"Smart Detect" feature of Dahua camera!

[Fastb]

I’m setting up my first system, and facing some hurdles. I hope you can help.

My system: Dahua 4216 NVR.
Dahua cameras, including IPC-HDBW4421E-AS which has “Smart Detect” ability, ie: tripwire, intrusion zone, audio detect, face detect, etc.

I’ve enabled alarms. For simple MD, the beeper in the NVR turns on, the Alarm Output turns on the connected strobe light, and the NVR sends out an email. All good.

The “Smart Detect” capability is powerful, and I want to use it. I enabled the “Tripwire” and “Intrusion Zone” feature, and defined the location of both. When viewing live video, the tripwire flashes red when the trip line is crossed. The intrusion zone box also flashes red when the zone breached.
However, no alarm!

Q: Why don’t “Tripwire” and “Intrusion” cause an alarm event? No email, no alarm, no alarm output.

And ideas?

Thanks!

 

[nayr]

Cant configure it like the attached screenshot? can you connect directly to the camera and try?

Ive only got audio detect as a smart feature right now, but I have same model NVR and Smart camera on the way..

 

[Fastb]

nayr,

Thanks for the reply. I don't recognize that screen shot.
The NVR4216 native UI doesn't apparently support "Smart Detect"
The screenshot below is from browsing to the camera across the prototype network. Here's the Intrusion Zone setup screen.


Here's the trip wire setup screen


Here's the live view, which shows me "Smart Detect" is active. It detects, since colors change and flash.
This shot shows I just crossed the vertical tripwire. The green box is the face recognition box. The blue box is the intrusion zone box, which wasn't violated. If I violate the zone, that blue box changes to red.


I'm configuring/programming and testing my system in a single room for now. Pardon the clutter.

My hunch: Since the NVR native ui doesn't recognize "Smart Detect", it may not be able to accommodate "Smart Detect" events. Here's the native ui screenshot.

 

[nayr]

it dont record the event onto the NVR when its configured to record on the camera?

 

[nayr]

Was looking all over in smartPSS for any mention of Smart Features, and I found it in scheduling.. so it seems like it might be aware of Smart events you just have to configure em externally..

 

[JFire]

@nayr @Fastb how do I connect to the camera itself? I tried the cameras ip and I get nothing. Someone said the camera and pc have to be on same subnet? I'm assuming subnet mask? Increase my blooming network knowledge

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[nayr]

are you using the built in POE? if so its on a diffrent network.. and i really dunno what u needa do.

I did not buy a PoE NVR as I have my own lan segmentation w/PoE ports in place.

 

[JFire]

Re: "Smart Detect" feature of Dahua camera!

@nayr it's built in poe. What if I connect the pc to nvr via cable?

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[Fastb]

JFire,

By "Connect to the camera itself", you will have the camera's UI.
Which differs when you connect to the NVR. You get the native NVR UI.
Which is a different UI than if you use SmartPSS.
The different UI's unfortunately (or fortunately) have different features/capabilities.

I covered the above because I'm not sure of your question.
You can get the camera IP address from the NVR ui. Or SmartPSS.
Armed with that IP address, enter that into the adress line of Internet Explorer. You should "Connect to the camera itself"

I don't mean to be condescending. But I want to ensure we start from a common understanding of the baseline.

If you can't reach the camera, then we need to discuss your network.
Are you using port forwarding? So only the NVR is visible to the outside world (the dangerous internet)?
And your PC, with Internet Explorer, is "outside" your camera subnet, that could easily make your camera unreachable. And make it secure.
A quick aside: Many cameras are unwittingly left unsecure. Google an article on "Thousands of Surveillance Cameras Openly Accessible"

Options:
connect you laptop to the camera subnet with a patch cord. Then ping the camera IP addr.
You laptop will need to be using the same subnet address region. If not, visit the ethernet adapter properties applet, and under IPv4, change the address and subnet mask.

There's lots of detailed guidance out there.

Good luck!

 

[JFire]

@Fastb i tried plugging my cameras ip address into browser and it didn't work. I'm told that the poe nvr isolates the camera from everything else. That's why I'm wondering if I can just take a patch cables from pc to nvr. Subnet mask is the same for nvr and pc.

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[nayr]

you can plug your computer into one of the PoE ports safely and get on the network.. since it uses same subnet as your normal LAN you cant be connected to both at the same time however.

 

[Fastb]

@JFire, @nayr,

I'm not an IT guy....
That said, you may plug the POE camera into your network (on your sebnet, to eliminate port forwarding from the situation). And power the camera with a 12V supply. Or use a POE injector, if you have one. Depending on the camera & accessories.

Try nayr's guidance first. I defer to him! I'm barely worthy to carry his patch cables....

 

[Fastb]

@nayr,

Regarding "Smart Detect" and my question on using "SD" to set an alarm;
You asked if the NVR "records the event onto the NVR when its configured to record on the camera?"

Good question. My "Smart Detect" camera is the Dahua IPC-HDBW4421E-AS Dome IP Camera. It supports a Micro SD (Max 128GB). I have not loaded an SD card, I selected the camera for "Smart Detect" ability, not for the SD slot.

A1: No, the "SD" event isn't recorded to the camera's empty Micro SD slot.
A2: No, the "SD" event wasn't recorded as an event in playback. In my staging/test room, I caused an "SD" event by crossing the Tripwire and Intrusion Zone area. In "Live" mode, I saw the event, ie: flashing, and zone lines changing from green to red. I also enabled sounds, so I heard the .wav files play through the speaker connected to the NVR, eg: Dahua's Intrusion.wav.

So the event occurred. But no alarm, no flashing light (NVR alarm output), no text msg, etc. And when viewing playback, the lines are all green. No alarm was recorded.

A puzzle.

Next:
I'll drill into SmartPSS. Thanks so much for pointing me towards "...Smart Features, and I found it in scheduling.. so it seems like it might be aware of Smart events you just have to configure em externally.."
@JFire, I know you want to use "SD", so I'll report back here.

As always, thanks for your help!

 

[nayr]

hrmm, I was afraid of this..

I have written code agains the Dahua API, and when I got my first Smart Feature I tried to catch the event using the same as the Motion/AlarmIO.. and much as I tried I got nothing out of it.. When I go to the WebUI and alarm page I can see the events so I figured there had to be a way.. but its not the way everything else is.

this might not boad well, can you have the Smart Feature trigger an alarm output and detect that?

 

[Fastb]

@nayr, @JFire

We're thinking along the same lines.
Me: I don't think the NVR f/w caught up the the latest cam f/w
ie: "Smart Detect" events aren't recognized by the NVR.
If "SD" is a camera capability, (not an NVR feature)
I may need to use the cam's "Alarm Out" wire (from the cam itself) to trigger the lights and alarms I want for my General Contractor home remodel job sites.

More later, gotta think about options

 

[nayr]

I know it will trigger on alarm in, but alarm out? proabibly not.. my smart cam dont have alarm io so no idea.

I was mostly planning on using the smart feature to detect faces and flash a strobe at night, it sounds like I can still do it.. but I was very much hoping to use line cross detection to trigger a recording for my ALPR proccessing.

 

[JFire]

@nayr I find it kinda crazy that the latest version of smart pss doesn't support line crossing.

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[JFire]

Re: "Smart Detect" feature of Dahua camera!

@nayr @Fastb I've connected to my camera via cable from pc to nvr but am getting no image from camera


Nevermind windows firewall lagged behind in authorizing plug in.
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[JFire]

Re: "Smart Detect" feature of Dahua camera!

Okay I've setup line detection and intrusion. Do I need to configure email on the camera or will it go off the nvr from there. I tried to configure smtp from camera but it fails.


Update: when connected directly to camera I can see line detection and intrusion working. I turned on smart in my scheduling and set the camer to email snapshot 24/7 but I'm not getting any alerts email wise. This might be due to email fail test from camera but I have the same settings that's working for md.
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[Fastb]

Re: "Smart Detect" feature of Dahua camera!

@nayr,

Thanks for the tip on schedule.

I can set the "Smart" timeline orange. Then I click save. When I re-enter, the Smart orange line is gone.
In the schedule screen, to set time ranges, I enabled Smart recording. That didn't change the symptom.

The SmartPSS manual implies that "SmartIPC" is different than the Dahua feature of "Smart Detect"
See manual excerpt below. Audio detect and facial detect are mentioned in the text. The screen shows two tabs, for audio and facial.
But no mention of trip wire or intrusion zone. And no tabs.



My assessment, as of today:
"Smart Detect" is a Dahua camera capability.
Dahua NVR isn't compatible with "Smart Detect" in the camera.
"Smart" in SmartPSS (eg: the orange bars) refers to "SmartIPC", not "Smart Detect".
"SmartIPC" is a feature of the SmartPSS program, which is running on the PC.
"SmartIPC" features require SmartPSS to be running.
My system, for job site security, doesn't include a PC. Right now, SmartPSS isn't part of the system I'll install in the field.

Today's investigation will look into:
SmartPSS output audio of "Tripwire crossed"
SmartPSS took snapshots. They're visible in the Alarm tab.
SmartPSS took trip wire snapshots immediately. Nice.
The Dahua NVR waits ~10 seconds for simple MD snapshots. Close to worthless. The car is down the driveway, out of site by then, so the snapshot sent by email doesn't portray anything of value.
Puzzle: How/why can SmartPSS react to a tripwire event when that doesn't appear to be supported? (that I've found yet) Can I get the NVR to react to tripwire?
@JFire,

Congrats on see tripwire and intrusion zone working. (but not email or alarm)
If any consolation, I don't receive emails or alarms either. Yet.

JFire, you said "...kinda crazy that the latest version of smart pss doesn't support line crossing."
My version of SmartPSS does support tripwire/line crossing in SmartPSS. Up to a point.
My SmartPSS is a Jan or Feb 2016 build version.

More later...