Alarms - It's like it never happened!

[Fastb]

All,

My system:
- Dahua 4216 NVR.
- Dahua cameras (IPC-HFW4300S, IPC-HFW1200S-W, IPC-HDBW4421E-AS)

I’ve enabled alarms in camera and NVR. With MD, the beeper in the NVR goes off, the NVR Alarm Output turns on (for the connected strobe light) and the NVR sends out an email.

Here's my problem.
1) The alarm isn't marked in playback. I only see green on the playback timeline, not yellow or red.
2) The alarm event isn't recorded in the log file, or in the Alarm tab.

So I get notification (buzzer, light, email).
But it's like it never happened. (judging by playback timeline, log file, or the Alarm tab)

What gives?

Thanks for any ideas or clues!

Brian

 

[nayr]

make sure you have the alarm configured to trigger a recording, even if its already recording.

 

[JFire]

All,

My system:
- Dahua 4216 NVR.
- Dahua cameras (IPC-HFW4300S, IPC-HFW1200S-W, IPC-HDBW4421E-AS)

I’ve enabled alarms in camera and NVR. With MD, the beeper in the NVR goes off, the NVR Alarm Output turns on (for the connected strobe light) and the NVR sends out an email.

Here's my problem.
1) The alarm isn't marked in playback. I only see green on the playback timeline, not yellow or red.
2) The alarm event isn't recorded in the log file, or in the Alarm tab.

So I get notification (buzzer, light, email).
But it's like it never happened. (judging by playback timeline, log file, or the Alarm tab)

What gives?

Thanks for any ideas or clues!

Brian

Are you getting snapshots? I can get alarm to trigger and record but my email alerts contain no picture.

Are you using the nvr or Web GUI to set up you're schedule?

I have dahua 4108p nvr.
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[nayr]

also check your schedule and make sure alarms are scheduled, I dont think they are by default.

 

[Fastb]

nayr,

Thanks for suggestions!

Alarm Schedule:
The camera is scheduled for 24/7 for MD (in native NVR UI, Setting, Event, Video Detect, Motion Detect). Solid yellow lines.
The cam is also scheduled for 24/7 for Alarm. Same as above. Screenshot attached. (imagine yellow lines, not red)
View attachment 8970

From the web interface, the NVR also shows MD is set. The "Period" screen shows 24/7
View attachment 8969

In the NVR native UI, it seems everything is enabled properly. IMO.

View attachment 8971

Alarm trigger Recording
nayr, good suggestion. I'm trying to re-find the screen for an alarm to trigger recording. I know I've seen it. I'm recording all the time, not just after MD or alarm, so I didn't pay much attention.

JFire,

Thanks for the reply.
I don't get pics with my email - another problem I will tackle. I get "Motion Detect" and "Motion Event Cleared" emails. But no pic.
I use a) web GUI, b) the Dahua 4216 native NVR UI, and sometimes, c) Smart PSS on a laptop. But never at the same time. The last UI you exit from wipes out the changes made with the previous open UI.
I also click "SAVE" frequently, and sometimes logout, then go back in to make sure the changes remain.
I've had disappearing changes in the past. Likely this newbie's fault....

Thanks everyone!

Brian

 

[JFire]

@Fastb go into your storage and set it under schedule.


If you figure out the snapshots please let me know. I've tried everything I could think of and some ideas posted elsewhere with no luck. My last try is using my isp email. Some claim success doing that but I'm done messing with it for the night.
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[Fastb]

nayr,
Your suggestion to have the event trigger a recording was spot on!

JFire,
Your help to point me to the correct screen was critical! Under "Setting", "Storagge", "Schedule", I was able to enable recording on MD and Alarm events.

The problem is solved.

JFire,
I don't receive attachments in email. I will share the solution with you if/when I find it. My system will be on a small construction site, and the Gen'l Contractor will self-monitor. So getting attachments is important, just as remote access via internet.

The NVR sends to 1) a gmail inbox (me@gmail.com), and 2) a text to my cell phone (206xxxxxxx@pm.sprint.com)

Now to tackle that puzzle and more!

Brian

 

[Fastb]

JFire,

You told me where you had searched for a solution. Thanks. For my investigation, I figured I should try somewhere else. So I pored over the manual (RTFM), and experimented. The following applies to the NVR native UI.

ONE:The manual showed I had missed the following (manual excerpt below)
a) From Main menu->Setting->Camera->Encode->Snapshot, you can go to snapshot interface. See Figure 4-69.
b) In Figure 4-69, select trigger snapshot from the dropdown list and then set picture size, quality and snapshot frequency. Click OK button to save current setup.
c) From Main menu->Setting->Event->Detect, here you can select motion detect type, motion detect channel and then check the enable box. Please refer to chapter 4.9.3.1.
d) Click OK button to complete motion detect setup.

The default is timing. Change it to trigger.

TWO: Enable snapshots
Setting, Storage, Record, Snapshot. Then enable snapshots, camera by camera.

THREE: Define when to take snapshots.
Setting, Storage, Schedule, Snapshot. Then enable snapshots, day by day, hour by hour (for each camera).

There are other settings you need to make, but you probably made those obvious settings. (eg: enable motion detect, define the MD area, sensitivity, threshold, etc)

My next step: create Gmail filters. Every MD event generates 3 emails. The Gen'l Contractor probably will be overwhelmed.
What would be slick would be combine the 1st & 2nd emails. So the GC has "event start" time, and a snapshot. The 3rd email, "MD cleared" may be useful, it indicates "job site cleared"

The NVR generated emails aren't user friendly. Non-US date format, and 24 hour military time. Not GC friendly. Every time/date setting screen has been set to 12 hour mode, and MM/DD/YYYY format. Emails may not be configurable.

JFire, thanks again for your help.

Brian

 

[JFire]

@Fastb i reset everything but I think I've been down,this road but we will see it it works now.

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[JFire]

@Fastb Still not getting snaps.

Am I missing something?

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[nayr]

try a non gmail server, google's mail servers dont do legacy image attachments well.. ive had to change code that worked with a local mailserver to get attachments with a gmail server.

does ur ISP provide you with an outbound mail server? try using it.. i dont do email attachments and I cant test as my cameras cannot reach the internet, let alone gmail.

 

[pal251]

Kind of off topic but does any email servers not use ssl any more? I can't get my olddddd dahua dvrs to work with current Gmail accounts. I'd lIke to use them for their alarm inputs

 

[JFire]

@nayr I'm using gmx.com at the suggestion of another member.

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[bababouy]

Have you tried push notifications through your app? I fine tune motion setting and once I get them working good I can turn on my push notifications. Through the app I can get a video clip, pics or it can ahow me a live view. Im using gdmss for android.

 

[JFire]

@bababouy I haven't tried that yet. I wanted the email to work for when I'm at work. No cellphones allowed and no Internet other than email.

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[Fastb]

JFire,

Thanks for the pics. I didn't see a pic for what I had labelled step two. ie:
TWO: Enable snapshots
Setting, Storage, Record, Snapshot. Then enable snapshots, camera by camera.

I attached pics of relevant screen shots that led to my success in getting snapshot sent from the NVR4216.
My ipcamtalk status of "getting the hang of it" may not allow me to post attachments. If you don't get the pics, PM me and I'll send a zip file via email to you.

We had a wind storm and my neighborhood lost power, hence the delay in replying to you.....

Brian

 

[JFire]

@Fastb your firware is different than mine. I don't have the local option in my alarm but that shouldn't matter as I don't have an alarm i/o on this camera. I'm beginning to think it's an email thing. I'm going to try to go into the camera itself to see its settings.

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[Fastb]

JFire,

Setting, Event, Alarm screen has 4 tabs IPC Ext, IPC Offline, Local and Net)
1 of my 3 cameras has "Alarm in" and "Alarm out"
However, there is no difference in the screen I see in the NVR native ui. Specifically, I have the above four tabs for all 3 cameras.

I just checked:
For the camera that is emailing snapshots;
The enable box and snapshot box are checked on 3 tabs (IPC Offline, Local and Net)
For IPC Ext tab, I get this error "Channel n Failed to get configuration" for the two cameras w/o External Alarm wires at the camera. The cameras don't have ext alarm capability, so the "IPC Ext" tab doesn't "get configuration", and won't allow saving configuration either.

I just ran a test. I un-checked the enable box in the Local and Net tab. Meaning MD and snapshot are enable only in the IPC Offline tab. After an MD event, the snapshot reached my phone.

You're going to look into email settings, so I thought I'd show mine;

Good luck!

 

[JFire]

@Fastb my setting event alarm only has the 2 tabs. I just switched to a Gmail account. The test went through let's see about snaps.

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[Fastb]

@JFire,
My "Test Emails" were successful originally. Which allowed me to receive 1) "Motion Detect Event email and 2) Motion Even Cleared email.
That went swimmingly.
Getting the 3rd email, with snapshot, took more work.
But first things first.....
Good luck,
Brian