False"Snow" Triggering Cams.... HELP!

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n3wb
Jan 19, 2025
2
3
United States
I need some help to stop getting false triggers on cams. The location is nowhere near snow, though you can see the pictures where it clearly looks like snow...

Anyway, I have been working on tunning the settings in Blue Iris to prevent these false alerts, that happen every 2-3 days. While infrared cams or external motion sensors to trigger a PTZ might be possible, if that is only fix here, I want to at least make sure I have done my due diligence and attempted to get the cheaper cameras working first.

  • I am NOT using ONVIF triggers, due to using Tapo C110 cameras, and I didn't think that they would be better than Blue Iris. In testing with the Tapo app, the Tapo app gives WAY more false alerts, even after adjustments.
  • I have set the camera to color only mode, as the "snow" seemed to be worse when using the infrared lights.
  • Make Time: 2 seconds. I have experimented with longer, though it takes too long to trigger that someone is on the property.
  • I have turned off any pixel change for triggers
  • All triggers are setup as zones when crossing from one zone to another. The zones are setup like lines down the screen with big gaps between them.
  • I have also adjusted the max object size down to 50%
  • I am sending to AI, and ensuring 75% confidence for people or vehicles before triggering
  • The AI is also ignoring static objects, though this seems to fail during these "snow" storms

I am going to upload the .dat files from the AI, and hopefully between that and the pictures, someone can see where I have went WAY wrong on these settings.

I appreciate any suggestions!


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Some periodic bug spray around the light and camera may temporarily help.

Moving the white light away from the camera would help.

But probably an external IR blaster away from the camera and the IR off on the camera is going to be the long term solution.

Plus all those short vertical motion strips usually cause problems. Normally it is missing motion, but you have a mess of some bugs there LOL.
 
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My guess - Insects combined with a Slow shutter speed. Shutter speed really needs to be 8ms (1/125 sec) max and some would say 4ms (1/250 sec) is more realistic for freezing motion. I'm guessing this is a cheap camera and needs a slow shutter to be able to freeze motion at night. Therein lies most of the problem I think.
 
It hasn't been foggy has it? I get something a little like that when there is fog or a light mist.
 
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In fact just last night - if I had a slower shutter speed it might look like what you are seeing.

 
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I see a few problems
  • Cheap ass garbage toy cameras - Tapo C110 cameras
  • Likely inside pointing through a window?
  • Default or possibly Fixed Slow shutter to artificially create a "bright" image creating sever motion blur (trails) caused by fog or insects
  • A complete waste of time
 
Last edited:
thank you all for the feedback, definitely can talk this up to a camera that does not have a fast shutter speed for sure.

The video samples of similar things happening, with the faster shutter speeds is definitely helpful perspective here, so thank you for those that provided that.

Also, the direct feedback on this just being a crappy camera, is also appreciated.

We may try the external lighting or IR blaster as a temporary fix until we get better cameras.

From all of the reports on this site, going with 4k dahua cams from Andy, with the 1/1.8” sensor size is where we are looking.

Thank you again for the assistance!