Add Sunrise Sunset to Time Plan Settings

[CamCrazy]

It has been a few weeks since I began using the newer cameras with the Time Plan Settings schedule. Previously a user (still am for older cams) of Dahua Sunrise Sunset application, this worked flawlessly for years now, even setting focus on ALPR cams.

Now I know it has been raised before by others, but am I surely not alone in wondering why Dahua have not yet implemented Sunrise/Sunset times into the Time Plan Settings. Assuming other feel the same, what do we need to do for Dahua to take notice, I doubt this can be that hard to implement. I did flag it with @EMPIRETECANDY but at this point I would love a direct line to Dahua just to offer some 'feedback' for this and the new Pro camera range.

Currently testing the api commands via Blue Iris schedule/trigger but this is not only painful, relatively speaking, but simply another unnecessary link in the chain.

The Time Plan Settings is far too basic, the transition windows has to be very large to cover each month. Often you simply require a 15-30 delay or advance for the switch from day to night. Those who think that leaving the cameras in one profile for day and night, need not apply to this one

**Update - this could be location dependant to some degree, so more important for those I guess who have a sunrise sunset window which can vary up to 1 hour from beginning to end of the month.

 

[bigredfish]

To me it’s a losing game and not worth the effort.

Some observations

• adjusting camera settings specific to dawn or dusk is usually a poor choice. More important to adjust for the 11-12 hours of daylight/night
• an example for Orlando for Nov shows a max of 21 min diff in sunrise and about 15 for sunset

- I see little benefit for adjusting for 6:40 vs 6:50am. So I’ll typically set night profile to end 6:45am
Currently there is light at 6:27am as I type this but not enough for color daytime settings. Official sunrise is 20 minutes from now

• overcast or bright clear mornings/evenings mess with the time anyway
• one could setup a 3rd or even 4th profile to allow for specific dawn/dusk settings for roughly 20-30 min but…
• Each camera location/scene is different anyway

 

[bigredfish]

Then there's this for 30 minutes well before sunset

 

[CamCrazy]

I added to original post that this is more of a concern when the sunrise/sunset variation window can be up to 1 hour difference for any given month.

 

[wittaj]

LOL - it has been asked for a LONG TIME for this, longer than you have been a member here. But their primary customer is a business with tons of light and don't need sunrise/sunset capabilities as they can get by with one profile.

Maybe one day the general public will be their primary business and they will listen to us, but if this stuff keeps getting banned in the USA, that will hamper moving in that direction.

And then the whole thing about it being 30-40 year old firmware that nobody wants to touch adds more complexity.

And it sucks they changed the APIs on the new GUI because the utility created by a member here works great for sunrise/sunset but it only works on older GUIs.

Now on the flip side, for their cameras on the new GUI that do have a day/night radio button option, it does FINALLY work the way we expect it to and will switch the entire profile (not just to color or B/W on a single profile like the older cameras) and that can take care of this issue.

Sadly not every new GUI includes that button, which means either using the 12 month schedule or figuring out the painstaking API in BI.

Personally, I set the camera up for the middle of the month and accept that maybe the image doesn't look perfect 15 minutes per day, but it still serves the primary purpose of being able to ID a perp, so I live with it.

YMMV.