick a cam or just be totally frustrated with firmware updates.
That never happend to me.

Most cameras are going to be this way. Very few even provide updates at all.
so the situation in us seems to be completely different to europe/germany.
normally, if i buy a product, i can expect to get an eu version of the product and to find the right firmware version in the european part of the manufacturers website.

You do realize that starlight is simply a marketing term. It means nothing. Sounds like operator error and chaning settings without knowing what they mean.
sure i know, that this is a marketing term.
but it is used to specify cameras with a low light capable chip.
and the descriptions and photos suggests, that it will dynamically rise the ir illumination, if the normal light is not sufficient.
so, at some point it has to remove the ir-cut filter.
at this moment, it completely switches to b/w mode instead of mixing the 2 pictures.
some cams seems to really mix them (as i see it at the pictures).
 

wittaj

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
24,445
Reaction score
47,568
Location
USA
I doubt there are frequent updates to your cameras, but sure lets go with that.

But Dahua recently has started to quit putting firmware out on their website because they get too many calls from people purchasing a hacked camera and bricking it with software the consumer found on the Dahua website. They are now starting to force people to obtain firmware from the vendor they purchased the camera from so they quit getting calls from home-owners purchasing hacked cams off Amazon who bricked their camera...

It is still a marketing term used by companies to try to sell "low-light" cameras to unsuspecting consumers.

The lux rating on the camera is the true indicator - something like "0.002 Lux@F1.6", but then again most camera manufacturers play with this number as their is no standard. So that could be at a 1/3 shutter. Well I can make a cheapo camera look like noon at midnight with a shutter speed that low.

None of my cameras (except cheapo ones with cheap sensors) blend color with B/W and that isn't intentional but simply a poor sensor.

I suspect you are misunderstanding how it works in the brochure data. The whole "marketing" selling point of Starlight is that it "takes" longer to kick into B/W than a non-starlight camera. But as most of us have seen, once you dial in the camera to your setting and run a faster shutter to eliminate motion blur, it will not still see color unless we force it to color because faster shutters mean more light needed.

None of my Dahua Starlight cams blend - I either get color or B/W if I leave it on auto color/BW. Most of us force either color or B/W so that it isn't constantly bouncing back and forth during the night adn blinded by when a floodlight kicks on for example.
 
Last edited:

AR22

n3wb
Joined
Jun 1, 2018
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Location
Buchs
I had the same problem as @jaybee.
I was stuck on DH_IPC-HX2XXX-Molec_MultiLang_NP_V2.800.0000000.16.R.200418 and tried to update to DH_IPC-HX2XXX-Molec_MultiLang_NP_V2.820.0000000.37.R.210901.bin and never got more than 50%. Then I found a DH_IPC-HX2XXX-Molec_MultiLang_NP_V2.800.0000000.19.R.200628.bin version which worked. After upgrading to this I was able to update to the latest V2.820.0000000.37.R.21090.
 
Joined
May 11, 2023
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Location
AU
Hi all

Just want to add another +1 to @AR22 comment on doing an incremental upgrade instead of giant leap in the version. This approach worked for me as well.

I had the same CAM, firmware ver and issue as OP. I found a ftp in CZ, seem to be another cctv vendor, hosting a bunch of old firmware, link below. Managed to upgrade from 14.R to 19.R then to 28.R. Didnt go any higher as testing if this particular firmware has fixed a particular issue Im currently experiencing.


FYI, when searching for your particular firmware in the above link, each model folder may have not have all the firmware version you want. Just browse around similar models, and you'll likely find them. For some assurance double check the file name syntax matches the one from the official Dahua site, for your particular camera model. Not 100% a gurantee it will work, but at least something.

Also, some zip file contains multiple bin files, I only upgraded the main cctv bin file, so none of the web-x...bin or others, just the DH...bin.

But yeah, this approach is a good reminder that when updating or upgrading, sometimes we will need to do it incrementally instead of giant steps.

Good luck.
 
Top