[SOLVED] Hikvision NVR Won't Recognize Camera Using Ubiquiti Nanostations

[BigMoe]

Hello,
I am not a professional, but have been installing cameras for the office I work at for a few years now and have always figured out whatever issues have sprung-up. Unfortunately, I might of overstepped my skill level because this latest problem has me stumped. My boss wanted a couple cameras on the second building across our parking lot. I thought using Ubiquiti Nanostations AC Loco to make the bridge across the parking lot would do the trick (I had previously used those to extend the internet to that building). The sketch below represents the setup I attempted:

The Nanostations are setup and working properly according to the Ubiquiti App, but the Hikvision NVR will not fully recognize the Hikvision camera across the parking lot. The NVR indicates that it is in the process of "recognizing" the camera, but it never finalizes that process and just hangs forever. I even tried introducing a mini-switch in between the camera PoE injector and the Nanostation PoE injector, but that did not solve the problem.

Any suggestions or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TonyR]

Is that a POE NVR and the POE injector's "data" line is plugged into one of the NVR's POE ports?
If so that's likely the issue.
I'd assign the camera, both radios and the NVR's LAN port unique static IP's all in the same subnet and connect that POE injector's "data" line into the NVR's LAN port (or to a switch that's connected to the NVR's LAN).

I assume you have the 2 radios configured as a Layer 2 Transparent Bridge.

If not too late, set it all up on the bench there near the NVR, configure as above, test and if OK, then move the cam and its radio across the parking lot.

 

[looktall]

I had previously used those to extend the internet to that building

Can you not use that same link for the cameras also?

 

[BigMoe]

Is that a POE NVR and the POE injector's "data" line is plugged into one of the NVR's POE ports?
If so that's likely the issue.

Yes, it is a PoE NVR, and yes, the PoE injector's data line is plugged into one of the NVR's PoE ports. I was not aware that this would be a problem.

Could you briefly explain why this is a problem? I assumed that since the other cameras that are hooked up directly to the NVR's PoE ports are also sending data through these ports, that my setup would work. I obviously thought wrong, but I would like to understand why.

I assume you have the 2 radios configured as a Layer 2 Transparent Bridge.

I'm not sure what is a "Layer 2 Transparent Bridge", but I did choose the "bridge" option in the Nanostation settings when I set them up.

I'd assign the camera, both radios and the NVR's LAN port unique static IP's all in the same subnet and connect that POE injector's "data" line into the NVR's LAN port (or to a switch that's connected to the NVR's LAN).

Boy, you are getting beyond my skill level, but I will look into doing that. Can I run two cameras into a switch and then connect the switch to the LAN port of the NVR? Will the NVR know how to detect the two different sets of video data? Sorry for the questions, but as I said, I really overstepped my technical knowledge on this one.

If not too late, set it all up on the bench there near the NVR, configure as above, test and if OK, then move the cam and its radio across the parking lot.

Unfortunately, all the equipment is installed. The Nanostations installed so easily for the internet, I never thought there would be an issue. I'm so mad at myself.

Thank you so much for your input TonyR. I hope I am not abusing your kindness by asking all these questions.

 

[looktall]

Could you briefly explain why this is a problem?

They should be able to negotiate between then who is doing what with regards to power but not necessarily in a way that does what you want.

 

[looktall]

Have you tried running the loco from the NVR without the injector?
The Poe in the NVR might actually be able to power it already.

 

[TonyR]

The Poe in the NVR might actually be able to power it already.

It won't. The Nanostation AC Loco requires a passive 24VDC injector, it will not work with 802.3af/at compliant POE such as the NVR's POE port.

 

[looktall]

Is

It won't. The Nanostation AC Loco requires a passive 24VDC injector, it will not work with 802.3af/at compliant POE such as the NVR's POE port.

ubiquiti still doing that bullshit?
I thought they'd stopped by now.

 

[TonyR]

Is

ubiquiti still doing that bullshit?
I thought they'd stopped by now.

Yes, some newer ones are 802.3af/at POE compliant but some are still passive...It's a crap shoot so I still check their specs when in doubt.

 

[TonyR]

@BigMoe ,

Did you configure the remote camera across the parking lot with a static IP?
Do you know what it is?

Do you know the NVR's LAN IP?
Is it static?

If properly configured the 2 Nanostations form a wireless bridge that is essentially a CAT-5 Ethernet cable that transports data but not POE (Power Over Ethernet) which is OK because the cam is receiving power from a nearby POE switch or POE inejctor, it's just the data we want the wirsless bridge to transport,.

 

[MTL4]

Is

ubiquiti still doing that bullshit?
I thought they'd stopped by now.

Yep, 24V is definitely old school at this point.

@BigMoe ,

Did you configure the remote camera across the parking lot with a static IP?
Do you know what it is?

Do you know the NVR's LAN IP?
Is it static?

If properly configured the 2 Nanostations form a wireless bridge that is essentially a CAT-5 Ethernet cable that transports data but not POE (Power Over Ethernet) which is OK because the cam is receiving power from a nearby POE switch or POE inejctor, it's just the data we want the wirsless bridge to transport,.

@BigMoe, I agree with Tony, the easiest way to start is to take the hand drawn diagram and write down all the IP addresses of all the components (ie everything except the POE injectors) and post it again. Then we can see if there's an IP problem causing your issue. Make sure all the IPs are static too, you don't want your component infrastructure being DHCP on the network or it can make the config a major PITA.

 

[BigMoe]

Thank you all for the input. Regretfully, I didn't have time today to mess with the installation, but tomorrow I will give it a try and post back my findings.

 

[BigMoe]

My apologies, between poor weather and my other workload, it took me a little longer to finally apply the recommendations that TonyR and others have conveyed to me.

With great joy and relief, I can state that the problem has been solved. This morning, I managed to get one camera/Nanostation combo to work!! Now, I just have to go back out and replicate the setup on the second set of Nanostations for the other camera.

There was actually two issues going on:
The first was indeed as TonyR stated that the Nanostations had to be changed over to static IP's that corresponded with the NVR. Unfortunately, I also had another issue going on at the same time. I had two different cameras, one 4MP & the other 6MP. Although the NVR specs state that it can handle up to a 6MP camera, this particular 6MP camera is apparently not compatible with the NVR (even though they are both from Hikvision), and that is the camera I was testing.

The tricky thing is that after I switched the Nanostations to fixed IP's, I could see the camera through the Hikvision SADP tool on my laptop which showed that the Nanostations were doing their job just fine. However, when I plugged the same exact cable into the NVR, the NVR would see the camera, but was not able to add the camera. This is when I remembered that I had the same issue when I tried to add an 8MP camera to the NVR in the past. So I tested the setup with the 4MP camera and whammo! it worked! I was a happy man!

I still have to setup the other set of Nanostations and finish the installation, but I don't anticipate any problems. I want to thank TonyR and everybody else for their input and helping me solve this issue. I couldn't figured it out without you.

 

[lewic]

My apologies, between poor weather and my other workload, it took me a little longer to finally apply the recommendations that TonyR and others have conveyed to me.

With great joy and relief, I can state that the problem has been solved. This morning, I managed to get one camera/Nanostation combo to work!! Now, I just have to go back out and replicate the setup on the second set of Nanostations for the other camera.

There was actually two issues going on:
The first was indeed as TonyR stated that the Nanostations had to be changed over to static IP's that corresponded with the NVR. Unfortunately, I also had another issue going on at the same time. I had two different cameras, one 4MP & the other 6MP. Although the NVR specs state that it can handle up to a 6MP camera, this particular 6MP camera is apparently not compatible with the NVR (even though they are both from Hikvision), and that is the camera I was testing.

The tricky thing is that after I switched the Nanostations to fixed IP's, I could see the camera through the Hikvision SADP tool on my laptop which showed that the Nanostations were doing their job just fine. However, when I plugged the same exact cable into the NVR, the NVR would see the camera, but was not able to add the camera. This is when I remembered that I had the same issue when I tried to add an 8MP camera to the NVR in the past. So I tested the setup with the 4MP camera and whammo! it worked! I was a happy man!

I still have to setup the other set of Nanostations and finish the installation, but I don't anticipate any problems. I want to thank TonyR and everybody else for their input and helping me solve this issue. I couldn't figured it out without you.

You mentioned that the NVR would support up to 6MP. Would this NVR be an E-series? If so then from what I remember that unit only supports up to H264+. I would check on the 6MP camera and make sure it is set to H264 or H264+. Most of the newer cameras default to an H265 compression which the E-series would not be able to decode the stream. You also mentioned about the 8MP. The 8MP camera would work on this recorder also but you would need to first log into the camera directly and lower the resolution to something the NVR would support which in your case you said 6MP max. Make sure the compression type on the camera is supported so if that is an E-series NVR then set camera to H264.