Hello, new forum user here trying to get some information on where to get a firmware update for a PTZ outdoor WiFi 5mp 20x Yoluke camera. I bought the unit new a week ago but it has firmware from 2019 ( v19.1.31.16.28-20191202). The unit has human detection (that works) but when i use the 97 call for the auto tracking it spins 360 degrees and will not stop until i manually stop it with the app. It came with a pamphlet listing the preset call numbers most all do not work. I think the unit is running older software and the common function preset in the unit do not match the newer pamphlet preset numbers.
Whats up guys- need some help with a yoluke camera. (firmware)
- Thread starter ern1911
- Start date
Now I realize you are having an issue with the camera, but can it be resolved another way - do you need to use that preset or can autotracking work another way?
You will find with the no-name cameras that the pamphlet and reality are usually way off.
And you will find that it is not common for firmware to be updated, especially on no-name stuff. Heck even the name brands may only get one or two firmware updates. I have Dahua cams still running 2019 firmware.
A common theme around here is don't fix what ain't broke. If the unit is working and meets your needs, in many instances an update breaks what you had working and provides you with something you didn't need or bricks the camera. In most instances, updates are simply security vulnerability patches (usually years after the breach was found), but since we do not give our cameras internet access, the update is useless to us.
Here are issues I have seen people report here where they were upgrading just for the sake of upgrading:
Further, it is best to obtain any firmware updates from the vendor you purchased it from so that you do not run into issues. Any firmware you find here or elsewhere is obviously proceed at your own risk. We have many threads here where someone tried an update with a firmware they found on the internet and bricked their unit.
Many units being sold are Chinese hacked units into English that will either brick or go into Chinese upon updating. Some vendors will be upfront and tell consumers that as part of their website, but many do not or the consumer forgets...here is one such example....
Your best bet is to reach out to the vendor that sold it to you and see what they can offer.
Or return it and for $100-$150 more you can get a real autotracking PTZ that works. And if @EMPIRETECANDY gets a refurb like he did last week you can score one cheaper than this no-name camera!
You can find many threads here where someone tried to go the cheap route on an autotrack PTZ and did three or four purchases and returns before giving up and getting the 49225.
www.aliexpress.com
You will find with the no-name cameras that the pamphlet and reality are usually way off.
And you will find that it is not common for firmware to be updated, especially on no-name stuff. Heck even the name brands may only get one or two firmware updates. I have Dahua cams still running 2019 firmware.
A common theme around here is don't fix what ain't broke. If the unit is working and meets your needs, in many instances an update breaks what you had working and provides you with something you didn't need or bricks the camera. In most instances, updates are simply security vulnerability patches (usually years after the breach was found), but since we do not give our cameras internet access, the update is useless to us.
Here are issues I have seen people report here where they were upgrading just for the sake of upgrading:
- A Dahua Z12E that someone updated and then constantly reboots comes to mind,
- The Dahua 49225 and 49425 PTZ that loses autotracking with an update come to mind,
- A Hikvision ANPR camera losing half the FPS and loses the ability to read US plates - those are big deals to have happen.
- A Hikvision camera that the user lost ability to control the LED light function at night.
- Countless other instances where the camera simply bricked and became useless.
- Countless examples where the camera went into Chinese.
Further, it is best to obtain any firmware updates from the vendor you purchased it from so that you do not run into issues. Any firmware you find here or elsewhere is obviously proceed at your own risk. We have many threads here where someone tried an update with a firmware they found on the internet and bricked their unit.
Many units being sold are Chinese hacked units into English that will either brick or go into Chinese upon updating. Some vendors will be upfront and tell consumers that as part of their website, but many do not or the consumer forgets...here is one such example....
Your best bet is to reach out to the vendor that sold it to you and see what they can offer.
Or return it and for $100-$150 more you can get a real autotracking PTZ that works. And if @EMPIRETECANDY gets a refurb like he did last week you can score one cheaper than this no-name camera!
You can find many threads here where someone tried to go the cheap route on an autotrack PTZ and did three or four purchases and returns before giving up and getting the 49225.
374.02US $ 6% OFF|New Model PTZ SD49225XA HNR 2MP 25x Starlight + IR PTZ AI Network Camera Auto Tracking Support PoE+ , free DHL shipping|Surveillance Cameras| - AliExpress
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www.aliexpress.com
Last edited:
Yes that is the camera i have. tried the vendor no reply or from yoluke. i bought it for the auto tracking feature.
I wanted the WiFi unit because it is mounted on a shed facing the back of the house.
there is power and a WiFi extender but running a network line we be a pain and i would most likely need an amp (168ft)
i have a Ctronics unit that works great and a sv3c unit that works even better both with auto tracking.
I tried Yoluke brand to see if the night vision was better then the other two.
I can not find any higher end WiFi 5mp 20x or better with tracking and good night-vision. do you know of any cameras ?
I am running blue iris with deep stack AI-- using zero tier ui to phone app.
if i buy the 49225 what nvr do you suggest ? does the 49225 have good night vision? any other ptz with a 5mp you suggest
thanks for all your help, Ern
I wanted the WiFi unit because it is mounted on a shed facing the back of the house.
there is power and a WiFi extender but running a network line we be a pain and i would most likely need an amp (168ft)
i have a Ctronics unit that works great and a sv3c unit that works even better both with auto tracking.
I tried Yoluke brand to see if the night vision was better then the other two.
I can not find any higher end WiFi 5mp 20x or better with tracking and good night-vision. do you know of any cameras ?
I am running blue iris with deep stack AI-- using zero tier ui to phone app.
if i buy the 49225 what nvr do you suggest ? does the 49225 have good night vision? any other ptz with a 5mp you suggest
thanks for all your help, Ern
The 49225 works with Blue Iris. It has great night vision. I am sure it blows the other cameras you have out of the water.
There is no good 5MP on the proper sensor size, that is why you do not find it on the better cameras, only the cheap low-grade stuff.
Don't chase MP - that is how you get poor night vision.
I repeat LOL - It is simple LOL do not chase MP - do not buy a 4MP camera that is anything smaller than a 1/1.8" sensor. Do not buy a 2MP camera that is anything smaller than a 1/2.8" sensor. Do not buy a 4K (8MP) camera on anything smaller than a 1/1.2" sensor. Unfortunately, most 4k (8MP) cams are on the same sensor as a 2MP and thus the 2MP will kick its butt all night long as the 4k will need 4 times the light than the 2MP... 4k will do very poor at night unless you have stadium quality lighting (well a lot of lighting LOL).
Wifi and PTZ is problematic. You have power, so use a powerline adapter than runs the data thru your electric lines. Much better than wifi. And standard POE+ can go 168 feet no problem without an amp.
There is no good 5MP on the proper sensor size, that is why you do not find it on the better cameras, only the cheap low-grade stuff.
Don't chase MP - that is how you get poor night vision.
I repeat LOL - It is simple LOL do not chase MP - do not buy a 4MP camera that is anything smaller than a 1/1.8" sensor. Do not buy a 2MP camera that is anything smaller than a 1/2.8" sensor. Do not buy a 4K (8MP) camera on anything smaller than a 1/1.2" sensor. Unfortunately, most 4k (8MP) cams are on the same sensor as a 2MP and thus the 2MP will kick its butt all night long as the 4k will need 4 times the light than the 2MP... 4k will do very poor at night unless you have stadium quality lighting (well a lot of lighting LOL).
Wifi and PTZ is problematic. You have power, so use a powerline adapter than runs the data thru your electric lines. Much better than wifi. And standard POE+ can go 168 feet no problem without an amp.
When I first wanted a PTZ I tried two of the Yo-Lukes. Returned one and the other one just quit working after 5 months and I threw it away. Junk if you ask me. I liked them because I only had to power them as I have great wifi coverage but will run cat 5e and put up a Dahua next time there.
sebastiantombs
Known around here
An alternative to powerline adapters is the Ubuiquity Nano Station Loco series. Dedicated, encrypted, RF link, not WiFi. There are other brands as well, but the low end stuff is just that, low end stuff. Decent quality with a dedicated RF link pays off as it does with cameras. SV3C is kind of the bottom of the barrel. I had two that went to the landfill, still working, or at least what passed for working. As will all of the low end they had too many megapixels of too small a sensor.
EMPIRETECANDY
IPCT Vendor
249+100usd can buy a fantastic SD49225XA-HNR, really save a lot of time and energy, and can get much better videos.
ipcamtalk.com
A Beautiful Eagle by SD49225XA-HNR
Woo, a cool video by SD49225XA-HNR, eating a Deer, this is Nature.
EMPIRETECANDY
IPCT Vendor
EMPIRETECANDY
IPCT Vendor
These are not plug and play. You have to dial them in. But once you do, they are incredible. Mine hits the mark over 95% of the time.
Do not run default/auto settings?
You also need to use INTERNET EXPLORER as the camera track time will change to 15 seconds in any other browser.
It is a matter of getting the brightness/contrast and target ratio settings correct.
I always knew that you shouldn't chase a bright picture - it looks nice and people migrate towards a brighter TV for example, but upon closer examination, most images need to be toned down in order to get all the details. You will be surprised how much changing a parameter like gamma could impact tracking. For example, if you have a pesky tree or something in the middle of the view during an autotrack, just by changing some image parameters you can get autotrack to pass it. Making the image a little darker at night actually helped with tracking someone across the street, which was opposite of what I thought you would think to do. So add some contrast to your image and see if it improves.
I have a yard lamp post that more times than not autotrack would get stuck on it as someone was walking and the autotrack would only go so far. Because my image has soo much contrast (bright white concrete a third, blacktop road a third, grass a third), knocking down the gamma made the lamp post not be so "trackable" lol, and along with that I turned of PFA and that gave it just enough time to retrack the person walking past the lamp post. The camera may still autotrack the lamp post when a small kid goes by, but an adult it was autotracking past the lamp post.
Ideally for an intrusion box or tripwires, 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.
The reason it starts looking upward or left or right is usually because the intrusion box is too big so the camera identifies the object before it is in the center of the field of view and then sometimes something else matches the "algorithm signature" of the initial object and then starts trying to track something that isn't there. Adjusting the field of view and the locations of the IVS rules to be closer to the center can fix that.
Autotracking PTZs are great, but they have limitations like everything else. Installed in a wrong location or with fields of view that do not give it a chance will be problematic.
Do not run default/auto settings?
You also need to use INTERNET EXPLORER as the camera track time will change to 15 seconds in any other browser.
It is a matter of getting the brightness/contrast and target ratio settings correct.
I always knew that you shouldn't chase a bright picture - it looks nice and people migrate towards a brighter TV for example, but upon closer examination, most images need to be toned down in order to get all the details. You will be surprised how much changing a parameter like gamma could impact tracking. For example, if you have a pesky tree or something in the middle of the view during an autotrack, just by changing some image parameters you can get autotrack to pass it. Making the image a little darker at night actually helped with tracking someone across the street, which was opposite of what I thought you would think to do. So add some contrast to your image and see if it improves.
I have a yard lamp post that more times than not autotrack would get stuck on it as someone was walking and the autotrack would only go so far. Because my image has soo much contrast (bright white concrete a third, blacktop road a third, grass a third), knocking down the gamma made the lamp post not be so "trackable" lol, and along with that I turned of PFA and that gave it just enough time to retrack the person walking past the lamp post. The camera may still autotrack the lamp post when a small kid goes by, but an adult it was autotracking past the lamp post.
Ideally for an intrusion box or tripwires, 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.
The reason it starts looking upward or left or right is usually because the intrusion box is too big so the camera identifies the object before it is in the center of the field of view and then sometimes something else matches the "algorithm signature" of the initial object and then starts trying to track something that isn't there. Adjusting the field of view and the locations of the IVS rules to be closer to the center can fix that.
Autotracking PTZs are great, but they have limitations like everything else. Installed in a wrong location or with fields of view that do not give it a chance will be problematic.
Along with the above, in my opinion, shutter (exposure) and gain are the two most important parameters and then base the others off of it. Shutter is more important than FPS. It is the shutter speed that prevents motion blur, not FPS. 15 FPS is more than enough for surveillance cameras as we are not producing Hollywood movies. Match iframes to FPS. 15FPS is all that is usually needed.
Many people do not realize there is manual shutter that lets you adjust shutter and gain and a shutter priority that only lets you adjust shutter speed but not gain. The higher the gain, the bigger the noise and see-through ghosting start to appear because the noise is amplified. Most people select shutter priority and run a faster shutter than they should because it is likely being done at 100 gain, so it is actually defeating their purpose of a faster shutter.
But first, run H264, smart codec off, CBR, and 8192 bitrate to start. This should make it more crisp.
I think you should also take off manual IR - your camera is low so you are getting a lot of IR bounce off the ground that is degrading the picture.
Go into shutter settings and change to manual shutter and start with custom shutter as ms and change to 0-8.3ms and gain 0-50 (night) and 0-30 (day)for starters. Auto could have a shutter speed of 100ms or more with a gain at 100 and shutter priority could result in gain up at 100 which will contribute to significant ghosting and that blinding white you will get from the infrared.
Now what you will notice immediately at night is that 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 16.67ms (but certainly not above 30ms) as that tends to be the point where blur starts to occur. Conversely, if it is still bright, then drop down in time to get a faster shutter.
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) and 20-30 during the day, 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 and contribute to blur.
Do not use backlight features until you have exhausted every other parameter setting. And if you do have to use backlight, take it down as low as possible.
After every setting adjustment, have someone walk around outside and see if you can freeze-frame to get a clean image. If not, keep changing until you do. Clean motion pictures are what we are after, not a clean static image.
Now with a PTZ, there is the challenge in that at night, it will see a wide array of lighting depending on where it is pointed and the amount of zoom. So it takes additional dialing in to make sure it performs in all the different field of views that it might see.
Most of us have found that IVS rules work much better than motion detection or Smart Motion Detection if you are only interested in human or vehicle triggers.
But you only use one. So if you use IVS, then turn off MD and SMD.
Intrusion boxes and tripwires are two ways to trigger the IVS. Each has a use case.
The tripwire works in a 3 dimensional way, so the object has to travel halfway through the line. Tripwires work well if you only care about triggers in one direction. You need to leave some buffer between the edge of the camera view and the tripwire or it will miss it. The camera needs time to ID the motion and determine if it meets the criteria to trigger on the tripwire.
The intrusion box is the simplest because you just draw a box and tell it to trigger if the object crosses or appears. However, it then is looking at the entire frame and that can contribute to it wandering off in some field of views.
The best thing to do is try each one individually and see which one performs better for your field of view.
Many people do not realize there is manual shutter that lets you adjust shutter and gain and a shutter priority that only lets you adjust shutter speed but not gain. The higher the gain, the bigger the noise and see-through ghosting start to appear because the noise is amplified. Most people select shutter priority and run a faster shutter than they should because it is likely being done at 100 gain, so it is actually defeating their purpose of a faster shutter.
But first, run H264, smart codec off, CBR, and 8192 bitrate to start. This should make it more crisp.
I think you should also take off manual IR - your camera is low so you are getting a lot of IR bounce off the ground that is degrading the picture.
Go into shutter settings and change to manual shutter and start with custom shutter as ms and change to 0-8.3ms and gain 0-50 (night) and 0-30 (day)for starters. Auto could have a shutter speed of 100ms or more with a gain at 100 and shutter priority could result in gain up at 100 which will contribute to significant ghosting and that blinding white you will get from the infrared.
Now what you will notice immediately at night is that 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 16.67ms (but certainly not above 30ms) as that tends to be the point where blur starts to occur. Conversely, if it is still bright, then drop down in time to get a faster shutter.
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) and 20-30 during the day, 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 and contribute to blur.
Do not use backlight features until you have exhausted every other parameter setting. And if you do have to use backlight, take it down as low as possible.
After every setting adjustment, have someone walk around outside and see if you can freeze-frame to get a clean image. If not, keep changing until you do. Clean motion pictures are what we are after, not a clean static image.
Now with a PTZ, there is the challenge in that at night, it will see a wide array of lighting depending on where it is pointed and the amount of zoom. So it takes additional dialing in to make sure it performs in all the different field of views that it might see.
Most of us have found that IVS rules work much better than motion detection or Smart Motion Detection if you are only interested in human or vehicle triggers.
But you only use one. So if you use IVS, then turn off MD and SMD.
Intrusion boxes and tripwires are two ways to trigger the IVS. Each has a use case.
The tripwire works in a 3 dimensional way, so the object has to travel halfway through the line. Tripwires work well if you only care about triggers in one direction. You need to leave some buffer between the edge of the camera view and the tripwire or it will miss it. The camera needs time to ID the motion and determine if it meets the criteria to trigger on the tripwire.
The intrusion box is the simplest because you just draw a box and tell it to trigger if the object crosses or appears. However, it then is looking at the entire frame and that can contribute to it wandering off in some field of views.
The best thing to do is try each one individually and see which one performs better for your field of view.
Thank you for all the settings. I am still unable to get the camera to track. I set the preset added the rule picked tripwire draw the target checked alarm track -human motor vehicle saved it. when someone walks into the trip i get a flashing square around them but the camera dose not follow them