Blue Iris motion detection suddenly not working at night!

[TheWhiteKnight]

So my Hikvision DS-2CD2T42WD-I5 & Blue Iris has been working great then this morning an intruder trespassed and went right under the camera out of view, did something for 5m and then left.

The camera triggered fine but I didn't notice it until the evening so I went out at night to see if there was anything missing or damaged and to my surprise I noticed I wasn't triggering the camera!

I thought my settings were fine and I had obviously tested them before settling on my setup. I tried everything, resetting the camera, actually power cycling the POE for it and increasing the sensitivity for both object size and contrast to the max (all the way to the left) and it will not trigger! I made a giant red hot spot box and walked in it jumping at the camera with no detection. I distinctly remember that when I first set the camera up these actions would all trigger it but maybe I had only tested it in the day time.

It is recording fine (always been set to record when triggered only) and I can see myself remotely on my phone but it won't trigger an alert! I'm not saying it won't send a notification to my phone that works fine i'm saying it won't detect my motion at all. Really unnerving to know all that I was missing at night when I thought I was covered.

For both day and night I use color only for detection. If I switch the night time profile to brightness + color it will automatically start triggering from little specs flying around but still not if i'm jumping in front of the cam let alone in a hot spot. I've tried disabling object detect/reject as I've heard it's not advised to use but I'm at wits end. I know motion detection is done in the software not the camera so how was this all fine before yet now it's not? Any ideas on how to fix it?

 

[fenderman]

So my Hikvision DS-2CD2T42WD-I5 & Blue Iris has been working great then this morning an intruder trespassed and went right under the camera out of view, did something for 5m and then left.

The camera triggered fine but I didn't notice it until the evening so I went out at night to see if there was anything missing or damaged and to my surprise I noticed I wasn't triggering the camera!

I thought my settings were fine and I had obviously tested them before settling on my setup. I tried everything, resetting the camera, actually power cycling the POE for it and increasing the sensitivity for both object size and contrast to the max (all the way to the left) and it will not trigger! I made a giant red hot spot box and walked in it jumping at the camera with no detection. I distinctly remember that when I first set the camera up these actions would all trigger it but maybe I had only tested it in the day time.

It is recording fine (always been set to record when triggered only) and I can see myself remotely on my phone but it won't trigger an alert! I'm not saying it won't send a notification to my phone that works fine i'm saying it won't detect my motion at all. Really unnerving to know all that I was missing at night when I thought I was covered.

For both day and night I use color only for detection. If I switch the night time profile to brightness + color it will automatically start triggering from little specs flying around but still not if i'm jumping in front of the cam let alone in a hot spot. I've tried disabling object detect/reject as I've heard it's not advised to use but I'm at wits end. I know motion detection is done in the software not the camera so how was this all fine before yet now it's not? Any ideas on how to fix it?

Check the profiles...motion detection is profile specific...You will need to post all your settings...you obviously have something set incorrectly...what EXACT version of blue iris are you using? Seems like you are using BI3 or a very old version of 4..regardless you cannot use color only on a B&W image and you cannot use object detect reject...
Update to the latest version because the motion options are completely different.

 

[TheWhiteKnight]

Release 4.0.3.1 x64

Profile is correct and was created specifically for night time.

Motion Sensor Enabled
Object Size 7 notches from the left
Contrast 3 1/2 notches from the left
Trigger if motion occurs 1.0sec
Object Detect/Reject Off
Mask/Hotspot On
Highlight + Rectangles
Color + Brightness

Nothing enabled in the when triggered section or lower.

 

[fenderman]

Release 4.0.3.1 x64

Profile is correct and was created specifically for night time.

Motion Sensor Enabled
Object Size 7 notches from the left
Contrast 3 1/2 notches from the left
Trigger if motion occurs 1.0sec
Object Detect/Reject Off
Mas/Hotspot On
Highlight + Rectangles
Color + Brightness

Nothing enabled in the when triggered section or lower.

Why on earth are you on a two year old version? update to the latest...totally new motion options available.
Hotspot should not be used, its will give you tons of false alerts..

 

[TheWhiteKnight]

Because there was no need to since everything was working perfect. Are you saying that this is the cause of the problem?

 

[fenderman]

Because there was no need to since everything was working perfect. Are you saying that this is the cause of the problem?

that is not the cause..the cause is a misconfiguration...but you might as well update it because any future update will completely change your motion settings..there are a tone of improvements to motion detection include multiple zones...there are lots of new features including hardware acceleration...

 

[TheWhiteKnight]

I will do so for sure but is there anything else I can do in the meantime. I mean literally nothing will activate even at the most sensitive settings. I usually only get false alarms at sunrise and sunset which I haven't figured out how to resolve but hot spot works great in the day time.

 

[fenderman]

I will do so for sure but is there anything else I can do in the meantime. I mean literally nothing will activate even at the most sensitive settings. I usually only get false alarms at sunrise and sunset which I haven't figured out how to resolve but hot spot works great in the day time.

do you have more than 1 camera? are the others working?
did you check the traffic light?

 

[TheWhiteKnight]

Only one camera and traffic light is green. Triggering an alert manually works and test notification to device does as well. Also under the alerts section motion is checked on for when the camera is triggered.

 

[fenderman]

Only one camera and traffic light is green. Triggering an alert manually works and test notification to device does as well. Also under the alerts section motion is checked on for when the camera is triggered.

you will have to post images of all your settings...otherwise update and work from there...you are wasting your time messing with the old version..

 

[TheWhiteKnight]

Hey so I updated, did a fresh uninstall and reinstall and everything is back to normal. The improvements are major as you said but it is still really weird that it failed before. I've had to set the make time really low to 0.3 to register movement as an alert. The zone has no foot traffic but at 0.5 and higher, walking back there doesn't trigger an alert. Hotspot works great however since it probably has a 0.0 make time. In the old version it would still reject objects smaller than the object size I set is this still the case?

For object detection I set "object size exceeds" to 50% to hopefully resolve the sunrise and sunset triggering.

 

[fenderman]

Hey so I updated, did a fresh uninstall and reinstall and everything is back to normal. The improvements are major as you said but it is still really weird that it failed before. I've had to set the make time really low to 0.3 to register movement as an alert. The zone has no foot traffic but at 0.5 and higher, walking back there doesn't trigger an alert. Hotspot works great however since it probably has a 0.0 make time. In the old version it would still reject objects smaller than the object size I set is this still the case?

For object detection I set "object size exceeds" to 50% to hopefully resolve the sunrise and sunset triggering.

Hotspot is completely useless for alerts...it can be used to ensure capture because it ignores all motion settings.
You dont have to set the make time that low...check your settings and ensure blue iris is getting a steady frame rate.
your prior issue was likely related to an improper setting...

 

[TheWhiteKnight]

I'm getting 20fps. I thought it was a setting too but when I reinstalled I imported all my old settings and it still worked fine. At a make time of 1.0 my movement in front of the camera does not trigger alert but I can see I am being tracked even with arms waving. Hotspot will still trigger an alert however. What other setting could I be ignoring?

 

[fenderman]

I'm getting 20fps. I thought it was a setting too but when I reinstalled I imported all my old settings and it still worked fine. At a make time of 1.0 my movement in front of the camera does not trigger alert but I can see I am being tracked even with arms waving. Hotspot will still trigger an alert however. What other setting could I be ignoring?

That can be because some options are no longer available so the import did not bring in the incorrect setting..
you will have to post all your settings...are you moving around for more than 1 second?

 

[dstinson]

I would like to barge into this conversation as I am on the latest version of BI and my second camera (Hikvison fixed dome cam DS-2CD2142FWD-I) does not record at night either. Well, it records if I pull up in my truck w/ the lights on and pull in the garage. If I walk the dog and come home, it can 'see' me and if I turn on my phone I can see myself on the mobile app, but it never records. It does an excellent job when the sun is out, but as soon as it sets it has a hard time picking up movement. Any recommendations on settings? I am happy to upload pics if necessary. Thanks

 

[fenderman]

I would like to barge into this conversation as I am on the latest version of BI and my second camera (Hikvison fixed dome cam DS-2CD2142FWD-I) does not record at night either. Well, it records if I pull up in my truck w/ the lights on and pull in the garage. If I walk the dog and come home, it can 'see' me and if I turn on my phone I can see myself on the mobile app, but it never records. It does an excellent job when the sun is out, but as soon as it sets it has a hard time picking up movement. Any recommendations on settings? I am happy to upload pics if necessary. Thanks

post your settings...also remember that motion settings are profile specific...

 

[dstinson]

thanks for your reply and sorry for late posting. So here is what I have uncovered... I can get the cam to record at night when i adjust the sensitivity and contrast; however, that backfires in the day time and the number of false positives i get is out of control. It looks like i can create 1 profile for day use and another one for night. I have read on this forum and I know this can be done but i need some help putting the pieces together. I have 2 cams, I only need 1 to have the 2 diff profiles (1 for day and another for night). I see there is a sunrise\sunset check box and a place to put in your longitude and latitude coordinates. I think it would be great for the cam to switch automatically to night mode at sunset. I will attach what I have done so far and if someone can fill in the gaps for me I would appreciate that. thanks

 

[dstinson]

update from last night... So everything works now (I think). I have the 2nd cam switching automatically with some changes I made after my recent post. I was able to see the cam switch to day mode around 6:30am. I can't seem to find a way to make the sunrise\sunset checkbox active. So I have the schedule static but I would like it to adjust with sun. Can someone tell me how do this? I will attach the latest settings here. thanks

 

[fenderman]

update from last night... So everything works now (I think). I have the 2nd cam switching automatically with some changes I made after my recent post. I was able to see the cam switch to day mode around 6:30am. I can't seem to find a way to make the sunrise\sunset checkbox active. So I have the schedule static but I would like it to adjust with sun. Can someone tell me how do this? I will attach the latest settings here. thanks

you first need to set the correct geolocation for your area, then move the sliders within about 200 minuets of that time and it will let you select it...basically you can set it relative to sunrise and sunset so +/- if you wish.

 

[dstinson]

thanks for the reply, I think i did it but i would like confirmation. I did add my geolocation. I set the slider to the exact time of the sunrise on my night profile and i did get the checkbox. When i hit ok (box closes) and then open the schedule up to view it, the box is unchecked. Is this the way it is supposed to work? I will attached 2 pics. thanks