IP8M-2796E Won't leave the IR illuminator off.

Have some questions or having issues with your IP Camera(s), Post them here for the mods and other users to assist you with.
Post Reply
stormyjknight
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2023 9:34 pm

IP8M-2796E Won't leave the IR illuminator off.

Post by stormyjknight »

I have an outdoor concealed camera that is designed to get useful face shots of future perpetrators.

My last camera caught all the action during my last theft, but the police wouldn't put out an APB for "That Guy from Minecraft"

This area is also covered by wide angle cameras and not in an area where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.
The neighbors are aware of it's existence, and were happy about it.

The problem is that the IR illuminator turns on inside the hide-box, and the picture degrades to an out of focus wash of white.

I can change turn it off, but it re-engages for reasons unknown. Often after logging out, or If I disconnect for too long, or if the power flicks.

Sometimes it stays off for a good long time, and then it decides that it needs to turn on again. (I can see it light up while monitoring the wide angle IT cams)

I can set the camera to "color mode" which gives me a bad picture at night, but possibly useful.

While the camera is in IR mode, and it's illuminator is off, the picture is great. I have IR floodlights that bring out the detail and get great face shots in the dark.

I've updated the firmware, reset it to factory defaults, and still the problem remains.

The web-admin page will faithfully show the current state of the system, so if the IR turns on, the web page will no longer show the camera as "MANUAL" or OFF but it reverts to AUTO

It's been a bunch of work to get the camera in a position to get a great face shot and this IR problem is a real frustration.
User avatar
Revo2Maxx
Site Admin
Posts: 5820
Joined: Sat Jun 15, 2019 3:05 pm

Re: IP8M-2796E Won't leave the IR illuminator off.

Post by Revo2Maxx »

Don't know really but never heard of a camera that reverts back it self. If you have it connected to cloud storage I would remove from that first off. Then when making the changes I would set all light options to off. This means in Day, Night and general. This way if it happens ti change modes because of 3rd party hardware or software that might change as some can even when not expecting such change they all will be off.
Last way if camera out of Warranty time take front off and disconnect ir power wire from connector on pcb and no more ir unexpected I had to do that for older cvi camera because at time that camera didn't offer on screen display to turn off IR
Here to help the best I can.
Be Safe
stormyjknight
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2023 9:34 pm

Re: IP8M-2796E Won't leave the IR illuminator off.

Post by stormyjknight »

I really try to keep it simple, no cloud storage, no 3rd party apps.
I tried all three profiles to off, and all thee options reverted to auto after a test logout.

The camera is brand new.
I'd be happy to do camera surgery regardless of the warranty state.
Unfortunately, removing the camera from the hide was made intentionally difficult to prevent the camera itself from being stolen.

I expect that this is a bug in the firmware that doesn't come up much, rather than an actual problem with the specific device. So I'd prefer to find out if that is the case, or find some incantation that allows me to turn off the IR light via the API, and I can set a raspberry pi on the task of constantly turning the light off every time it sees that the picture has gone "bad"

Though where is the light physically? I'm wondering if I can slip a chunk of electrical tape into the hide and cover the IR illuminator.
User avatar
Revo2Maxx
Site Admin
Posts: 5820
Joined: Sat Jun 15, 2019 3:05 pm

Re: IP8M-2796E Won't leave the IR illuminator off.

Post by Revo2Maxx »

I am not sure of the camera you own. I mean if it is the one in your Header of the thread then the IR and White LED are both on the bottom of the camera and can be seen or at least that is what the picture of it looking like. The LED looks like it is setup same as my IP8M-TD2685EW-AI turret camera I just bought this month.

So maybe the issue isn't with the IR? I don't know as I said I am not there I can't see the issue happen, So I have to guess. I know that my camera came setup with Motion alarm to sound siren and flash the light. Maybe if the camera I looked up is right and the camera you posted is right and has the IR and White LED it might be that the LED is coming on by the EVENT? If that is the case then truing off the led on the motion or if you setup IVS. Should cure the light issue.

I think there was some post some time ago about a camera doing this. It might have been your model I will have to look back at older post to see if I can find it. It might be a Flaw in the Firmware.
Here to help the best I can.
Be Safe
stormyjknight
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2023 9:34 pm

Re: IP8M-2796E Won't leave the IR illuminator off.

Post by stormyjknight »

Yup, I started my thread with the Model I was concerned about.

I can't see the camera in the Hide, but this is the amazon picture.
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51B ... L1500_.jpg

I can't see the illuminator , but it might be somewhere in the black glass, or worse in the lens area.

This isn't an AI camera, so the IVS doesn't exist. I don't think it has a visible light on it either.

While there is a motion sensor, I don't have it active.

I did some playing with the API, and was able to turn off the IR light.

But the API behaves Weirdly
If I am viewing the camera anonymously I can turn off the IR, and it stays off, I can query the IR, and it works great.
I hit the logout button
Then If I query, It will reset the light to auto, If I try to set it to Off, it will toggle the IR on and off (I can log in from 2 places, then log out from 1 and it has this behavior, I'll confirm tonight with the wide angle IR Cam that can see the light activation).
User avatar
Revo2Maxx
Site Admin
Posts: 5820
Joined: Sat Jun 15, 2019 3:05 pm

Re: IP8M-2796E Won't leave the IR illuminator off.

Post by Revo2Maxx »

Ok sorry I am a little confused. The camera I find when looked up is showing a new style AI with 1 white and 1 ir led? So in your camera it will be hard to cover the leds because it is infact behind the black area. My guess is that it will be located at the bottom seeing it isn't a zoom camera that might have 4 where yours will have 2 that are center point of the bottom below the lens.

Sorry when I looked up your camera it comes up with
https://amcrest.com/4k-poe-camera-bulle ... ew-ai.html

My guess is that the IR would look like this. This is from my Amcrest IP8M-2496EW-V2 that is behind the tapped on plastic front.
20230610_155329.jpg
20230610_155329.jpg (914.87 KiB) Viewed 1177 times
Here to help the best I can.
Be Safe
stormyjknight
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2023 9:34 pm

Re: IP8M-2796E Won't leave the IR illuminator off.

Post by stormyjknight »

I managed to get it working the hard way.

I set up a raspberry pi to call my script

Code: Select all

/opt/toggle3_ircam.sh
:

Code: Select all

/usr/bin/wget -a /tmp/sjk_wget3  'http://admin:[email protected]/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&Lighting[0][3].Mode=Off'

via a perl script that senses if the picture has gone blurry:

Code: Select all

import cv2
import numpy as np
import subprocess

# Specify the RTSP feed URL with credentials
rtsp_url = 'rtsp://admin:[email protected]:554'

# Set a threshold value for variance of Laplacian
# (you might have to tweak this value based on your specific case)
threshold = 157.0

# Shell script to be executed when the image is blurry
shell_script = '/opt/toggle3_ircam.sh'

# Access the RTSP feed
cap = cv2.VideoCapture(rtsp_url)

# Read only one frame from the stream
ret, frame = cap.read()

# If frame is retrieved successfully, process it
if ret:
    # Convert the frame to grayscale
    gray = cv2.cvtColor(frame, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)

    # Compute the Laplacian of the grayscale image
    laplacian = cv2.Laplacian(gray, cv2.CV_64F)

    # Compute the variance of the Laplacian
    variance = laplacian.var()  #BIG NUMBER LESS BLURRY

    # Check if the variance is below the threshold value
    if variance < threshold:
        print("The image is blurry ",variance," / ",threshold)

        # Execute the shell script
        try:
            subprocess.run(['sh', shell_script], check=True)
            print(f"Shell script '{shell_script}' executed successfully")
        except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
            print(f"Error executing shell script '{shell_script}': {e}")
    else:
        print("The image is not blurry ",variance," / ",threshold)

# Release the VideoCapture object
cap.release()
It took a few tries to get the variance right, but now my computer calls the python script every minute via cron job and turns off the light if things are blurry.
User avatar
Revo2Maxx
Site Admin
Posts: 5820
Joined: Sat Jun 15, 2019 3:05 pm

Re: IP8M-2796E Won't leave the IR illuminator off.

Post by Revo2Maxx »

Well for my Camera the Lighting[0[ [3] .Mode=Off would be related to the General/Normal profile. So I would make sure that you are using that profile rather then using the Day or Night profiles.

Normally the cameras come setup out of the box with Full time Day set. So I would double check that your CGI has been set for all profiles if you want to make sure that it don't default back to a day and or night time setting.
Screenshot (4507).png
Screenshot (4507).png (125.37 KiB) Viewed 1141 times
Screenshot (4508).png
Screenshot (4508).png (154.14 KiB) Viewed 1141 times
Here to help the best I can.
Be Safe
stormyjknight
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2023 9:34 pm

Re: IP8M-2796E Won't leave the IR illuminator off.

Post by stormyjknight »

I have the system set to cycle through all the options if it doesn't clear up. from [0][3] down to [0][0] but I figured the high number was an easier clue that the lower numbers exist.

But thankfully the General mode doesn't seem as fickle as the IR setting, so the code hasn't had to test lower indices.
Post Reply