Snowing / streaking when on night vision - Swann DVR8-4400

[bmurrell 0]

Hi all

 

I recently purchased and had a Swann DVR8-4400 system professionally installed.

 

All works fine during the day, but when using night vision it looks like it's raining.

Last night for a period of 2 hours, all 4 cameras showed this problem very heavily, then stopped. I thought it was actually snowing. It's not normally that bad. When it first happened after installation I thought it was maybe caused by bugs attracted to the night vision LEDs. The lines/streaks are not always virtually downwards, but also sideways, like it's raining in heavy wind. For the period last night I can only think it was the damp weather causing a fine mist. However, it kind of makes monitoring at night pointless as I would not know if an intruder was present amongst the hours of false alerts.

 

This obviously sets off recording on the DVR and alerts via email.

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

[topchips 0]

Hi

 

What Power supply are you using? how many amps does your PSU push out? sounds like a power problem at night when the IR kicks in it pulls more amps from the power supply, test by only powering one camera at night and see if there is any difference

 

Regards

[srtcsolution 0]

check wire connection and power supply,

and check led ir of cam . all are working. or change the ir of cam

[bmurrell 0]

Hi, the system is all using the out the box kit, DVR, PSU, cables and camera although I've changed 2 of the bullet cameras for domes, but still Swann.

The standard PSU output is 12v 2A and powers all 4 cameras.

I've just added the PSU supplied with the domes (12v 1A) to power just the domes, leaving the other PSU to power just the 2 bullets.

Will update on progress tomorrow.

Thanks

[bmurrell 0]

That had no effect

[tomcctv 187]

Hi all

 

I recently purchased and had a Swann DVR8-4400 system professionally installed.

 

All works fine during the day, but when using night vision it looks like it's raining.

Last night for a period of 2 hours, all 4 cameras showed this problem very heavily, then stopped. I thought it was actually snowing. It's not normally that bad. When it first happened after installation I thought it was maybe caused by bugs attracted to the night vision LEDs. The lines/streaks are not always virtually downwards, but also sideways, like it's raining in heavy wind. For the period last night I can only think it was the damp weather causing a fine mist. However, it kind of makes monitoring at night pointless as I would not know if an intruder was present amongst the hours of false alerts.

 

This obviously sets off recording on the DVR and alerts via email.

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

 

Hi. Yes it's rain ..... You only need light rain or even dust in the air to give the problems you have ....... It has always been a problem with IR built in

[topchips 0]

Hi

 

can you post a snapshot of what you are getting,also is the area dark enough so that it goes black and white?

 

Regards

[bmurrell 0]

The image below was taken on Wed evening when it looked like it was snowing. It wasn't snowing or even raining at all, not even drizzle or a misty rain.

Last night it was raining heavily so I can't use that, although the picture would look very similar to that when I have the problem.

[tomcctv 187]

Hi. It does not have to be just rain ....... Dust. Sand anything like that

 

And also your boiler outlet can give the same results

[Kawboy12R 0]

Looks like a bit of fog lighting up from the built-in IR of the cameras. I doubt that that system can turn off the cameras' internal IR but if it can then do it. Then mount some external IR illuminators a few feet away from each camera. That system has no hookups for external PIR alarms so you can't use those instead of video-based motion detection. Talk to your installer and see what he'll do for you. I don't know what you told him you wanted the system to do but that's a very cheap basic system. If you told him you wanted useful night-time motion detection then he shouldn't have installed that system. If you didn't specify and told him you wanted cheap, well, that's what you got. You could always swap out those cameras with good low light cams that can switch off their own IR and use either ambient light or external illuminators. Or, alternatively, you could get another DVR that supported external alarms and install PIRs outside, but that's more wires and installation costs plus the new DVR and doesn't solve the video quality problem.

 

A budget temporary solution might be to just put some cheap driveway alarms up so if someone comes on the property then the alarm goes off in the house. That might drive you nuts though if you've got deer at night, an early morning paper delivery when you want to sleep in, kids playing in the yard in the day, or whatever.

 

Here's one of my driveway cams at night when it's snowing fairly heavily out. The picture is in colour at 1/60th exposure with a streetlight over the deer and two low power LEDs close to the hood of the car. The deer caused the motion event. I basically only get false motion alarms for wind in the trees and shadows. A cam using built-in IR would've been recording all night and had streaks all through the picture.