Blinking light on power meter triggering camera motion

immageek

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Jul 19, 2019
Messages
123
Reaction score
31
Location
SEMI
Ok, so this may seem weird, unless someone else has ran into this, but I have a 5231 that has my power meter in its FOV and there's a blinking light on the top and I think on the bottom as there's sometimes a secondary flash and trigger, I believe it's IR as I don't see it blinking when I'm outside by it. Is there a solution to this outside of not pointing the cam at it, I get that already, but I kind of don't want to. I have attached a video of it.


View attachment Cam3.20191201_203252_1.mp4
 

bam2413

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Nov 6, 2019
Messages
52
Reaction score
41
Location
Minnesota
I don't know what your setup is as far as BI or NVR but you should be able to play with the masking or zones to leave that small area out.
 

jaybowee

n3wb
Joined
Oct 30, 2019
Messages
16
Reaction score
7
Location
nz
I had the same issue. I just set that zone to blank. It also does that with the pendulum on the living room clock.
 

TonyR

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Jul 15, 2014
Messages
16,444
Reaction score
38,162
Location
Alabama
Unless the IR is behind a window on the meter and is used by a utility co. employee to read the meter via IR on-site (and I doubt it), I'd put a piece of black electrical tape over the offending LED.
If it is used for that or some other purpose....they'll let you know. ;)

AFAIK, most meters that are read remotely are done so over the power line. I'm out in rural NW AL and tech-wise this county just moved into the 20th (not 21st) century last year. About 2 weeks ago a local electrical co-op employee knocked on my door and said he "....needed to pull out the meter and replace it, the existing one is not communicating with them." The defective one was about 8 years old.
 
Last edited:

aristobrat

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Dec 5, 2016
Messages
2,982
Reaction score
3,180
@immageek, what are you using to detect motion? Camera's motion detection/IVS or Blue Iris? If camera and IVS, you can draw a box in the IVS area that represents the minimum size the motion area has to be before the camera reacts, ... so draw a box bigger than the flashing light. Blue Iris has a feature that requires a detected area motion to move a certain number of pixels before it's flagged, so that should squelch this out.
 

immageek

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Jul 19, 2019
Messages
123
Reaction score
31
Location
SEMI
@immageek, what are you using to detect motion? Camera's motion detection/IVS or Blue Iris? If camera and IVS, you can draw a box in the IVS area that represents the minimum size the motion area has to be before the camera reacts, ... so draw a box bigger than the flashing light. Blue Iris has a feature that requires a detected area motion to move a certain number of pixels before it's flagged, so that should squelch this out.
I’m currently using the camera’s IVS, the 5231 doesn’t have exclusion so I can’t do that. But as for the minimum size for trigger, does that work in conjunction with tripwire other is it either or? I tried using BI’s motion and set an exclusion size but it still triggered. I’ll try the tape idea to see if it works, I was already thinking of that but it didn’t really want to possibly impede the power equipment.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

bam2413

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Nov 6, 2019
Messages
52
Reaction score
41
Location
Minnesota
I specifically use BI so I cant comment on IVS too much. Someone on here will help you with that...I just cant believe there wouldn't be some type of exclusion feature in the camera config. GL
 

immageek

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Jul 19, 2019
Messages
123
Reaction score
31
Location
SEMI
I specifically use BI so I cant comment on IVS too much. Someone on here will help you with that...I just cant believe there wouldn't be some type of exclusion feature in the camera config. GL
Even BIs exclusion zones didn’t seem to work against this sorcery.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

bam2413

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Nov 6, 2019
Messages
52
Reaction score
41
Location
Minnesota
In BI, I would clear all the zones A-H. Then just use zone A to highlight the area you want motion in...stay away from that light and the reflection on the siding. Once that is set play one of your recorded clips for that cam right click and select "run video through motion test" Zone A should show on the camera and everything else should be blacked out. If you haven't give this a shot, if BI isn't monitoring that area for motion it wont alert
 

aristobrat

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Dec 5, 2016
Messages
2,982
Reaction score
3,180
Masking is probably in Settings > Camera > Video > Overlay ... there's a "Privacy Masking" section there, but I've never used it so I'm not sure if something masked there will become invisible to IVS/motion detection/etc.

For IVS, the "Min Size" option is part of the IVS rule on the left (under Target filter). I haven't used it recently but I think all you do is tick the Min Size box, click on Draw Target, then draw a box on the screen that represents the minimum size.

Screen Shot 2019-12-02 at 9.53.27 AM.png

Also, if you've got Blue Iris setup to use IVS, logon to the camera and make sure regular Motion Detection isn't also enabled. When I have BI setup to use IVS on my Dahua cameras, when it connects to enable PullPoint Subscriptions, regular Motion Detection gets enabled (which I don't want since I'm using IVS). I ended up using a custom alert in BI that disables regular MD after every alert to makes sure that it stays disabled.
 

immageek

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Jul 19, 2019
Messages
123
Reaction score
31
Location
SEMI
Masking is probably in Settings > Camera > Video > Overlay ... there's a "Privacy Masking" section there, but I've never used it so I'm not sure if something masked there will become invisible to IVS/motion detection/etc.

For IVS, the "Min Size" option is part of the IVS rule on the left (under Target filter). I haven't used it recently but I think all you do is tick the Min Size box, click on Draw Target, then draw a box on the screen that represents the minimum size.

View attachment 51567

Also, if you've got Blue Iris setup to use IVS, logon to the camera and make sure regular Motion Detection isn't also enabled. When I have BI setup to use IVS on my Dahua cameras, when it connects to enable PullPoint Subscriptions, regular Motion Detection gets enabled (which I don't want since I'm using IVS). I ended up using a custom alert in BI that disables regular MD after every alert to makes sure that it stays disabled.
Thanks for this. I see the privacy masking and will play with it tonight.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

bam2413

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Nov 6, 2019
Messages
52
Reaction score
41
Location
Minnesota
Masking is probably in Settings > Camera > Video > Overlay ... there's a "Privacy Masking" section there, but I've never used it so I'm not sure if something masked there will become invisible to IVS/motion detection/etc.

For IVS, the "Min Size" option is part of the IVS rule on the left (under Target filter). I haven't used it recently but I think all you do is tick the Min Size box, click on Draw Target, then draw a box on the screen that represents the minimum size.

View attachment 51567

Also, if you've got Blue Iris setup to use IVS, logon to the camera and make sure regular Motion Detection isn't also enabled. When I have BI setup to use IVS on my Dahua cameras, when it connects to enable PullPoint Subscriptions, regular Motion Detection gets enabled (which I don't want since I'm using IVS). I ended up using a custom alert in BI that disables regular MD after every alert to makes sure that it stays disabled.
Aristo,

Can you show what the custom alert is in Blue Iris? This was the reason why I didn't use IVS as it always turned the video motion on. Thanks!
 

beepsilver

Getting comfortable
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
863
Reaction score
982
Location
Nebraska
The camera's privacy mask will work, but you may have to make it slightly larger than the light in the event reflected light from the flash will set off your IVS detection in that area. It'd be best to redraw the rule in your IVS events settings to triangulate around that spot to exclude it. That way you won't have to mask anything. That flash of light is pretty darn quick, so it likely won't set off the camera's motion detection (not IVS) unless the anti-dither setting is at "0". "0" is the amount of time necessary for an object to trigger the motion sensor...."1" is probably a better number for those using this feature who want to minimize the number of recorded/notification alerts. When not using the camera for detection (motion or IVS), just take that area out of the zone so it won't trigger alerts.
 

immageek

Getting the hang of it
Joined
Jul 19, 2019
Messages
123
Reaction score
31
Location
SEMI
The camera's privacy mask will work, but you may have to make it slightly larger than the light in the event reflected light from the flash will set off your IVS detection in that area. It'd be best to redraw the rule in your IVS events settings to triangulate around that spot to exclude it. That way you won't have to mask anything. That flash of light is pretty darn quick, so it likely won't set off the camera's motion detection (not IVS) unless the anti-dither setting is at "0". "0" is the amount of time necessary for an object to trigger the motion sensor...."1" is probably a better number for those using this feature who want to minimize the number of recorded/notification alerts. When not using the camera for detection (motion or IVS), just take that area out of the zone so it won't trigger alerts.
The blocking out part seems to be working fine, but now me new issue is when cars drive by and their headlights cast shadows that cross the tripwires it sends a trigger.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

beepsilver

Getting comfortable
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
863
Reaction score
982
Location
Nebraska
That's why using Blue Iris' motion zones is sometimes preferable to IVS. IVS is somewhat limited in filtering whereas Blue Iris motion zones can be extensively customized between profiles. Should you decide to go that route, there are quite a few high quality videos on the subject: blue iris motion zones - YouTube
 
Last edited:

beepsilver

Getting comfortable
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
863
Reaction score
982
Location
Nebraska
Aristo,

Can you show what the custom alert is in Blue Iris? This was the reason why I didn't use IVS as it always turned the video motion on. Thanks!
It's a camera firmware bug that video motion reverts back to enabled even after you turn it off. One workaround is to leave the video motion enabled making sure the motion area is empty (no red hash marks). This way you can still use IVS.
 

aristobrat

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Dec 5, 2016
Messages
2,982
Reaction score
3,180
Aristo,

Can you show what the custom alert is in Blue Iris? This was the reason why I didn't use IVS as it always turned the video motion on. Thanks!
No problem. The prerequisite is that you download the CURL utility and have it somewhere on the BI PC.

Add a BI Alert Action to "Run a program or script".
In the File: box, point it to curl.exe
In the Parameters: box, try this line:
Code:
-g --user username:password --digest "http://cameraIP/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&MotionDetect[0].Enable=false"
Screen Shot 2019-12-03 at 7.43.17 AM.png

The workaround @beepsilver posted should work on most models. I went with the CURL route because with the 1831C-PIR, the motion area is used for both motion detection and PIR, so leaving it empty <to get around motion detection being enabled> means PIR stops working. :banghead: :)
 
Top