Cool and damp. A tiny respite from the heat of summer. It was actually a tiny bit of cool out in the country at my client’s house yesterday. Still warm in the sun, and boiling in the attic, but under the overcast or in the shade there was a hint of coolness. Today should be similar with a bit more sun.
I didn’t get finished at my client’s. What should have been a slam dunk turned into a dumpster fire when the new NVR turns out to be riddled with bugs and issues. Brand new firmware too. Tech support was no help. I got an RMA number. Lots of issues, including me making a mistake setting the master password. Because you are doing it blind, with a remote control and an onscreen keyboard, and they don’t show it to you or make you type it twice, I got it messed up. It’s not what I wrote down or intended. Only the first bit of bad software and gui design.
Long story short, I stayed with the same manufacturer because I didn’t want to replace cameras. But the new NVR doesn’t open and display the cameras. It works with the two oldest, but none of the others. That’s despite identifying them, assigning IP addresses, and that they are all supposed to be standards compliant. A standard this company championed btw… And it is supposed to be ‘pro level’ gear, only sold through distributors for install by integrators and other pros, but there is no manual override or even a way to see what the automagic is trying to do. I’m p!ssed, and disappointed in the company. I should be done and invoicing, instead of trying to find a new solution and continuing this project into next week.
Now I have to decide. Do I just get new cams that are on the tested and approved list? Do I go with another manufacturer’s NVR and cams, or do I look at the ubiquiti cams and storage since we’ve moved almost all the networking to ubiquiti? Gah, I could have done all that BEFORE if I knew I would have to do it, and I could have prepped my client. Now it’s last minute,and extra cost. Yeah, I’m grumpy. Standards. You’d think they might in fact be standard.
Today I’ll be doing some more clean up and organizing. Also some pickups. I got a bookcase for D2, who seems to have ‘rescued’ every discarded library book at the school. I got a high security exterior door that should work at the BOL on the garage or one of the outbuildings, and if not now, later when I build my shop. And I need to start staging stuff for the trip to the BOL this weekend.
Other than that, I also need to address the cams/nvr issue for my client (including applying the unlock code that MIGHT come today and for which I had to submit a photo ID and request- there’s no ‘reset to factory defaults’ if you don’t know the master password), and get some shipping out the door.
Meanwhile, haven’t heard from some people in a while, so here’s a ping. DadCooks, Miles_Teg, Jenny– welfare check!
Stack it up folks, things are going pear shaped.
nick