Ubiquiti CCTV system fell over - Need solutions ASAP

[Warwick_Tech]

Hi All,

 

Putting some feelers out as I've been burned by Ubiquiti -

 

Long story short we trialed 30 G3 domes and that were fine, so we upgraded with another 60 G4 domes, without realising these didn't do standalone mode (and actually disabled standalone mode on the G3's with a firmware update)

 

So we bought x2 Pro NVR's and they are terrible, they keep crashing/falling over/stopping services etc.

 

Anyway, I'm throwing the whole lot out unless

 

A) I can get the G4 domes working with Synology Surveilance Station or HikVision (no luck so far)

B) I can RMA the entire lot (not looking likely)

C) Someone with a Unifi setup that works wants 60 G4 Dome cameras for cheap (I'll even throw in the NVR PROS)

 

I'm posting this elsewhere too, as hopefully an Edugeek has some ideas of help to get out out of this mess.

 

Long story short, for sale, x60 G4 Dome cameras (maybe) happy to swap for G3 cameras as these do RTSP

[AJWhite1970]

Just checking - can your UNVR's see out to the internet and is the time set properly on them? I've seen all sorts of issues when the time is wrong and it can't get out to a NTP server.

[Warwick_Tech]

Just checking - can your UNVR's see out to the internet and is the time set properly on them? I've seen all sorts of issues when the time is wrong and it can't get out to a NTP server.

 

Yes, I've made them completely transparent to the firewall/filtering - It flashes up every so often connecting to: Internet is green and NVR is orange and spins for a while

 

TBH they were working fine with around 50 cameras each for a month or so, but then both fell over at around the same time.

 

Now after a factory reset one doesn't recognise any drives and support is no help.

 

Hence my first action was to buy a new NVR, but I can't seem to get the G4 cameras into 'Standalone' Mode...

 

I was tempted to talk to HikVision, but the government says that might not be a great idea.... hence Synology, but they are testing compatability with their kit for us

[FragglePete]

I had two UNVR-4's fall over within the space of two weeks. Managed to get one RMA'd as I used an official UK Distributor (4Gon) but as I got the other one via another supplier they wanted me to RMA back a place in Europe. And that's just not possible at the mo due to Brexit issues, etc.

 

The reason they both broke.... the cheap and nasty USB stick that is hot glued to the motherboard that stores the OS failed. Known issue. Newer models have changed the design thankfully. I've seen reports that you can replace these with a USB to SSD adapter and run a SSD instead of USB. I took the chance and did this on the one I couldn't return and managed to get it back to life.

 

Thing with UniFi stuff I've come to learn is don't upgrade unless you have too, or at least ensure it's a stable release first - watch the comments on the release notes. If you do upgrade, then ensure you have your config saved off somewhere first. And with the UNVR, I found processing the upgrade via SSH instead of the web interface far more reliable.

 

I'm currently running around 60 cameras, from G3 Bullet to the G3 Dome cameras spread over two UNVRs. It's only recently I would say that things have settled down a bit.

 

Sorry - not much help. But, how much you want for the G4 Cameras each?

 

Pete

[Warwick_Tech]

I had two UNVR-4's fall over within the space of two weeks. Managed to get one RMA'd as I used an official UK Distributor (4Gon) but as I got the other one via another supplier they wanted me to RMA back a place in Europe. And that's just not possible at the mo due to Brexit issues, etc.

 

The reason they both broke.... the cheap and nasty USB stick that is hot glued to the motherboard that stores the OS failed. Known issue. Newer models have changed the design thankfully. I've seen reports that you can replace these with a USB to SSD adapter and run a SSD instead of USB. I took the chance and did this on the one I couldn't return and managed to get it back to life.

 

Thing with UniFi stuff I've come to learn is don't upgrade unless you have too, or at least ensure it's a stable release first - watch the comments on the release notes. If you do upgrade, then ensure you have your config saved off somewhere first. And with the UNVR, I found processing the upgrade via SSH instead of the web interface far more reliable.

 

I'm currently running around 60 cameras, from G3 Bullet to the G3 Dome cameras spread over two UNVRs. It's only recently I would say that things have settled down a bit.

 

Sorry - not much help. But, how much you want for the G4 Cameras each?

 

Pete

 

Hi Pete,

 

After being left in the dark by Ubiquiti support I (think) I've bodged together a solution - I'm hesitant to post it here in case Ubiquiti get wind and lock down their products even more, but it's a solution nonetheless.

 

Once bitten, twice shy I don't think I'll ever buy another Ubiquiti product, which seems a shame as they really have fallen from a great company over the last few years.

 

Anyone who wants to know the solution can PM me of course

[chazzy2501]

You can enable RTSP on the cameras and use a different DVR with the streams.

 

EDIT: you'd still need a UNVR to manage the cameras. I guess you could configure it to not record.

 

EDIT2: are you sure you are not using SMR based HDD? I got some WD RED CMR based drives and the device is twice as fast. but I only have 15 cameras.

Edited November 15, 2021 by chazzy2501

[Jcx500]

We are using hikvision I would recommend them without question.We are using other systems on top of it as well (windows based) but it works flawlessly

[Norphy]

Hikvision camera hardware is reasonable, but unless you want to be completely in their ecosystem they might not be the best choice.

 

Them and a lot of other Chinese camera manufacturers got kicked out of ONVIF alliance, a standards board for CCTV companies. If you want to use a third party VMS system like Milestone or Genetec they’re not the best choice because the VMS companies won’t support them as they can’t guarantee that they support the latest standards.

 

In my experience, Hikvision software is diabolical so a third party recorder might be needed.

[Swiftnets]

Sending PM about your workaround Edited June 27, 2023 by ZeroHour