EmpireTech Cameras Lose IR at Midnight EVERY night

[CCTVnewbie810]

In addition, the "HouseNorth" and "HouseSouth" cameras were purchased later than the other T54IR-ZE cameras and the "newer" ones seems to be more of a spotlight/hotzone IR than the others...I still have 2 REOLINK cameras in the system, both of the "BACKLAWN" title cameras, their IR is so much more dispersed than the newer EmpireTechs, its sad but the newer T54IR-ZE cameras are almost worthless at night due to how focused the IR beam is.

T54IR-ZE



REOLINK (JUNK)

 

[bigredfish]

I think your "DriveNorth" car shot is being effected by Smart IR/Overexposure due to the sconce light

I hadn't even looked at the small windows on the right side, HouseSouth. Not enough image to be able to tell

 

[CCTVnewbie810]

I think your "DriveNorth" car shot is being effected by Smart IR/Overexposure due to the sconce light

I hadn't even looked at the small windows on the right side, HouseSouth. Not enough image to be able to tell

HouseSouth confirmed was the timeplan issue with empty few seconds. It came back on IR at like 12:01

The DriveNorth I have now set to 100% Manual IR and disabled SmartIR

 

[bigredfish]

How much is that zoomed? (House North) At what height?

It looks to be pointing down quite a bit.

Something Dahua has always been bad about is their IR LED's seem to point/aim down more than I'd like which helps create the hotzone.

I've learned to mount them higher and/or flatten the point of aim out

 

[CCTVnewbie810]

How much is that zoomed? At what height?

It looks to be pointing down quite a bit.

Something Dahua has always been bad about is their IR LED's seem to point/aim down more than I'd like which helps create the hotzone.

I've learned to mount them higher and/or flatten the point of aim out

It's about 8' off the ground, mounted under the soffit. I had to turn the camera down a buit towards the ground as I was getting IR bounce off the white soffit before.

 

[CCTVnewbie810]

How much is that zoomed? (House North) At what height?

It looks to be pointing down quite a bit.

Something Dahua has always been bad about is their IR LED's seem to point/aim down more than I'd like which helps create the hotzone.

I've learned to mount them higher and/or flatten the point of aim out

Here is that camera in the day time

 

[bigredfish]

Just some samples for comparison. Here's 3 different 5442's

Bullets generally have 2x the IR with more LED's and the more you zoom the VF the tighter your IR coverage gets



Older S2?S1 model Bullet fixed 3.6


Newish S3 Bullet ZE (I'll turn off the IR on the other one at 90 degrees from this one tonight for a better comparison


Newish S3 fixed 3.6 Turret

 

[CCTVnewbie810]

Just some samples for comparison. Here's 3 different 5442's

Bullets generally have 2x the IR with more LED's and the more you zoom the VF the tighter your IR coverage gets



Older S2?S1 model Bullet fixed 3.6
View attachment 247551

Newish S3 Bullet ZE (I'll turn off the IR on the other one at 90 degrees from this one tonight for a better comparison
View attachment 247550

Newish S3 fixed 3.6 Turret
View attachment 247549

Your S3 looks way better than my "HouseNorth" S3 at roughly 2.7

 

[bigredfish]

Your S3 looks way better than my "HouseNorth" S3 at roughly 2.7

Fixed lens cameras almost always have better min illumination ratings and are brighter IR than VF/ZE models.
And once you start using the zoom they go down from there

See F-Stop ratings in PTZs, same effect , they just don’t give you the specs on the larger F-Stop on fixed cameras, but the more zoom the darker it will get guaranteed

 

[CCTVnewbie810]

Fixed lens cameras almost always have better min illumination ratings and are brighter IR than VF/ZE models.
And once you start using the zoom they go down from there

See F-Stop ratings in PTZs, same effect , they just don’t give you the specs on the larger F-Stop on fixed cameras, but the more zoom the darker it will get guaranteed

Just weird I have 4 of the same model and only the 2 "newer" ones seem to be so "spotlighted" and not spread out

 

[CCTVCam]

So I have the schedule set but still have the "Day/Night" section of the settings set to auto, because I was having issues with sunrise/sunset times changing and the Time Plan only being able to change per month. I have been needing to look into the Sunrise/Sunset utility from BP but just haven't found time. Anyways, below are the time plans from the same 2 cameras.

WITHOUT ISSUE CAMERA
View attachment 247537


WITH ISSUE CAMERA

View attachment 247538

I don't know about midnight but you have gaps in your schedule around 17.00.

There should be no white lines showing. Drawing schedules is tricky you need to overdraw and never move the mouse backwards, if you do you'll get a gap that can be tiny or near impossible to see but will create a break in your scheduling. It can make it diffcult to get precise timing. Sometimes you have to compromise by a few mins.

The way to draw them eg if you want 17.00 as a changeover is overdraw the yellow out to 18.00 or so, then draw the purple back across to approx 17.00. If you accidentally overshoot or move the mouse back even a fraction, re-extend them from scratch ie go back to grabbing the yellow and over extending it again, overlapping each, each time. When overdrawing keep moving and let go of the mouse button whilst moving. If you stop or move the mouse back slightly you'll get another gap. You can do this with the ends ie 0 and 24. Grab the end here and pull it back, then regrab the end and pull it to the end apart from don't stop at the end with your mouse keep going and let go when outside the grid whilst the mouse is still moving.

Don't ever try to pull 2 lines to the precise time point. You'll nearly always get visible or invisible gaps. Overlapping is the way to go.

What it really needs is magnetic timeline style snapping as found in many video editors but unfortunately Dahua don't make it that easy.

 

[CCTVnewbie810]

I don't know about midnight but you have gaps in your schedule around 17.00.

There should be no white lines showing. Drawing schedules is tricky you need to overdraw and never move the mouse backwards, if you do you'll get a gap that can be tiny or near impossible to see but will create a break in your scheduling. It can make it diffcult to get precise timing. Sometimes you have to compromise by a few mins.

The way to draw them eg if you want 17.00 as a changeover is overdraw the yellow out to 18.00 or so, then draw the purple back across to approx 17.00. If you accidentally overshoot or move the mouse back even a fraction, re-extend them from scratch ie go back to grabbing the yellow and over extending it again, overlapping each, each time. When overdrawing keep moving and let go of the mouse button whilst moving. If you stop or move the mouse back slightly you'll get another gap. You can do this with the ends ie 0 and 24. Grab the end here and pull it back, then regrab the end and pull it to the end apart from don't stop at the end with your mouse keep going and let go when outside the grid whilst the mouse is still moving.

Don't ever try to pull 2 lines to the precise time point. You'll nearly always get visible or invisible gaps. Overlapping is the way to go.

What it really needs is magnetic timeline style snapping as found in many video editors but unfortunately Dahua don't make it that easy.

Thanks, I fixed all gaps yesterday! Just haven’t updated here yet as I need to check last night and see if everything is resolved. I find it easiest to draw then manually input each time instead of dragging the sliders.