IR Light turns on every 5 min at night (Amcrest IP2M-841-V3)

[Rapido]

I got an Amcrest IP2M-841-V3 in the garage, that at night turns on the IR light every couple of minutes. The time varies between 4 and 10 minutes about.

I know this because this triggers another camera (Blink mini) to start recording a video. So every night I end up having lots of clips from my Blink mini just showing the Amcrest turning on the IR.

What might be the reason for this? Any configuration parameters to tweak?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks ...

 

[wittaj]

Is there something in there that the sensor is thinking the IR needs to come on?

You could force the camera to stay in color so that the IR won't come on.

If you are on auto settings you could speed up the shutter to not make it so sensitive.

 

[Rapido]

Thank you wittaj.

I just remembered the camera log and found out while looking it up, that the cam is periodically rebooting, thereby obviously turning the light on/off.



So what might make it reboot over and over again?

Poor power supply?

 

[wittaj]

Either the firmware got corrupt and a factory reset is in order or it has been hacked and being used as DDoS attacks and it reboots when the processor is overloaded.

Let's hope a factory reset fixes it!

 

[Rapido]

Either the firmware got corrupt and a factory reset is in order or it has been hacked and being used as DDoS attacks and it reboots when the processor is overloaded.

Let's hope a factory reset fixes it!

Thank you, will try another PS and a factory reset as well.

Cam has no internet access, so DDoS is unlikely.

WiFi connection is usually sufficient, but not optimal. So I already considerd the recent solar storm to interfere here. Wild guess.

 

[wittaj]

Good to hear no internet. Yeah a failing power supply could be causing that as well.

 

[TonyR]

Also, go to "Setup" => "System" => "Auto Maintain" and insure "Auto Reboot" is not checked.

 

[Flintstone61]

improper power source? I think they can run off a 5V USB connection if you suspect the Power Brick is bad....try plugging the cam into a computer with USB A port.

 

[TonyR]

FWIW, the 5VDC USB wall wart on my IP2M-841 is rated 2.0 Amps, far above what a PC's USB port can provide.

 

[Flintstone61]

I was running mine off the Nightowl DVR USB port on the frt of the recorder

 

[Broachoski]

FWIW: I just noticed this newer V3 has auto tracking where my trusty old 841's did not.

 

[Rapido]

Thank you for your thoughts and answers.

I brought the cam from the garage to my desk and did the following:

• gave it daylight --> keeps rebooting
• disabled "Auto Reboot" --> keeps rebooting
• use other PS (3,0 A) --> keeps rebooting
• set it to "Factory Default" --> keeps rebooting

I hardly can access it as it is rebooting every couple of minutes.

I guess I got another paperweight.

Last chance: do some surgery and look for obvious defects.

Update: I removed the micro SD card and that seems to have fixed it. No more reboots since 15 min. I checked the card in my PC an it is not readable.

Update: Problem solved. The defective micro SD card definitely was the cause of that mess.

 

[wittaj]

Keep in mind that the card won't be read in a PC as the camera and the computer are two different operating systems.

But yeah a defective SD card can cause that problem.

Glad you figured it out!