Light IR cut filter firmware fix?

[bug99]

Did some version of firmware improve the hysteresis / light sensitivity switching (BW to color) of the IPC-HDW5231R-Z?

I ran across this last year. I "fixed it" by going to all color with a bit of extra light. I no loner want to leave the light on in that location. I had forgotten how bad it was. It does not go to color from B&W until the average light in the scene is around 40 lumens. This is way too high. I tested the scene for a while as the sun came up, and even with some of the frame (20% say) above 100 lum, and the rest around 10 lum, except for about 10% at around 2 lum, the image stays in B&W. If I turn on some dim down light to get it up to abut 50 to 65 lumens, it quickly switches, and stays in color mode after turning them back off until many hours later when the light fades to less than 10 lum.

I could just upgrade it/them and see, but if there is no improvement expected, i would rather leave them alone.

 

[fenderman]

Did some version of firmware improve the hysteresis / light sensitivity switching (BW to color) of the IPC-HDW5231R-Z?

I ran across this last year. I "fixed it" by going to all color with a bit of extra light. I no loner want to leave the light on in that location. I had forgotten how bad it was. It does not go to color from B&W until the average light in the scene is around 40 lumens. This is way too high. I tested the scene for a while as the sun came up, and even with some of the frame (20% say) above 100 lum, and the rest around 10 lum, except for about 10% at around 2 lum, the image stays in B&W. If I turn on some dim down light to get it up to abut 50 to 65 lumens, it quickly switches, and stays in color mode after turning them back off until many hours later when the light fades to less than 10 lum.

I could just upgrade it/them and see, but if there is no improvement expected, i would rather leave them alone.

I dont think firmware will resolve this.
If you have an always on pc you can use the dahua day/night switch utility created by bp2008
Dahua day/night switch utility - DahuaSunriseSunset

 

[bp2008]

I don't remember for sure, but doesn't Dahua have a sensitivity slider or something for the IR filter?

I just looked at one cam and it is a dropdown, Low, Middle, and High. Not sure it will do anything useful though.

 

[fenderman]

I don't remember for sure, but doesn't Dahua have a sensitivity slider or something for the IR filter?

I just looked at one cam and it is a dropdown, Low, Middle, and High. Not sure it will do anything useful though.

Yes, though in my brief testing it I've never seen it actually do anything.

 

[bug99]

I remember bp2008's utility, but have never tried using it, or using time scheduling. It seems to me that simple light sensors should work well enough, but they don't.

The slider does something, but not very much. It is probably programmed based on older pre-Starlight technology and has not kept up. High is the sensitivity setting that is the closest to working correctly, and that is what i was trying above. I would think that this would be an easy fix in firmware. It is likely just a simple version of my light sensor, with a digitized intensity output to a micro-controller input.

I really see why Dahua (perhaps others) are coming out with "color mode" low light cameras as the sensors sensitivity has gotten better to keep from having to change at all. Having to light all of my spaces to 1 Lum or more on a timer (or a light sensor that works) might be a good idea in a lot of areas, but there are a bunch of areas (particularly indoor) that I think i want it dark when it is dark.

For now, i think i will experiment between pragmatically turning on and then off the overhead lights on their dimmest setting in the morning vs most of the night.

One thing that i have noticed that makes this extra bad, is my wife installed lighted plug based motion sensors around. They put out just enough light for an intruder to see and mess up the cameras without giving enough light to see with the cameras. I moved them for now.