New PTZ( EmpireTech PTZ5A4M-25X ) - Wont Track or Detect anything at night. Help dialing in settings please?

[jelf4352]

See screenshots below. I recently bought this PTZ from Andy. Im new to PTZs in general. Ive been reading through advice on the forums ,but Im lost on how to dial in the settings for this PTZ. This camera doesnt track or set of any Alerts during the night. It is a low/no light environment. My other dahua 5442s work at night though, so i expected this 4MP with starlight to work as well. Not even AI alerts confirming a person when waving my hands in front on the hill.

Ive been trialing to dial the contrast/brightness back to 30s with manual shutter below 20 and gain (50-70), but still no luck with any auto tracking/detection on those setting too. . Any suggestions please! The screenshots are default settings on the camera.
Thank you!
John

 

[wittaj]

Just to confirm the obvious - it tracks during the day and not at night? Need to make sure that it is actually set up to track and does track.

 

[jelf4352]

Just to confirm the obvious - it tracks during the day and not at night? Need to make sure that it is actually set up to track and does track.

Yea, thats right. Ive setup the IVS and its working tracking/zooming during the day and setting off AI confirmed alerts via codeprojectAI. Althought there are some big trees (top left corner) that where it loses people during tracking, but thats another problem. Just trying to get something during night first.

 

[wittaj]

Any chance you can move that preset up so those bushes at the bottom are not bouncing back so much infrared? I think that is messing with the exposure and thus the contrast further out and the AI is having trouble seeing a difference between a person and the background.

Also have the contrast 8-10 higher than your brightness.

 

[jelf4352]

OK, check out the attached video and settings.

AI confirmed alert this time via codeproject. But, no auto tracking by the PTZ.

These are default settings. How would you adjust the picture/settings here?

 

[wittaj]

Wow. That seems like it should track.

Have you tried an intrusion box instead of tripwire? Maybe that will work better for that scene?

 

[Heavyopp]

Does the ptz still draw a box around a person?

I had a problem when I was setting up the same ptz. My ptz just stopped drawing the box or recognizing a human. Don’t know why.

I power cycled the camera and all was good again. Try a power cycle/reboot. Can’t hurt.

 

[jelf4352]

Im not sure if its still drawing a box around me (i cant view it while testing and im too lazy to download the tool right now).

So i drew an intrusion box and rebooted the entire machine with factory default settings. Still no luck. Im waving my hands and even turned on the flood lights. What am i missing here?

Why is it working during the day and not all during the night....its not making sense to me.

 

[jelf4352]

Im not sure if its still drawing a box around me (i cant view it while testing and im too lazy to download the tool right now).

So i drew an intrusion box and rebooted the entire machine with factory default settings. Still no luck. Im waving my hands and even turned on the flood lights. What am i missing here?

Why is it working during the day and not all during the night....its not making sense to me.

I also tried turning off the IR completely. No luck.

 

[jelf4352]

H

Does the ptz still draw a box around a person?

I had a problem when I was setting up the same ptz. My ptz just stopped drawing the box or recognizing a human. Don’t know why.

I power cycled the camera and all was good again. Try a power cycle/reboot. Can’t hurt.

How do you like the device? I thought it was pretty great during the day when it works. Do you change the settings around on the picture?

 

[JDreaming]

H

How do you like the device? I thought it was pretty great during the day when it works. Do you change the settings around on the picture?

I have PTZ5A8M-25X that auto tracking and detect a lot farther during the day than at night with the same IVS rules.

Also it seems like your drawing are 2D and not 3D. Maybe you can draw tripwire line and intrusion box like this and test if it will work better?

 

[bigredfish]

^^^^^
This

Plus does that model have a target tracking size control?

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

Looks like the IR too much on the nearby bushes , how about adjust the camera's angle and test again? The zone are bit dark, maybe camera can't trigger?

 

[Heavyopp]

H

How do you like the device? I thought it was pretty great during the day when it works. Do you change the settings around on the picture?

I like the camera but I do not have it installed at this very moment. Like you I’m very new to this security camera thing. I had the PTZ mounted on a test rig for a week. Worked fine for that week after the reboot. IIRC I lost tracking of a human when I made the ivs rules. The reboot fixed that. Not a full hard reset, just a power cycle which kept the ivs tripwire.

I think I used all auto settings during my test period. With the constant changing scenes and ambient light I don’t know how you would use or find 1 manual setting to cover it all.

Mine tracked just fine, day or night at my location. Farthest distance from camera with clear view is 200 feet. I also have a street light across the street adding light.

 

[jelf4352]

Hey everyone,

Quick update: I zoomed in more and it’s able to track on people. I also applied both intrusion and tripwire rules at the same time.

I’m setting this up with spotter cameras, and it’s a great addition to any fixed camera system. This cameras able to cove 180 degrees with blue iris software . It’s amazing how great the software is and how amazing the cameras are.

It’s raining tonight so I can’t test and share. But I’ll share more tomorrow when the rain stops.