SD49425XB-HNR access advice PLEASE

EWKiter

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Hi again Experts (non-expert, here) -

This is similar to a previous post I made, but now I have the camera fully working. And I am hoping for a a work-around that can make the camera operate as described below.

To recap - I just received the Loryta Outdoor 4MP Starlight 25X Optical Zoom IR PTZ Smart AI IP Camera Support Auto-Tracking, PoE+ ,Perimeter Protection ,Face Detection,Smart Capture SD49425XB-HNR - I purchased from Andy's Amazon store.

This will simply be a password-protected, live video camera which will be pointed at a local surf spot. It will be powered via POE on my roof. It will be accessed by only a handful of friends who will have the password and access instructions, mostly over iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, maybe a web browser).

Sooo, I have the camera not only working via my LAN, but also remotely via a dynamic DNS address - YAY!

And I have it working remotely not only on the IP Cam Viewer app but also on the DMSS app.

So here is what I want/need to do. I won't be using any of the deep security features here, given this is just a live camera. No NVR, no face recognition, tracking, etc.

As the admin, I want to use all the PTZ features and preset views, and I am able to do that with the setup now. And obviously as the admin, I have access to everything.

However, I want to limit the outside users to ONLY preset views. I don't want outside users to be able to fully control the PTZ features, out of privacy concerns for my neighbors. But the idea is for my friends to be able to see a set number of various preset views of the surf spot - but that's it.

I am using the Dahua interface to control all my settings. We started off by setting up a separate group with no control for the users except for live view of the camera. That worked as expected.

We are now fiddling around with setting up a user within the admin group that would be limited to only seeing preset views. We can't seem to allow pre-sets without giving full PTZ control to the camera. It seems so odd to me that we can't do that, given I have seen and operated so many other public cameras that only have preset views available to them?

Is there any combination of settings in the Dahua interface that can accomplish what I'm trying to accomplish? Please help, thank you!
 

EWKiter

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Also, the (almost better) alternative to the outside users only being able to use presets, would be for them to be able to use just the zoom feature, but not the pan tilt. Is there anyway to limit it to that?
 

The Automation Guy

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I'm just not sure anyone has had a similar use case to know.

Honestly I think an easier way of doing this is to set the camera to default to a "tour" after a set period of "no activity". A tour is when the camera will automatically cycle through a set of predefined locations and stay on each location for a preselected period of time. This way you don't have to give the users any access to the camera's features. They can simply see an online feed that automatically cycles through your desired presets. You can even set up several different tours and change which tour is currently being cycled through based on the time of day. For example, during daylight hours you want to see surf conditions, but at night you probably don't need to cycle through all the "surf" locations or you might have completely different locations that you want to see, or you might not want the camera to move at all but stay on one particular preset.

Of course you can retain admin privileges and can login and manually move the camera around as desired. But once you stop, the camera will go back to this tour after whatever period of time you set (the "no activity" time setting).
 
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EWKiter

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I'm just not sure anyone has had a similar use case to know.

Honestly I think an easier way of doing this is to set the camera to default to a "tour" after a set period of "no activity". A tour is when the camera will automatically cycle through a set of predefined locations and stay on each location for a preselected period of time. This way you don't have to give the users any access to the camera's features. They can simply see an online feed that automatically scrolls through your desired presets. You can even set up several different tours and change which tour is currently being cycled through based on the time of day. For example, during daylight hours you want to see surf conditions, but at night you probably don't need to cycle through all the "surf" locations or you might have completely different locations that you want to see, or you might not want the camera to move at all but stay on one particular preset.

Of course you can retain admin privileges and can login and manually move the camera around as desired. But once you stop, the camera will go back to this tour after whatever period of time you set (the "no activity" time setting).
This is a great work-around and solution for me. Especially if I can set it up to only start touring during certain timeframes? Would I be able to have it at one position for most of the day, and then cycle through tours during certain times? It would be great if I can have the camera automatically turn off durIng nighttime hours when it is not needed?

Or is there a possibility that a user can simply initiate the tour when they go to the camera - or does that get into the same access/control issues as being able to just look at presets?

Thank you so much for your help on this, it is really appreciated!
 

The Automation Guy

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I'm not in a location where I can access the camera's GUI, but I am 99.9% certain that you can schedule tours based on a time schedule. You'll need to first create your "presets" by moving the camera to the exact position that you want to save and then storing them as presets. Then you'll create a "tour" with whatever presets you want to cycle between, and then you'll need to schedule the tour for a particular time. Those three functions are all in the GUI, but in different places.

I honestly don't know if it is possible to begin a tour based on a particular person logging in or not, but It seems like a logical request so you might check the settings to see if it is available.
 
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yep...tour based on schedule is your best bet. Remember, the camera OSD GUI page is a simple admin purpose. The advanced requests (such as when clientA logs in, that person is allowed to do this, when clientB logs in, this person can do that) could only be accomplished with a 3rd party interface such as Blue Iris or whatnot.
 

EWKiter

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Question. One great solution for me would to be able to set both pan and tilt limits on the camera. That way, it helps maintain privacy of my surrounding neighbors. It seems as though I can set up/down limits (tilt) but not side-to-side (pan) limits? It seems very odd to me that I would be able to set one, but not the other? Am I missing something? If I can set both for a user, this will be my solution, because they will be able to use zoom and presets. Thoughts?
 

jack7

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You could control PTZ by using the PTZ Control command available in the Dahua API. API documentation can be found here:
You may want to set up a cam user id for PTZ only to use with API.
The API commands can be used in browser, or possibly with a PHP script. With PHP script, this may help:

Someone would have to spend some time researching and developing this.
 
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