ZoneMinder Forums

hello

I need help on how to setup preclusive zones to deal with the sun moving accross a room

i also need help how to setup preclusive zones for not activating when my cameras switch from color day mode to infared black and white mode, currently 90% of my events are caused by my cameras changing modes

thanks
Ciaran

The trick is to make them small, sensitive, and place them in areas where a real alarm would not occur, like high on the wall where lighting changes occur or a ceiling that gets illuminated by the IR light. Use the Extend Alarm Count setting to disable alarms for a couple seconds after the preclusive zone is activated. For example, here are the settings I'm using for one of mine:

Zone area: 0.14% of frame
Units: Percent
Alarm check method: AlarmedPixels
Min/Max Pixel threshold: 10, 0
Min/Max Alarmed Area: 10, 0
Overload frame ignore count: 0
Extend alarm frame count: 4

That is the small zone above the hallway in the image. I also have one on the ceiling which takes care of the IR light coming on and off. (Though now that I look at it, it probably doesn't need to be that big.) I rarely get false alarms due to lighting changes with this setup.

montagdude, thanks for that reply! I've now implemented some preclusive zones and hoping they help with changes in general lighting conditions. Now if I could only figure out how to deal with alarms from rain coming off a roof!