Can my fixed cameras trip my tracking camera?

[sdl0311]

Hello,
It's been awhile since my last post. I've been working with only 2 fixed cameras watching the front of my house for awhile, and decided to upgrade/add my first tracking camera (SD49225XA-HNR, thanks Andy!) to the mix. The question I have is if I have my tracking camera watching a specific area, and someone comes from a different area that my fixed camera is watching, can the fixed cameras trip/alert and communicate to the tracking camera to pan to that area and start tracking? I havent installed the tracking camera yet, as I plan on doing that in the next couple of days but just wanted to see if that was a possibility. If so, can anyone send me a link or guide on how to set this up? Can it be done via Blueiris or dahua settings? I'm still on BI4, but plan on upgrading soon. Thanks again for any assistance you can provide me!

 

[Mike A.]

Yes. Just set up the triggers to trigger the other cam. Not hard to do in BI.

On the primary cam (i.e., your fixed cam), set up a group containing the cam(s) to move when that cam triggers.

Under the other cam(s) (your PTZ) make a preset for it to move to when triggered which gives the view you want.

On the Trigger tab for the other cam, under "When triggered" select "Move to preset" and select the preset you created and check "Move camera groups" selecting the group including the cam(s) to move.

Should move to the assigned preset when you execute the trigger for the primary cam. You can use the "Trigger Now" to test.

The "Resume cycle" on the PTZ/Control tab controls how long the moved cams stay on the preset before moving back to where they were. To get the cams back you could use that based on some time. I think a setting of 0 turns that off. If you want to control the return on demand, then might be able to make some other cam the primary and do something similar with another manual trigger as above.

^ Edited above for clarity in case someone else is searching.

 

[sdl0311]

Thanks Mike! I tried your steps and must have been doing something wrong But I was able to get it to work by setting both cameras up with those settings you gave. So basically I have the fixed cam and PTZ cam checked under "When triggered". I'm sure it's still not the correct way to do it, but it's working!

 

[sdl0311]

Alright, so I played around with it more and removed the check mark "when triggered" from the PTZ and it still works. So now the only thing checked is on the fix cam. How do I remove/delete the group name that I made? Do I have to delete the camera, and re-add it?

I tried to do this on another fixed cam, and somehow it's triggering all the cameras but still passing to the desired preset, lol. I know I got this wrong somehow. Sorry for the confusion, as I'm confused myself!

 

[wittaj]

Just create a new group with just the PTZ in it.

The group name will disappear when there are no cameras are in the group, so if you want the group name deleted, you have to remove the camera from the group.

 

[Mike A.]

We can really confuse you if we start including clone cams, profiles, and PTZ zones to do in more complex ways. lol

But mentioning just so you know that you can do more with it if you want/need. I was trying to keep it as simple as possible above.

 

[Mike A.]

Just create a new group with just the PTZ in it.

The group name will disappear when there are no cameras are in the group, so if you want the group name deleted, you have to remove the camera from the group.

Thanks, I was wondering how to delete groups myself.

 

[sdl0311]

Again, I apologize for the confusion! I figured it out with your guys help, as always! I only added the group name on PTZ and deselected the "when triggiered" on the PTZ cam. Then on the other two fixed cams, I unselected the group name and selected "trigger camera groups," "move to preset," and "move camera groups," and all is working great as it should! Confirmed it works with the Trigger now as suggested.

Is this the best way to do this, or would the tour each preset in the PTZ dahua settings work better to capture the deep IVS rules i've made for each preset? I'm still learning this camera and it's capabilities. I've been trying t o follow the other forum that you guys talk about with this camera here. Thanks again!

 

[wittaj]

yeah, it took me awhile to figure out how to "delete" the group LOL. But no camera in group and group disappears.

You can do the tour if you want other areas to cover that you do not have fixed cams to spot to, but the fixed cams as spotter cams is the preferred way because that means you have coverage otherwise if the PTZ is off looking somewhere else.

Yeah, once you start the clones, you can really do a lot more and add more complexity and coverage to it.

Before I got the autotrack PTZ camera, I had 10 clones going that essentially mimicked autotracking for my non autotrack PTZ. I called it the poor mans auto track, but it worked surprisingly well.

 

[Mike A.]

Yeah, kind of different things I think. The above is reacting to the detection on the fixed cam and not that on the PTZ. The PTZ is just moving to a preset in response.

But I guess you could do both. Cam could tour as its normal state and then be triggered by the fixed cam(s) to move to a preset. I've not tried that but seems like it would work. Not sure what happens from there are far as resuming tour, etc.

 

[sdl0311]

Do you know if there is a way to set up touring mode in BI? I couldn't find anything, but not sure if I was overlooking a setting that could do it. I can get the tour to work in dahua settings, but once the spotter cam was triggered, it took the ptz out of touring mode and stayed on the fixed cam.

 

[Mike A.]

If you put a time into "Resume cycle" on the PTZ/Control tab, does that not return it to whatever it was doing prior to being triggered? It returns mine to the normal preset where it sits but I'm not using the Dahua tour.

Also on that same page, there's a check box for "Auto-cycle patrol." I've never tried to use it but sounds like it might be the equivalent to tour? From BI help file:

Select the Auto-cycle patrol option to automatically perform a patrol function through selected presets, possibly only during selected times of the day/week. The Auto-reverse option will cause the presets to be used sequentially from first to last and then backwards from last to first repeatedly, that is for example 1,2,3,4,3,2,1 instead of 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4.

 

[sdl0311]

Thanks Mike, So it kinda works, unless Im still missing something. I checked that box and it works but for some reason it stalls on my last (3rd) preset, and seems to take way longer before it goes back to preset 1. Here are the settings.

 

[sdl0311]

Ok, So I figured out my problem. You were on the right track Mike! I went to "Edit Presets" and it had 15 Presets (that I didn't create) that it was trying to cycle through, which is why it was taking forever before it went back to preset 1. Once I clear each of those presets to my only 3 remaining, it cycles normally! The spotter cam triggers also work with the tour! Thanks again Mike!

 

[Mike A.]

Good deal. Glad that you got it working.

 

[sdl0311]

Good deal. Glad that you got it working.

Mike, got another question for you that's probably a simple setting. I turned off the tours so I want to use it with the spotter cams only. How can I get the ptz to go back to preset 1 (where it is originally was watching)? It triggers the ptz to the spotter cam as it's supposed to, but wont go back to original preset after the trigger is done.

 

[Mike A.]

The resume cycle setting should do that after N time. Does for mine.

 

[sdl0311]

I've got that checked and played with a couple other settings and no luck. Is this what your settings look like on PTZ?

 

[Mike A.]

I've got that checked and played with a couple other settings and no luck. Is this what your settings look like on PTZ?

Yes, with the following differences:

Apply delay to group/s not checked.
Auto-cycle patrol not checked.
Resume cycle/schedule after inactivity set to 120.
On presets screen, dwell is set to 10 seconds.

Trying to think if there's anything else that I have set to do anything along those lines. I don't think so.

 

[sdl0311]

Yes, with the following differences:

Apply delay to group/s not checked.
Auto-cycle patrol not checked.
Resume cycle/schedule after inactivity set to 120.
On presets screen, dwell is set to 10 seconds.

Trying to think if there's anything else that I have set to do anything along those lines. I don't think so.

This is how the spotter cam settings look, do I need to change anything? Still not working with the other recommendations. I'll keep trying