Night issues with HFW5241E-Z12E

[drh329]

Well I am not as computer knowledgeable as I should be, I can’t figure out how to get the dahau sunrise/sunset app to install, anyways for now what’s the procedure to get the camera into night mode and not loose focus? I screwed up last night and the camera didn’t get crap going bye. About an hour before sunset should I be going into camera setting and set the profile to night mode? When I do the picture goes black and I assume it would still grab plates? Thanks again for being patient with me.

 

[wittaj]

Yeah, if you cannot get the sunrise/sunset utility to work, then yes you need to set the schedule in the camera an hour before sunset so that it has something to focus on. Otherwise your camera will be hunting all night long for focus.

You should set the night profile to force it into B/W and not auto. Also have the shutter at 1/2000 and the illuminator/IR at 100 both near and far.

Some people have reported the manual focus for each profile works as well that was added since I had purchased mine, but since mine works with the utility, I am not updating it!

Then you will get the plates.

 

[samplenhold]

You can set the schedule to switch at a certain time.




I am using Full Time as I finally got the utility to work.

As @wittaj stated, make sure you set the cam's night settings for B&W and IR at 100%, and the other settings.

Here are my night setting for one of my LPR cams. You could use this a starting point and fine tune it from there. Realize that the zoom and focus numbers will not be what you are using.



What is the problem you are having getting the utility to work? I spent a lot of time very recently on this and now have it running just fine.

 

[drh329]

Yeah, if you cannot get the sunrise/sunset utility to work, then yes you need to set the schedule in the camera an hour before sunset so that it has something to focus on. Otherwise your camera will be hunting all night long for focus.

You should set the night profile to force it into B/W and not auto. Also have the shutter at 1/2000 and the illuminator/IR at 100 both near and far.

Some people have reported the manual focus for each profile works as well that was added since I had purchased mine, but since mine works with the utility, I am not updating it!

Then you will get the plates.

Tonight I changed it over a good hour before sunset and it’s getting the plates no problem, I think I screwed myself last night while tweaking settings after dark.

 

[drh329]

You can set the schedule to switch at a certain time.
View attachment 84889

View attachment 84890

I am using Full Time as I finally got the utility to work.

As @wittaj stated, make sure you set the cam's night settings for B&W and IR at 100%, and the other settings.

Here are my night setting for one of my LPR cams. You could use this a starting point and fine tune it from there. Realize that the zoom and focus numbers will not be what you are using.

View attachment 84892

What is the problem you are having getting the utility to work? I spent a lot of time very recently on this and now have it running just fine.

I tried the scheduler in the software as you posted earlier this week and it didn’t change over to night time as scheduled, maybe i screwed something up that time as I have not yet tried the cameras scheduler again. As for the dahau sunset/sunrise app I have no clue how to install that, I downloaded a file from gethub? and it had a bunch of other files but I didn’t see any that looked like and installer.

 

[gwminor48]

Have you tried this already?

Releases · bp2008/DahuaSunriseSunset

A Windows Service which changes the profile of dahua cameras between Night and Day at each sunset and sunrise. - bp2008/DahuaSunriseSunset

github.com

 

[samplenhold]

As for the dahau sunset/sunrise app I have no clue how to install that, I downloaded a file from gethub? and it had a bunch of other files but I didn’t see any that looked like and installer.

It is just one file, an exe file.


You download it and then follow the steps under Usage on this web page: GitHub - bp2008/DahuaSunriseSunset: A Windows Service which changes the profile of dahua cameras between Night and Day at each sunset and sunrise.




If you have issues, just ask for help.

 

[samplenhold]

Actually, between step 2 and 3 you need to click Install Service.

 

[drh329]

It is just one file, an exe file.
View attachment 84897

You download it and then follow the steps under Usage on this web page: GitHub - bp2008/DahuaSunriseSunset: A Windows Service which changes the profile of dahua cameras between Night and Day at each sunset and sunrise.

View attachment 84898


If you have issues, just ask for help.

Thank you very much, its installed, camera is added, I appreciate it, not sure why I made it so difficult.

 

[wittaj]

Thank you very much, its installed, camera is added, I appreciate it, not sure why I made it so difficult.

We always make it harder than we need to LOL.

Did you set up the focus and zoom in the utility?

 

[drh329]

We always make it harder than we need to LOL.

Did you set up the focus and zoom in the utility?

Of course I didn’t......LOL do I just grab the setting from the camera?

 

[wittaj]

Yeah, so in the utility is a feature to get current zoom/focus. You do that during the night to get that focus/zoom and then again in the daytime for that focus/zoom and then copy them into the utility so that it sets those parameters.

 

[samplenhold]

It will generate a popup with the values. You will have to manually enter those values.

 

[drh329]

Focus - 0.869444
Zoom- 0.798669
I entered those, I assume the motor steps I just ignore?

 

[drh329]

You can set the schedule to switch at a certain time.
View attachment 84889

View attachment 84890

I am using Full Time as I finally got the utility to work.

As @wittaj stated, make sure you set the cam's night settings for B&W and IR at 100%, and the other settings.

Here are my night setting for one of my LPR cams. You could use this a starting point and fine tune it from there. Realize that the zoom and focus numbers will not be what you are using.

View attachment 84892

What is the problem you are having getting the utility to work? I spent a lot of time very recently on this and now have it running just fine.

Ok couple of questions on settings, in the cameras settings inder profile do I set it to day/night or fulltime as you stated, if I do full time is it full time day or night? I did get the scheduler app to work. but something in my settings is off as the cameras looses focus when it switches to night mode, which brings up the second question, should night focus be set to manual? Mine is currently set to semi auto, my current night settings.

 

[samplenhold]

If you are using the Dahua Sunrise/Sunset utility, then you set the Profile to 'Full Time'. So when you check settings that are day/night dependent, the day or night will be chosen depending on which profile the utility has set at that time. So right now I am in day time and the profile is set to day:



If the utility had set it to night, it would show night.

Yes, your cam will attempt to hunt for focus if you have it set to semi auto. You need to set it to manual for both day and night.

You can enter the day and the night zoom and focus values into the sunrise/sunset utility. I do not as I have it set to manual and my cams have the same zoom and focus day and night. But some have opted to change the zoom at night which would mean a different focus. Also, some have reported that their focus changes at night even if the zoom stays the same. I have not seen that. The only way to really get the focus correct at night is to focus on a stopped car. I just parked my car in the field of view and focused on it and the focus was the same for me, day and night.

 

[wittaj]

If you are using the sunrise/sunset app, you need to make sure you brought the correct zoom/focus over for day and night. I would check that first.

If your focus is good right now in color and daylight, get the focus and zoom from the utility and make sure that is what matches the settings in the utility.

Next change the day to b/w image and have someone stop a car in the middle of the frame and confirm that the picture is clear and if not hit autofocus or manual adjust focus until it is clear and make sure you take the step count from 20 to 1 or it will be off focus within 10 steps. Then go into the sunrise/sunset utility and get the focus and zoom for the b/w setting and then put that into the night setting.

Also increase the seconds between commands on bottom right of the utility. Some people have experienced that a camera may be slow in accepting the changes from this utility, so this allows it more time to ensure the setting takes. For example, people that also change the zoom going from color to B/W means that the camera has to settle down on the zoom before it adjusts the focus and the smaller time meant it sent the command before the camera was ready. Change this to a higher number.

Some people are lucky that the focus is the same for color and B/W. One of my cams is the same and the other is different. Depends on distance.

Here is a thread that explains in way more detail than you may care about that discusses and shows why the focus can be different for light and IR light..it is an old thread but unfortunately the cams still suffer from this, but is even more relevant with the fast shutters we run for nighttime LPR.

Infrared focus shift - explanation

While reading the forum's threads, I found some posts with complains about soft image while the camera is going from color to IR or the opposite. In this Testing roundup IPC-HDBW4431EP-AS versus IPC-HDBW5431E-Z thread, TVT73 is complaining about soft focus in IPC-HDBW4431EP-AS camera. Here Any...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[drh329]

Thank you both, I appreciate your patience.