ACTi camera starts flashing at night, but records fine during the day

dcd2018

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Hi everyone:

Let me start off by saying that my knowledge of IP cameras is quite limited. So please bear with me.

Let me explain what happened. At our facility we've recently installed this IP camera. After about 6 months in, I started noticing that the camera was cycling through bright and dark modes in about 5 to 10 seconds and continues to do so throughout the night. This causes the attached DVR to needlessly record. (In a normal situation the DVR is set up to record masked motion only.)

We've called the installer, the company that put that camera up, and they basically told us that this is our problem now. So I'm trying to see if there's anything I can do about this camera myself before we involve anyone else into this situation.

So here's the video of how this camera records during the day:
(It was exported directly from the DVR.)

And here's how it looks like at night:
(I had to record it off of my smartphone, but it shows what happens.)

You can probably see (by that yellow hatch on the left) that it goes into black and white mode, then does that bright flash and then darkens up and goes back into color mode and then repeats this over and over again until morning.

Also note that in reality there's no bright light or anything that flashes outside (even though it looks like that from this recording.)

Additionally, I'm not sure if it matters, when I tried to export that night video from the DVR itself (and the reason that I recorded it with a smartphone above) is that it doesn't come out anything close to what it looks like on the screen. Here it is:

Lastly, just to give you the specs for the camera. Here's what I can get from the DVR for it:



Do you have any idea how to fix this?
 

fenderman

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Wow, you got royally ripped off. You likely paid a fortune for that install and the image (aside from the flashing is just garbage). That installer should be ashamed of him/her self. An installer who tells you its your problem after 6 months should be outed. Post the name of the company here and send them a link to the post so they can explain their position. This thread may be of help as well Random exposure flashes, what causes this sort of behavior?.
Installers like any other business are subject to your states consumer fraud act. This is a powerful tool as it provides for attorney fee shifting and treble damages in most (if not all) states.
 

dcd2018

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Thank you, guys. Yes, it was expensive camera. Unfortunately though this company seems to be the only one in our area that does these kinds of installations for our business. So we're stuck with them. I definitely don't want to have them retaliate because we'll need them to service our gate, cameras, etc. in the future. I'm also torn. They seem to have good Yelp reviews (possibly fake?) but then YP has this, which I agree with. Anyway, at this point my goal is just to have this camera fixed.

So, thank you both for the info. I just realized that since it's an IP camera, that I can log in to it via a web browser. Which I did. And there's a bunch of settings. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) the camera seems to be working fine today. So I'll have to wait for it to start acting up before I attempt to change anything. I'll try to search for suggested WDR/SSA there and will update with the results.

PS. On the sidenote. I don't know who makes those ACTi cameras, but their security doesn't seem to be the best in the world. When I typed in the IP address for that camera it showed a login screen with a password. (Which I didn't know.) But then when I checked "view source" on the page, I got this:



So yeah... I hope no one installs these accessible from the public internet!
 

Vince71

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The Web GUI has options for day/night switching. Most of these ACTi cameras have a slider control with a 0-100 value of when to switch between day and night. I would try different values.

admin/123456 is the default factory username/password for these cameras. I would assume they are checking for that default and if you have a different password it would not show up like that.
 

fenderman

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Thank you, guys. Yes, it was expensive camera. Unfortunately though this company seems to be the only one in our area that does these kinds of installations for our business. So we're stuck with them. I definitely don't want to have them retaliate because we'll need them to service our gate, cameras, etc. in the future. I'm also torn. They seem to have good Yelp reviews (possibly fake?) but then YP has this, which I agree with. Anyway, at this point my goal is just to have this camera fixed.

So, thank you both for the info. I just realized that since it's an IP camera, that I can log in to it via a web browser. Which I did. And there's a bunch of settings. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) the camera seems to be working fine today. So I'll have to wait for it to start acting up before I attempt to change anything. I'll try to search for suggested WDR/SSA there and will update with the results.

PS. On the sidenote. I don't know who makes those ACTi cameras, but their security doesn't seem to be the best in the world. When I typed in the IP address for that camera it showed a login screen with a password. (Which I didn't know.) But then when I checked "view source" on the page, I got this:



So yeah... I hope no one installs these accessible from the public internet!
I am certain there are many businesses in your area that could handle your needs....i would never hire someone again after they gave me the finger. You can use this ipvm tool Security Integrator Finder
 

dcd2018

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Oh, wow. Thank you very much guys. Indeed there was a day and night setting. After shifting it from 50 to 70 the issue seems to have gone away. Here's the screenshot if anyone else runs into the same issue:



Additionally I appreciate that security integrator tool. Very handy. I'll give it a whirl. Thanks again!
 

J Sigmo

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I looks like you've got good color imaging at night due to the bright lighting in the area. You might want to just switch the "Day/Night Mode" away from Auto and leave the camera in color mode at all times. That would completely prevent it from switching.

I agree with fenderman that if the folks who installed this system are too lazy and unappreciative of your business to even bother making this simple adjustment for you, after having obviously set it up incorrectly to begin with, I'd be looking for someone else to handle all of your business. Telling you that you're on your own was pretty lousy of them, especially if you've been doing quite a bit of business with them, and were planning on using them in the future, too.

In these days of on-line reviews and ratings for businesses, behaving that way seems short-sighted to say the least!
 
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