Subscriber Discussion

Converting To Axis: Axis Q3517-LVE / Best Known Methods, Synology NAS Issue, Settings Opts?

MD
Mark Davis
•Jun 04, 2018

New to Axis, *not* new to video surveillance.  

Quick version: long time video surveillance install with all Mobotix writing to a Synology RS815+ RAID-6 NAS w/Gbit ethernet, several CISCO managed switches, bonded ports, POE, etc.  Cams today: 2xMX-15, 1xD15d, 2xD14d, 1xT-24 intercom.  All day/night configs.  Things I disliked:

  1. No IR
  2. Low light perf. is mediocre with the best lenses they have, and the rest are obsolete.
  3. MxAnalytics sucks - I went back to motion windows after testing it for quite some time
  4. S/W VMS options are not to my liking.

I started using Mobotix in 2009 and they seemed ahead of their time back then, but now they have slipped…and MxJPEG..ugh.  Proprietary CODECs are not what I want.  Starting to convert to Axis + Milestone.  Building a custom i7-8700 fanless for the client - will leverage QSV for H.264 decode - but that is another topic.

Recently purchased a Q3517-LVE, in part based on the low light performance and 5MP bakeoffs you folks posted (good work). 

Location: outside, climate: Pacific NW.  Usage: Pedestrian gate ~10' to object.  Driveway gate ~20'.  LPR - ~25-100'.  May attempt to get Milestone ALPR working, but I am worried it will force me into a very expensive version of the S/W.

Initial impressions: The low light image quality is pretty impressive.  IR is almost unnecessary until pitch dark…would be super interesting to see this level of quality low light, WDR, "zipstream" or give me H.265 please, and resolution in a 4k sensor or even a multi-imager like the P3717-PLE.

Running 8.20.1 firmware - latest.

Now, the reason I posted.  Questions:

  1. I’m having trouble writing video to the synology NAS - no I am not running the synology VMS.  I can make all of the following events work: SD card video write, email images, MMS notify, FTP also writes mkv image files to the NAS, but I cannot have it write video to the NAS as a network share (syslog shows error 4 - what is that?).  While the NAS got a successful test in the VMD4 recipient setup for video writes, it doesn’t work…and when I try to setup the NAS as part of network storage in ‘storage’, it gives me errors like: “couldn’t connect to network storage.  check host address, share, username, and password and try again. Documentation sucks - I can’t even find formatting recommendations for the shares and paths.  I sense it uses CIFS, rather than NFS.  Looking in the system log, I see stuff like this:

2018-06-03T20:33:29.287-07:00 axis-front [ NOTICE  ] disks[864]: Disk NetworkShareN1 starting mount w/ id 51

2018-06-03T20:33:29.328-07:00 axis-front [ WARNING ] disks[864]: mount_disks.c : Disk 'NetworkShareN1' NOT mounted (due to error) (4)

2018-06-03T20:33:29.331-07:00 axis-front [ ERR     ] kernel: [ 9844.073517] CIFS VFS: Send error in SessSetup = -13

2018-06-03T20:33:29.331-07:00 axis-front [ ERR     ] kernel: [ 9844.073945] CIFS VFS: cifs_mount failed w/return code = -13

2018-06-03T20:33:29.331-07:00 axis-front [ NOTICE  ] kernel: [ 9844.073295] Status code returned 0xc000006d NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE

I tried editing the port in the plain config (since the port shown was not consistent with CIFS UDP or TCP) and then got:

2018-06-03T21:53:52.262-07:00 axis-front [ WARNING ] disks[861]: Last message 'check_disks.c : Netw' repeated 1 times, suppressed by syslog-ng on axis-front
2018-06-03T21:53:52.265-07:00 axis-front [ WARNING ] disks[864]: check_disks.c : NetworkShareN0 stat error Input/output error

I'm sure the username/passwords are correct. 

 

2. Anyone have detailed info on what is different between VMD3, VMD4.2.1, and Motion Guard 2.1.0?  If I am using VMD4, is there any reason to continue to enable the others - other than potentially reducing frame rates? :)


Do folks have BKMs on image settings?  I spent years tweaking parameters in my Mobotix cams…I’m using mostly defaults right now on the Q3517.LVE.

    1. in stream settings: pframes = 61?  (I run 30fps 5MP most of the time)
    2. Max shutter = 1/30 - in order to get license plates?
    3. Max gain = 48db — too high?
    4. Sat/Contrast/Brightness/Sharpness = 0
    5. WDR = on, local contrast = 49
    6. Light env = auto
    7. IR cut = auto
    8. threshold = dark
    9. All IR = on
    10. synchronize IR = on
    11. Exposure mode = auto, zone = auto,
    12. Blue noise = middle, aperture lock = off
    13. target aperture = middle, exposure = middle
    14. defog = off
    15. barrel distortion = off (realize it reduced frame rates from 30 to ~10-12.
    16. EIS = off
    17. Straighten image = off
    18. Capture mode = 5.3MP Forensic WDR
    19. Stream = 3072x1728, FR = 0 (max), compression = low,
    20. zip stream = low, Dynamic FPS = off, Dynamic GOP = off
    21. VBR, H.264 High
    22. if I enable dynamic GOP and FPS, I’m sure Milestone will deal with it…but will it compromise playback/export of video?  I’m seeing some pretty high bitrates at night - I added an overlay to show them and they are 2000-4000kb/s, wowza.
  • Any other best-known-methods I should be aware of?  I see a lot of additional settings in the plain config section that I have no problem tweaking…The number of settings I am able to tweak in Axis is 100X less than what I did in Mobotix - seems really dumbed down to me...but the image sensor is outstanding.

Thanks, -mark

MD
Mark Davis
•Jun 04, 2018

Some config BKMs that I've learned so far:

BKM #1: Don't use barrel distortion fix unless you want 10-12fps vs. 30.

BKM #2: WDR sucks at night...removing it greatly improved the image.  (I should note some params: the outside environment is partially lit with pillar lights on top of 3 pillars surrounding a motorized driveway gate and pedestrian gate.)

...folks, please feel free to continue the list.

MD
Mark Davis
•Jun 05, 2018

BKM #3: use #D to position overlay text (thanks Joey!).

Also, some info was found here on VMD4 vs. VMD3: Axis VMD4 Analytics Tested

Thanks, -mark

MD
Mark Davis
•Jun 06, 2018

A few more details on the NAS problem - making progress, but it still doesn't write to NAS for 'recording'...it can FTP .mkv's or write to SD for recording, but not NAS for recording.

1. I confirmed that the VMD4 triggered event recipient test to 'Networkshare' works - it writes a file and dir to the NAS and then deletes it.

2. I know the disk is mounting now.

2018-06-05T16:25:37.007-07:00 axis-front [ NOTICE  ] disks[861]: Disk NetworkShare starting unmount w/ id 14
2018-06-05T16:25:37.089-07:00 axis-front [ INFO    ] parhand[669]: Updated configuration file /etc/dynamic/networkshare.conf.
2018-06-05T16:25:41.538-07:00 axis-front [ NOTICE  ] disks[861]: Disk NetworkShareN0 starting mount w/ id 15
2018-06-05T16:25:41.713-07:00 axis-front [ NOTICE  ] disks[861]: Disk 'NetworkShareN0' mounted  on '/var/spool/storage/NetworkShareN0'
2018-06-05T16:25:41.715-07:00 axis-front [ WARNING ] disks[861]: disk.c : Disk disruption detection status changed for NetworkShareN0. Status = 'no disruption'
2018-06-05T16:25:41.720-07:00 axis-front [ NOTICE  ] disks[861]: Disk available status changed for NetworkShareN0. Status = 'Available'
2018-06-05T16:25:48.492-07:00 axis-front [ NOTICE  ] disks[861]: Disk NetworkShare starting unmount w/ id 16
2018-06-05T16:25:48.590-07:00 axis-front [ NOTICE  ] disks[861]: Disk NetworkShareN0 starting mount w/ id 18
2018-06-05T16:25:48.590-07:00 axis-front [ NOTICE  ] disks[861]: Disk NetworkShareN0 starting unmount w/ id 17
2018-06-05T16:25:48.590-07:00 axis-front [ WARNING ] disks[861]: disk.c : Disk disruption detection status changed for NetworkShareN0. Status = 'disruption'
2018-06-05T16:25:48.592-07:00 axis-front [ NOTICE  ] disks[861]: Disk available status changed for NetworkShareN0. Status = 'Exiting'
2018-06-05T16:25:48.596-07:00 axis-front [ NOTICE  ] disks[861]: Disk available status changed for NetworkShareN0. Status = 'Unavailable'
2018-06-05T16:25:48.872-07:00 axis-front [ NOTICE  ] disks[861]: Disk 'NetworkShareN0' mounted  on '/var/spool/storage/NetworkShareN0'
2018-06-05T16:25:48.875-07:00 axis-front [ WARNING ] disks[861]: disk.c : Disk disruption detection status changed for NetworkShareN0. Status = 'no disruption'
2018-06-05T16:25:48.877-07:00 axis-front [ NOTICE  ] disks[861]: Disk available status changed for NetworkShareN0. Status = 'Available'
2018-06-05T16:26:51.380-07:00 axis-front [ NOTICE  ] disks[861]: Disk NetworkShareNTest1 starting mount w/ id 19
2018-06-05T16:29:36.539-07:00 axis-front [ NOTICE  ] disks[861]: Disk NetworkShareN1 starting mount w/ id 20
2018-06-05T16:29:36.589-07:00 axis-front [ NOTICE  ] disks[861]: Disk 'NetworkShareN1' mounted  on '/var/spool/storage/NetworkShareN1'
2018-06-05T16:29:36.591-07:00 axis-front [ NOTICE  ] disks[861]: Disk available status changed for NetworkShareN1. Status = 'Available'

3. But I cannot add the NAS as part of the storage config - it tells me 'couldn't connect to network storage'.  I have confirmed the username/password credentials work by mounting the disks via CIFS from another location.

2018-06-05T16:29:56.075-07:00 axis-front [ NOTICE  ] actionengined-user[1377]: Aborting "Record Video" action
2018-06-05T16:29:56.075-07:00 axis-front [ WARNING ] actionengined-user[1377]: An error occurred in "Record Video" action: Storage is not writeable

then I literally see 1000 of these errors when I trigger a VMD4 motion event by using the test capability:
2018-06-05T17:03:18.517-07:00 axis-front [ WARNING ] disks[861]: check_disks.c : NetworkShareN0 stat error Input/output error
2018-06-05T17:03:20.515-07:00 axis-front [ WARNING ] disks[860]: Last message 'check_disks.c : Netw' repeated 1 times, suppressed by syslog-ng on axis-front
MD
Mark Davis
•Jun 06, 2018

Happy to report that the NAS writes started working after doing a factory reset - no idea what was causing all the issues.  Back to the list of BKMs for modern Axis cameras with WDR, Lightfinder, IR, ...

BKM #4: 1/60th may be best for lic plates, but 1/30th is better for non-WDR, night viewing w/o IR and some minimal light sources.  The low light perf. of this thing continues to amaze.

QUIRK #1 (likely a firmware bug): the camera comes out of restart blurry - I enabled the zoom post-install mode.  I'm not sure why this is, but it means that a reboot could render the camera useless.  The fix is to create a focus window that basically includes the entire image.

-mark

MD
Mark Davis
•Jun 06, 2018

FYI: I did get feedback from Axis tech support.

"In some circumstances, during the network share configuration, you could inadvertently"create two network share configurations with one of them becoming hidden and unable to be removed from the camera. Performing a restore or a factory default would resolve this issue."  Putting that issue to rest...

The focus problem is concerning - it clearly seems to be a firmware issue, but they have already volunteered to RMA the cam - I will get a 2nd 3517 today and will test that one to see if it behaves any differently.

-mark

MD
Mark Davis
•Jun 09, 2018

2nd Q3517 confirms the focus issue on restart.  Keep in mind I am using the zoom mode = "optical zoom for monitoring" during setup.  I am doing this because I plan to enable the "gatekeeper" functionality.

Expecting a firmware update post 8.20.1 to fix this.

The way to fix it is to setup a zoom window that equals the entire view area...but that resets on restart.

BKM #5: When configuring recording events, it makes sense to add a condition that checks the camera to see if it is already recording, so it doesn't do multiple VMD4 records baed on events in multiple motion windows in roughly the same time window.

BKM #6: Dynamic GOP and FPS really makes a huge difference in bitrate - and so far I don't see any disadvantages here.  Perhaps if you were to use a playback device that couldn't recognize the patterns?

-mark

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