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The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => IP Cameras => DCS-5020L => Topic started by: KARNAG3 on July 04, 2013, 10:43:39 AM

Title: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: KARNAG3 on July 04, 2013, 10:43:39 AM
Hello everyone,

I bought 3 days ago the DCS-5020L.
I already had the DCS-5222L and wanted to had another similar device.
The problem is for the same task at the same exact spot in the house, my new device triggers false alarms frequently even at level 1/100 on the motion sensitivity level. I even limited a lot the area that the camera is monitoring for motions. I also put a schedule on the camera to turn on night mode, to make sure the trigger didn't created those frequent false alarms. 

Am I the only one with this problem?
I called D-LINK technical support and they are clueless.
Currently waiting on the technical support level 2 to call me back.  :-\

P.s.: The device itself is AWESOME if it wasnt for this issue. Much MUCH better video quality then the DCS-5222L!
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: TonY111 on July 18, 2013, 11:28:26 AM
I'm in the exact same boat, and considering returning both 5020Ls that I purchased. I've spent hours trying to set them up correctly, and the motion sensitivity (set at 1%) makes it a poor purchase if it will not work properly.
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: TonY111 on July 18, 2013, 12:39:17 PM
If anyone can offer any suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated.

What I've gathered from searching online isn't very helpful. I've tinkered with the sensitivity setting, including setting it to 1%, with no luck. I get constant email alerts every minute or two. I've reduced the motion detection area to just a few squares. Still no luck. I've read that changes in ambient light (ie. sunlight off a wall, correct?), can throw off the sensors ... but I have not read any good suggestions on how to alleviate this problem. (If I can't point the camera at a door to monitor access, then what good is it?)

So I'm at the end of my patience here. I'd like to keep the camera, but if it won't work as advertised, then I see no other option than to return it. Anyone's help would be greatly appreciated!  :)
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: KARNAG3 on July 19, 2013, 11:44:29 AM
TonY111: I'm glad you telling me this because I thought for sure the device was defective.
Now I have hope that it is a firmware issue! I called a few times and finally got to speak with a Level 2 technician (engineer). He said he will ask for a device like ours to be tested and if it is a firmware issue, they will let me know and fix it. I'll let you know when I get a feedback. I suggest you call D-LINK to report this issue and they might take a little bit more seriously our problem. The phone number is 1-800-361-5265.
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: RoughRiver on July 20, 2013, 05:19:26 PM
I have not seen this issue with my camera (just recently purchased). In fact, I have to crank the sensitivity up past 90 to detect movement such as a person walking up the driveway (when viewing through a window from approximately 35 feet away).

Just curious, are you also using sound detection? I do get false alarms that I believe to be sound triggered because the camera produces an internal click/pop sound. In my case, it's roughly every 5 minutes.

FYI, I do not use the email notification - just the FTP file upload.
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: KARNAG3 on July 23, 2013, 08:25:02 AM
I bought a new one yesterday, same model, same revision number, SAME PROBLEM. I'm getting false alarms at level 1 of Motion Sensitivity.  :'(
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: Westridge on July 23, 2013, 11:34:51 AM
Same issue here. I have video emailed upon detection of motion. What I've noticed from the recorded videos is that the picture drops out (turns black) for a very brief period and this is what triggers the motion detection. Went with the sound as an alternative, but the clicks/pops that are generated internally are even worse for false alarms.
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: RoughRiver on July 23, 2013, 03:07:34 PM
I have now seen this same thing. Either the video winks out entirely, or there is a noticeable change in exposure setting, and that seems to trigger the motion detection. I'm seeing this when the camera is viewing the inside (not looking through a window) and motion detection sensitivity is set at 50.

Here is a frame grab of the video glitch that caused a false detection:

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3486945/Snapshot%201%20%287-24-2013%209-01%20AM%29.png)
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: Westridge on July 24, 2013, 09:54:43 AM
After changing the setting to send a single snapshot by email (in addition to a video), I see the frame that sets off the motion detection. It's not a partially darkened frame like you see in the video, but has a garbled look to it with a bunch of horizontal features. Try it and see if you get the same thing. It happens every time, seemingly in a random fashion. The D-link tech that I called told me to take the day/night setting off of auto mode. Did that and saw no improvement.

I have two 942L's, three 932L's, and a 5222L and none of them exhibited this behaviour. I wonder if there's a power surge affecting it.
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: KARNAG3 on July 26, 2013, 08:49:12 AM
I bought a THIRD DCS-5020L and I still get the same kind of false alarms. The network engineers at D-LINK Canada are looking into it. So far they havent found any problems like ours on their test device. I went ahead with giving my ddns address with login and password just so they can experience it first hand. Hope it will help. Have you guys tried calling them and ask them to do test on their side also? If not, it might help if someone else reported this issue.
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: Westridge on July 26, 2013, 12:16:25 PM
I called and they indicated that they'd have to put me in contact with their second level technicians, or something to that effect. I'm waiting for a call back from them to troubleshoot. I've been dealing with D'Link Canada, as I'm in Toronto, although my camera was purchased and is located in Florida.
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: KARNAG3 on July 26, 2013, 01:04:42 PM
I got kinda o***ood news!
They sent me this message: "We can see the problem in our environment and we reported  it to our PM to check. I'll wait for their update for this problem and give you an update."
Hopefully it is a firmware issue and not a hardware issue on all the DCS-5020L camera's.
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: RoughRiver on July 26, 2013, 01:11:23 PM
It's not a partially darkened frame like you see in the video, but has a garbled look to it with a bunch of horizontal features.

I tried this, but did not see the garbled image. What I got was still frames of the darkening and lightening effect that I've seen on the video clips. I had the still images emailed and uploaded to my FTP server - neither was garbled. Now that I think about it, I believe that I've seen this garbled effect when looking at specific video frames. I've only noticed it once, and I think it only lasted for 1 or 2 frames. I no longer have that example, but will start looking for it again in the various false alarms that I frequently get.
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: pish180 on July 29, 2013, 12:09:52 PM
I just bought this camera as well and I am having the same issues!  False alarms.  I have been fiddling around with the settings for the past week, and 1% still comes back with garbage.   Additionally I get garbled images, some images will have random lines and other will be half black.  There is obviously something wrong with the firmware, I'm quite disappointed that I have spend this much money on this and the sensitivity was not properly tested before the product shipped. I would also like to add... When I listen to the camera live, it shudders and skips and I'm 100% sure it's not my internal network or the internet connection. My cam is on a wired connection so you can't blame wireless interference.

DLINK please release a new BIOS that fixes this ASAP!
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: Westridge on July 29, 2013, 12:43:59 PM
I called D-Link today, since they never called back within 24 hours as they had promised. In any case, they can't help because they want me in front of the camera while troubleshooting. Kind of hard to do that when it's 1500 miles away!

I'll just replace it with a 5222L unit the next time I'm in Florida.
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: KARNAG3 on July 29, 2013, 12:54:20 PM
Westridge: Too bad the DCS-5222L video quality sucks and it is more expensive
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: pish180 on July 29, 2013, 12:54:53 PM
You should call them back and tell them to grab one off the shelf and test it.  They will find the same results! PROMISE.  Tech support commonly gives you a task you cannot complete so it's more hassle than it's worth and then they don't have to do their job.  Typical.  >:(
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: pish180 on August 01, 2013, 02:41:31 PM
I think I have good news.... Pretty sure what is causing the problem.  I think it is the frequency setting.  I set mine to 60hz from the Auto setting and I have not had a false alarm yet!   Must be some kind of bug when it is trying to detect the frequency.

Login -> Setup -> Video -> Light Frequency -> (default is Auto). 

I had a hunch this might be the problem since I kept seeing the until flicker and make popping noises during the false alarms. 

Let me know what you all find.  I will post another update but so far... it's been 5 hours and no false alarms on sound or motion!
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: KARNAG3 on August 01, 2013, 08:31:19 PM
So far so good...I'll way 24h to be sure and get back to you guys :) Thanks pish180
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: KARNAG3 on August 02, 2013, 09:39:37 AM
With pish180 settings I get less false alarms but I still get like 1 every 2 hours for now reasons :(
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: pish180 on August 02, 2013, 10:22:48 AM
With pish180 settings I get less false alarms but I still get like 1 every 2 hours for now reasons :(

Hrmm... Maybe you can try 50hz? USA power should all be 60hz but I think some florescent lights might run at a lower frequency because of the power supplies.  I'm not an expert electrician but I'm familiar with frequency. 

I will have to confirm whether mine is working properly later this weekend as I was working where the camera was and it spammed my email address and got it locked out.  Great Denial of Service technique...  Add that to my list of Firmware enhancements... Better scheduling and limits in messages per xxx time.
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: Westridge on August 04, 2013, 05:53:43 AM
I tried the 60Hz setting a while back and it never made a difference. I will check again to make sure.
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: KARNAG3 on August 05, 2013, 06:21:27 AM
Last week-end...I tried 50hz, 60hx and auto and I get little less false alarms but I still get some. :-\
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: pish180 on August 05, 2013, 01:15:17 PM
Yeah, it works for a little bit and then continues. I would say overall a little less false alarms as well but still way to many for me to justify using alerts.
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: Westridge on August 30, 2013, 03:17:30 PM
Replaced the 5020L with the 5222L and all is good. The 5020L is defective (or at least the particular one that I own). My wife is bringing the unit back home today and I will troubleshoot with D-Link from here.
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: RYAT3 on August 31, 2013, 07:01:20 AM
I just bought this camera as well and I am having the same issues!  False alarms.  I have been fiddling around with the settings for the past week, and 1% still comes back with garbage.   Additionally I get garbled images, some images will have random lines and other will be half black.  There is obviously something wrong with the firmware, I'm quite disappointed that I have spend this much money on this and the sensitivity was not properly tested before the product shipped. I would also like to add... When I listen to the camera live, it shudders and skips and I'm 100% sure it's not my internal network or the internet connection. My cam is on a wired connection so you can't blame wireless interference.

DLINK please release a new BIOS that fixes this ASAP!

I would say it is the garbled images that are causing the false motion detections, not the other way around.
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: Westridge on September 04, 2013, 08:06:40 AM
Absolutely, it's the garbled images that are creating the false detection. I observe the same "noisy" images when the camera is used in at its current location in Toronto as when it was in Florida. This can be determined by viewing a single snapshot that is generated following motion detection.
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: davidhoang on September 08, 2013, 05:50:33 PM
Has anyone found a solution or any news about this yet? Just got this camera and got the same problem.
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: fontjc on September 09, 2013, 03:04:31 AM
Hello,
The only solution that works is to adjust the image on natural light (sun symbol) and adjust the sensitivity of 5%...  :-[
Regards
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: davidhoang on September 18, 2013, 05:55:58 PM
Hello,
The only solution that works is to adjust the image on natural light (sun symbol) and adjust the sensitivity of 5%...  :-[
Regards


Mine still having problem after I did this. Any news about the problem?
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: brescia3701 on September 18, 2013, 07:52:59 PM
Okay, read through the forum...  Tried all the noted items:
- set Light Freq to 60Hz
- set sensitivity to 1%
- set day/night to day

Anything else?

I have it set to send me 5 images, two before event and two after event.  I look at all 5 one right after the other and absolutely no difference.  No flickering, no light difference, no dust specs.  No reason to be triggering.

Should I simply return this or are you guys (dlink) actually working on something?
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: stoneface on October 17, 2013, 12:12:33 AM
I just got three of the 933L cameras and I am getting a lot of false alarms, too. I have the cameras set to send video and stills; the stills show no change, but one video image (usually or always frame 8) has most of the image black. The black image triggers the motion detection, and the still images don't show any trace. I am going to just send videos next.

Another cause of false alarms is cycling between color and IR, which is interpreted as motion.

However, what concerns me more is false negatives. My wife came home early and then left again; I got a video showing her back out, but not arriving before that. The motion zones should have picked up her arrival first.
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: raid05 on November 14, 2013, 12:00:39 PM
Anyone have a solution for this problem? Tried a few things suggested in the thread but I'm still getting spammed by false alert emails all day long.
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: Newbie881 on November 22, 2013, 04:37:43 AM
Dear colleagues from D-Link...
My DSC- 5020L produce also very often false alarms and the proposed workaround solution doesn’t satisfy me! It’s a pity. I’ve informed my retailer in order to inform the consumer. This bug must be fixed asap! I expect a patch ore firmware update ore the money back! I hope that an engineer read these lines and save the reputation of D-Link.javascript:void(0);javascript:void(0);
Kind regards
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: Newbie881 on December 09, 2013, 01:04:32 AM
 :)With the new Firmware the problem seems to be resolved. There are still some false alarms but this has to do with the switch from IR to daylight picture I guess. Thanks to the programmer from D-Link. Rgds, ;)
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: JavaLawyer on December 09, 2013, 06:24:58 AM
:)With the new Firmware the problem seems to be resolved. There are still some false alarms but this has to do with the switch from IR to daylight picture I guess. Thanks to the programmer from D-Link. Rgds, ;)

I presume you are referring to FW v1.02b05? Unfortunately there are no release notes posted by D-Link, so it's difficult to tell if motion detection was something that was addressed on that latest release.  :-\
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: Newbie881 on December 12, 2013, 01:11:01 AM
Yes, you’re right. In deed there are no specifications regarding the new Firmware v1.02b05 and to be honest, it’s just a subjective feeling that this update has reduced the amount of false alarms. But nevertheless with this updated there must be a significant change because before my Mailbox was full of false alarms mail and now there are only a few. By the way, I set the sensibility on 0%. Rgds,
Title: Re: Motion Sensor triggering false alarms
Post by: Ago38 on March 17, 2016, 03:24:12 AM
Hello,

Same problem.
I set motion sensitivity to 0%  but still false alarms.....

Any news about this problem ?

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Alain