Yes it was only the 49225 that had AT removed on later batches of the S1 version and then S2 doesn’t have AT at all. The 5A425 doesn’t have this restriction and it still a solid PTZ.
Review: Dahua SD5A425XA-HNR 4MP 25x Starlight IR PTZ
- Thread starter Wildcat_1
- Start date
Hi All, I need a little assistance with my SD5A425XA ( first and only PTZ) that I've just setup.
Setup:
I have two presets configured, one pointing east, and one pointing west. I have a single IVS intrusion rule configured for each preset. If my camera is pointing east and something triggers the east IVS rule then the camera tracks the motion and all is well. If my camera is pointing east and something triggers the west IVS rule, my camera is oblivious and does nothing.
Questions:
1) I'm guessing that the IVS rule of the current preset is the only one that's active? If that's the case then this is where a spotter camera comes in, to spin the PTZ the other way?
2) If 1 above is true, and I'm using an intrusion rule then it's possible that a vehicle will already be inside my zone after spinning so the trigger wouldn't fire and the tracking would not take place?
Setup:
I have two presets configured, one pointing east, and one pointing west. I have a single IVS intrusion rule configured for each preset. If my camera is pointing east and something triggers the east IVS rule then the camera tracks the motion and all is well. If my camera is pointing east and something triggers the west IVS rule, my camera is oblivious and does nothing.
Questions:
1) I'm guessing that the IVS rule of the current preset is the only one that's active? If that's the case then this is where a spotter camera comes in, to spin the PTZ the other way?
2) If 1 above is true, and I'm using an intrusion rule then it's possible that a vehicle will already be inside my zone after spinning so the trigger wouldn't fire and the tracking would not take place?
That is the limitation of a PTZ - it is always looking the wrong way!
That is where the spotter cams come in.
Yes, depending on your field of view and the capabilities of your VMS system, by the time the spotter cam triggers and turns the camera, it could miss the event.
I set my spotter for further down the road so that my PTZ spins to a place where it would be by the time that happens.
See this for more on how to setup in BI or Dahua branded NVR (Empiretech, Dahua, Loyrta, Lorex, Amcrest, etc):
ipcamtalk.com
That is where the spotter cams come in.
Yes, depending on your field of view and the capabilities of your VMS system, by the time the spotter cam triggers and turns the camera, it could miss the event.
I set my spotter for further down the road so that my PTZ spins to a place where it would be by the time that happens.
See this for more on how to setup in BI or Dahua branded NVR (Empiretech, Dahua, Loyrta, Lorex, Amcrest, etc):
Using Spotter Cameras to direct a PTZ where to look in an NVR or Blue Iris and setting a spotter cam as a priority in Blue Iris
We get this question from time to time, so I thought with the recent addition to BI, it made sense to have a thread we can point to. Previously in BI, if you had more than one spotter cam, you could not make one a priority, so if spotter cam #1 triggered the PTZ and it starts tracking and...
bigredfish
Known around here
bigredfish
Known around here
Wow! Barely had time to get coffee before responses poured in. 
Thank you all very much, I'll get a spotter configured and adjust my rules.
Thank you all very much, I'll get a spotter configured and adjust my rules.
CastleSurveillance
Getting the hang of it
Hi all - I installed this PTZ on my house about a month ago and haven't been able to configure it correctly - it was doing AI tracking and then it just stopped. Camera is no longer moving.. Can anyone help me? I've been reaching out to @Wildcat_1 but I don't think hes around currently..
I'm always around @CastleSurveillance just heads down working on some updated reviews here, helping some forum members dial in their systems, as well as chasing Dahua for the bug fixes I keep putting forward. Always here to help forum members though. I'll go through my DM's at the end of the week and reply if that works ?
CastleSurveillance
Getting the hang of it
@Wildcat_1 is generally always super generous with his time, but let me offer a suggestion to @CastleSurveillance . . . Others members of these forums can try to help if you post more details. If you only want a live debugging session with someone, that's far more difficult for most people (& you should ask explicitly), but there are a lot of people here who can help if you publicly provide more information. If you only have private side conversations/direct messages, then no one else learns and it doesn't give back to the community.
@pandamac made a simple suggestion which lots of us have had to do. Sure, it's worst case, but that often helps. Beyond that, you didn't provide enough additional information for anyone to help. For example, you said, "Camera is no longer moving", but that alone is still REALLY vague. Did you mean it simply doesn't auto-track, or that it won't move even if you try to manually move it? If it won't move at all, even when trying to manually move the camera, that would imply a very different problem than simply not auto-tracking. Even then, if trying to manually PTZ the camera, there are details to know such as whether using something like BlueIris versus using a browser in which case there will inevitably be questions about which browser, which version, etc. etc. Independent of all of that, what have you tried? Have you done absolutely nothing at all, or have you tried rebooting, or resetting as suggested above, or repositioning on a preset, or ???
I'm genuinely trying not to be mean or snippy, but you simply didn't offer enough information for anyone to help beyond the suggestion to reset & start over. Post screenshots of settings or at least talk people through what you did so others can compare to what we have. Proactively gathering & sharing details also shows respect for @Wildcat_1 and his time.
@pandamac made a simple suggestion which lots of us have had to do. Sure, it's worst case, but that often helps. Beyond that, you didn't provide enough additional information for anyone to help. For example, you said, "Camera is no longer moving", but that alone is still REALLY vague. Did you mean it simply doesn't auto-track, or that it won't move even if you try to manually move it? If it won't move at all, even when trying to manually move the camera, that would imply a very different problem than simply not auto-tracking. Even then, if trying to manually PTZ the camera, there are details to know such as whether using something like BlueIris versus using a browser in which case there will inevitably be questions about which browser, which version, etc. etc. Independent of all of that, what have you tried? Have you done absolutely nothing at all, or have you tried rebooting, or resetting as suggested above, or repositioning on a preset, or ???
I'm genuinely trying not to be mean or snippy, but you simply didn't offer enough information for anyone to help beyond the suggestion to reset & start over. Post screenshots of settings or at least talk people through what you did so others can compare to what we have. Proactively gathering & sharing details also shows respect for @Wildcat_1 and his time.
CastleSurveillance
Getting the hang of it
@carteriii While I understand what you're saying -- and understand how it can come off that way... The only reason I stated it that way is because @Wildcat_1 has helped me in the past and been more than generous with his time. I super appreciate everything he does for this forum and group of individuals and I hope he realizes that.
With that being said, here are the specific issues that i'm struggling with:
-AI tracking not working (re-set, problem solved)
-Setting up "spotter cams" to call the PTZ.
-Last but certainly not least - I somehow, and cannot remember how I did this - made it so that the PTZ is called to the monitor and pulled up to take up the whole screen - which is cool, however, it doesn't just do it when the tracking is enabled - it does it when any motion is detected - so, the PTZ is almost always on my monitor because of trees shaking in the wind, etc... That, I don't remember how I set it up - Therefore, I don't remember how to turn it off. I would love to set this up so that just the tracking trips the camera to become the whole screen on the monitor.. not sure if that's an option though.
With that being said, here are the specific issues that i'm struggling with:
-AI tracking not working (re-set, problem solved)
-Setting up "spotter cams" to call the PTZ.
-Last but certainly not least - I somehow, and cannot remember how I did this - made it so that the PTZ is called to the monitor and pulled up to take up the whole screen - which is cool, however, it doesn't just do it when the tracking is enabled - it does it when any motion is detected - so, the PTZ is almost always on my monitor because of trees shaking in the wind, etc... That, I don't remember how I set it up - Therefore, I don't remember how to turn it off. I would love to set this up so that just the tracking trips the camera to become the whole screen on the monitor.. not sure if that's an option though.
See this thread on how to setup spotter cams for both BI and NVR:
ipcamtalk.com
Using Spotter Cameras to direct a PTZ where to look in an NVR or Blue Iris and setting a spotter cam as a priority in Blue Iris
We get this question from time to time, so I thought with the recent addition to BI, it made sense to have a thread we can point to. Previously in BI, if you had more than one spotter cam, you could not make one a priority, so if spotter cam #1 triggered the PTZ and it starts tracking and...
CastleSurveillance
Getting the hang of it
See this thread on how to setup spotter cams for both BI and NVR:
Using Spotter Cameras to direct a PTZ where to look in an NVR or Blue Iris and setting a spotter cam as a priority in Blue Iris
We get this question from time to time, so I thought with the recent addition to BI, it made sense to have a thread we can point to. Previously in BI, if you had more than one spotter cam, you could not make one a priority, so if spotter cam #1 triggered the PTZ and it starts tracking and...
OK - so that was tremendously helpful. Thank you for writing this @bigredfish.
Most of this I was able to set up - however, when I go to set up my "time task" so the PTZ will return back home - I get the following error "Task data error or task time conflict."
Also - do I need to set up an additional trip wire on PTZ Preset 2 for the autotracking to work correctly? When I go under "deep IVS" for the PTZ - and I go to reset the Preset number at the top, I only get the option of preset 1, not preset 2 as well. If I go to PTZ, change it to preset 2, and then go back to Deep IVS - camera moves back to preset 1 automatically.
Thanks for the kind words @CastleSurveillance @carteriii / all, I really do appreciate it and happy to help anyone here, just sometimes takes a little longer as I do like to get to everyone. I've also replied to your DM @CastleSurveillance in case there is anything remaining that you need help with. The conflicts you mention are generally when you have overlapping schedules for different timed tasks. Check your schedules first to see if that is the case. If you cannot find it easily you can always reset the time task based schedules and start those again.
In answer to your question on moving between the menu's, regardless of how many presets you've defined, the camera will always move to Preset 1 as you flick between menu's so thats just a given for menu behavior.
In terms of preset 2, that depends on what you are wanting to configure and desired end results. For example, setting up your spotter cam (say a 5442) can be as simple as a semi-wide intrusion zone (on the 5442 preset 1) and a critical 2nd preset (again on the 5442) over a car, item of interest, entryway etc. Then on the PTZ you setup a preset to correspond to the target zone that you will call via PTZ activation as discussed. So you could create Preset X (and even change its name so you know it corresponds to Overwatch - Entryway etc) and have that preset (in this example) targeting a MCU (medium close up) of the entrance. For Preset X on the PTZ you set your Auto Tracking timing (something sensible like 30 - 40 seconds depending on a realistic time on target within FOV and PTZ install location boundaries) and critically your Tracking Target Size (see my videos on dialing this in to get consistent and constant tracking through your defined tracking time period). You can then rinse and repeat the above for as many critical areas that you want / need across as many cams within your installation that make sense (based on location of 1 vs other and redundancy in your planning of coverage).
The beauty of this approach is that you can actually then just have the PTZ follow a regular tour (x period of time in x areas) knowing that once a target zone is 'spotted' by the spotter camera that your tour will be interrupted, PTZ swings into action, zooms in and tracks the target on scene. Set it up well and you'll be amazed at the results. I do this all the time in many small, medium and large deployments and you'd be amazed what you can do.
You guys will have to remind me to show you in the future what can be done when you pair multiple PTZ's and multiple spotters into the same PTZ Activation chain. I'll paint a quick high level picture of some complex but incredibly cool deployments I've designed and put together. Spotter Cam 1 on Side 1 of a building spots a vehicle traveling towards it and potentially moving out of FOV, vehicle trips 'Spot 1' and calls PTZ #1 to its preset 1 (wide shot of corner on building Side 1) to start tracking once the target trips Preset 1 tripwire on PTZ #1. In addition, PTZ #2 is setup to be called to its Preset 4 (front side of the building) via PTZ activation once PTZ #1 (now also acting as a spot for other PTZ's) has detected a target in its (PTZ 1) Preset 1 (called from the original fixed spotter camera remember).
End results. Vehicle is now tracked by fixed Spotter 1, calls PTZ #1 to its preset 1 where it detects and starts tracking the vehicle around the corner. Remember it has also called PTZ #2 to its own Preset 4 (by PTZ activation from preset 1 of PTZ #1) into position targeting the front of the building. Then as PTZ 1 starts to lose the vehicle (that it was tracking around the corner), PTZ #2 is already in position and once its Preset 4 detects the target starts to track from front of building out into parking lot, driveway, cross street....etc. Want to get the real money shot ? You have a 2nd Spotter cam with its FOV set for an MCU of that choke point and as the target trips Spotter 2 Preset 3 (to keep things simple) it calls PTZ #2 to another preset (Preset 5 for those keeping track) which is a ECU (extreme close up) of the choke point for final target details. If you're tracking a vehicle then its great for additional plate capture, car details etc, if human then a nice tight shot at the choke point. In the case of human targets, many people feel they are no longer tracked or under surveillance once they get double digit feet away from a building which is when guard gets let down. This gets you the money shot. Yes you can and in many cases should have an ALPR/LPR cam at entrance points (driveways, garages, other choke points) BUT this doesn't help you with human targets.
Now before anyone says 'Hey Wildcat, what is the fricking size of location needed for these deployments !', trust me this can be scaled to work in residential, small, mid and large commercial and also multi building deployments across a corporate business park etc. Anyway, you guys and girls get the idea but thought I'd share what is possible. Trust me, set these Spotter/Overwatch configs up right and there is nowhere to hide
HTH
WC
Not trying to derail this thread, though somewhat related (mods, please feel free to move if I'm posting inappropriately). I've been researching a PTZ camera for a while now and while I am interested in the new dome unit that Andy has posted about in his "7 year" thread, I do intend to draft a diagram of my installation area and current layout but that will be a day or two before it's ready. I am also considering the sd5a425xa-hnr and sd49225xa-hnr or sd49425xa-hnr depending upon availability and price. Other than the size/dimensions and weight mentioned at the beginning of this thread by Wildcat, I haven't been able to find (or search has failed me) a direct comparison of the 4MP SD4 and SD5 or explanation of the classes of PTZ from Dahua. Can anyone point me toward a comparison or discuss the advantages/disadvantages of one vs. the other? It looks like the sd49225xa-hnr is available on Amazon from Dahua for $532 (previously $400 on this site but now out of stock), the sd49225xb-hnr on Amazon from Andy for $440 and the sd5a425xa-hnr on Amazon from Andy for $749.99.
We can make this simple.
The 49225 no longer has auto tracking, so you will spend $532 and have just a PTZ. Andy was the only one that still had this PTZ with auto tracking but they are sold out.
Andy is the only one that still has the 49425 PTZ with auto tracking, so do not be tempted to purchase anywhere else.
The 49425 and sd5a425xa are both 4MP cameras. The difference is the sd5a425xa is on a larger 1/1.8" sensor while the 49425 is on the 1/2.8" sensor, so the sd5a425xa will do better at night due to the larger sensor.
So the question is - is the larger sensor worth $310 more to you? The sd5a425xa will perform better at night, especially if you don't have much light.
CastleSurveillance
Getting the hang of it
So this PTZ I have on a schedule for day/night because my landscape lighting won’t allow the cam to kick over to night vision automatically. Could that be the hang up? Otherwise I don’t know of any other time tasks.
Yes, if you are using ‘time tasks’ and are not using Schedule mode I.e Web GUI, Profile Management, Schedule or using NVR etc to do the same then you will run into issues. Again this is when you ARE using time based tasks such as tours, presets etc locked to a timed schedule. Day & Night separate tours would be another example where it would cause an issue.
CastleSurveillance
Getting the hang of it
I am using profile management to set the day/night settings. That should not effect this?