## CHALLENGE OF THE WEEK ## - Set Up An Axis PTZ To Run Events

Can you explain more about what the problem is with getting the snapshots in the same location?

Do you mean they are just slightly off, or off by a lot or on the wrong preset altogether?

Can we use VAPIX directly?

Yes, here is the exact setup :

Action Rules

Ok, here's my solution. It's only tested as far as one can without an actual Axis PTZ and ftp server. For simplicity and brevity I am just showing one cameras snapshot.

Create a new schedule #1, weekly style, start time Monday at 12:30 AM, end time Saturday 12:31 AM.

Create a daily reccurance item, to run once a day when triggered by action below.

Create another schedule #2, daily style, start time 12:30 AM, end time 12:40 AM

Create an action rule that will trigger on Time, Daily Reccurance on Weekly schedule #1 with action of Move PTZ to preset.

Create another action rule that triggers on PTZ Preset Reached and Daily Schedule, no recurrence. Action take snapshot and ftp snapshot to recipient. No pre, no post, no rule remain active. Send first only.

Can't test the PTZ stuff but the events seem to work. Let me know what happens when you try it.

*** Keep track of the time you spend on this from starting to the point where you truly have it working.

< 1hr so far (excluding this email)

***Bonus points - explain when and why you would use "Recurrence" vs "Schedule" and why one should matter over the other.

I believe that theoretically one could do every thing with Schedule alone, but it would become an absolute chore to have to put in a schedule for every minute of the day, for instance.

Reccurance just simplifies the event triggering based on interval. So it depends on the use case. Recording continuous video is probably best with schedule, snapshots every second might be better served by Reccurance. In this case, I'm using both.

***Double bonus points - Explain how "while rule is active", "pre" and "post" apply to taking a snapshot, and what the "X times per X" setting makes any sense for taking a snapshot, and what you think "Send only X images" means and why it doesn't really work.

'While Rule is active' refers to what happens when you have specified a post time in a image capture action. If it's checked and the same event gets triggered again during the post time, it will extend the post time, if it's not checked it will end normally.

Pre and post time refer to snapshots taken before and after the trigger. Typically you would use the pre time when motion is detected to get a few snaps of what happened right before the motion became big enough to trigger.

X times per X means at what frame rate should the snapshots be captured. In this case we only want one snap so it shouldn't matter.

'Send only X images' allows you to set a max number of snapshots to ftp regardless of pre and post processing and frame rate considerations. In our case we want just one.

*** Triple bonus points - Write an explanation of why you think Axis has decided to make something that should be so, so simple to be so convoluted and confusing to the extreme that even their own technical support can't explain it or even figure it out for that matter.

The reason that these type of features inevitably end up convoluted is simply because they are initially written for a specific purpose, e.g. Motion Detection. Over time people request various extensions to allow them to do more conditional processing. They add these in one by one without much thought.

Before you know it they have some sort of home grown scheduler/event processor built, with its own peculiar, if powerful, syntax. At that point they might consider overhauling the whole deal from scratch, but it turns out that the people who really know it, love it and so rather than alienate the power users they opt to confuse the new users.

*** This is not an actual IPVM feature, but actually a frustrated last-ditch effort to get something working after Axis technical support has failed again and again and again and again. :)

Now you tell me!

**** If you suggest that a firmware update might fix this problem, congratulations, Axis would like to hire you for Tier 3 tech support!

Actually this IS the kind of thing that would get fixed in firmware updates. Something where the camera is working fine and you go to use a feature you have never tried before and it doesn't work in the old firmware. That said, I didn't find any bugs on my non-PTZ Axis 5.62 firmware camera.

Thanks for the huge effort, but this doesn't work at all. I went meticulously through the steps to create the action rules and schedules exactly as you described and even added two more preset locations and times. The PTZ preset does not move at the scheduled time and the event to upload via FTP doesn't run either.

It seems like as soon as you involve Recurrence, events don't work. And according to Axis tech support you absolutely need either the pre, during event active or post, so maybe that explains the failure to upload.

Additional time wasted on ridiculous Axis event system : 45 minutes.

Also, I agree that this whole event system was set up by Axis geared towards Motion Triggered events. I just have to say I find it unbelievably frustrating that even the Axis technical support can't figure out their event system or offer any kind of instructions or assistance. I don't care how complicated something is, there should be documentation that can explain it. So frustrating.

Here is the correct solution - tested and working :

Solution

Good News! I remembered that Axis lets you setup view areas as digital PTZs. So you can do all the preset stuff and events even on a non mechanical PTZ. Yeah!

And I got an FTP server.

And I put the following rules/schedules as I write above*

Then I ran it and it worked! Here's the moment when the event triggered. (I had to set it up for 01:30 instead of 12:30 because it was too late.) you can see the time flip to 1:30, then the PTZ moves and then the file shows up in the directory.

*One question I have to ask, you said

I went meticulously through the steps to create the action rules and schedules exactly as you described...

Yet that's not quite possible, because unbeknownst to me when I wrote the ftp rule (cuz I didn't have an ftp server then), you HAVE to have either a pre or post time, but I said to use neither.

So when you tried my solution what value did you use?

Maybe that was the problem. In any event you need to make it a post of 1 sec, no other changes.

Fwiw, You might want to see if you can get the recurring stuff working, since the elegant way to do it is by using the Preset Reached trigger.

For three cameras it's even more elegant as you can make a guard tour of the three presets and trigger that to run, and it will trigger the FTP action after every position.

And it only takes 2 rules and 2 schedules, with no waiting. You could even get it down to one schedule by making presets that only your guard tour uses, then you don't need the daily schedule.

if your reccurance still doesn't work, maybe you could export your config and I'll try it here..

Thanks for doing all this work! To answer your question, I was also surprised that Axis didn't popup an error saying that you need to select a Pre or Post. I also wish I had taken a video of myself doing all the setup to prove it. Honestly I think the Axis cameras are just full of logic bugs because a lot of this doesn't make any sense. It's working now, but with much, much pain and suffering. Now the real test - after a week or two will it keep working and not take stills when the camera is moving!

I'm glad it's finally working! I had missed that you started using the Preset Reached trigger. I think that's the way to go. I'm surprised no one at Axis had suggested that one.

I know you don't want to mess with it, but if ever you do, try to make a guard tour of the three presets and you can have just one schedule and one rule.

good luck.

Just hold your breath that it doesnt lose power...