Latest Install dahua mini ptz 12x

Shockwave199

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One thing that bugged me about the Dahua PTZ patrol is you could not set how much time to stop at each location, it was a fixed time. Did they improve this in later firmware?
I can't speak for MP cameras, but dahua analog ptz has dwell times that are user programmable. It can be adjusted when you set up pre programmed tours for dwell times per preset.

Also, in reviewing the ACTi PTZ, the B95, I found something very unique about ACTi, they PTZ all at the same time so very fast where all other PTZ I used, even very expensive ones wait for PT to complete before zooming.
That is very nice indeed.
 

Shockwave199

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You know I was just reading a manual for a dahua HDCVI PTZ and it noted the camera can do the PTZ function all at once. Perhaps dahua is catching up to that function now.
 

bp2008

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The SD6982A-HN and SD6582A-HN models can pan, tilt, and zoom all at once. I don't know about any of the other models.
 

vector18

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But can it chew gum and walk at the same time?
 

bp2008

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Do these have (reliable) absolute positioning ability? I've been waiting 2 weeks for the guy at Nellys security to set up a demo cam so I can test this but I'm starting to think it isn't going to happen. I just figure they probably sacrificed something to make this as small, cheap, and power efficient as it is compared to the larger cams.
 

vector18

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Not sure what you mean absolute positioning? If you really want to test it out, I could let you log into this one. It's on my friends house, but it's my camera.

- - - Updated - - -

BTW, I have your ptz packed up and ready to go :)
 

bp2008

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Nice.

Really if you wanted you could test it yourself easily.

This is where the feature exists in older Dahua firmware, just under the PTZ controls in the web interface:


I think they renamed the option in the dropdown list in more recent firmwares.

Anyway a problem I was having with older SD6982A-HN and SD6582A-HN models is that about 5 to 10% of the time when I used this feature to change the zoom level of the camera, it would fail to set the zoom level and cause zoom to go unresponsive for 30 seconds or so, an error message would appear in the video, and the video would go green. Then everything would go back to normal.

This bug basically meant my custom PTZ interface could not use zoom because it would consistently break itself within the first minute of using it.

So to test this reliability, you would just change the zoom level a couple dozen times using this control and see if it works reliably.

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Also I have one other question; does the weather sealing on this camera rely on the camera being mounted with the dome facing down? What if I was to mount it facing up for a moon-tracking project I've been thinking of doing?
 

bp2008

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Really if you wanted you could test it yourself easily.
Never mind. Nellys Security set up a demo cam for me today and I was able to log in and confirm the absolute positioning is both present and not crash-prone. So I ordered one from them.
 

vector18

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Could you explain what absolute positioning does or is? I'm not sure about it.
 

Shockwave199

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Yeah me either. It looks like it could be a micro manage control for pinpoint setting. I get my presets set with just ptz controls.
 

bp2008

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Absolute Positioning is the ability for the camera to pan, tilt, and zoom to a specific position with one command.

Full explanation in the spoiler:
On Dahua cameras you provide 3 arguments to the absolute position function:

X (pan rotation in degrees)
Y (tilt rotation in degrees)
Z (zoom amount)

You can specify pan and tilt with 0.1 degree accuracy and there are 128 zoom levels.

So the acceptable ranges for each variable are:

X (0-3600)
Y (0-900)
Z (1-128)

Some Examples:

If you want to point the camera at the origin fully zoomed out you send it to X=0, Y=0, Z=1

If you want to point it straight down you set Y=900.
Or halfway down Y=450.
90 degrees to the right, X=900
Backwards, X=1800
Point to the left, X=2700

Zoom in halfway, Z=64
Zoom in all the way, Z=128

You can combine these variables any way you like, and use them to create an unlimited number of "presets" so to speak. They aren't real presets, just a set of coordinates that you can send to the camera any time you want.

So why do I care about this when nobody else does?

What I do with this feature is I build a panoramic image of the camera's entire field of view by sequentially capturing images, say 45 degrees apart. I end up with 84 screenshots which I feed them into a program called Autostitch and this is the result:


(click me for the huge original image, 12920x4082)


I then put this image on a web page and make it so that when I click any position on that image, the camera moves to look at that position in the real world. I can use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out.

The main benefit of this form of PTZ control is it is very fast and extremely easy compared to the built-in PTZ controls. Basically all it takes to point the camera anywhere is one click and a bit of mouse wheel scrolling. The second major benefit is that the experience is not seriously degraded by low frame rates or highly delayed video (i.e. a second or two of latency). You don't need constant and immediate visual feedback to know when to stop moving or stop zooming. You just tell the camera where to go and it goes there. This is great for dealing with slow internet connections.
 

vector18

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I can sort of understand what your saying, but I have presets set so all I do is go to a preset and the camera goes there. How does the camera respond any different by you clicking on an image that you
created? The camera is receiving a command to go to a different location so that's what it does regardless of what is telling it. And if you need to click the mouse and than a bit of mouse wheel scrolling, rather than just programming a preset where the camera zooms in automatically to the preset, why is your method more preferred?
 
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