Cam Bug-fixing Advice?
Hi -
I have a pair of Samsung SNO-L6013R cameras, which I was previously delighted with.
https://www.hanwha-security.eu/business-security-products/sno-l6013r/
After 2.5yrs of constant operation one of the cams has suddenly started rebooting every few minutes. The reboot obviously kills the recording and throws error messages, as well as generating many spurious videos as the IR cut moves at night.
Since the cameras are ~£120 each I'm reluctant to just replace it and move on. So far I've tried the following, and I'd be interested in anything I've missed:
- Update PoE switch firmware, move camera to different port (nothing else on the switch is unreliable)
- Updated cam firmware
- Reset everything to factory defaults except network settings
- Removed cam from mounting and checked for physical damage to cable and cam
- Disabled LED-IR illuminators
- Ran a logged ping to the IP address to validate the drops in connectivity
- Checked the timestamped log in the cam - typically looks like this: https://d.pr/free/i/fssdkW
- Set the cam to a very low bit rate and small image size - no change to reboot schedule
It's out of warranty so next step is probably to replace, unless anyone has any ideas?
I have a pair of Samsung SNO-L6013R cameras, which I was previously delighted with.
https://www.hanwha-security.eu/business-security-products/sno-l6013r/
After 2.5yrs of constant operation one of the cams has suddenly started rebooting every few minutes. The reboot obviously kills the recording and throws error messages, as well as generating many spurious videos as the IR cut moves at night.
Since the cameras are ~£120 each I'm reluctant to just replace it and move on. So far I've tried the following, and I'd be interested in anything I've missed:
- Update PoE switch firmware, move camera to different port (nothing else on the switch is unreliable)
- Updated cam firmware
- Reset everything to factory defaults except network settings
- Removed cam from mounting and checked for physical damage to cable and cam
- Disabled LED-IR illuminators
- Ran a logged ping to the IP address to validate the drops in connectivity
- Checked the timestamped log in the cam - typically looks like this: https://d.pr/free/i/fssdkW
- Set the cam to a very low bit rate and small image size - no change to reboot schedule
It's out of warranty so next step is probably to replace, unless anyone has any ideas?
Comments
After that, the most common components to fail after several years are the electrolytic capacitors. Unless you can test, desolder and replace those without incurring much cost, you are probably better off replacing the cameras. Because you are asking this level of question, I suspect you don't already own the equipment to check ESR and replace suspect capacitors.
Thanks for the reply. I'm not a CCTV pro and have never taken a cam apart. I'll open the case before it goes in the parts bin to see if there's anything amiss. My testing equipment only goes as far as a decent auto-ranging multimeter I'm afraid.
Luckily all the network connectors were inside the house, so if there's a problem it should be in the camera body. I did wonder if the wire had been too compressed in the weatherproof grommet, but when removed it looks OK. Cheers!
The one "up" side of a camera failing, is that it's a chance to upgrade to a better camera. They keep getting better of the years. The jump in day and night time image quality going from my old bullets to 2MP Starlight Dahuas was stunning. It wasn't even a close competition with 0.006 Lux sensitivity. That grainy night b&w advancing to very clear b&w or pretty good color! Worth looking around.
I've gotten quite a few cameras from Empire Technology
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Starlight-2-7mm-12mm-motorized-lens-2MP-WDR-IR-Eyeball-Network-Camera-IPC-HDW5231R-Z-free/1200032_32837842126.html
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01AHXEHYY
We'll see how much of an improvement it is. And yes, I have read the thread about Reolinks(!) One thing I really liked about the previous cams was the lens distortion correction and very fast & effective auto-gain control. Hopefully the new cam will be trouble-free. Thanks for your advice. :-)
Repairing something in this price range isn't a winning proposition. It's like the "Big Profit" always sought in Wheeler Dealer. Ed's labor was always "free" and didn't count against the "profit." :-)
A bit of a deal-breaker is that I don't think it's possible to disable the on-board IR LEDs on these cams, which means that rain leads to Gb-sized movement files of passing raindrops. I need this feature because I use a 940nm IR illuminator (the invisible one) and I don't want a red circle of LEDs at the install location.
Any tips from 410 users before I send it back? Very tempted to just buy another identical Samsung/Techwin TBH.
My settings are:
Stream: Clear
Resolution: 2560x1440
Frame Rate: 30
Maximum Bitrate 6144
H264 Profile: High
Anti-Flicker: Off
Exposure: Anti-Smearing
Shutter: 0-32
White Balance: Auto
DayNight: Auto
Backlight: Off
3DNR - Disabled
As for the false-positive motion detections with rain and built-in IR, this can unfortunately be a difficult problem. The normal solution is to increase the "trigger time" setting in SecuritySpy (try 2.5 or 3 seconds) as this should really help with this problem.
However if you are really unhappy with the video quality, then you may want to send this camera back anyway. In that case, try a Zavio or Dahua bullet camera.
As it is I've bought a refurb Samsung, but this time an SNO-6011R, which is a little bigger and has variable focus and defog (so more prosumer I suppose).
Chubsta - I'll apply your settings and see how it looks :-)
Still very noisy! For comparison, here's the Sammy camera without illuminator:
https://d.pr/free/i/bfhLnD
Of course, it's possible my Reolink is faulty in terms of noise performance....
Also, to make sure you are comparing like with like, check that the exposure setting is the same for both cameras. If the Samsung is configured with a longer exposure time, its image will be less noisy, but at the expense of greater motion blur. The exposure time should not be set faster than around 1/30 (a 30th of a second), otherwise moving objects (cars/people etc.) will have too much blur.
"Thank you for contacting us.
The models that support turning off LEDs:
RLC-423, RLC-423S, RLC-423WS,
C1, C2, C1 Pro,
Keen, Argus, Argus 2.
For other models (e.g. RLC-410), they don't support this feature due to hardware limitations. We are truly sorry if this caused inconvenience to you."
To confirm @ben I've been using the high H.264 profile and bit rates of 6144-8192kbps. I've also experimented with 1440P and 1080P settings. I haven't found a direct and obvious setting for exposure, but we're looking at ~12fps with the IR illumination.
In terms of setup I have had to use a PoE injector (annoying because the netgear PoE switch I was using is the other protocol), but apart from that it's Gb ethernet to a high performance NAS with surveillance drives.
@chubsta, do you have an IR source or another cam in that nesting box? Seems very bright in there! Your vids are remarkably crisp compared to mine!
I've sent a youtube sample of the video to Reolink, stating that mine looks much worse than any other samples I can find online (even though using an illuminator should make it much better in terms of signal-to-noise). I'll see what they say - backup plan is to use the Amazon return process to send it back faulty. Ho hum.
https://d.pr/free/i/0kX8At
https://d.pr/free/i/rotHiV
https://d.pr/free/i/Vlq4QN
https://d.pr/free/i/JoxF21
Screengrab from a 1080p monitor (with hedgehog!) http://s1371.photobucket.com/user/karljeffery1/media/Screen Shot 2018-03-16 at 19.22.05_zpsdhhuig1c.png.html
Screengrab showing an image full screen on my iMac:
http://s1371.photobucket.com/user/karljeffery1/media/Screen Shot 2018-03-16 at 19.23.39_zpsoghlbn5s.png.html
The actual recorded footage is even better as is at a higher resolution that my iMac can show but looks great on a 4k tv.
Mine are really crystal-clear with only the tiniest artifacting so not sure what is happening with yours...