Remote access to a DVR for engineer.

[pewe]

I have a DVR (iDS-7204HUHI-K1 / 4S(B)) and am having problems with it dropping camera connections regularly and at random.
It has done this since I bought it a couple of months ago.

The tech engineer wants to access it remotely to have a look and says this in his e-mail - go on your HIKconnect APP and share it to the installer and use my email. Makes sure you allow permissions for live view and config otherwise it will not allow me access. The share button is next to the hexagon where the black box is when you first open the APP it looks like a triangle with little circles on each point.

He doesn't say which app although I assume he means the HIK-Connect app on my phone - which has been updated to iVMS-4500 V4.7.7 - which has no such 'triangle with little circles on each point.'

I have e-mailed back for further clarification but wonder if anyone here can throw light on this whilst I await his response.

 

[JB1970]

I have a DVR (iDS-7204HUHI-K1 / 4S(B)) and am having problems with it dropping camera connections regularly and at random.
It has done this since I bought it a couple of months ago.

The tech engineer wants to access it remotely to have a look and says this in his e-mail - go on your HIKconnect APP and share it to the installer and use my email. Makes sure you allow permissions for live view and config otherwise it will not allow me access. The share button is next to the hexagon where the black box is when you first open the APP it looks like a triangle with little circles on each point.

He doesn't say which app although I assume he means the HIK-Connect app on my phone - which has been updated to iVMS-4500 V4.7.7 - which has no such 'triangle with little circles on each point.'

I have e-mailed back for further clarification but wonder if anyone here can throw light on this whilst I await his response.

On the Hik Connect app where you see your device, there is a hexagon icon next to the name. That is the settings. To the left of the icon you may or may not have another icon - three dots joined by a line. That is the share icon he is referring to. Whether or not that is present depends on how you connected your Hik Connect app to your DVR. If the DVR is registered with the Hik Connect service, then the Share icon will be there. If it's not there, then your app is connected to your DVR directly by it's IP address or domain name and not using the Hik Connect service. If that's the case you can't 'share' it - you could only give him the IP address and your admin password, but I'd advise against that.

Cameras dropping connection are unlikely to be anything he can diagnose remotely, the logs don't give a great deal of information. It's more likely to be a power/connection issue.

The image of my app below shows the difference - you can see that two sites do not have the Share icon as they are connected directly via IP/Domain, whereas the Home site does as it is registered and connected using the Hik Connect service:

 

[pewe]

Thanks - that clarified the issue.

What made it more confusing is that I was using the Play Store App from Hikvision - IVMS-4500, which is totally different to HIK-Connect. (Why so many apps - confusing).

The main reason why he asked for access is that one of the 4 ports on the DVR does not record anything if set to motion, only if it is set to record constantly.
I say the port is at fault because I have 4 different cameras which all record on motion on the other 3 ports, but as soon as I put them on port 1 they stop.
The record settings for all 4 ports are the same.

I'll need to investigate further on the dropped video as I seem to recall that that was port related too - in other words, the same camera would stay connected or be dropped depending on which port I connected it to.

 

[JB1970]

What made it more confusing is that I was using the Play Store App from Hikvision - IVMS-4500, which is totally different to HIK-Connect. (Why so many apps - confusing).

iVMS-4500 is an older app. As of Feb 14th this year it is no longer supported. Although it will continue to work if you have it, It's been removed from the app stores, so it's a good idea to set up Hik Connect and delete iVMS. What is more confusing is that Hik Connect refers to both the app and a service. However you can use the Hik Connect app without using the service.

The main reason why he asked for access is that one of the 4 ports on the DVR does not record anything if set to motion, only if it is set to record constantly.
I say the port is at fault because I have 4 different cameras which all record on motion on the other 3 ports, but as soon as I put them on port 1 they stop.
The record settings for all 4 ports are the same.

Unlike on an NVR where all settings are on the camera, with your DVR all the settings are on the DVR itself. The record parameters may be the same for all 4 ports but if your recording is to be set on motion, it's the event settings (including the AcuSense filter) and schedule settings you want to able looking at, to see what differs between the ports.

Personally I'd recommend recording on a 24/7 schedule BUT also enabling and configuring motion detection for all channels. That way you get the best of both worlds - you're guaranteed not to miss anything with continuous recording, but the motion detection will mark the video so that you can easily skip through the events, to see only footage within the defined area where a human was present.

I'll need to investigate further on the dropped video as I seem to recall that that was port related too - in other words, the same camera would stay connected or be dropped depending on which port I connected it to.

If the same camera drops out no matter what port it's connected to, check the connections at both ends for that camera. You don't mention which cameras you have connected. There are a number of Hikvision cameras that need to have their own individual power supply as there are issues when they share a common supply (it's not an issue with the power supply rating, just that they interfere with one another when on a common supply). Symptoms are that when the illuminators come on (whether IR or LED on ColorVu) dark banding appears followed by flickering and total video loss - a normal image is restored in daylight.

 

[pewe]

iVMS-4500 is an older app. As of Feb 14th this year it is no longer supported. Although it will continue to work if you have it, It's been removed from the app stores, so it's a good idea to set up Hik Connect and delete iVMS. What is more confusing is that Hik Connect refers to both the app and a service. However you can use the Hik Connect app without using the service.

Thanks - I have installed Hik Connect and found the answer to my query

Unlike on an NVR where all settings are on the camera, with your DVR all the settings are on the DVR itself. The record parameters may be the same for all 4 ports but if your recording is to be set on motion, it's the event settings (including the AcuSense filter) and schedule settings you want to able looking at, to see what differs between the ports.

Personally I'd recommend recording on a 24/7 schedule BUT also enabling and configuring motion detection for all channels. That way you get the best of both worlds - you're guaranteed not to miss anything with continuous recording, but the motion detection will mark the video so that you can easily skip through the events, to see only footage within the defined area where a human was present.

Once again, thanks. I discovered that there was an option for action on Motion detection which was not set. Ihad to set it 3 times before it stayed set - but now the camera works on motion detection.

If the same camera drops out no matter what port it's connected to, check the connections at both ends for that camera. You don't mention which cameras you have connected. There are a number of Hikvision cameras that need to have their own individual power supply as there are issues when they share a common supply (it's not an issue with the power supply rating, just that they interfere with one another when on a common supply). Symptoms are that when the illuminators come on (whether IR or LED on ColorVu) dark banding appears followed by flickering and total video loss - a normal image is restored in daylight.

Your explanation about banding struck a cord and had me have a closer look at the power supplies.
Three of the four cameras were already installed by the previous house owner, and he had powered them from a 'splitter which connected up to four cameras from one 13 amp transformer .
I took one of the original cameras as well as the fourth which is the new one that I installed off the splitter and used individual supplies -which seemed to solve the dropped camera issue for a while, but then I noticed the new camera was still dropping, but far less frequently.
The camera is a THC-B150-M HiLook which is spec'd at 12v 4.3W max. By my reckoning that needs a 12V 400Ma supply, and I am using a 600Ma transformer supply so not sure why it would still drop out.