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Toaster

Detect motion 24/7, only get emails during closed????

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I've had a couple ask for it, get tired of it after a couple weeks of getting uninteresting still shots, and have me turn it off.

 

Yeah, designing a system that sends critically important information and filters the rest is the tough part.

 

Best,

Christopher

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Problem there is, a basic motion-detection system HAS no way of knowing what's "critically important" and what isn't. Is it a burglar... or a leaf fluttering past the camera? A vandal... or a bird? Headlights coming into the driveway... or just passing by? Until you get into video analytics, your average setup like this would generate probably 10,000 "false" alerts for every one "real" incident. No amount of mail filtering will get around that.

 

Analytics helps, but only to a degree.

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Problem there is, a basic motion-detection system HAS no way of knowing what's "critically important" and what isn't.

 

Agreed. That's why I don't use basic motion detection. I do have some $700 Redwalls that are dialed in, but you're right, you have to design a system that will generate very few false positives.

 

Best,

Christopher

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Toaster wrote:

We had a storm last night and I had a couple of hundred emails this morning because of heavy rain from the outside cameras.

 

You probably already know this, but having scheduled email wouldn't have helped at all in this situation...

 

Oh yeah - I understand that. I was making the point about having the dvr continuously send out emails ALL DAY LONG - what a waste of bandwidth and probably will slow down our DSL connection...?

 

I think this thread has drifted slightly off my original topic...

 

Essentially what I want is the DVR to record ALL DAY LONG. I want to be able to SEARCH any/all of the cameras for motion events (like to see when a customer walked in for example), and only receive the motion email alert with a snapshot while the store is closed.... like say 8pm to 10am the next morning, but from 10am to 8pm which are business hours, no email is sent, but the motion detection is still activated.

 

What I'm trying to express is its not really the email sending part, as much as it is the ability to always search motion events.

 

Here's a scenario that might clear it up.

 

In the store we've got a counter, cash register and a tip jar... So I notice the tip jar is missing. It was there earlier today. Now, I want to go thru the video... Instead of searching ALL DAY LONG or manually skipping thru the recorded segments- I'd like to search the inside motion events, like the camera that faces the front door. Then bring up the camera that see's the cash register and tip jar. If I could search the motion events, I'd be able to see who took the tip jar very quickly... If I have to FFW thru the entire day's videos - I'm gonna be there a while.

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Just my rant: Having used a video surveillance system now, I would think this request or feature is common place, and I'm shocked its not part of the stock, out of the box - firmwares or options from MOST manufactures... cheap or otherwise... It just makes sense that people would want to be able to search motion based events - any time of the day 24/7, but only get notified of those motion events during certain hours......? I guess they have to make the more expensive ones worth it some how...

 

FWIW, I've installed and/or serviced literally hundreds of DVRs for almost as many clients, and not once have I come across the need to have it send email on a schedule. I'm pretty sure Vigil will do it, but I've never actually looked, because I've never needed to.

 

In the grand scheme, I honestly think your requirement is pretty rare.

 

Let me start with I'm a consumer... I'm the end results - the customer... I do not install these, I do not profit in this in any way.... I'm the "client" so to speak.

 

I'm SHOCKED to hear that business owners or home owners for that matter don't want email alerts about motion in stores or homes. I personally think that's one of the BEST features of this, I know when someone pulls up before we open or after we close. I RARELY get false motion alerts inside the store... I'll admit that some outside motion alerts are birds, bright lights or shadows moving, even some bugs crawling on the cameras... stuff like that. Even had spiderweb fluttering in the wind. But that's ok - I get the alert on my phone, I glance at it, if its nothing - I'm happy!

 

To read that most clients disable that is just dumb on their part... If you care enough to get the camera's, care enough to LOOK AT THE DAMN EMAIL. That's my opinion.

 

Now I will say that setting up superior motion detection, or anti-false alarm triggers and such would be excellent... But that's not really what I'm trying to accomplish. The only time I get false alarms (or lots of them I should say) is when it rains.

 

What I want is like I said above, SEARCHABLE MOTION DETECTED EVENTS 24/7 AND EMAIL ALERTS ONLY WHEN CLOSED. with more emphasis on the searchable motion detected events 24/7

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Searching recorded events is easily done with many DVRs... again, your biggest issue is timing it to only send alerts during off hours.

 

And again, my suggestion is to look into hooking it into the alarm system. This SHOULD be fairly straightforward: your DSC alarm should have a set of terminals labelled

"PGM", for program output. This can typically be configured to toggle states when the alarm goes off, or when it's activated, or when some other trigger occurs (opening a certain zone, movement detected on a motion sensor, etc.)

 

So that output would then be wired to an alarm input on the DVR, probably set to toggle when the alarm actually goes off, and the DVR set up so that it sends emails only when that input is tripped. This way, the email notifications would be completely independent of the DVR's motion settings or record mode, and would only be active when the store is closed and the alarm has been set. The notifications would be enabled when the last person out arms the system, and disabled when the first person comes in and disarms it, regardless of what time that is.

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I'm SHOCKED to hear that business owners or home owners for that matter don't want email alerts about motion in stores or homes.

I can't speak for homes, since we do commercial/industrial almost exclusively. Easily half of our systems aren't even connected to the internet.

 

To read that most clients disable that is just dumb on their part... If you care enough to get the camera's, care enough to LOOK AT THE DAMN EMAIL. That's my opinion.

Like I say, the ratio of emails to actual events is very VERY high in most cases. Most people, if they want to watch the comings and goings in their business, will use a remote client; email alerts isn't effective for this purpose. If they DON'T want to watch regular activity, then they certainly don't want dozens of emails showing it to them. If something happens, they'll look it up the next morning... they have alarms that generate their alerts, and monitoring stations that call them if anything happens.

 

What I want is like I said above, SEARCHABLE MOTION DETECTED EVENTS 24/7 AND EMAIL ALERTS ONLY WHEN CLOSED. with more emphasis on the searchable motion detected events 24/7

Well, a Vigil would give you the search functionality you want (grab the manual from http://www.3xlogic.com and look up the "Smart Search" feature - it works really well). Just checked, and it WILL let you define separate motion zones and schedules for sending email alerts (so, for example, you could have it send an alert anytime anyone touches the tip jar anytime of day... as well as pop up a window, create audible alerts, and push alerts out to the remote client). Scheduling also works for standard recording modes - set it to record constantly during the day, on motion at night... or motion during the day, and only if there's an alarm state at night... or whatever.

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@ Toaster

 

Re: Request for autologin to:

CMS v1.7 pc monitoring software

http://q-see.com/files/software/CMS%201.7.rar

 

Place the following 4 files into the controlcenter path:

$settings.ini, $login.exe, $userrun.vbs, $autologin.cmd

 

$settings.ini

the default will work for your current settings and software, or change them appropriately

 

$userrun.vbs

use this if you need to run as Admin from a user account; add in your Admin user and pass.

 

$autologin.cmd

default method; for admin accounts

 

Make a shortcut to $userrun.vbs or $autologin.cmd on your desktop and use that instead of the CMS shortcut.

BTW this can be used for some other programs as well including Avermedia Remote Console.

Just change the 2 unique values in the settings file.

 

Download the files here in ZIP format:

http://www.bahamassecurity.com/dl/?q=autologin.zip

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" title="Applause" /> Ask and you shall receive " title="Applause" />

 

I can't wait to try this... THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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=D> Ask and you shall receive " title="Applause" />

 

I can't wait to try this... THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Tested it yet?

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Sorry for the delay in replying back....

 

Yes, it works as advertised! Many thanks.... Now if I can figure out how to add that app as a link in my HTPC - I can single click it from the menu and see the cameras.

 

I've already installed the CMS and your mod on all my laptops and computers across the house and the store - single clicking gives me access to home and store cameras... very nice. THANKS AGAIN.

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