SD6AL433XA-HNR Laser PTZ Tracking Issue

Captain_B

Captain_B

Pulling my weight
Jan 12, 2021
147
245
United States
Does anyone have an idea as to what my tracking issues are, the video shows the person being captured using Deep IVS Tripwire but the PTZ then loses the target and begins searching for it and then getting lost before returning to the Preset. Also, the max tracking time I can get is 15 seconds, anyone know of a solution for that? I'm using the Dahua NVR5216-16P-I AI NVR. Thank you for your help.
View attachment PTZ Issue #1.mp4
 
Couple of things to consider for starters, and I’d do a reset and start from scratch with the weird searching.

Make all setting, image, IVS changes on the camera itself, not the NVR.

If you use IE you’ll be able to see/set tracking time to more than 15 seconds. These play best with IE

Set target tracking size lower. The 6 series PTZ is quite sensitive to this setting. I’m at 80-90 ft on preset 1 and use 30-35 max, though you’re much higher than mine.

What are you using for a trigger? Do you have the Human filter on?

What are your IVS settings? I’m guessing you’d want multiple IVS boxes/Tripwires as opposed to a single big one with the area you have to cover.
 
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By the way, I'd be real interested in how it does at night with the laser IR as Im looking at buying one, mine has the smaller sensor and regular IR.
 
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Big Red Fish:

Thank you for your reply and help. I have read many of your post before getting my camera and NVR and followed your procedure on setting them up, all work perfect except this one. The night vision on this camera is great, I will send a video of me walking 600 feet away with zero moonlight and no man-made light for miles. This morning after reading your post I defaulted to the factory settings and used your settings (see below) but no joy, still doing the same thing, it will track a person for 3 to 5 seconds and then it takes off searching. Maybe I have something set wrong, any suggestions would be appreciated. Also I'm using IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E as spotter cameras but I have had no luck in getting them to trigger the PTZ, any help with that would be great as well.


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Below are my settings:

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All 4 Presets are like the above.

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Just because these cameras are capable of 30FPS and a lot of IVS rules doesn't mean we should run at that. You are probably running this camera at capacity and the little CPU bugs out at 100% and that is just enough to lose track.

Movies for the big screen are shot at 24FPS, so it doesn't make much since to run higher than that for our TVs and phones LOL.

Try dropping to 15FPS as that is more than sufficient for surveillance cameras.

Just use 1 IVS rule - too many and the CPU usage goes up and it can get stuck for a split second - you have too much overlapping and they are only AI on human. Just do one intrusion block enters and exits.

Ideally you should have the initial field of view be such that the camera doesn't have to initially pan too much up/down or left/right to get the object in the center of the screen to start tracking. The closer the object is to the center of the image, the better the chance that it will track correctly.

You are on the right track with spotter cams that you can then further define a preset that would place the object more in the center of the frame so that it can track properly.

I am not sure about this camera, but I am sure it has a feature that the lesser Dahua PTZs have that you can limit how much horizontal it starts so that it doesn't try to start tracking a cloud when it starts to come in on you.

Please post a night video as many of us want to see a Laser at night!
 
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Let me spend some time this evening looking at your settings. First thing that jumped out to me was the multiple IVS rules as @wittaj mentions. Try just one for starters, a simple intrusion box with both appears and crosses checked. Let’s see how it reacts to that.

If you’re using a Dahua NVR I can help you with the spotter integration, let’s get it doing the right thing by itself first
 
Less IVS rules.

also mine doesn’t have the Global setting allowing FD at same time as IVS. I would think that would also put extra work on the cpu.
 
I would factory rest the camera to DEFAULT. Also remove all the settings from your NVR also.

In the camera's Web Interface using IE ( Internet Explorer ) set 1 simple preset.

1./ Set up a Preset1 under PTZ Menu +Preset1
2./ Enable the Preset1 in Smart Plan and save it.
3./ Set up the intrusion zone from the Deep IV menu
4. Make sure it is a simple square box I set mine to all the screen.
5./ Set the tracking size to around 30 with effective object to human only then Unlock & SAVE
 
Oh and now that I can see them, turn off Motion Detection and SMD. You're using IVS and shouldnt need that.
 
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I'm glad dropping the FPS worked. I wouldn't suggest going down to 8FPS, but 10-15 is fine.

Great catch on Motion Detection and SMD @bigredfish !

Another thing to consider is where is your spotter cam pointed to?

Ideally you should not have the point of view of the PTZ overlapping the spotter cam - let that cam be the primary viewer of that spot and then turn the PTZ to that location with a preset configured to start tracking in that vicinity.

As I mentioned previously, to help with tracking, ideally you want the object to be in the middle of the frame once it starts the tracking - your middle of the frame is the pool. I would consider zooming in to get the roof out of the frame and concentrate on a little tighter area to start the tracking and use the spotter cams to help point the PTZ to the right spot.

I am interested to see if the laser has the same bounce back off the roof as IR would have.
 
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Ideally you should not have the point of view of the PTZ overlapping the spotter cam - let that cam be the primary viewer of that spot and then turn the PTZ to that location with a preset configured to start tracking in that vicinity.


Great minds. That was my next thought as well....
 
I turned off (un-enable) Video Detection, Smart Motion Detection, Face Detection and found 15 FPS is tracking excellent, thank you BigRedFish, Wittaj, Ljw2k for your advice, the PTZ camera is worked perfectly. I have no spotter cams on the pool but have them on other areas of the property but still no luck in getting them to trip the PTZ. I will send the spotter cam settings in the next post and would appreciate any help on making this work.

Below is the night vision of the PTZ, not sure if the laser is working or not, this is factory settings. There was no moon last night and we had cloud covering along with no man-made lights in the area. The 20x40 pool is a little under 90 feet away and the light is so bright it makes the shot blurry as it does with the deer. The second shot of the trees (you can see the bark/moss on them) is over 600 feet, the third shot with the antennas and the wires is a little over 500 feet. The fourth picture of the deer are around 150 to 200 feet. I tried to upload the video many times but could only get to 92% before it stopped. I need to get a manikin tied to the trees at 600 feet or find someone who will walk around out there for a few beers. If I knew what settings for the night vision to adjust I think I could clean it up a lot, and also I would like to figure out if the laser is on or not. I put my night settings for the PTZ at the end.

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Glad our suggestions helped.

Ok - the default settings is your problem. It is clear the laser is working cause that is bright even on auto settings!

Take it off auto settings at night unless you like seeing Casper and blurring and hotspots. Auto settings in most situations for shutter will produce a great picture, but motion is complete crap with blurring and ghosting.

Go into shutter settings and change to manual and start with custom shutter as ms and change to 0-8.3ms and gain 0-50 for starters. Auto could have a shutter speed of 100ms or more and gain up at 100 which will contribute to significant ghosting and that blinding white you are getting from the laser.

Now what you will notice that happens immediately is your image gets A LOT darker. That faster the shutter, the more light that is needed. But it is a balance. The nice bright night image results in Casper during motion LOL. What do we want, a nice static image or a clean image when there is motion introduced to the scene?

So if it is too dark, then start adding ms to the time. Go to 10ms, 12ms, etc. until you find what you feel is acceptable as an image. Then have someone walk around and see if you can get a clean shot. Try not to go above 30ms as that tends to be the point where blur starts to occur.

You can also adjust brightness and contrast to improve the image.

You can also add some gain to brighten the image - but the higher the gain, the more ghosting you get. Some cameras can go to 70 or so before it is an issue and some can't go over 50.

But adjusting those two settings will have the biggest impact. The next one is noise reduction. Want to keep that as low as possible. Depending on the amount of light you have, you might be able to get down to 40 or so at night (again camera dependent), but take it as low as you can before it gets too noisy. Again this one is a balance as well. Too smooth and no noise can result in soft images.

Turn PFA off as that tends to not work as well at night.

Try Illuminator at Smart IR if it has it.

In your next update, include the field of view of the spotter cams so we can help dial in the area the PTZ should be initially aimed at. As I mentioned goal is to have the PTZ zoomed in to an area the other cameras struggle with or you do not have coverage, and then use the spotter cam to come back to a different preset dialed in to the area that fixed spotter cam covers.
 
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Below are the settings of my spotter cams (IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E):
Under "Event" I have Un-enabled the following; Video Detection, Smart Motion Detection, Audio Detection, Face Detection

Thank you guys for all your help, I really appreciate it.

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Face Detection and Face Recognition are off (un-enabled).

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Camera 9 is the PTZ and Preset 2 is the Driveway.

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Now the Setting on the PTZ (Camera 9) in AI

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I would not use the NVR to set up your plans and rules use the camera's Web GUI and set it all up from there.
 
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Help us on perspective - is this spotter cam pointing to the area we see from the PTZ - is this the area off to far top right of the PTZ screen? If so, you will then create another preset zoomed in to that area that the PTZ will turn and focus on.
 
Ljw2k - I could not find any PTZ linkage on the spotter camera's Web GUI, any idea where that is?

Wittaj - If you're looking at the pool and call that 12 o'clock, there is a spotter camera at the 10 to 11 o'clock position. The PTZ night shots out in the field, listed above are at the 7 o'clock position and there are no street lights within a mile of here. If I could figure out how to post the videos that would be great and with the new night vision settings you gave me it should really help a lot.
 
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