Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z)

I'm thinking about installing this against a vertical wall, I wouldn't need the mount, right?

Depends on what you're looking to do.

No Junction box option:
1) If you plan to run the wire inside the walls and make a big enough hole to shove the wiring connection bundle back into the wall. ( iirc about 3/4" or slightly bigger is needed. )
Note - you may have some issues with insulation - so use care so as not to leave a bare insulation spot and do seal the hole appropriately to minimize loss of R value in the wall section. ( note, inspectors demand insulation in even the smallest sections of walls during construction. )

2) If you plan to use the sealing tape which @aristobrat and @beingaware mention above ( thanks guys! ) you could leave the wiring connection bundle outside of the walls if you feel the roof overhang will provide enough direct protection from the rain and snow.

3) If you are close enough to the soffit to push the wiring bundle up into the soffit.

I am ordering junction boxes to:
A) Reduce the hole size out of the wall - plan to pull cat5e/cat6 out and then add the rj45 connector. ( and then add silicone around the hole )
B) For only about $10 more per location for the junction box I can hopefully create a more reliable and dry setup minimizing the need to repair in the future.
C) Due to no roof overhang in locations I expect water to be running down the walls during rains. ( I live in a dry area - so normally not much of an issue )
 
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Use a screwdriver or paper clip to short the points for a full minute while powering up the camera. Not sure exactly how long, but when we tried shorter durations, it didn't reset until we shorted for a full minute.

SD

which pins are you shorting? can you show me a picture? that's gonna suck since it's mounted lol but if I have to do that to get it to see the SD card..
 
Thanks

Depends on what you're looking to do.

No Junction box option:
1) If you plan to run the wire inside the walls and make a big enough hole to shove the wiring connection bundle back into the wall. ( iirc about 3/4" or slightly bigger is needed. )
Note - you may have some issues with insulation - so use care so as not to leave a bare insulation spot and do seal the hole appropriately to minimize loss of R value in the wall section. ( note, inspectors demand insulation in even the smallest sections of walls during construction. )

2) If you plan to use the sealing tape which @aristobrat and @beingaware mention above ( thanks guys! ) you could leave the wiring connection bundle outside of the walls if you feel the roof overhang will provide enough direct protection from the rain and snow.

3) If you are close enough to the soffit to push the wiring bundle up into the soffit.

I am ordering junction boxes to:
A) Reduce the hole size out of the wall - plan to pull cat5e/cat6 out and then add the rj45 connector. ( and then add silicone around the hole )
B) For only about $10 more per location for the junction box I can hopefully create a more reliable and dry setup minimizing the need to repair in the future.
C) Due to no roof overhang in locations I expect water to be running down the walls during rains. ( I live in a dry area - so normally not much of an issue )
 
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@aristobrat posted on the Starlight Turret thread that Dahua had released new firmware dated 06/03/2017 and the changelog lists the following.

Optimizations & bug fixes:

1. Fix the bug that picture overlay displays abnormal when image flips
2. Fix SD card stop working problem
3. Fix auto focus problem under IR condition

I updated my front yard camera earlier today and checked the focus point at night 2080. After refocusing 4 times the number was still 2080. I need to verify my focus number during the day to ensure it wasn't set at some stage during the night but based on my quick testing and the rather descriptive changelog notes I would say this might no longer be an issue?[/QUOTE]

So I've got one turret that won't recognize any SD cards, tried different cards and then put those cards into other turrets and they worked right away, anyone have any ideas? I see no reset button inside these things.

Have a look on the last firmware. Maybe you are affected by sdcard issue.

Question. Is anyone using WDR during the night and actually seeing the image adjust like WDR should?

I've played around with it in the past on all of my turrets and it didn't seem change the picture at all. So I ended up using either BLC or HLC. It wasn't until I enabled WDR on my PTZ did I notice the image brighten. That got me thinking is WDR even working on these cameras?
WDR or BLC, you need to play with both. Some cams like 4431 have a better effect with blc, for 5231 ones wdr is better. Both for night view. The 5231 s much different on wdr like other non starlight cams.
If you want to light up darker areas in the edges, this is a problem is wide angle view, and the integrated ir is more powerfull at center than on the corners. The two leds have a wide and narrow beam. Unfortunately they can't be controlled seperatly, so on closer setups it's over lighted in the center.
These dual ir leds have better performance for distance. Or smaller view angle. Perhaps you should post an example picture. Without any digital picture modification at night view. This can help to give a solution.
 
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@aristobrat posted on the Starlight Turret thread that Dahua had released new firmware dated 06/03/2017 and the changelog lists the following.

Optimizations & bug fixes:

1. Fix the bug that picture overlay displays abnormal when image flips
2. Fix SD card stop working problem
3. Fix auto focus problem under IR condition

I updated my front yard camera earlier today and checked the focus point at night 2080. After refocusing 4 times the number was still 2080. I need to verify my focus number during the day to ensure it wasn't set at some stage during the night but based on my quick testing and the rather descriptive changelog notes I would say this might no longer be an issue?



Have a look on the last firmware. Maybe you are affected by sdcard issue.


WDR or BLC, you need to play with both. Some cams like 4431 have a better effect with blc, for 5231 ones wdr is better. Both for night view. The 5231 s much different on wdr like other non starlight cams.
If you want to light up darker areas in the edges, this is a problem is wide angle view, and the integrated ir is more powerfull at center than on the corners. The two leds have a wide and narrow beam. Unfortunately they can't be controlled seperatly, so on closer setups it's over lighted in the center.
These dual ir leds have better performance for distance. Or smaller view angle. Perhaps you should post an example picture. Without any digital picture modification at night view. This can help to give a solution.[/QUOTE]


I'm running the newest firmware on all of my turrets.
Selection_011.png

This is what I see.
Selection_012.png

I tried a couple SD cards in the cam that I put in other cams and the cards worked fine, so I don't think it's the cards. I've tried resetting via the web gui, I tried downgrading and then upgrading the firmware. Someone said you can short two connections inside of the cam to do a hard reset, not lookin forward to tryin that, doesn't seem like an official way to reset the cam and I'd have to take it down because trying to do that on a ladder might not go well. I might try it anyways though I dunno. Cam works great otherwise, very annoying.
 
@hmjgriffon
This sounds not good. Which size is it? I still haven't insert my Kingston industrial 32gb sdcard till now, I will do this when I dismount it and move it to the caravan on easter. It's for my weather cam. The I can report if I have also problems with sdcard.
 
search "dahua reset" also look at dahuawiki.com

I saw dude who spoke of shorting two pins, I sent him a message to take a picture of the pins he shorted, I could take one of the ones I haven't mounted yet to look too I suppose, there isn't a lot of room to move around in there.

@hmjgriffon
This sounds not good. Which size is it? I still haven't insert my Kingston industrial 32gb sdcard till now, I will do this when I dismount it and move it to the caravan on easter. It's for my weather cam. The I can report if I have also problems with sdcard.

I put 32 gig high endurance cards in, its really odd that it doesn't see any card that I pop in, tried different versions of firmware and nuking the settings but not the full hardware reset, I have a feeling that isn't going to do anything I had no issues with the other 3 cameras and everything is identical but I guess it's worth a shot.
 
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I saw dude who spoke of shorting two pins, I sent him a message to take a picture of the pins he shorted, I could take one of the ones I haven't mounted yet to look too I suppose, there isn't a lot of room to move around in there.



I put 32 gig high endurance cards in, its really odd that it doesn't see any card that I pop in, tried different versions of firmware and nuking the settings but not the full hardware reset, I have a feeling that isn't going to do anything I had no issues with the other 3 cameras and everything is identical but I guess it's worth a shot.


If you check my thread, I have a photo with 5231 spilt open and left side edge of the circuit board is a reset switch

If you don't have a switch there but two solder pads where switch should had been, I believe those two pads are what you short together to reset it

TechBill's surveillance build
 
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If you check my thread, I have a photo with 5231 spilt open and left side edge of the circuit board is a reset switch

If you don't have a switch there but two solder pads where switch should had been, I believe those two pads are what you short together to reset it

TechBill's surveillance build

Just tested one of my turrets that isn't installed I was able to hold the button down while it was plugged into POE, took I dunno maybe 10 seconds before I saw the video freeze, and it was reset, plugged my laptop in, set it to dhcp, put it back onto the lan, imported a config file and I was good to go again, I'll crack open the outside cam tomorrow and reset it and see if it sees the SD card after that, if not, nothing else I can do lol.
 
WDR or BLC, you need to play with both. Some cams like 4431 have a better effect with blc, for 5231 ones wdr is better. Both for night view. The 5231 s much different on wdr like other non starlight cams.

I have found BLC works better to even out the lighting compared to WDR.

If you want to light up darker areas in the edges, this is a problem is wide angle view, and the integrated ir is more powerfull at center than on the corners. The two leds have a wide and narrow beam. Unfortunately they can't be controlled seperatly, so on closer setups it's over lighted in the center.

Thanks for explaining, sure it will help others as well.

Perhaps you should post an example picture. Without any digital picture modification at night view. This can help to give a solution.

Please view the attached image. All photos were taken with the IR off on all cameras. Can any explanation be given as to why the PTZ shows a dramatic difference with the WDR only set to 40 yet the 5231R-Z on 100 shows no difference?

P.S. 1) Before anyone says the view is terrible, this isn't the cameras normal zoom and 2) IR was purposely disabled as the IR on the PTZ is more much powerful than the 5231 and wanted to have a fair comparison.

@TVT73, @EMPIRETECANDY

wdr-tests-5231rz-vs-sd59225uhni.jpg
 
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Finished all updating for the tracking. Guys who bought PFA137 with the hdw5231r-z can processed tomorrow. For those who still waiting , new stock will comes in 14th. I will keep updated here.
Here are the hot models stock details
Hfw8231e-z 10pcs on 14th
Hfw8231e-z5 5 pcs in now
Hfw5231e-z 10 stock in
Hfw5231e-z5 20pcs stock in around 14th
Hdw5231r-z 300pcs stock in around 20th

Hdbw8630e-z 10pcs in
Hfw8630e-z 10pcs stock in
Sd49225t-HN 20pcs stock in
Sd49212t-Hn 5pcs in
Sd59225u-HNi 5pcs with pfb303w
Nvr5816-16p-4ks2 /5832-16p-4ks2 stock in now
Nve5216-16p-4ks2 or without Poe also enough stock now

For the shipping mistaken ones please contact me when you open the parcel.will do fast support.
Thanks for all support and kindly waiting.

Andy
 
Finished all updating for the tracking. Guys who bought PFA137 with the hdw5231r-z can processed tomorrow. For those who still waiting , new stock will comes in 14th. I will keep updated here.
Here are the hot models stock details
Hfw8231e-z 10pcs on 14th
Hfw8231e-z5 5 pcs in now
Hfw5231e-z 10 stock in
Hfw5231e-z5 20pcs stock in around 14th
Hdw5231r-z 300pcs stock in around 20th

Hdbw8630e-z 10pcs in
Hfw8630e-z 10pcs stock in
Sd49225t-HN 20pcs stock in
Sd49212t-Hn 5pcs in
Sd59225u-HNi 5pcs with pfb303w
Nvr5816-16p-4ks2 /5832-16p-4ks2 stock in now
Nve5216-16p-4ks2 or without Poe also enough stock now

For the shipping mistaken ones please contact me when you open the parcel.will do fast support.
Thanks for all support and kindly waiting.

Andy
Hfw8232e-z 10pcs on 14th
 
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