Dahua Starlight Varifocal Turret (IPC-HDW5231R-Z)
I am sure the one I ordered Nov 11th will arrive the next business day after I leave for a 3 week vacation. Oh well, can't blame Andy for the production delays.
nayr
IPCT Contributor
Earlier this year Sony's CMOS Manufacturing facilities took earthquake damage in Japan.. its really screwed with output as they have been reduced to a fraction of normal outputs; many models earlier offered with Sony Exmor sensors have been replaced with Non-Sony sensors.. The Mini-Black Face Dahua PTZ is a prime example; I got mine with a 1/2.8 Sony back in January 2016 but now they only come with 1/2.7 Non-Sony
Japan’s Kumamoto quakes likely had a major effect on camera production
Japan’s Kumamoto quakes likely had a major effect on camera production
j4co
Pulling my weight
I will simply extend my order and see when Andy has stock again. I am no hurry anyway.
I was, and am still keen on these but I'm not going to get myself involved in a long waiting line for this cam at the moment. I'll just wait and when supplies become more reasonable I will see if this is still the best camera out there for the money. Shame, but ah well.
If in the USA, no customs charge (I think the rule is < $800 or something, though I'm sure that is an oversimplification). But you have not specified which country you are in.
Shipping companies such as DHL may collect the customs fee, but it is governments that charge it in the first place.
Sorry - I am in the US
Thanks
Slightly off topic here but I'm looking to buy a poe switch to use with these cameras. Pretty sure I read on this thread previously that if the switch is managed, I can keep the camera traffic segregated from the rest of my network to avoid a negative impact on other traffic, such as streaming movies, general browsing etc. Is that true? Should I make sure I buy a managed switch as opposed to unmanaged one?
j4co
Pulling my weight
With a managed switch you can seperate traffic by the use of vlans. This has advantages and disadvantages.
Advantage: less riks that from the internet someone could misuse the camera (one of the largest denail of service attack was with cameras with weak sequrity that people did not have any protection in between it an the net.
Disadvantage: you should have a l3 routing device in your network somyou can reach the camera from a pc, tablet or whatever which are in the non camera vlan. This can be an option in the router from the ISP already, or you can use a seperate router or firewall for example.
Access from outside to camera's should be done by a vpn service and never a port foreward as the sequrity of a camera or nvr is almost for all units much to weak.
Advantage: less riks that from the internet someone could misuse the camera (one of the largest denail of service attack was with cameras with weak sequrity that people did not have any protection in between it an the net.
Disadvantage: you should have a l3 routing device in your network somyou can reach the camera from a pc, tablet or whatever which are in the non camera vlan. This can be an option in the router from the ISP already, or you can use a seperate router or firewall for example.
Access from outside to camera's should be done by a vpn service and never a port foreward as the sequrity of a camera or nvr is almost for all units much to weak.
Thanks, Nayr!! I'm glad you posted this because I had not even thought about brackets to mount these cameras.
I'm ordering nine of them and they will mostly go under the eves on my house. Would you guys recommend the PFB203W brackets? And anyone happen to know what Andy charges for these each?
j4co
Pulling my weight
I will use the pfw203w brackets for this camera. Bought one on 11 november for 14€ and the price was new for around 20€ i think. Perhaps Andy can do you a good price for 9x 
For the new house here the eve is at 5.8 meter heigh.
So the cameras will be mounting at 2.00-2.30 meter heigh up i think with the brackets.
For the new house here the eve is at 5.8 meter heigh.
So the cameras will be mounting at 2.00-2.30 meter heigh up i think with the brackets.
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nayr
IPCT Contributor
no brackets are even remotely needed; unless your running conduit.. then mebe the round junction box
So the managed vs unmanaged has nothing to do with preventing other devices on the network being adversely affected by all the bandwidth being used by the camera feed data? It's more a privacy and security implication?
How do you attach these to eves without some sort of bracket?
Do they come with a mounting plate or something?
nayr
IPCT Contributor
the housing for a turret comes in 2 pieces; the camera which is a round ball.. and a base that allows you to position it from 0-90 degrees within, that base can be clocked in any orientation in 360 degrees.. because the base and the camera are separate they have full adjustability even on unlevel surfaces such as roof soffits.
both pieces are metal, a set screw locks the ball in place.. base has 3 holes for screws and can be mounted to any flat surface that fits its footprint.
cabling through a hole in center of base, 1in
both pieces are metal, a set screw locks the ball in place.. base has 3 holes for screws and can be mounted to any flat surface that fits its footprint.
cabling through a hole in center of base, 1in
j4co
Pulling my weight
The bandwidth is used only if you have multiple vlans through a cable.
But if your setup is not to large the typical ISP device connects to a switch (POE type perhaps) and there you connect all your devices.
Bandwidth on a switch should not be a limit, as every port should be handled up to line rate. Camera's cpmmunicate only to NVR port, and no other port (might not be true as they could phone home and you would want access from PC/tablet etc.)
If your setup contains of multiple switches and you have camera/nvr devices connected to these multiple switches where also normal devices are on, you will share the bandwidth. (as on the 1 gigabit Ethernet link where 2 or more vlans go over)
But that is not really an issue for most people, as a camera stream would be max 10-20 mbps, but most people run them lower, lets say 6 mbps.
Gigabit Ethernet is 1000 mbps. so you could run many ip camera streams over it without issues normally.
I have ordered one of these hdw5231 beginning this week. I hope that mine was in stock, otherwise I have to wait. I can wait, and because I want to use it as a weather watching webcam. I think especially the night view would be very nie for watching the stars.
I need the mic, because I want to use the audio trigger for thunder detection.
My old one can't disable ir, therefore I always have spiders in front of the lens, luckily with dahua it's possible to disable. Does someone know what happens in winter with disabled ir? Does it damage the cam, when its too cold and with disabled ir I think the ambiance temperature should be higher than with ir which heats up too. But how much? I expect temperature around -10 till -15 degrees.
I need the mic, because I want to use the audio trigger for thunder detection.
My old one can't disable ir, therefore I always have spiders in front of the lens, luckily with dahua it's possible to disable. Does someone know what happens in winter with disabled ir? Does it damage the cam, when its too cold and with disabled ir I think the ambiance temperature should be higher than with ir which heats up too. But how much? I expect temperature around -10 till -15 degrees.
nayr
IPCT Contributor
extreme cold alone is no concern; get too hot and solder will melt and chips will fry.. too cold is not a problem, there is no moisture in the air at those temps so condensation is unlikely.. mine have all taken a few nights at lower than -20F w/out skipping a beat.. just was -10F like Wed night.. OverClockers have been driving chips down to far colder temps than any specifications would permit with Liquid Oxygen cooling and the likes.
the killer of cameras in the winter time is usually large chunks of ice or snow falling from above (off a roof/tree/etc) and impacting it on the way down..
the killer of cameras in the winter time is usually large chunks of ice or snow falling from above (off a roof/tree/etc) and impacting it on the way down..
Very helpful - many thanks.