Zoneminder : Alarm will not reset if camera is watching dark area

The noise is the normal noise you would see in a low light situation ... Looks a lot like TV Static (that is before tv turned digital)

I do not want to make any other changes to the area (lights, etc).  I was hoping that someone had some experience with ZM who knew of this problem and a solution

Thanks

Ken

It should be addressed to software company, does not seems that you can do much about on mean time.
Not sure if there is "max time to record alarm" option is present- which should fix that.
If not, maybe you can post question in programming zone, see what batch files can be run on PC- which will interrupt recordings, exceeding max time limit.
But most appropriate would be changing camera to "night vision LED" or "night vision moon light/extra sensitivity"- this  way you recording software should behave appropriately, as there will more "pixels to calculate motion appropriately".

Did you see this from the Forums?
http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11249&highlight=change+motion+detection+sensitivity&sid=10c85817d7c049504abf67f553e46c33

A few more that might have useful info in them:
http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/search.php?mode=results&sid=10c85817d7c049504abf67f553e46c33

You didn't say what Linux you are running, but here are some 1.24 updates if you need them

http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3?stat=3&limit=1&srodzaj=3&dl=40&search=zoneminder

Why don't you try with the new version... 1.24.2, you have to compile... I had fedora 9 with 1.22.4 (I think that was the version), so I wanted to upgrade zoneminder, but couldn't, so I upgraded to fedora 10, and zoneminder upgraded to 1.23.3, so I try to upgrade fedora to 11, but couldn't... So I try again to compile ZoneMinder and It did... this is what I did... on a Fedora 10! It is quite simple... I have done it several times now...


Install FFMPEG

$ svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/ffmpeg/trunk ffmpeg
$ ./configure --enable-shared --enable-pthreads --enable-gpl --prefix=/usr/local
$ make
$ make install    <- as root and not sudo

if you have problems and need to install again, try

$ make clean
then repeat step (2)

Make sure package ccache is not installed... it will give you lots and lots of errors, I check to see if it was installed but it wasn't, so I install it, and uninstalled... and all went good!!!

If you see an Error at run like...
$ ffmpeg
ffmpeg: symbol lookup error: ffmpeg: undefined symbol: avformat_alloc_context

Then...
$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib/

$ ln -s /usr/local/lib/libavformat.so.50 /usr/lib/libavformat.so.50
$ ln -s /usr/local/lib/libavcodec.so.51 /usr/lib/libavcodec.so.51
$ ln -s /usr/local/lib/libavutil.so.49 /usr/lib/libavutil.so.49
$ ln -s /usr/local/lib/libmp3lame.so.0 /usr/lib/libmp3lame.so.0
$ ln -s /usr/local/lib/libavformat.so.51 /usr/lib/libavformat.so.51


Download and unzip ZoneMinder... just change <root'spassword> with yours

$ ./configure --with-webdir=/usr/share/zoneminder --with-cgidir=/var/www/cgi-bin --with-webuser=apache --with-webgroup=apache --with-ffmpeg=/usr/local ZM_DB_HOST=localhost ZM_DB_NAME=zm ZM_DB_USER=root ZM_DB_PASS=<root'spassword> --with-mysql=/usr --with-libarch=lib CFLAGS="-g -O3 -march=pentium4" CXXFLAGS="-g -O3 -march=pentium4"

$ make            <- if error, check that package "ccache" is not installed, to be on the safe side, install it, then uninstalled...

$ make install     <- as root and not sudo

$ mysql -u root -p
>create database zm;
>quit

$ mysql -u root -p zm < db/zm_create.sql

$ mysql -u root -p
>grant select,insert,update,delete on zm.* to 'root'@localhost identified by '<password>';
>quit

$ mysqladmin -u root -p reload


$ sudo install scripts/zm /etc/init.d/

$ sudo chkconfig --add zm

$ zmu -d /dev/video0 -q -v


$ vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/zoneminder.conf

     ##### Start of Zoneminder #####
     Alias /zm "/usr/share/zoneminder"
     <Directory "/usr/share/zoneminder">
         Options -Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
         AuthType Basic
         AuthName "Private Area - Cameras"
         AuthUserFile  <- /pathtoauthfile maybe /etc/httpd/conf/authuser
         AuthGroupFile  <- /pathtoauthfile maybe /etc/httpd/conf/authgroups
    #    Require group zmuser
         Require valid-user
     </Directory>
    # the next code you do not need, cgi-bin is in /var/www/cgi-bin, and that is already declared on
    # /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
    #ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/zm "/usr/libexec/zoneminder/cgi-bin"
    #<Directory "/usr/libexec/zoneminder/cgi-bin">
    #    AllowOverride All
    #    Options ExecCGI
    #    Order allow,deny
    #    Allow from all
    #</Directory>
    ##### End of Zoneminder #####


$ vi /etc/sysctl.conf

    kernel.shmall = 512000      # Memoria total 2Gb = 2000 * 1024 * 1024 / 4096 en paginas
    kernel.shmmax = 1048576000  # Memoria Maxima compartida 1Gb = 1000 * 1024 * 1024 en bytes

$ sysctl -p
$ ipcs -l
$ sudo service httpd restart
$ sudo service zm restart



I think that's all!!!   oh, and if you have a cheapo capture card like mine (30FPS) then disable V4L_MULTI_BUFFER on Options -> Settings... remeber that every time you change something on a tab, you have to save, and restart zoneminder!!!

Maybe you can take a look at this...

http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10872