Need replacement for Logitech Alert camera

[bertsirkin]

I need to replace an outdoor Logitech Alert camera that has IR and POE. I currently use Blue Iris to view this (and other) cameras.

I can't run a network wire to the camera location, so it needs to be POE. I don't need anything fancy - just something at least 720p, with IR, POE and with a "normal" lens.

Any suggestions??

 

[OldStyle]

Did your Logitech camera crap out on you? Or just replacing it because you want something else/better?

Which Logitech camera are you looking to replace?

 

[bertsirkin]

Did your Logitech camera crap out on you? Or just replacing it because you want something else/better?

Which Logitech camera are you looking to replace?

The camera I'm replacing is a Logitech Alert 700e Outdoor camera. It did die - I tried unplugging, replacing the SD card and removed/replaced the cable, but the IR lights stay on and the camera can't be seen by either the logitech or Blue Iris software.

I have 7 logitech cameras (3 outdoor and 4 indoor) and have had the system ever since it came out - the camera that died is the newest of the bunch - only about 1+ years old.

 

[OldStyle]

The camera I'm replacing is a Logitech Alert 700e Outdoor camera. It did die - I tried unplugging, replacing the SD card and removed/replaced the cable, but the IR lights stay on and the camera can't be seen by either the logitech or Blue Iris software.

I have 7 logitech cameras (3 outdoor and 4 indoor) and have had the system ever since it came out - the camera that died is the newest of the bunch - only about 1+ years old.

Did you try the paperclip reset? If that doesn't work, it's likely dead. I've had a few of mine crap out also, but they were the indoor ones. Not the outdoor ones. Those have been very solid for me.

Are you looking to go with a certain brand? Hikvision has worked out really well for me. They have some 3MP bullet cameras that are amazing quality.

 

[bertsirkin]

Did you try the paperclip reset? If that doesn't work, it's likely dead. I've had a few of mine crap out also, but they were the indoor ones. Not the outdoor ones. Those have been very solid for me.

Are you looking to go with a certain brand? Hikvision has worked out really well for me. They have some 3MP bullet cameras that are amazing quality.

I forgot about the paperclip reset - I'm going to try that now.

Do you know if the Hikvision cameras work with Blue Iris?

 

[OldStyle]

I forgot about the paperclip reset - I'm going to try that now.

Do you know if the Hikvision cameras work with Blue Iris?

Hopefully that will do it. If not, the IR is stuck and it's considered "bricked". Been there, done that.

All Hikvision cameras work with Blue Iris (I don't use it myself, I use Sighthound).

 

[bertsirkin]

I tried the paperclip - didn't work.

I just ordered a HIKVISION DS-2CD2032-I 3MP 4mm Outdoor HD DWDR IR Bullet Network IP Camera POE.

 

[OldStyle]

I tried the paperclip - didn't work.

I just ordered a HIKVISION DS-2CD2032-I 3MP 4mm Outdoor HD DWDR IR Bullet Network IP Camera POE.

I have the same one; you'll love it.

 

[Renderview]

My Logitech 700e bit the dust in November too. Since then I've done a week or more research and came upon Blue Iris and the Hikvision DS-2CD2032F-I 4mm IP camera as my replacement solution. It's now all set up and working well. Its an incredible improvement in image resolution. I can read license plates from 4 to 5 meters away where the Logitech would never resolve license plates at all.

My Logitech 700e died in the same way as this original poster's. The IR lights remain on, I can ping the camera, but it can't be found on the network by either software (Alert or BI). I too tried the paper clip reset. But it served me well for many years. The Hikvision is better and cheaper. And Blue Iris is a good alternative. The iPhone app is great too. I have BI running on an old Compaq core 2 duo laptop with 3 GB ram on Win7-32 (minimum hardware spec). Recording event triggered video direct to disk at 15 FPS with iFrame set to 15. and maximum camera resolution. The CPU rests at 24%.

One feature I miss is the way Logitech 700e could record locally into the MicroSD when the PC was unavailable, and then merge the video to the PC upon reconnecttion. I have a 64 GB SD in the Hikvision camera, but it is basically useless except as a backup in case the laptop is stolen. I'm still experimenting with motion triggers, both from the camera firmware and Blue Iris. With Blue Iris, I get alert emails a bit too often as shadows and wind change. And with Hikvision motion triggers I get mixed results with either area intrusion or line-cross alerts. I'm still experimenting with these options but wish there was a more sophisticated alert trigger, with low CPU requirements; maybe a PIR sensor or optical human figure recognition... I also miss the microphone that the Logitech had and am researching an outdoor two way audio solution for my next camera.

 

[bertsirkin]

My Logitech 700e bit the dust in November too. Since then I've done a week or more research and came upon Blue Iris and the Hikvision DS-2CD2032F-I 4mm IP camera as my replacement solution.

Just curious, do you use POE with the Hikvision, and if you do, what to you use to power it and provide the internet connection?

 

[fenderman]

=I'm still experimenting with motion triggers, both from the camera firmware and Blue Iris. With Blue Iris, I get alert emails a bit too often as shadows and wind change.

If you set the motion detection properly you can get 99% accuracy with blue iris...blue iris can also take advantage of the line cross detection used in the hikvision camera. With blue iris you can setup cloned cameras (and hide the clone) where one is used for alerts and one for recording..you can set the threshold for alerts higher and still ensure that you never miss recorded footage.

 

[OldStyle]

Just curious, do you use POE with the Hikvision, and if you do, what to you use to power it and provide the internet connection?

You'd but a PoE switch that connects to your (wireless) router. Each PoE slot enables you to provide power and data. If you don't want to buy a switch, you can but PoE injectors.

 

[LittleBrother]

Just curious, do you use POE with the Hikvision, and if you do, what to you use to power it and provide the internet connection?

Can't go wrong with: http://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-8-Po...450382841&sr=8-1&keywords=trendnet+poe+switch

 

[bertsirkin]

Can't go wrong with: http://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-8-Po...450382841&sr=8-1&keywords=trendnet+poe+switch

Some cameras aren't in a place where I can run cat5/6 - I don't think that the switch will work for those cameras. I previously (with the Logitech system) had a "brick" that provided both ethernet (over the electric line) and POE to the cameras - all I needed was an outlet (which I have).

I don't think anyone makes the equivalent to what Logitech had - a Line adapter (for ethernet over the electric lines) and a POE injector - all in one device.

 

[Renderview]

Just curious, do you use POE with the Hikvision, and if you do, what to you use to power it and provide the internet connection?

I bought a TrendNet POE switch on Amazon for about $50.00. 8 port, 4 with POE, 100GB. I considered getting POE injectors but at $18 each, it won't be long before the switch is a better choice economically. And I plan to keep all Surveillance hardware connected to that one switch so it's one segregated switched "collision domain". So hopefully the rest of my internal network won't "see or feel" surveillance data packets streaming by every other NIC in the house.

I still have the Logitech HomeLink wall warts and will probably try to sell them on eBay. But you could continue to use those that you have as they also provide POE. But they add another point of failure and are cumbersome for me. Everything is so close, I don't benefit from ethernet over the home power wiring.

I used to plug both HomeLink wall warts into the same power-strip just to make the connection to the Logitech 700e camera because I didn't have a POE injector. It worked fine.

 

[Renderview]

If you set the motion detection properly you can get 99% accuracy with blue iris...blue iris can also take advantage of the line cross detection used in the hikvision camera. With blue iris you can setup cloned cameras (and hide the clone) where one is used for alerts and one for recording..you can set the threshold for alerts higher and still ensure that you never miss recorded footage.

Experimenting with "setting motion detection properly" is a new hobby of mine forced upon me my this recent indoctrination into the world of Blue Iris. If you can point me to a primmer that explains those settings and how best to optimize, I would like to learn more. So far I've experimented with in-camera and BI motion detection. The settings in BI that seem to set sensitivity (the little square in a square icon) is a mystery still. I've tried setting it small and larger, but notice no difference. I have "Object Recognition" (is that what it's called?)... I'm away from home now and can't refer to the UI... Anyway, I've set it to "off" because I've read that it consumes more CPU cycles and I have an old, anemic laptop running BI.

Please explain what you mean by hidden cloned cameras and how they work in Blue Iris. Is it a virtual camera or do I need another camera?

I'd like to get alerts from farther down my long narrow driveway. But tree shadows and the daily movement of the sun trigger too many false alarms. So far my best results are using Hikvision Line-Cross alerts where the line is drawn across the drive way. I also tried BI motion detection where I defined a perimeter in BI, and filled in all the pixels inside that perimeter as a selected area. I'm unsure if all the black inside the perimeter needed to be selected/blackened, or if the boundary is all thats required. But it seems to continue to alert as the sun and shadows flicker throughout the day.

I am aware the in-camera alerts can be "sensed" by BI to trigger alerts in the software, but not exactly sure what settings on the camera and in Blue Iris need to be made to "hook it up"'

Any advice on specific "proper" fine tuning would be appreciated.

 

[fenderman]

First thing you need to do is read the help file. Its explains all the settings.
A cloned camera is a virtual second camera, where you can have distinct settings... then hide the camera so its not visible.
Make sure you are running the latest version of blue iris, then use the find inspect button so that blue iris detects onvif from the camera.
and select in camera motion detection in the motion tab.
There are TONS of threads discussing motion detection...proper setup will depend on the camera and the view/trigger..
Not sure what you mean by filled in the perimeter...in blue iris you do not select the are you want motion detection to occur in, rather you MASK the are you DONT want motion detection in. DO NOT USE HOTSPOT.
Post an image of your MOTION, RECORD and mask settings.

 

[Renderview]

Post an image of your MOTION, RECORD and mask settings.

Thanks "fenderman" for your advice. RTFM is a good place to start. Unfortunately my only chance to read the manual has been at home when sitting in front of the Blue Iris dedicated laptop. But last night and today I found some time. I now understand the BI motion mask and I inverted my original settings to block out the areas where wind and tree and squirrel movements cause false alarms.

I'm uploading some images to show my settings. It rained last night and I was not able to adjust shadow and motion sensitivity to prevent rain streaking in front of the IR lights from triggering alerts. So I shut down BI until morning.

Today I experimented with the motion sensitivity settings some more and it's now tuned a bit better. I'm still using a line-crossing trigger from the Hikvision camera to supplement Blue Iris motion detection, and when it triggers, BI senses the external trigger from the camera, and pushes an alert to my iPhone instantly. I love that feature! As the documentation says, I needed to enable this feature in two places in BI, and then I had to adjust Windows firewall to permit the BlueIrisApplePush.exe outbound access permission. But now the alerts are instant, and they don't fill up my email.

I'm still getting random Hikvision line-crossing alerts from time to time when the wind blows and leaves rustle in the foreground. The suspect plant is not too near the line that I've drawn, so I'm not sure why I get these false alarms. I will play with the Hikvision motion sensitivity some more to see if I can improve it. I like the Hikvision line-cross trigger because my driveway lends itself to this type of alert very well.

I'm documenting this effort in hope that it will help others, especially those moving from Logitech Alert to Blue Iris. I'm already excited by the features in Blue Iris and am looking forward to eventually adding another camera, and ultimately replacing the old laptop with more processing power. But for now I'm satisfied that this otherwise useless old Compaq CQ50 laptop has enough ooomph to record Blue Iris HD video and serve it up on the Internet.

Please offer any suggestions you may have regarding the settings I've selected in the attached images.

Thanks again.

-Dave

 

[fenderman]

You might want to increase your BREAK time from 5 seconds to at least 30..this way you dont miss an event where there is initial motion, but the subject stops and produces little motion...
Also you might want to lower your object size and increase the contrast.
One great function of blue iris is that you can add a second cloned camera...you can use one camera for alerts and one for recording,..this allows you to set the masks and thresholds high for alerts but low for recording ensuring that you will not miss vital footage. You can hide the clone so you only see one cam on screen. Blue iris will only pull and process a single stream from the camera and this will not add any significant processing overhead.

 

[3dogpottery]

The best way to connect cameras is with a wired Ethernet. However, that being said, I do have two of my cameras connected with that “brick”. Eventually, I will hard wire them – but for the time being they are working just fine. The “brick” that Logitech provided with their cameras was a “HomePlug” and a PoE combined in one unit. This provided the cameras with Ethernet over your electrical wiring, and power to the camera. You can duplicate this setup by purchasing a powerline adapter and a Poe injector. Myt wo cameras are using the Logitech HD Powerline 200a Homeplug and the T-LinkTL-PoE150S Gigabit PoE Injector. Both ofthese items are available on Amazon. The HomePlug is available as a kit, and contains two adaptors. It can be had for about 50 bucks. The PoE switch will run you about 19 dollars.