Newb needs help

[ridiqls]

Hello, I'm new to security cameras and after much research of what I need, I just went with 2 wifi cameras and blue iris. The cameras are there to just monitor any suspect activity while I'm away and we have been getting HEAVY package thiefs. 8 lost packages in a few months.

I didn't need wide angle, license plate recognition or anything fancy, just need it to be on 24/7 recording 24/7 and giving me an alert via text message on the Profile I set when I'm away from home.

Current Setup:
Camera 1: FDT 7902 720p Wifi camera
Camera 2: FDT 8902 1080p Wifi camera
Blue Iris
Overclocked PC, no issues. Network no issues, strongest wifi on the perimeter with 300 mbps service.

The problem:
I installed on Sun so everything was fine for 2 days. No issues with both cameras, you can live view anytime you want using Blue Iris, FDT's mobile app, TinyCam Pro. The settings are all default basically except for username and password, changed DDNS to static IP on both cameras, set up port forwarding for BI web view, and turned down FPS to 15 on both cameras in BI but not in FDT app.

Here's the issue. I installed a SSD that I had lying around to be a dedicated hard drive for recording on my PC. Set it to record Continuous 24/7 with motion sensor triggers that'll alert me via text if someone's inside the perimeter when set to Profile B. So I started 24/7 recording starting last night.

This morning I check and Camera 2 is down. No signal. It stopped recording at 10am, I checked at 11am. Unable to detect this camera despite the following: FDT mobile app sees and streams no problem. Tinycam pro sees and streams. FDT's IP search tool is showing 2 cameras on the network but Blue Iris is unable to see this camera anymore.

Restarted the camera via app, and all apps can see this except blue iris is unable to detect it still. Tried auto detect (only able to detect Cam 1) and tried via IP. This is strictly Blue Iris' issue given that all other apps and web live view can detect both cameras on my network but BI is unable to see it anymore.

I will say that this FDT model does not show up in their dropdown so is it possible that they lack stable support for this camera?

Btw, I dont need 24/7 continuous recording. If it works Ill take it as the SSD is dedicated to video so why not? But if the issue is somehow related to continuous writing, I will happily work with recording only on triggers and motion detection.

 

[ridiqls]

and now both cameras are down. Unable to even detect cameras on BI using auto detect or manually via IP despite all other apps finding and getting live stream. FDT's desktop IP search tool is also showing 2 cameras on network.

FDT web live view is also down. Mobile app streams are not. What's going on here?

 

[fenderman]

Hello, I'm new to security cameras and after much research of what I need, I just went with 2 wifi cameras and blue iris. The cameras are there to just monitor any suspect activity while I'm away and we have been getting HEAVY package thiefs. 8 lost packages in a few months.

I didn't need wide angle, license plate recognition or anything fancy, just need it to be on 24/7 recording 24/7 and giving me an alert via text message on the Profile I set when I'm away from home.

Current Setup:
Camera 1: FDT 7902 720p Wifi camera
Camera 2: FDT 8902 1080p Wifi camera
Blue Iris
Overclocked PC, no issues. Network no issues, strongest wifi on the perimeter with 300 mbps service.

The problem:
I installed on Sun so everything was fine for 2 days. No issues with both cameras, you can live view anytime you want using Blue Iris, FDT's mobile app, TinyCam Pro. The settings are all default basically except for username and password, changed DDNS to static IP on both cameras, set up port forwarding for BI web view, and turned down FPS to 15 on both cameras in BI but not in FDT app.

Here's the issue. I installed a SSD that I had lying around to be a dedicated hard drive for recording on my PC. Set it to record Continuous 24/7 with motion sensor triggers that'll alert me via text if someone's inside the perimeter when set to Profile B. So I started 24/7 recording starting last night.

This morning I check and Camera 2 is down. No signal. It stopped recording at 10am, I checked at 11am. Unable to detect this camera despite the following: FDT mobile app sees and streams no problem. Tinycam pro sees and streams. FDT's IP search tool is showing 2 cameras on the network but Blue Iris is unable to see this camera anymore.

Restarted the camera via app, and all apps can see this except blue iris is unable to detect it still. Tried auto detect (only able to detect Cam 1) and tried via IP. This is strictly Blue Iris' issue given that all other apps and web live view can detect both cameras on my network but BI is unable to see it anymore.

I will say that this FDT model does not show up in their dropdown so is it possible that they lack stable support for this camera?

Btw, I dont need 24/7 continuous recording. If it works Ill take it as the SSD is dedicated to video so why not? But if the issue is somehow related to continuous writing, I will happily work with recording only on triggers and motion detection.

You got swindled....FTD (what appears to be the successor foscam digital technologies) is selling rebranded foscams..low end garbage cameras...wifi is a terrible idea when it comes to cams...
You need to understand that mobile apps generally pull the substream so there is less of an issues....browsers do not use rtsp protocols...the proper way to test this would be to feed the RTSP stream to vlc....
Regardless, if you can return these junk cams, do so...there are MUCH better options.

 

[ridiqls]

fuck, i spent all day installing these and routing the power wires. How certain is it that it's the cameras and not something else?

Wifi is the best option so if there are better wifi cameras out there that'd be ideal. i looked at Nest seeing as how their quality is probably on point, but their subscription model is ridiculous. I havent looked into whether or not Nest or Arlo will work with blue Iris. If so, I may go that route.

These cameras were $55 and $85 for 1080p.

Hard wiring is not really an option due to the placement of the cameras, they're in a detached unit.

My last resort is to setup indoor cameras on the window sill looking outside and disabling the IR leds and deal with no night vision. Problem with this is they're still made by Amcrest, FDT or foscams probably and still wifi.

Wifi on both cameras are at 99% though so something has to be it.

 

[fenderman]

fuck, i spent all day installing these and routing the power wires. How certain is it that it's the cameras and not something else?

Wifi is the best option so if there are better wifi cameras out there that'd be ideal. i looked at Nest seeing as how their quality is probably on point, but their subscription model is ridiculous. I havent looked into whether or not Nest or Arlo will work with blue Iris. If so, I may go that route.

These cameras were $55 and $85 for 1080p.

Hard wiring is not really an option due to the placement of the cameras, they're in a detached unit.

My last resort is to setup indoor cameras on the window sill looking outside and disabling the IR leds and deal with no night vision. Problem with this is they're still made by Amcrest, FDT or foscams probably and still wifi.

Wifi on both cameras are at 99% though so something has to be it.

Any camera can be made wifi....using a wifi bridge, powerline adapters or better yet, ubiquiti point to point wireless..
Foscam is really garbage...
Nest and arlo will not work with any third party software....technically you can stream nest to blue iris but there are issues with password protected streams and more importantly, data does not get transferred locally...it sent to nest severs then back to you eating internet bandwidth..arlo is batter operated and cannot send a constant stream. Look at the dahua startlight varifocal cameras.
If you are set on wifi cameras, amcrest rebrands dahua....
Finally, running blue iris on an overclocked pc is a waste of resources and likely lots of electricity...buy a dedicated system for 300 (i5-6500) search the forum for optiplex and elitedesk.

 

[ridiqls]

Any camera can be made wifi....using a wifi bridge, powerline adapters or better yet, ubiquiti point to point wireless..
Foscam is really garbage...
Nest and arlo will not work with any third party software....technically you can stream nest to blue iris but there are issues with password protected streams and more importantly, data does not get transferred locally...it sent to nest severs then back to you eating internet bandwidth..arlo is batter operated and cannot send a constant stream. Look at the dahua startlight varifocal cameras.
If you are set on wifi cameras, amcrest rebrands dahua....
Finally, running blue iris on an overclocked pc is a waste of resources and likely lots of electricity...buy a dedicated system for 300 (i5-6500) search the forum for optiplex and elitedesk.

I thought amcrest, fdt and foscams are all the same company. I just got an email from FDT that they are working with or partnerned with amcrest.

The dahua is way out of budget for my needs. I guess arlo is out and so is nest.

Ill try a bit more troubleshooting since theyre installed and wired. If it doesnt work I will return them and have to reinstall everything or just live with mobile live view and using FDTs ftp cloud based recording with just motion recording.



I deleted both cameras from BI, restarted the computer, set up another camera, reduced iframe and Frame and bitrate, and also direct to disc.

Regardless of bad cameras, why isnt blue iris unable to see these cameras at all anymore? My desktop ip finder can see these as well as every other app.

 

[fenderman]

I thought amcrest, fdt and foscams are all the same company. I just got an email from FDT that they are working with or partnerned with amcrest.

The dahua is way out of budget for my needs. I guess arlo is out and so is nest.

Ill try a bit more troubleshooting since theyre installed and wired. If it doesnt work I will return them and have to reinstall everything or just live with mobile live view and using FDTs ftp cloud based recording with just motion recording.



I deleted both cameras from BI, restarted the computer, set up another camera, reduced iframe and Frame and bitrate, and also direct to disc.

Regardless of bad cameras, why isnt blue iris unable to see these cameras at all anymore? My desktop ip finder can see these as well as every other app.

Foscam digital technologies used to sell foscam cameras. Then they stopped selling foscam - left customers hanging and reopened as amcrest. However, amcrest exclusively sells cameras made by dahua...most models are available direct from dahua except for the indoor 1080p ptz...not fdt seems to be selling foscam again but branded as fdt.
A decent dahua camera is 135..and excelllent varifocal camera 170... cheap dahua (3/4mp) is about 80 but night vision will not be good though, 720p dahuas have excellent night vision and can likely be had for under 100.. you can be cheap and spend hours troubleshooting or do it right the first time...your call.

 

[ridiqls]

The error I am getting is RSTP 400 bad request. So I went into the Video settings and instead of autodetect, I selected FDT model and camera feed is back. I dont know what it means but what it's worth it seems to be back. FD7901/2/3, 8901/2 RSTP.

 

[ridiqls]

Foscam digital technologies used to sell foscam cameras. Then they stopped selling foscam - left customers hanging and reopened as amcrest. However, amcrest exclusively sells cameras made by dahua...most models are available direct from dahua except for the indoor 1080p ptz...not fdt seems to be selling foscam again but branded as fdt.
A decent dahua camera is 135..and excelllent varifocal camera 170... cheap dahua (3/4mp) is about 80 but night vision will not be good though, 720p dahuas have excellent night vision and can likely be had for under 100.. you can be cheap and spend hours troubleshooting or do it right the first time...your call.

I mustve looked up the wrong model cause I saw $650 for the dahua. If its 135 then that is ok. What's a reliable site for dahua? I dont think i saw those on amazon or if so I mustve missed them. For the uneducated they all sound like chinese brands I just went off of amazon reviews.

 

[fenderman]

The error I am getting is RSTP 400 bad request. So I went into the Video settings and instead of autodetect, I selected FDT model and camera feed is back. I dont know what it means but what it's worth it seems to be back. FD7901/2/3, 8901/2 RSTP.

you will have constant issues with wifi...at the very least you should have a camera with local SD card storage...

 

[ridiqls]

you will have constant issues with wifi...at the very least you should have a camera with local SD card storage...

Ok I found dahua. I see what you mean now. The cameras are back up with reduced settings. I will give it until the end of today to see what's going on and if it doesn't resolve, Im buying the dahua. I would just hate to re-install all the damn wires..

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it

 

[ridiqls]

Quick question,

I set up zones for triggers, and increased the required size and contrast but both cameras are in triggered states and doesnt seem to go away. What could be causing this?

I made sure to delete the street in the hot zones as there are cars passing by.

 

[fenderman]

Quick question,

I set up zones for triggers, and increased the required size and contrast but both cameras are in triggered states and doesnt seem to go away. What could be causing this?

I made sure to delete the street in the hot zones as there are cars passing by.

do not use the hot zone...post your settings.

 

[ridiqls]

Here are screen shots. Note how both cameras are always in a triggered state. I tried to make the object size and contrast really high to see if that changes anything but nothing happened. Then I set zones but still no luck.

[/IMG]

(This was the issue I was having earlier) :

I just want the cameras to record continuous but when there is motion or movement in the green zones, I want a text message alert. This profile means no one is home and there should be no reason for anyone to be in that green zone. Package thiefs and such. Also lets me know when the UPS guy comes.

 

[ridiqls]

Forget this issue, I'm not going to go continuous recording. Once I turned it off, the issues of haziness as you see in the last pic went away as well as dying cameras and quality. Looks like the idea of continually feeding that much data at the same time over wifi is troublesome. I am going with live view and motion sensor only.

I still need help with the motion sensor trigger though.

And I am adding another camera to the mix, it's an indoor camera for my dogs. It's an Amcrest 1080p Pro HD, I ordered all 3 cameras at the same time. I am deciding if I should return this one or keep it for indoor use. The camera quality is fine but it is not connecting to blue iris!

Tried everything, set to static IP, same port #, etc. All other apps tiny cam pro, as well as Amcrest app and web view can see the feed, I dont know why BI is having such a hardtime finding this camera. Says no signal, check IP and port.

 

[fenderman]

You have some serious settings errors....first your make time is WAY to high..it will never trigger...your object size is way to high, it will never trigger....start by reading the help file to understand what these settings do. FYI you were not seeing a constant trigger but rather constant recording as you have set it. Furthermore you have a basic misunderstanding of how cameras feed info to blue iris...the camera always sends the same constant feed to blue iris whether motion detection or continuous record is selected...
As far as amcrest, instead of selecting amcrest, use dahua rtsp...amcrest is rebranded dahua.
Finally, you can assign each camera a color so they appear independently on the timeline.

 

[ridiqls]

You have some serious settings errors....first your make time is WAY to high..it will never trigger...your object size is way to high, it will never trigger....start by reading the help file to understand what these settings do. FYI you were not seeing a constant trigger but rather constant recording as you have set it. Furthermore you have a basic misunderstanding of how cameras feed info to blue iris...the camera always sends the same constant feed to blue iris whether motion detection or continuous record is selected...
As far as amcrest, instead of selecting amcrest, use dahua rtsp...amcrest is rebranded dahua.
Finally, you can assign each camera a color so they appear independently on the timeline.

Yeah I mentioned the reason why i put the object and time really high is because I wanted to see if that'll stop the triggers. Look at screenshot #1 and #2, the little red lightning in the triangle, that symbol is always on regardless of whether or not the red border is around the camera. Isn't that the indicator for triggered?

I did a search on this forum and someone had an issue with wifi and it was mentioned by someone that when you're recording it pulls a different feed or something compared to live view. Not sure how true this is.

Either way, BI hasnt been very stable in picking up camera signals and feeds when the web app and tinycampro has no issues. Ugh

 

[fenderman]

Yeah I mentioned the reason why i put the object and time really high is because I wanted to see if that'll stop the triggers. Look at screenshot #1 and #2, the little red lightning in the triangle, that symbol is always on regardless of whether or not the red border is around the camera. Isn't that the indicator for triggered?

I did a search on this forum and someone had an issue with wifi and it was mentioned by someone that when you're recording it pulls a different feed or something compared to live view. Not sure how true this is.

Either way, BI hasnt been very stable in picking up camera signals and feeds when the web app and tinycampro has no issues. Ugh

Trigger Icon
"The trigger icon remains on until you either click on the video window, or view any recording form the camera. This may be done from the PC console or the client app on iOS/Android, or a web browser. The status of the trigger is remembered per-user."
The same exact stream is pulled when recording...blue iris can only pull a single stream...the camera does not know when blue iris is recording or not...that is fact..any assertion otherwise is not correct.
Once again, tinycam and web app use completely different protocols..you MUST test with vlc pulling an rtsp stream or you are wasting your time.
Also increase the receive buffer in the video settings to 20mb

 

[ridiqls]

Trigger Icon
"The trigger icon remains on until you either click on the video window, or view any recording form the camera. This may be done from the PC console or the client app on iOS/Android, or a web browser. The status of the trigger is remembered per-user."
The same exact stream is pulled when recording...blue iris can only pull a single stream...the camera does not know when blue iris is recording or not...that is fact..any assertion otherwise is not correct.
Once again, tinycam and web app use completely different protocols..you MUST test with vlc pulling an rtsp stream or you are wasting your time.
Also increase the receive buffer in the video settings to 20mb

Great thanks for the tip. I'll try vlc and increase the buffer. BUt looks like ill be returning these crap cameras lol