Questions about my new PT 2k

[user_588567793635436_588567793635436]

My new PT 2K seems to be functioning for the most part, but some things don't seem right and I don't know if it is me or the product.

What works fine: camera is installed and communicating with the Reolink app on both an Android phone and an Android tablet. I can view the live video stream; capture and playback recordings; access and (seemingly) change all settings.

I'm having trouble with notifications. Sometimes they seem to work and sometimes not. Sometimes they are silent, sometimes not. WIsh I knew how to control that. I see that the Push Notification settings page has a "Test" button--for a long time that "Test" button did nothing. Now the test button on the tablet causes a silent notification on the phone, and the Test button on the phone causes an audible notification on the tablet. Sigh....Maybe there are some rules like "never access the camera from more than one client at the same time. OK, fine, I'll follow the rules, just tell me what they are.

Sometimes a recording is captured without a notification--Is that a valid operational scenario? In those cases, since a recording is started, it seems like detection at the camera is working, but not notification. I have my settings and schedules set properly, at least as presented at the app UI (see FULL DISCLOSURE below)

I'd also like to better understand how the detection part works, so let's start with a few basic questions about the video field of view (VFOV) and what I will call the PIR Field of View (PFOV): are the VFOV and PFOV roughly the same? I would be surprised if they are the same, and some of my testing (when notifications are working) suggests that the PFOV is smaller than the VFOV. But on the other hand, when streaming live video and a vehicle drives by at the top of my VFOV, a small vehicle icon appears in the upper right corner of the video stream. In other words, the camera somehow knows there is a vehicle at the outer edge of the VFOV. Is it using the PIR sensor to make this determination, or is it using some AI analysis of the video screen itself. And for both possibilities, when I see that icon, should I expect a notification at my Android device(s)? There are also icons for person and "other". For example the person icon seems to appear when a person enters from the edge of the VFOV, should that cause a detection and notification? Sometimes it seems to start a recording but not always a notification.

FULL DISCLOSURE: After the initial install notifications and detection seemed very repeatable and predictable. I then spent a lot of time fooling around with the schedules and settings, that's when things went haywire. I'm wondering if the detection/notifications are confused but it isn't coming through the app's UI, and perhaps a factory reset of the camera is in order. Opinions?


UPDATE: Upon further review it seems that the camera may be sending notifications but to the wrong place. Right now when I use the "Test" function on my phone the notification goes to the tablet, and vice versa. Also right now with the app off on both devices the camera is sending notifications to the tablet, whereas my primary device (for now) is the phone--so what determines where the camera sends its notifications? Please help Reolink!!

[John_350143387672724]

I have an Argus PT 2K camera.

Make sure you have the latest firmware version. You need to contact and request support to push the latest one to your camera if yours is not up to date. My Argus PT 2K is at firmware version: v3.0.0.875_22030800.

There may be existing support articles helpful in supplying the detail information you need.
https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/categories/360001141274-FAQs

Here's two on PIR.
https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/360006379253-Installation

https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/900000583003-What-is-PIR-Detection-Distance

[user_588567793635436_588567793635436]

@john_350143387672724

Thanks John for the info.

I did a manual firmware update today and am on V3.0.0.1045_2206130--newer than yours so you might want to look into it.

Does your camera show the person/vehicle/other icon in the upper right corner of the live feed when an object passes through the FOV? Is that icon a good indicator of when detection is in progress? If your feed never shows those icons I can try and post a screen shot.

It is becoming clear that my camera is sending notifications to my different devices at different times. Need to get to the bottom of how the camera decides where to send the notifications. Have you ever run the app on more than one device?

[John_350143387672724]

@user_588567793635436_588567793635436

Thanks for heads up on the new firmware. The last one had to be pushed to me by support. Sigh … unfortunately it’s not updating for me. The download and update completes but after restart the camera still has the old firmware. Not a big deal, I’ll just keep running on the old firmware.

Yes, the upper right-hand corner will show the alert that was triggered.

I’m mainly on the windows client, so I really don’t use the app that much. Although I do have my Argus PT alerts pushed to my android phone and they seem to work well for me.

Sorry, not much help on multiple devices running the app. I don’t know how you’ve up your other devices, but they may need to be setup to share from your one main device.

https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/360006916814-How-to-Share-Your-Device-s-UID-QR-Code-with-Others

[user_588567793635436_588567793635436]

@john_350143387672724

John:

You say "Yes, the upper right-hand corner will show the alert that was triggered."

Not to be picky, but I don't think an "alert" is "triggered"--I note that in the setup there are controls for the "Detection Alarm", "Push Notifications" and "Email Alerts", I think the email alert is the last step of the process. I see those icons and I have all email alerts turned off. And those icons usually appear soon after a moving object enters the FOV.

I think the process is 1) a detection occurs, 2) a recording is triggered, and 3) notifications/alerts are generated/pushed/sent.

I think those icons mean a vehicle, person, or "other object" has been detected by analyzing changes in the video from frame to frame, but the recording and notification/alerts only happen if there is a PIR detection. I say this based on playing around with things but I welcome any observations that suggest otherwise. I suspect waiting for the PIR reduces false alarms, which would be in Reolink's best interest, but from my observations I'd like the option to trigger the recording/push using the same algorithm that is generating the icons on the live video feed. I note that those icons do not appear when a recording is played back.

Yes, I scanned the "share camera" QR code from my phone into my tablet when I installed the app on the tablet. The tablet had no problem connecting to the camera but the notifications all seem confused.

[John_350143387672724]

@user_588567793635436_588567793635436

Not sure how Reolink does push notifications, but think they use Google Cloud Messaging (GCM).

[user_588567793635436_588567793635436]

@john_350143387672724 Well then that could explain some of the problems. For starters they would be at the mercy of google--any changes at google could wreck a lot of push notifications. Right now when I send a Reolink Test push from my tablet it goes to my phone, and vice versa. They are both android devices known to google.

[John_350143387672724]

@user_588567793635436_588567793635436

I had problems getting push notifications to work on my phone. Sometimes they would work, sometimes they wouldn't and sometimes they would be 20 minutes behind. I've downloaded an app called heartbeat that changes the GCM heartbeat interval to a smaller interval and made some changes on my phone to not put apps to sleep and some other setting I've forgotten.

Seems to work for me now.

[user_588567793635436_588567793635436]

@john_350143387672724 Great info--I will look into the GCM stuff.

One thing I think I've noticed is that the notifications seem to not arrive at a device if I have the Reolink app open, but if I close the app notifications can then arrive at that device. Perhaps Reolink feels that if you have the app open you don't need notifications at that device. Do you have anything to share in this regard?

[John_350143387672724]

@user_588567793635436_588567793635436

I only have the Reolink app running on one phone, and thought my push problems was with my phone settings. I google not getting push notifications and tried a bunch of solutions I found on the web. Not sure of everything that I tried.

[user_588567793635436_588567793635436]

@john_350143387672724 Right now notifications to my tablet include the audible alert but notifications to my phone are Android silent. I have asked Reolink about this.

[John_350143387672724]

@user_588567793635436_588567793635436

As you know there are a lot of android setting dealing with notifications, sleeping apps, power saving modes and how data is downloaded. I wouldn't think having sound or no sound on notification would be a problem.

I can't post outside links here but this google search was helpful to show all possible notifications settings. Getting all my phone settings correct is what I believe was causing my problems.

Control notifications on Android

[user_588567793635436_588567793635436]

@john_350143387672724

Thanks John. Yes, I'm familiar with the many notification settings and I know they vary from one device to another. Case in point is the notification LED which comes and goes for different hardware designs and device generations.

In this case I think my settings are fine, but as shown in the graphic the camera is sending this notification as a silent notification, which is an Android capability for minimizing the intrusiveness of lower priority notifications. I'm pretty sure the choice to make a notification silent is made by the originator, in this case the camera. As I said the notifications to my tablet are not silent, perhaps Reolink thinks my tablet is the primary monitoring device and my phone is secondary, therefore it sends a silent notification there.

Right now I'm running an add-on app on my phone that plays an audible signal when the silent notification from the camera arrives. All of my notifications from other apps are working as I intend. But I'd like Reolink to explain how and why one device gets a silent notification and the other does not, and to give me a little more control over the operation. I suspect accessing the camera by more than one device is a fairly common use case--e.g. husband and wife each want to be able to access the camera.

[John_350143387672724]

@user_588567793635436_588567793635436

I guess we're talking about different things. I was referring to this Reolink's app setting.

[user_588567793635436_588567793635436]

@john_350143387672724

Interesting....the app installed on both of my devices doesn't have these options. Version 4.31.04

[John_350143387672724]

@user_588567793635436_588567793635436

That's from my Samsung phone and are under the phone's settings. Those are not any settings that can be found on the Reolink app itself. So, it may be dependent on what android device you're using.

On my Samsung phone, I open the phone's settings menu that looks like a gear, then I scroll to the Apps section and open that menu, then scroll and look for the Reolink app and clicked on it. That setting was buried under the notification settings.

[user_588567793635436_588567793635436]

@john_350143387672724

Thanks, I see. My AT&T phone doesn't have those options.

On your screen, can you enable both types of alerts at the same time?

[John_350143387672724]

@user_588567793635436_588567793635436

No. You can turn Alerts on/off. The other setting is if you want Alerts with sound, or without sound.


Reolink software supports Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.

For Reolink Client:
The requirement for Microsoft Windows: Windows 7 and later.
The requirement for Mac: Mac 10.9 and later.

For Reolink APP:
The requirement for Android: Android 5.0 and later.
The requirement for iOS: iOS 8.0 and later.

[user_588567793635436_588567793635436]

@john_350143387672724

You're not going to believe this but I was recalling that every time I touch the camera--e.g. to do a power cycle--things start working.

So there had been no detections, push notifications or detections for a few hours, so I went outside and tapped the camera a few times and everything started working again. Did I mention the package was a little crushed when it arrived?

[John_350143387672724]

@user_588567793635436_588567793635436

That's terrible, hope nothings wrong! I wouldn't be happy with that. Make sure you register the camera with Reolink and get the full two year warranty.

[user_588567793635436_588567793635436]

@john_350143387672724

I bought it from Reolink on eBay and have already informed them I may need a return. I haven't registered it yet.

Around noon it wasn't working and started after I tapped the camera. Then around five it stopped detecting for 10 minutes, then started again.

Do you happen to know if it can do a detection/recording while using the app to play back an earlier recording?

[John_350143387672724]

@user_588567793635436_588567793635436

It shouldn't be a problem to record during playback of a recording. The camera can handle multiple streams at the same time. So, it shouldn't be a problem.

Not a direct answer to your question, but may give you some insight on number of users viewing at the same time.
https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/360008742233-Maximum-Online-Users-for-Live-Viewing-the-Camera-at-the-Same-Time-

[user_588567793635436_588567793635436]

@john_350143387672724

The link shows the number of users for viewing a stream but I think my question is different. My question involves playback simultaneously with recording--which requires two different types of access (read and write) to the SD card. Would you be able to do a test at your end? Fire up your app and do some playback while at the same time try to trigger your camera to detect and record. I'd be curious if your camera can do it. And if it can, that seems like another reason for me to return my camera.

[John_350143387672724]

@user_588567793635436_588567793635436

While playing back a recorded video I walked in front of the camera. The camera triggered a person alert, an Email alert was sent to my mailbox and I have a recording saved to the SD card that I can view anytime of the event.

So everything worked as expected.

[user_588567793635436_588567793635436]

@john_350143387672724 Thanks so much!!

[user_588567793635436_588567793635436]

@user_588567793635436_588567793635436

Hi John:

Two things to update/touch base with you on.

1) I've concluded the PT 2K PIR detection range I was trying to achieve is right at its limit, giving marginal and erratic detection results, with detection variations happening due to changing lighting conditions and variations in target motion.  I am going to try using the PT 2K in a different part of my installation.

2) I found a Reolink web page saying the PT 2K does not distinguish between an admin user and other users like the non-battery cameras. But I have been controlling the PT 2K from two different devices and I think that is contributing to some unusual behavior. I suspect Reolink has some bugs to work out for use cases associated with accessing the PT 2K from more than one instance of the app. I've asked them about this and am waiting for their reply.

Skip

[John_350143387672724]

If you haven't already done so, go and check your Reolink app settings on your android device.

Settings => Apps => then look for the Reolink app and check all of its settings.