NTP - how to set-up

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Revo2Maxx
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Re: NTP - how to set-up

Post by Revo2Maxx »

While I have over a dozen Amcrest camera types not counting the 12 841's I own, I only have the 956eb. While I can't say that the color is going to have anything to do with your clock issue. I know that I have never had an issue while using that camera with the clock. It has the last offered FW from Amcrest. I have even removed it from service and returned to service and the clock was less then 5 min off.. I do have that one offline right now and thought I knew where it was however I might have taken it to the back 40 with plans to swap it with a 5mp BNC camera and never got to it or that is the camera with the bad IR board and where it is going is pure dark at night and most of the day. Pouring down rain today I i will find it tomorrow and do some testing. I do know that the battery on that one is easy to get to an finding the replacement for it might not be as easy as replacing it.. It is top mounted so board wouldn't even need to be removed from camera to de-solder and solder on a new one..

You using any 3rd party software like Tiny Cam or Blu Iris? or something other then just the camera. You doing any FTP? How is the time on the Folder and files if you are? Using a Micro Sd card?
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AndyRH
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Re: NTP - how to set-up

Post by AndyRH »

I am using Zoneminder. It does not alter camera settings. No SD cards.
I catch it from time to time looking at events or on the live view with the Amcrest app.
I have never seen it on Tuesday which is the day they all restart.

All of the cameras tick at the same time so I know they are syncing with NTP.
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Revo2Maxx
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Re: NTP - how to set-up

Post by Revo2Maxx »

So it seems that my battery is now dead and when I connected it for the first time again. Even though it was setup P2P and I had the right user and password setup in my phone I was not able to log in to the camera over the AVP and had to make a connection via WebUI. I didn't have NTP or DST turned on. Looked in log and sure enough it went back to 2000.. So I checked my AVP app and sure enough without changing any settings after the update to the right date there is the ability to log in..

Now about your system changing the time to 2000 it wouldn't do this without an issue with connection and or loss of power. It would have to be some time because I reset mine and by the time it shows in the log that I asked for reboot until the time I logged back in (3 min) in total time the system time and date was as right. Now i did setup mine to use DST and NTP. I have it setup as it was for every 10min.

So then the next thing that it might be. If say your camera is offline or Even if there was no Network for your system to check the NTP server then it might be reset as well.

If you bought your camera within the last year from Amcrest or a Auth Amcrest Dealer I would contact them and see if you can get it repaired or replaced. It is far past the EOL for camera. You might have to talk to a person or company that does board level repairs and see if maybe they can track the fault down. I very well could be that the camera is in early stages of total fail and might go offline and not return..

Like lets say there is an issue with a Voltage regulator and after the camera heats up the system goes offline there is no telling how or what it would take for it to fail to the point of running the clock with a Dead Battery...

What I do know is I just unplugged mine to take a Picture of the battery, Having to remove dome and get the right bit for the dome scews all this was done within 8 min, Taking dome off, take picture put dome back on and plug back in.. In the logs it shows that I logged out at 1134pm est. However when I turned it back on at 1142pm there is a System Abort log entry that says Abort, Time 2022-05-12 23:33:00 and my logout when I clicked the WebUI Logout was time stamped for 11:34:54 and in that 8min it lost time.. Next there was a system startup that shows that the camera went offline says Reboot Mark: Power Off however there is no time other then the real time because it had already done the update to system time by then. Not sure why but then there is a System Save Configuration and then 2 min after that it shows I logged in and time set was current time again because I have DST and NTP enabled..

So here is what I know. Turning off DST, NTP makes the time go back an hour. I am going to log out of the system and log back in 10min later and check logs without DST and NTP enabled and see what happens. I did PC Sync the camera so is right time Current time at this point is 12:02 at 12:12am I will log back in and see what it says for time and check logs for ability track time with dead battery.

LOL I forgot to unplug it and at 12:04 did so. I connect back 11 min later and the system says same thing with Abort with Content time showing that it was unplugged at 00:04:01 and shows time powered back on at 12:15:33am Shows I logged in at 12:16:27 and that the set time was current time..

What this tells me is there is a system issue with your camera. This could be either an issue with your Switch (If that is how you power your camera) and or could be an issue as I was saying before with a system Regulator and when it shorts out maybe your Time is pulled down from short to a pull down resistor..

Now I have to go source a battery lol. Maybe one of my 2mp ADT zoom cameras have good batteries that fit. Been years since they came out of closet
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Revo2Maxx
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Re: NTP - how to set-up

Post by Revo2Maxx »

So just a little update on something I may or may not have said. So looking at one of my Dahua 3mp zoom cameras that I took down same time I took down my 956. Only thing is my 956 was on my lan where the Dahua was on my NVR and never gave it access to the Internet. So one of the reasons it would keep time even though it don't have a good battery is because the NVR would update all IPC.. Well I connected to my Network, Because it was static IP to the NVR IP range I logged in and changed the IP to my Local network range. (Didn't give access in my router to Internet). I closed down the camera WebUI, I Reboot the Camera Power Cycle anyway.. Logged back in and there was still no update to the date and time... This time I logged into my Router, I gave access to the camera. I then reboot the camera and the camera came back online with the right date and time this time when I logged in. It seems that I will have to source a few batteries. They have all out lived the life expected. If I can't find any I will just have to find some packed batteries with leads seeing there is enough room for them in these cameras.. I have some 841s that are from 2015 and one from 2018 with dead batteries also. They are not as easy to replace and would need to be flat cell type installed now because of the limited space on in camera body.
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