Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z)

there is silica packet inside, might open it up and make sure it didnt get bound up against the lens

It was a combo of the silica packet rubbing and the lens binding up against the black foam seal ring that sits between the lens and the outer glass of the front cover.
When I took it apart with the cover separated it zoomed almost silently.
I reassembled and it without the silica packet and made the squeaky sound but not the grindy sound. Just have to figure out how to properly position that foam ring and I'm back in business.

Thanks @nayr , YOU DA MAN!! :cool:

p.s. Curious has anyone ever had to return a cam to China for repair\replacement? How do they handle that and what is the shipping from the U.S. roughly?
Glad I did not have to mess with that. This is where not having a warranty would be an issue....I assume any problems and a resolution would be a combo of Andy's discretion and your wallet.
 
A search for IPC-HDW5231R-Z (18 results) or HDW5231R-Z (1 result) did not include Empire Express, yet when I look at my orders and click on that camera that I ordered from Empire, or when I go to Empire's store, the item appears. Odd.

I did notice that the store says 0 pieces available. Should I still add to cart and checkout or should I contact Andy directly? I know these items go out the door as soon as they come in.
 
Can I mount this on a vertical surface and rotate it down? If so, is the rotation limited to 90 degrees? If no, is it really not designed to be mounted like that, e.g. will gunk collect in the pivot points or is it more likely for the weather to affect the glass?
 
Oh I think I might have just answered my own question from scanning the specs:

"Pan:0˚~360˚; Tilt:0˚~78˚; Rotation:0˚~360˚"

Confirmation? I'm guessing there is a bracket to suit for a vertical mount?
 
It was a combo of the silica packet rubbing and the lens binding up against the black foam seal ring that sits between the lens and the outer glass of the front cover.
When I took it apart with the cover separated it zoomed almost silently.
I reassembled and it without the silica packet and made the squeaky sound but not the grindy sound. Just have to figure out how to properly position that foam ring and I'm back in business.

Thanks @nayr , YOU DA MAN!! :cool:

p.s. Curious has anyone ever had to return a cam to China for repair\replacement? How do they handle that and what is the shipping from the U.S. roughly?
Glad I did not have to mess with that. This is where not having a warranty would be an issue....I assume any problems and a resolution would be a combo of Andy's discretion and your wallet.
Shipping will cost near $100 and not be worth it, basically with the money you save ordering direct from China you write off any losses. Glad you found the source of the noise, I may take mine apart and see if the silica just needs to be moved, did it seem like it was binding in a way that would cause damage or was it just annoying? Only thing that worries me is that you said you have to figure out how to put the foam ring back correctly haha.
 
Mine already paid for itself - I've been lazy in the bad weather so haven't replaced another cam in the garden so it's been sat benchtesting running looking out the window. 2 nights ago BI picked up two guys marking properties (for reasons as of yet unknown).

I'd meant to set BI to make a timelapse and instead had it running with full motion detection which is where I spotted the two randoms.

Police etc were called and even they commented how clear the footage was at night (I had IR disabled so was just letting the sensor strut it's stuff).

I've also installed a 128GB Toshiba Exceria microSD which is working fine - when you first pop the card in it will give an error under the local storage area, but just format the card, the camera will reboot and then it should be able to use all of the storage :)

Happy days :)
 
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Code:
Main: rtsp://ip:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0
Sub #1: rtsp://ip:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=1
Sub #2: rtsp://ip:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=2

No idea how to config your Surveillance Station, the cameras are ONVIF compatible if that helps.

Thanks you have the .jpg url ? Thanks
 
configure your cameras to use the IP of your BI Server as a NTP TimeSource, also make sure your BI windows firewall permits port 123/UDP

I used the Windows time server and had trouble getting the cameras to sync. I had port 123/UDP allowed in the firewall but it still would not sync. I turned off the firewall for the camera network (x.y.1.z) and it all started to work. The camera network is different than the WAN network (x,y,0.z) and the firewall is turned on for that network. This should be OK since hackers would need to go through the first firewall to get to the camera. It's working no so no need to change anything. I update every 20 minutes and the cameras usually are withing 5 seconds of each other which for me is acceptable though I could probably drop down to 10 minute updates.
 
Oh I think I might have just answered my own question from scanning the specs:

"Pan:0˚~360˚; Tilt:0˚~78˚; Rotation:0˚~360˚"

Confirmation? I'm guessing there is a bracket to suit for a vertical mount?

I used a PFA135 made by Dahua I got from Andy. It mounts to the wall, the camera base mounts to that and the camera ring mounts over the camera to fix the position. Worked fine for me. You can get them on Amazon but you actually might get them faster from Andy but hurry as they are about to go on Chinese New Year holiday for the next 3 weeks. This junction box has enough room to hold the camera pigtail and keep the connection out of the weather. It includes a fitting to allow the cable in and keep things waterproof though you'll have to replace the RJ45 to get the wire though.
 
Does this camera pan and tilt with a controlled motor? Or does it just have a motorized zoomed lens?
The quality looks great! I want a camera I can control through my I-phone that can pan & tilt as well. Thanks!
 
I have this issue when the sun comes out full. The image gets washed out. Not sure what the issue is. These photos were taken 15 second apart. The exposure is normal profile, Ant-flicker outdoor, Mode auto, Auto Iris on, 3D NR on, grade 50. What's the issue here? Thanks

Driveway.20170112_131715.jpg


and 15 seconds later

Driveway.20170112_131730.jpg
 
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I used the Windows time server and had trouble getting the cameras to sync. I had port 123/UDP allowed in the firewall but it still would not sync. I turned off the firewall for the camera network (x.y.1.z) and it all started to work. The camera network is different than the WAN network (x,y,0.z) and the firewall is turned on for that network. This should be OK since hackers would need to go through the first firewall to get to the camera. It's working no so no need to change anything. I update every 20 minutes and the cameras usually are withing 5 seconds of each other which for me is acceptable though I could probably drop down to 10 minute updates.

If you run a local time server you can have them sync time every 1min
 
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It was a combo of the silica packet rubbing and the lens binding up against the black foam seal ring that sits between the lens and the outer glass of the front cover.
When I took it apart with the cover separated it zoomed almost silently.
I reassembled and it without the silica packet and made the squeaky sound but not the grindy sound. Just have to figure out how to properly position that foam ring and I'm back in business.

Thanks @nayr , YOU DA MAN!! :cool:

Why didn't you put the silica packet back in? It's there to absorb any moisture that may form up inside and you don't want droplets of water or condensate to short the boards, do you?
 
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I just use time.nist.gov or some other stratum 1 server, and those usually point to a pool of servers so, better than anything I would run locally lol.

you can sync your BI Server upstream to a Stratum 1 server, then sync your cameras to your BI server.. I guarantee your latency to between your cameras and your BI server is a tiny fraction of the latency between your cameras and nist.gov
 
Backlight is set to WDR @ 55. Not using BLC. White balance is set to Outdoor, Day/Night is set to Auto, Middle, 6S,

WDR is too high, knock it down to like 10% and raise it up if you need more.. its got real 120db WDR and a little bit goes a long ways.. and alot can really washout images