Netcat camera experiences? (ptz)
Found a reasonably inexpensive PTZ outdoor camera from a company called "netcat" on Amazon. 20x optical zoom, ptz, IR, 1080, and .005 LUX sensitivity. Current price $335 US (I'll find this post in a few years and laugh that I thought that was "cheap"!) and thinking of getting one or two for current uncovered areas. However, as with all Chinese cameras, I have no idea if it will work natively with SS including the pan/tilt and audio functions. Anyone have experience with these?
JT
JT
Comments
It would be much better to go for an ONVIF-compatible camera - this way it is highly likely to work with SecuritySpy right out of the box.
It does seem to be ONVIF compatible. However, not _entirely_ ONVIF compatible, or there are offsets and motion elements that don't quite make sense. For instance, when I pan (or tilt, or focus) the action keeps going until it reaches a stop, or in the case of pan, it just keeps spinning the camera around. In order to stop it, I need to hit the opposite button (left/right) and that stops the panning. For tilt and focus, it just keeps going in whatever direction button was hit last UNLESS I hit left/right which then spins in that direction and then I have to hit the opposite pan button to get it all to stop (whew!)
However, when I use the included CMS software (an .exe file for Windows) and use their controls, it behaves quite nicely - each click of the left/right onscreen button does the right thing, focus works, PTZ works, the lot. I fired up a packet sniffer and watched what the CMS software sends and it seems to look like parse-able commands (here's a "pan right one increment" button press):
0000 ff 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 78 05 ..............x.
0010 48 01 00 00 7b 20 22 4e 61 6d 65 22 20 3a 20 22 H...{ "Name" : "
0020 4f 50 50 54 5a 43 6f 6e 74 72 6f 6c 22 2c 20 22 OPPTZControl", "
0030 4f 50 50 54 5a 43 6f 6e 74 72 6f 6c 22 20 3a 20 OPPTZControl" :
0040 7b 20 22 43 6f 6d 6d 61 6e 64 22 20 3a 20 22 44 { "Command" : "D
0050 69 72 65 63 74 69 6f 6e 52 69 67 68 74 22 2c 20 irectionRight",
0060 22 50 61 72 61 6d 65 74 65 72 22 20 3a 20 7b 20 "Parameter" : {
0070 22 41 55 58 22 20 3a 20 7b 20 22 4e 75 6d 62 65 "AUX" : { "Numbe
0080 72 22 20 3a 20 30 2c 20 22 53 74 61 74 75 73 22 r" : 0, "Status"
0090 20 3a 20 22 4f 6e 22 20 7d 2c 20 22 43 68 61 6e : "On" }, "Chan
00a0 6e 65 6c 22 20 3a 20 30 2c 20 22 4d 65 6e 75 4f nel" : 0, "MenuO
00b0 70 74 73 22 20 3a 20 22 45 6e 74 65 72 22 2c 20 pts" : "Enter",
00c0 22 50 4f 49 4e 54 22 20 3a 20 7b 20 22 62 6f 74 "POINT" : { "bot
00d0 74 6f 6d 22 20 3a 20 30 2c 20 22 6c 65 66 74 22 tom" : 0, "left"
00e0 20 3a 20 30 2c 20 22 72 69 67 68 74 22 20 3a 20 : 0, "right" :
00f0 30 2c 20 22 74 6f 70 22 20 3a 20 30 20 7d 2c 20 0, "top" : 0 },
0100 22 50 61 74 74 65 72 6e 22 20 3a 20 22 53 65 74 "Pattern" : "Set
0110 42 65 67 69 6e 22 2c 20 22 50 72 65 73 65 74 22 Begin", "Preset"
0120 20 3a 20 36 35 35 33 35 2c 20 22 53 74 65 70 22 : 65535, "Step"
0130 20 3a 20 35 2c 20 22 54 6f 75 72 22 20 3a 20 30 : 5, "Tour" : 0
0140 20 7d 20 7d 2c 20 22 53 65 73 73 69 6f 6e 49 44 } }, "SessionID
0150 22 20 3a 20 22 30 78 34 22 20 7d 0a " : "0x4" }.
I can easily take a sample of each type of movement command that the CMS sends and get it to you, Ben. Or I could do the usual thing and let you log in remotely on the SS mac, but that doesn't get you access to the packet traces from the CMS which is running on a different system entirely, but I could probably get you access to that, too. Or just map the whole camera to a public IP address and let you have at it.
Two cameras having this same symptom in a row is a bit strange. This is on 3.4.8b2.
Meanwhile I've made a few tweaks to SecuritySpy's ONVIF PTZ commands and I've sent you an email to a beta version you can test to see if there is any improvement.
However, the Netcat camera still doesn't work with the ONVIF setting. Any motion direction or zoom causes a continuous movement until the end of the range, unless a left/right key is hit to stop the motion of the opposite direction - same as before.
But now using the camera outside in a temporary setup - very impressive video quality even if the software is a bit sketchy. 20x optical zoom with a "spotlight" IR illuminator that comes on after a certain zoom level, which is like a floodlight. I can count the teeth on the deer sitting on my lawn (pitch black) at around 110' (33m) away.
As usual, I can put this on a public port if you (Ben) want to play with it.
Using this, you can see exactly what commands SecuritySpy is sending to the camera when you use the PTZ controls in SecuritySpy.
When the camera doesn't stop when it should, check what has been sent by SecuritySpy. If you see that SecuritySpy has in fact sent a "stop" command when you lift your finger off the button, then it's the camera's fault and there won't be much we can do about it. If you don't see a "stop" command being issued, then it may be SecuritySpy's fault and we'll have to investigate further.
https://www.amazon.com/NETCAT-Outdoor-Optical-1080P-Camera/dp/B011R609QU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1471612593&sr=8-2&keywords=netcat+20x#customerReviews