Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z)

erkme73

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I had a professional installer team install 6 of these cams this weekend. All are in soffits under the roof. When I was clearing the boxes today, i found in the boxes these tubular plastic pieces. Are these what you are referring to? It looks like the installer never used them! As i recollect him telling me that as the cams are in soffits, there wasnt a chance of water getting up underneath them and so he didnt put into paste/putty. But after finding these pieces today, I wonder... What are your thoughts? Are they critical in my setting? Thank you.
Keep in mind that any moisture - even humid air - that gets on the pins carrying DC voltage will cause corrosion and oxidation. Even if no direct water gets to the connection, an exposed RJ45 will show corrosion on the voltage-carrying pins after just a few months. Given enough time, the pins will eventually fail - they are very thin. I would strongly encourage you to have the weather-tight pieces installed. Without them, they may work for a year or more, but at some point the electrolysis will ruin the terminals... And when the terminals on the camera pigtail fail, your options to get it fixed are quite more drastic than just cutting off the male crimped end of an ethernet cable.
 

Doolally

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Good point my 6 cams will be installed this weekend I will be ensuring they use the waterproof jackets :) excited is an understatement. Will have my new Gigabit POE+Switch in and will be able to play with my cams and Blueiris :)
 

LandofTomorrow

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Keep in mind that any moisture - even humid air - that gets on the pins carrying DC voltage will cause corrosion and oxidation. Even if no direct water gets to the connection, an exposed RJ45 will show corrosion on the voltage-carrying pins after just a few months. Given enough time, the pins will eventually fail - they are very thin. I would strongly encourage you to have the weather-tight pieces installed. Without them, they may work for a year or more, but at some point the electrolysis will ruin the terminals... And when the terminals on the camera pigtail fail, your options to get it fixed are quite more drastic than just cutting off the male crimped end of an ethernet cable.
@erkme73 Thanks. If I understand you correctly, the jackets go around where the ethernet port of the camera hooks up with the Cat 6 cable ethernet jack, correct? In my home, this connection is probably sitting in the attic as the cams are mounted under the soffit and there was probably atleast 6-10 inches of wire from the camera. So you are saying that the installer should best get back into the attic and thread the jacket around the connection as I suspect the connection will not be accessible from the hole they cut in the soffit ( or maybe there is enough slack).

So much for paying and using professional installers!! I expect the installer to state that this is how he does other cams and hasnt had any problems etc etc (he told me does a lot of commercials etc). Oh well.
 

Sander kerkhoff

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With weather right pieces, do you mean these plastic accessoires that fit on the pigtail?
 

mik

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@nayr since this original thread has started in 2016, has there been a better low light camera since the HDI-5231R-Z? Ive got to replace a camera and want to use the latest/best Dahua low light camera.

Thanks!
 

SquareEyes

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@nayr since this original thread has started in 2016, has there been a better low light camera since the HDI-5231R-Z? Ive got to replace a camera and want to use the latest/best Dahua low light camera.

Thanks!
There are better. Not for the the price. These 2mp Starvis are best bang for buck ATM.
 

erkme73

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With weather right pieces, do you mean these plastic accessoires that fit on the pigtail?
Correct. Any mechanism that came with the camera that allows a weather-tight seal to occur over the connection, should be implemented. If these cameras come with a female RJ-45 that has a gasketed locking interface, with one part designed to be downstream of the crimped on male RJ-45 terminal, then it should be used. I don't have this model camera, but some of the weather tight couplers have a large enough hole that a crimped end can go though. Most don't, so they have to be installed prior to terminating the ethernet cable. If the installer forgot to put them on, I would insist they fix it - even if it means paying more.

Once the pins inside the camera's pigtail fail, it is very difficult to rectify.
 

hd88

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While reviewing the recorded video for some of the IVS tripwire events I noticed there were a few seconds gap/missing. Anyone else seeing this?

Thanks
 

Mike Mo

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While reviewing the recorded video for some of the IVS tripwire events I noticed there were a few seconds gap/missing. Anyone else seeing this?

Thanks
This is a problem with the way Dahua implements their event recording algorithm in all their IP cameras and NVRs, as far as I can tell.

Sucks. Other threads discuss this. Work arounds include continuous recording and storing only jpg snapshots on event triggers.
 
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happf

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How are people sealing their network connections? I am going to be making my own cables. I have strain relief jackets but when i google waterproof jackets, I find complete connectors. For a lot of the cameras, I already have a 12v wire feed for the existing bnc cameras that I end to use, so hopefully that saves the network connector some?
 

aristobrat

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While reviewing the recorded video for some of the IVS tripwire events I noticed there were a few seconds gap/missing. Anyone else seeing this?
You can reduce the maximum time of the gap down to one second by changing (on the camera) the iFrame interval to match the value of your FPS. By default, the camera's iFrame setting is 2x FPS, which means you can have to up a maximum of a two second gap.

Until Dahua changes how they record (and start new video files when the camera sends an iFrame), I don't think there's any way to completely eliminate this, other than using one of the work-arounds @Mike Mo mentioned.
 

aristobrat

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How are people sealing their network connections? I am going to be making my own cables. I have strain relief jackets but when i google waterproof jackets, I find complete connectors. For a lot of the cameras, I already have a 12v wire feed for the existing bnc cameras that I end to use, so hopefully that saves the network connector some?
I used the waterproof things that came with the camera... You have to get them on the cable you're making before you terminate it, though.

227773_1.jpg
 

happf

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awesome! thanks. Now I understand better the earlier posts.
 

TechBill

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How are people sealing their network connections? I am going to be making my own cables. I have strain relief jackets but when i google waterproof jackets, I find complete connectors. For a lot of the cameras, I already have a 12v wire feed for the existing bnc cameras that I end to use, so hopefully that saves the network connector some?

I use the weatherproof connector that came with the camera, I have photo of it in my build thread being put together.

TechBill's surveillance build
 
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