SD6AL433XA-HNR Laser PTZ Tracking Issue

[wittaj]

Sounds good - Ljw2k means setting up the IVS rules and what not within the camera GUI itself for the spotter cam like you did the PTZ. It is hard to tell if the NVR interface is pulling in what you set up within the camera itself or if you setup the IVS at the NVR level, but it should be setup within the camera GUI.

The spotter itself to trigger the PTZ will be within the NVR. I do mine through Blue Iris, but @bigredfish will be able to help you out with the NVR side.

 

[Captain_B]

Thank you Wittaj, I used BigRedFish PSA post about what to do when you buy a camera/NVR to set up my cameras and only used the NVR to try and get the PTZ linkage to work. Hopefully BigRedFish will be on later and see what I need to correct in my settings. I have another one of these SD6AL433XA-HNR Laser to install, maybe this weekend if the weather cooperates. I am looking at getting 2 more PTZ's from Andy and I'm not sure if I want to stick with these or get 2 of the 8 MP with 4/3 sensor.

 

[Captain_B]

I found out I had the wrong IR/Laser setting for night ops on the pictures above, check out the 2 night time settings options over what I was running last night (its daytime here so I will use them tonight and send pictures):





This is what I was running last night.

 

[wittaj]

That will certainly help, but the biggest improvement will be getting it off of auto settings, especially the shutter. It will be interesting to see if this laser allows you to run a faster shutter than we can with infrared.

The picture gets darker at night the faster the shutter speed, but the faster the shutter, the better the detail and less blur, but it is a tradeoff in being able to actually see something versus amount of detail.

The laser angle sounds like a cool improvement - I can tell with my PTZ that the infrared is pointing just a tad too low from the center and it would be nice to be able to adjust that like it appears you can with this laser.

 

[Captain_B]

Great news, for tonight's testing of the PTZ I found a retired clothing model who is now a high-end stripper that's willing to do me a favor and trade her time for all the Crown Royal whiskey she can drink while on the property. She came up early today (see photos below) to head out in the field to get started on her first 2 Lt bottle of Crown, I told her I couldn't stay out there with her due to work obligations but she said she could manage on her own, will see. As a gentleman, the least I could have done for her was open her first bottle but I was on the phone and forgot about her recent accident, kinda funny now, at least for me, not so much for her. See if you can find her, she's quite the looker, she is a little camera shy with her new hairstyle, she is 600 feet away for tonight's IR/Laser testing of PTZ.

Tonight conditions, no moon, heavy cloud cover with rain, I'll get her an umbrella, it's the least I could do.

 

[ljw2k]

Looks armless not legless

 

[bigredfish]

As to your spotter cam issue, here's the write up I posted when I reviewed my PTZ.



The magic happens at the NVR

-On the NVR go to AI
-Then choose "Parameters" and IVS and go to the spotter camera IVS rule
-Go down to "PTZ Activation" and in the popup choose the PTZ on the left list (cam 1 for me) and enter the number on the right of the PTZ Preset you want it to go to when the IVS rule is tripped (Preset 2 for me)
-Dont forget to hit the "OK" button at the very bottom right of the page to save the settings



Finally, once it goes to the preset based on the spotter cam IVS rule, you have to setup a Time Task on the PTZ to tell it to go back to its original "Home" preset.
So the Time task in my case says:
Once called away from your Home Preset (by the spotter cam) return to "Home" after 60 seconds. (Home being Preset 1). I've also set that time task to be just during daylight hours as I have another task for it at night.

 

[Captain_B]

Yes, she's not happy and seems to be complaining but "Dainty" is a trooper, even in the rain at 600 feet from someone who would pour her a touch of a decent refreshment. The first one below is with the Laser and the second one without the Laser.



This is without the Laser and only Smart IR



I do need to make some adjustments to fine tune the settings but at 600 feet...not bad for my first attempt thanks to you guys for your advice on settings. I can only imagine what the camera is capable of at farther distances, I may be purchasing 2 more of these for deployment at much greater viewing distances to see how they perform.

 

[wittaj]

That is at auto shutter correct?

 

[Captain_B]

The second picture using SmartIR is the following:



The first picture with the Laser is the following:

 

[wittaj]

You have to cut that time a lot. 500ms and 100ms is way too slow and probably even slower than auto shutter would put out. Never put gain at 100. It will be blur and casper the ghost with that shutter speed. We need these to perform with details at night, not be a ghost city.

That is a 1/2s shutter speed and needs to be no slower than 1/30s.

Here is a repeat of what I said previously in case you missed it as it changed pages:

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. Try not to go more than 0-30ms

You can also adjust brightness and contrast and iris to improve the brightness of 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.

 

[bigredfish]

Even though the controls say SmartIR, Manual, ZoomPrio, all are using the laser for IR. There are no separate IR LED's on board. Just using the same terminology they use for standard IR.
The Manual setting just gives you fine tuning adjustment

 

[bigredfish]

At 600 ft you're probably closing in on max zoom. You can display the Zoom if you go to Video/Overlay.
While the camera can "see" further, 800ft or so will be the ID range

 

[Captain_B]

Wittaj, I didn't take the time last night to dial it in, got started late, and was falling asleep. I will be back at it tonight since I do not have to work on Saturday and hopefully, the rain will stop this evening

 

[Captain_B]

Mr. BigRedFish, or others who may know:

My Spotter Cameras are still not triggering the PTZ with your settings, I wonder if its something in alarms or something else I'm missing. All I am using is IVS rules in the camera and the only NVR AI I'm using is what is listed below for triggering the PTZ. I do notice I have an error in the PTZ settings in Time Task, not sure what that means, see below. Camera 15 is my test camera in my office laying on a table and Camera 9 is the PTZ and Preset 1 is the field where the 600 foot shots are taken. Any help would be appreciated, and thank you for your time.

 

[bigredfish]

That’s telling the ptz to go to its Preset1 when cam 15 triggers.

Preset 1 on the ptz is likely its standard home position. So it has nowhere to go...?

 

[bigredfish]

Time task is telling the ptz to go to preset 3 ?

You should make preset 1 it’s home resting position. So the time task would tell it to go back home (preset 1) after so much time.

This is strictly for sending it home after being called somewhere else by a spotter

 

[Captain_B]

The below was tracking perfect, my participant got cold and needed a break so I could not take the shutter speed faster but it is working much better at night with tracking.

 

[Captain_B]

600 feet away from camera, no man made lights within a mile, raining, heavy cloud cover, see below for settings.

 

[Captain_B]

Forgot to mention, the young lady above at 20:49 local time that got cold while I was adjusting the camera settings is being auto-tracked at 100+ feet away.