How to set up Sunba Analog PTZ camera, Principle: All non-coaxial PTZ cameras on the same system must have unique address bit. If your camera can be used with a single BNC cable, then you do not have to setup address bit.
Additional Equipment Required for Installation
- A 960H DVR with RS485 port on the back and supports Pelco D
- BNC Cable
- RS485 Cable (twisted pair)
- AC Extension Cable (no length limit) or DC Extension Cable (18 AWG or thicker depends on length) to extend power line
General Information High Speed PTZ 120°/s 22X Optical Zoom with Aptina 1/3″Sensor Video Output PAL/NTSC (switchable) Pelco D Power DC12V2A (included) Weight(approx.) 2.5kg Dimensions: 132mm*227.5mm
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How to modify the address bit of your Sunba Analog Camera?
Principle: All non-coaxial PTZ cameras on the same system must have unique address bit. If your camera can be used with a single BNC cable, then you do not have to setup address bit.
For non-coaxial, we mean PTZ cameras that need the RS485 cable for connection.
Before changing the address bit of the camera, please first try to understand what the address bit is:
For example you have a 16CH DVR with many BNC ports on the back of DVR that can connect to 16 different analog PTZ cameras. All of them will connect to the same RS485 port to gain PTZ control. Each analog PTZ camera has an address bit, like its unique identifier. Note the default address bit of the camera is 1. This can be double-checked by cut the power of the camera, and restore it, you should see a script of Pelco D ADDR 1 shown on the screen after it finishes its self-diagnostic process.
So imagine if all 16 cameras have the same address bit of 1, if you try to move one camera, all 16 will move together because by having the same address bit, they lost the unique identifier and the DVR doesn’t know which one it should control. So if you have more than one analog PTZ camera, you should always try to modify the address bit of the second camera into any number other than 1 (normally we just go by 2, 3, 4, 5 etc for easy purpose but as long as it is not conflicting it is fine).
So if you only have one PTZ, you do not have to worry about it. With a 2nd Sunba analog camera you bought, you should start changing the address bit of it by going to its OSD menu (preset 95 + call):
You must first go to the corresponding preset control panel of your DVR (usually together with the PTZ control panel).
The Call button from the DVR below (Sunba DVR) is named as “start”. It may be different in your DVR’s interface.
Use Up and Down arrow key to select items and use right direction key to confirm.
The 1st item in the OSD menu (see picture below) is the soft address.
Two tricks:
- After you successfully modified the address bit, please reboot the camera to take effect! After you restore the power, the camera will go through the diagnostic process again and a few sec later you will see the new ADDR display on the screen.
- If two cameras have the same address bit, you will need to first remove one unit and modify the address of one camera each at a time, otherwise if you use preset 95+call the OSD of both cameras will be open given they have the same address bit.
FINALLY, after you changed the soft address in OSD menu, please go to the PTZ Config menu of the camera (i, and change the address recorded by the DVR to match the value you just changed.
How to set up automatic scan for Sunba Analog PTZ camera?
Automatic Scan is usually defined by PTZ as left and right boundary scan, meaning the camera will rotate from one point to another continuously. This can be done by using the preset function of the camera.
You must first go to the corresponding preset control panel of your DVR.
For Sunba 604-22X analog camera, please refer to the corresponding manual to get the value:
- Add Preset 47 to set the left boundary of the camera.
2. Add Preset 48 to set the right boundary of the camera.
3. Call Preset 82 to activate the left/right boundary scan.
The Call button from the DVR above is named as “start”. It may be different in your DVR’s interface.
Is there an additional dome cover for the camera?
Please note if the camera is infrared, then it is unable to put a plastic cover on it because it will interfere with the infrared lights coming through.
You will need to use infrared transmissible materials to make such a cover. However, that will result in additional expenses.
That’s why infrared cameras are usually not covered.
If you put cheap plastic cover around your infrared camera, then at night it will generate blurry images.
However, if you are not interested in having the infrared feature, you may be able to put a plastic cover around the camera.
Our 502S and 205 series are infrared-free and thus has an external plastic cover.
My analog camera shows Black and White display only
There are generally 3 different possibilities when this occurs:
- First, please check the camera is in your local video format. For example, if you live in U.S.A, your local video format must be NTSC, then if you have accidentally switched the video format to PAL, the camera will display B/W image only. This may also happen after a camera default.
- If you have an AHD 1080P camera, and your DVR is not AHD 1080P but HD-TVI, HD-CVI or HD-SDI, then it is likely that you will see black and white image only caused by incompatibility.
- If you have accidentally turned the infrared on, you will see black and white images only.
Solutions correspondingly:
- In NTSC video zone with your camera changed to PAL, if you use Sunba’s DVR, you will see a capital P with a red cross next to it. You can use 95+CALL to go to camera’s OSD menu, and under “camera”, you can see the signal of the camera.To change the signal from PAL to NTSC, please use the special preset code 97+118. First, call preset 97 and then call preset 118.To change the signal from NTSC to PAL, please use the special preset 97+119. First, call preset 97 and then call preset 118.
- In this case, you will need to either return the camera or change into compatible AHD 1080P DVR (aka. AHD-H DVR).
- Please use preset 102+call to turn the infrared to “AUTO” mode.
TIPS: What does XX + CALL Mean? Example for 95+CALL below: Every DVR should have a built-in PTZ control panel on the screen. With Sunba’s DVR, for example, you enter 95 in the empty preset box next to the control panel and hit “start” to call preset 95, which opens the OSD menu of the camera. The “start” button may have other names in different DVRs; it may be called “enter”, “call” or “go to” depending on the specific manufacturer you use. Please refer to the manual of your DVR if you want to learn the specific way of setting up/calling preset. Here is a video if you don’t know how to call special presets:
My PTZ camera does not respond to joystick/PTZ controller/keyboard
No matter you are using Sunba joystick and would like to control your PTZ camera from another manufacturer, or you are using other joystick to control Sunba PTZ camera, the general troubleshooting process (for the inability to gain PTZ control) should be the same:
- Please first check the +/- polarity of the camera and joystick. Try switching the order of the pair if it doesn’t work.
- Please make sure your greenish RS485 connector is functional. This has happened before.
- Please make sure your twisted pair is functional. You can try switching to another twisted pair if it is defective. An ethernet cable has 4 different twisted pairs that you can switch.
- Please make sure you set the correct soft address of the camera in the PTZ Controller/Joytick/Keyboard. The default soft address of Sunba camera is “1”. It is very easy to check Sunba camera’s soft address; every time Sunba camera is powered up, the monitor will display its current soft address. In Sunba PTZ Controller, for example, if the camera has soft address “1”, please press “1” in the keyboard and then press “cam”.
- Make sure the RS485 twisted pair is not short, meaning the metallic part from each line of the pair are not overlapping. See picture below.
This is the video that shows the correct connection of the joystick to control PTZ (if you also want to control PTZ over DVR, you need to run another RS485 cable from the camera to your DVR):
This video shows how to setup and control the PTZ camera using your joystick:
My Sunba analog camera cannot PTZ
- Please first check the +/- polarity of RS485 twisted pair between the camera and DVR (or Joystick).
The package comes with a white RS485 adapter that you can connect it to the orange and blue end coming out of the camera.
In most cases, the blue end corresponds to +/A (positive) of the DVR’s RS485 port and the orange end corresponds to the -/B (negative) of the DVR’s RS485 port.
So the wiring would be as follows:
In the above diagram, the twisted pair (RS485 cable) has red/blue wire. The red wire was connected to the blue RS485 end out of the camera. We already know the blue end corresponds to +/A (positive side) of the DVR. Thus, on the DVR’s end, the red wire would be connected to polar A.
However, as we tested more and more DVR and back-end, we noticed that different DVR has different polarity orders. For example, with Sunba DVR, the blue goes to A/+. But for other DVR, blue goes to negative, and we do have customers reporting that. What’s more, for different analog ptz cameras, the polarity may also be different on the same end-device (joystick/DVR). Switching the order of the pair on the DVR side may be helpful.
A simple fix is to switch the polar order on the DVR (joystick)’s side. See the red arrow below:
Try switching the order of the pair if it doesn’t work. This would generally solve most of the problem!
2. Please make sure your white RS485 and greenish RS485 connector are both functional. It happened before that the greenish RS485 is defective. We suggest that you test the functionality of the connector using a reference camera.
3. Please make sure your twisted pair is functional. You can try switching to another twisted pair if it is defective. An ethernet cable has 4 different twisted pairs that you can switch. Parallel pairs without twisted part are not recommended for PTZ control because they are not protected against any forms of signal interference and will affect the PTZ capacity of the camera.
4. Please make sure you set the correct soft address of the camera in DVR. The default soft address of Sunba camera is “1”. It is very easy to check Sunba camera’s soft address; every time Sunba camera is powered up, the monitor will display its current soft address. Not, no different PTZ cameras can have the same address bit otherwise if you control one camera the other will move; in short, address bit must be UNIQUE for each unit. Also, if you have set the address bit of the camera, please go to PTZ Config menu of the camera to set the corresponding address that matches the camera’s soft address:
5.Make sure the RS485 twisted pair is not short, meaning the metallic part from each line of the pair are not overlapping. See picture below.
6. If your camera is running a long DC extension power cable and causes underpower, the camera is also unlikely to get PTZ functioning. Please connect the camera directly to its AC power adapter and have a try.
My Sunba analog camera doesn’t show any video
Sunba Analog PTZ Camera : Underpower Issue
The camera may behave reckless if it does not receive enough power at night. So in the daytime the camera may work fine; at night time, however, the camera requires a 12V to work properly.
Typical Symptoms when underpower:
- The camera pans itself continuously
- Screen flickering
- Camera reboots again and again over night
The final actual voltage arrives at the camera depends on the type of cable you use as well as its distance and initial voltage.
There is a site called “voltage drop calculator” by calculator.net where you can calculate how much drop is along the specific type of AWG cable you use. If you have a meter, you can also test the voltage at the end of the camera and see whether it reaches 12.
To rule out whether the issue is really caused by power shortage, a bench test is always recommended. For a bench test, you can use the default power adapter that came with the package (without any forms of extension) to power the unit.
If the camera works fine at the bench but not working when connected to DC extension cable, all you need to do is replace it with an AC extension cable, or replace to another DC cable with lower AWG (thicker).
What screws do I have to use for installing the camera?
Why only half 1/2 of the IR LEDs are on? Is my camera defective?
The short answer is, the camera isn’t defective and what you see is normal. And below is why:
Sunba IR lights work in a same way as vehicle lights; you only need low beam to view nearby objects, when your camera isn’t zoomed in.
Thus, if your IR is in “AUTO” mode (this should be the default you are in), when you focus at near objects, the IR lights are half on. And when you “zoom in” and look at distant objects, the other half IR lights will be on as the high beam. Meanwhile, the low beam side will be OFF to avoid any extra light interference. In other words, you can change the focal length to adjust the IR lights.
Alternatively, you can manually control IR lights using the “presets call” method. For example, using “103+call” as a special presets code (just enter 103 in the preset box and hit either “enter” or “go to” or “call” depending on the software you use), you can turn on BOTH sides of the IR lights.
Here is a video of how to do so:
However, both sides of IR may not necessarily increase the visibility at night due to light interference. That’s why auto high beam and low beam are designed to be separate.
Another thing you can do is to change the photo sensitivity of the camera by going to the menu (95+CALL). This is a threshold that you can control. You probably want to adjust it to make it less sensitive to the streetlight (more easier to be switched to night mode under “IR Auto”),or the other way around, depending on the installation environment.