Hey all! First post from an IT guy just setting out down the IP camera path...

thomaswde

thomaswde

Getting the hang of it
Feb 18, 2017
44
62
NW, GA
Greetings!

So I've been a fly on the wall here for a while and have learned much, thanks to all.

I decided to dip a toe before plunging in but wanted to dip the right toe, so I ordered a HDW5231RP-Z as my first cam after seeing all the praise for it around here. Received it and mounted it today.

I'd love to share my goals, plan so far, and maybe ask a Q or two. I'm a technology consultant, system engineer/ architect so you won't have to spell out networking/ compute basics to me (at least I hope not).

I own a small, single family home on a cul-de-sac... on a mountain(ish) in north Georgia outside Chattanooga, TN.
I want to have 4 external cameras monitoring the big angles (cul-de-sac with miles of woods behind me means I'm not in need of 100% coverage). I'll then proceed to add probably 3-4 internal cameras (one living room, hall way to grab those pesky face shots, one in my office looking over my computers, and one in my toddler's room.
I have a wired home with a data closet containing my networking equipment, in said closet I've installed a PoE 8 Port switch for my cameras that uplinks to my core switch. I already own a tower server with 4Ghz Intel, 32GB RAM, and about 6TB. I also have a separate FTP server in house, it's only 500GB for now but lots of growing room for more drives. I'm fine with 7/24 operation of my server, I can spin up a virtual machine on it to serve as a NVR and I can do a raw device mapping to the new 4TB volume I'm adding. I've got all that fingered out I think. I will grow it beyond 4TB fairly quickly I think just trying not to shock the wife :) She's actually asked me to do cams so I've got it good for now, try not to ruin her enthusiasm by blowing 2 grand my first week. Plan to build it all over about 6 month period. I'll probably go all Dahua because I really like this starlight I just got, mounted easy and the low light is money. My company is a Vivotek dealer so I may integrate a few of those if I can score them at like 100% off ;)

One Q I'm still working out:
* Using IVS. I love the idea of tripwire to snap photos and email then so that I can quickly glance to know I need to respond or not. I've not figured out how to get this to "behave". From SmartPSS I can't seem to get it to let me set up a tripwire and from WebUI it works great setting it up but can't seem to get it to record the events to my PC-NVR in SmartPSS. I also have Vivotek's VAST2 software but it doesn't seem to play with the IVS features on Dahua. My goal is to have tripwire events log and write to disk from SmartPSS. Is this do-able or am I taking the wrong aproach? I'm litterally on the starting line here so more than willing to re-work my whole strat if someone offers sound advice. I can and probably will figure all this out, I've only been tinkering for about a hour so NBD. Decided it was time to make an intro since I have 1 camera now, haha.

Last but not least, I'm a sponge for good advice. Any beginner mistakes you want to help me avoid I'm all ears. As far as networking, security best practices, I've got that covered I think. Cheers!

https://goo.gl/photos/vcdx8mQ655e4LDKM8
https://goo.gl/photos/mhVSc9DimrBA3his9
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Use iDMSS+/gDMSS+ (Paid) and setup Push Notifications against the cameras; dont know much about the PC-NVR software.. havent used it, seems to be quite a bit more limited than Dahua's hardware NVR as far as feature support.
 
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I don't use Dahua's software or IVS so I can't comment there, but it sounds like you are off to a great start.

My advice is to mount a camera in front of the driveway, zoomed in so it will get good facial captures of anyone trying to get into your vehicles. I'm sure you were already planning this :) That does sort of look like a lower population density area so maybe you are at less risk of such things.

It also looks like the sort of road people will be speeding down and that might have implications for any license plate capturing you may eventually try to do.
 
thomaswde said:
* Using IVS. I love the idea of tripwire to snap photos and email then so that I can quickly glance to know I need to respond or not.
Click to expand...
Love that feature. I have Intrusion Detection and Tripwire setup across two 5231s (and an older 3MP Hikvision camera I still have around) and the cameras will email me a photo if anything trips them.

I've not figured out how to get this to "behave". From SmartPSS I can't seem to get it to let me set up a tripwire and from WebUI it works great setting it up but can't seem to get it to record the events to my PC-NVR in SmartPSS.
Click to expand...
I ended up buying a NVR-5216, so no experience with the PC-NVR feature in SmartPSS. But with the NVR, you have to go into Storage > Schedule > Record Schedule and make sure there is an orange "Smart" bar across all hours of all days.

I also have Vivotek's VAST2 software but it doesn't seem to play with the IVS features on Dahua.
Click to expand...
IVS seems to be vendor specific, not part of Onvif. My original setup was that Hik camera covering my front porch. Motion detection is part of Onvif, and the Hik camera had no problem doing that to a Synology NAS, but that was it. The Synology never saw any of the Hik's IVS events (which they call Smart Events). I had to settle for the camera sending an email when those happened.

I ended up getting a Dahua NVR specifically so that I could record IVS events from my new 5231s.
 
bp2008 said:
I don't use Dahua's software or IVS so I can't comment there, but it sounds like you are off to a great start.

My advice is to mount a camera in front of the driveway, zoomed in so it will get good facial captures of anyone trying to get into your vehicles. I'm sure you were already planning this :) That does sort of look like a lower population density area so maybe you are at less risk of such things.

It also looks like the sort of road people will be speeding down and that might have implications for any license plate capturing you may eventually try to do.
Click to expand...
Thank you, great tips! So yes, very low pop density, I'm in the woods on a mountain ;) My primary risk here is burglaries during workweek day hours when my wife and I are both at our respective offices an hour away in Chattanooga or while on vacation. Police response time up here is laughable (45min-1hr) so it's all about deterrence and catching the perp after the fact. My road is a dead end cul-de-sac so I only have one neighbor that lives past me, speeders won't be an issue. Thanks again, I am planning a low and narrow driveway cam as you suggested.
 
nayr said:
Use iDMSS+/gDMSS+ (Paid) and setup Push Notifications against the cameras; dont know much about the PC-NVR software.. havent used it, seems to be quite a bit more limited than Dahua's hardware NVR as far as feature support.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much for the advise, I'll source that software and try it out right away. So far SmartPSS running from PC doesn't seem to be the ticket so I look forward to my results with iDMSS+ / gDMSS+
 
aristobrat said:
Love that feature. I have Intrusion Detection and Tripwire setup across two 5231s (and an older 3MP Hikvision camera I still have around) and the cameras will email me a photo if anything trips them.


I ended up buying a NVR-5216, so no experience with the PC-NVR feature in SmartPSS. But with the NVR, you have to go into Storage > Schedule > Record Schedule and make sure there is an orange "Smart" bar across all hours of all days.


IVS seems to be vendor specific, not part of Onvif. My original setup was that Hik camera covering my front porch. Motion detection is part of Onvif, and the Hik camera had no problem doing that to a Synology NAS, but that was it. The Synology never saw any of the Hik's IVS events (which they call Smart Events). I had to settle for the camera sending an email when those happened.

I ended up getting a Dahua NVR specifically so that I could record IVS events from my new 5231s.
Click to expand...
Thanks for taking the time to share all of that, I'll try the software options Nayr suggested then if needed I may buy an hardware NVR as you did. Thank you.
 
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nayr said:
Use iDMSS+/gDMSS+ (Paid) and setup Push Notifications against the cameras
Click to expand...
I have no problem repeatedly dropping $170 on a camera shipped from China, but clicking Buy on a $4.99 app in the App Store had seemed like a big deal. Finally just got iDMSS Plus...

I've only had it on my phone for about two hours now, but so far I'm really liking it. Getting a push notification on the lock screen and having iDMSS Plus open straight to the video clip of it has been awesome. Just wish here was an easy way to do VPN-on-demand in iOS so I don't need to leave it connected all day (so iDMSS can reach the NVR).
 
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I really like the push notifications, for the last 2 weeks Ive had it enabled on my catdoor camera because some neighbor cats been coming in and eating our food.. Finally my Wife and I came up with a plan, I hear phone go off.. pull open camera, see the neighbors cat at the feeder, I go out the back door and pick up the garden hose thats primed and ready to go, she waits 30s so I'm ready then she goes into the garage and scares the cat back out the door; where I promptly lay a high pressure stream on its ass until its over the fence.

Of the 3 Neighbor cats that I've been observing stealing food; Only one had to be sprayed twice.. have not caught anything but my cats on camera for the last week or so.. seems to have worked really well, wish I had thought of it sooner :P
 
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nayr said:
Use iDMSS+/gDMSS+ (Paid) and setup Push Notifications against the cameras; dont know much about the PC-NVR software.. havent used it, seems to be quite a bit more limited than Dahua's hardware NVR as far as feature support.
Click to expand...

aristobrat said:
I have no problem repeatedly dropping $170 on a camera shipped from China, but clicking Buy on a $4.99 app in the App Store had seemed like a big deal. Finally just got iDMSS Plus...

I've only had it on my phone for about two hours now, but so far I'm really liking it. Getting a push notification on the lock screen and having iDMSS Plus open straight to the video clip of it has been awesome. Just wish here was an easy way to do VPN-on-demand in iOS so I don't need to leave it connected all day (so iDMSS can reach the NVR).
Click to expand...

Okay here's what I've learned since getting some great advice on gDMSS+ and discussing SmartPSS for PC (PC-NVR).
As mentioned before, I've got a 2MP Starlight HDW5231RP-Z and (one of) the issues I had was intelligent features simply did not work at all. Well after trying everything to get them to work I was browsing over Nayr's review of the HDW5231R-Z and noticed he had some sweet, sweet firmware that was a higher code than I was running. Decided fuck it I'm going in, flashed it with the 'Merica (not PAL) version. Well gents that solved just about everything. New code (which I noticed carries the Dahua branding where as the previous code just had the ol' "IP Camera" logo on the http) immediately fixed the IVS, added support for H.264H and SmartCodec, also added the SmartPlan screen. Previously I could access Facial or IVS but there was no SmartPlan selection screen when configuring from HTTP. When I tried to config it from SmartPSS it just did not work at all.

Other tid-bits...
Seems that gDMSS+ push doesn't want to play nice with new-ish Android OS (or at least that's my guess) because I can't get a push alarm to save my frikkin life. As an alt I created an email account just for my cam (soon to be cams) and set up SNMP, I get push email and set that address as a priority sender so fairly solid work around.
So far SmartPSS for PC, aka PC-NVR is working great. I love that since it's the OEM VMS it supports all the IVS feats and I appreciate that it actually works in H.265. Since I flashed the new code on the cam it works peachy.

Cheers gents!
 
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nayr said:
I really like the push notifications, for the last 2 weeks Ive had it enabled on my catdoor camera because some neighbor cats been coming in and eating our food.. Finally my Wife and I came up with a plan, I hear phone go off.. pull open camera, see the neighbors cat at the feeder, I go out the back door and pick up the garden hose thats primed and ready to go, she waits 30s so I'm ready then she goes into the garage and scares the cat back out the door; where I promptly lay a high pressure stream on its ass until its over the fence.

Of the 3 Neighbor cats that I've been observing stealing food; Only one had to be sprayed twice.. have not caught anything but my cats on camera for the last week or so.. seems to have worked really well, wish I had thought of it sooner :p
Click to expand...

What you need is cat facial recognition!

http://harthur.github.io/kittydar/
 
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@nayr @thomaswde @aristobrat



Hi Guys just came across this thread whilst searching about push notifications through VPN.

Seeing you had it for a while is there any chance you can share how you have had it setup?

Did you have to use the P2P of the camera/NVR to get it working? Is the camera/NVR having full access to internet to get the push notifications?

Thanks
 
I’ve since switched from the NVR to Blue Iris. I used Dahua’s P2P service with my NVR when I had it, and it did push notification to the $4.99 Dahua iOS app OK.
 
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