DS-2CD1047G2H-LIUF - Trigger white light on motion regardless of day/night mode?

I have a DS-2CD1047G2H-LIUF and I want the built-in white LED to turn on when motion is detected during the day, as a visual deterrent.

Before anyone says "that's not what the light is for" or "you need the /SL model for that" - I'm fully aware. I know the white LED is designed as a supplement light for ColorVu night imaging, not as an alarm strobe. I know the /SL model has a dedicated flashing light with a proper linkage option under events. I'm not asking what the light was designed to do, I'm asking if there's a way to make it do what I want.

Here's why I think it should be possible: in smart mode at night, the camera already detects motion, then turns on the white light in response. So the logic of "motion detected → activate white LED" already exists in the firmware. It just refuses to do it during the day because the camera is in day mode and decides the supplement light isn't needed. That's a software decision, not a hardware limitation.

Forcing the camera into permanent night mode does work as a workaround but it ruins daytime image quality which I don't want to compromise on.

So has anyone found a way around this? ISAPI calls, hidden config parameters, firmware editing, a third party tool, Or an ISAPI command to turn on this LED for debugging purposes? If I can make this work, I can listen to the alert stream with the ESP32 and send a command to trigger the LED accordingly...anything that lets you control that LED independently from the day/night logic? Open to any creative solution. Thank you.

EDIT:

I’ve more or less found a workaround. If we switch the cameras to night mode and set the supplement light mode to white light, the cameras start recording in color continuously regardless of the time, meaning ColorVu stays active. I control the brightness of the white light using ISAPI from another device.

In short, it works in these three simple steps:

• We listen to the alertStream via ISAPI
• When an alertStream event is received, we adjust the camera light brightness via ISAPI
• When the alertStream ends, we set the light brightness back to zero via ISAPI

Virtual Host must be enabled on the NVR, Motion Detection must be enabled, and Notify Surveillance Center must also be enabled.

Your camera settings should be as follows:

Day/Night Switch: Night
Supplement Light Mode: White Supplement Light
Light Brightness Control: Manual
Notify Surveillance Center: Enabled

To listen to the alertStream and control the LEDs, I ran Node.js on an old Android phone, but ESP32 or Raspberry Pi can also be used.

I’m also including an example Node.js script that listens to the alertStream via ISAPI and controls the camera LEDs in a motion-triggered way, like an alarm (flashing + steady). The code was entirely written with Claude. You can upload it to Claude as well to have it translated into your own language and ask how it works or what parts you need to modify.

alastairstevenson said:

It's a normal part of the camera settings, but availability may depend on the firmware version.
What firmware version does your camera have?

Example on a similar, though not identical, camera model :

View attachment 242202

View attachment 242203

Click to expand...

Thanks for looking into it! I've attached screenshots of what I see on the camera's own web interface and the NVR. Under Event there's only Motion Detection, Video Tampering, and Exception. No Line Crossing or Intrusion Detection tabs at all. And in the Linkage Method I only get Send Email, Notify Surveillance Center, Upload to FTP, and Recording Linkage. No White Light option anywhere. When I connect a monitor directly to the NVR and go through the local menu, I can see Line Crossing and Intrusion Detection options under Smart Event, but they're all grayed out and not configurable, so I'm guessing the camera just doesn't support those features.

cam:



NVR:



The features you mentioned should probably be in the perimeter section, but as I said, that's inactive. My camera probably doesn't support these features.

alastairstevenson said:

Just a thought - do you have this menu? If VCA resource is set to Monitoring, there are no Smart Events.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately the menu and options you showed in your screenshot don't exist on my nvr-camera. I've already sent an email to Hikvision support requesting that the white supplement light be usable in Day mode in a future firmware update. I have no idea if they actually listen to customer feedback and release updates based on it, but I figured it's worth a try. It's honestly unbelievable that they put a light on the camera and it only works in Night mode. They market these cameras under the ColorVU name, and when the camera is in Night mode the light turns on automatically and switches to color footage, but if you manually select Day mode you can never activate that light. I prefer to keep my cameras in Day mode and the fact that they decided you can't use the light if you're in Day mode is just ridiculous...

Actually I think I found a workaround. If I set the camera to Night mode and select white light as the supplement light with manual brightness, the camera stays in full color even though it's technically in Night mode. Even if I set the brightness to 0 it still stays in color. If I select Smart mode instead, the camera switches to black and white and only goes back to color when it detects motion, which is not what I want. So the trick is to keep white light selected in manual mode and just set the brightness to 0. This way the camera is always in color even in Night mode.

Now the next step is making the light turn on when motion is detected. I'm planning to use an ESP32 for this. The cameras will stay in Night mode permanently with white light selected in manual mode, brightness set to 0 by default. The ESP32 will listen to the camera's ISAPI alertStream for motion detection events, and when motion is detected it will use ISAPI to raise the white light brightness level. I can either keep it on for the duration of the alert, or flash it by toggling between 0 and 50 repeatedly. Once the motion alert stops, the ESP32 will set the brightness back to 0.
It seems like this could actually work. If I manage to pull it off I'll post the results here.