AXIS 2420

[T3G Terry]

I have managed to install an old AXIS 2420 day night camera and use it with ZoneMinder. While the standard AXIS settings built into ZM did not work with this camera I was able to manage somewhat. Problem 1 is that the AXIS 2420 is based on 1/4 D1 and D1 resolutions. These are listed in the camera as 352x240 and 704x240. If you look at the default AXIS settings in ZM you will see that those are NOT listed. I simply used a default ZM setting for an AXIS MJPG camera then changed the manual setting in Capture Width to 352 and the Capture Width to 240 then changed the to 352x240 and then changed the Remote Host Path to "/axis-cgi/mjpg/video.cgi?resolution=352x240" of course without the quotation marks. This worked great with frame rate set in ZM to 10 fps. I have not yet figured out why using the same technique for the full D1 settings of 704x480 will do not work for me.

Question: I have worked with programmers who write video surveillance software for Windoze and they can add a brand of camera to the default listings of accepted cameras in a matter of a few minutes. How hard is it to add a camera and it's default parameters to ZM software if you know whtat those parametes are? I.E., how hard would it be to add the default settings and name of this AXIS 2420 to the list of hardware so that I could just click on the list, add my model camrea, choose the settings I want and run it?

[T3G Terry]

AXIS 2420 OOPS!

I made a mistake .......it should have read Capture Width 352 and Capture Height 240. I wrote Capture Width twice. My bad.

[jameswilson]

T3G
Its not hard, if you can detail all the required settings then we can get it added.
The hard bit is getting the settings. And the defaults are there to help, you can edit them to match whatever cam you have.
Windows system tend to be commercial with a lot more financial backing than we have.
Also they tend to communicate more heavily with the cam, ie change on cam settings etc.

[T3G Terry]

Thanks James. Understood and appreciated. The main reason I bring all this up other than to help someone else who may decide to add this particular model camera is this;

There are a lot of AXIS cameras as well as others that use 1/4 D1, 1/2 D1 and Full D1 resolutions. Cameras that are now being discontinued as well as some that are not. Either way they are popping up all over the internet for sale DIRT CHEAP. I.E., I bought two AXIS 2420 Day/Night Infrared capable cameras from Ebay at a cost of 200 US dollars. They originally cost over 1300 each. They are excellent condition and work like new ones. And they are a decent brand name at that. For home or small business use these type cameras are ideal for use and are a bargain. By the way ..... I should have mentioned that the camera did not work at all at any resolution with ZoneMinder until I updated the cameras firmware to the latest release. I should explain that I am very new to anything Linux however I own a company that sells and maintains video surveillance systems analog and IP as well as providing netowrk services, phone services, PC repairs, debugging, cleaning, virus removal etc., etc. As you can guess all of my clients are using Windoze with an occasional Linux firewall or ftp server but very rarely so my linux experience is pretty much zero.

Having said that I read about ZoneMinder and was dying to try it. I am smart enough to know that Linux machines generally cost less and use less processor and memory than MS machines as well as being generally safer. If I can get to the point where I can build ZoneMinders on a regular basis and have them be stable so that clients are not calling me every day for repairs, then I have accomplished something that benefits me and my clients financially as well as with durability and functionality. Heck I would even consider working with the ZM people to create a commercial version of ZM. I would love nothing better than to be able to come up with a single disk install of this complete with a few favorite hand pick options that would work right out of the box. Then simplify the front end so that clients could easily manage and administer the settings.

Ahhhh I do love to daydream sometimes.

[T3G Terry]

By the way James .......... tell me what settings and info you need on the AXIS 2420 and I will see what I can do about getting them for you. I also know that AXIS publishes most of their code as well as instructions for modifying firmware and such.

[coke]

If you're vaguely decent with SQL or have a database client to connect to MySQL that you're comfortable with, there's a table "MonitorPresets" that appears to contain the presets. I can't imagine why Phil would have hardcoded a limit to the amount that can be there, so you should be able to add additional ones that way.

[jameswilson]

as coke says.
as above if you can get the details then it can be put in. The only way phil can put them in himself is if someone sends him the details or a camera.

[kingofkya]

kind off topic. Wouldn't it be progressive to have a semi-public database that all zm servers can sync with to get new camera info in between updates. I can program a small demon to do this if anyone interested.

[coke]

That'd be pretty sweet, actually. Perhaps the list would be on the wiki, and your daemon could pull from it?

[jameswilson]

I think if this is going to happen it would be best on the zoneminder server.
Its not a bad idea, but one for phil to be involved in.

If there was a wiki or other page with login required that you could add the relevant details for cameras and even ptz

[coke]

It's been a while since I tried to edit it, but isn't the Zoneminder wiki such a beast?

[jameswilson]

Yes but you could only list the info.
What im assuming the OP means is that there would be a button/link in zm config to download 'latest cam/ptz config file'

The community then could keep this upto date and keep expanding it without Phil having to put it into each release.

[coke]

I was thinking Johnny's daemon he's offered to write could scrape from the wiki, and if Phil wanted to do so, he could add the daemon's functionality.