Is it Possible to Connect 3 ONVIF WiFi Cameras to a Hikvision DS-7716NI-I4/1P NVR?

[Clueless]

For 6+ years I've been running a DS-7716-I4-16P (purchased from Use-IP July 2017!!) with no problems and all 16 ports in use. Cameras range from earlier 2CD2155's to later 2CD2387G2's. All working as they should. In addition to this NVR I've also been running 3 wi-fi cameras (ieGeek 5mp, 12v supply) which I've been able to monitor on a PC via a HiP2P Client app. It's clunky, but usually works. Wi-fi signal is good.

A recent additional NVR purchase means that I've got 3 unused ports. What I've been trying to do for about a week is find some way of connecting the 3 (Onvif compliant) wi-fi cameras to my 7716 NVR. I've read and followed numerous 'how to' posts but still can't work out if it's actually possible and what, exactly I have to do.

The wi-fi cameras are all in the 192.168.1. *** range, as are the connected IP cameras although their assigned IP4's follow the NVR 192.168.1.12:65001-16 format. The internal IP4 addresses being in the 192.168.254.*** range. The RTSP (554) in the NVR is 'activated'. The ports of the IP cameras and the wi-fi cameras are set at 8000. I've been fiddling around with iVMS-4200 but I don't find it intuitive.

Contrary to my forum name I'm generally quite able to read, understand and comply - but I think I've lost the plot....

 

[Dan]

Hi @Clueless

Have you made any progress with adding these WiFi cameras?

My feeling was from past experience that it might not be possible to add 3rd-party WiFi cameras to the Hikvision NVR, but possibly some of the other forum users might have different/more up-to-date advice on whether this is possible or not.

 

[Clueless]

Hi Dan

The short answer is 'Yes' - at 0130 this morning! I've been struggling with this for 2 or 3 weeks but have an 'understanding' wife..

The long answer - As posted previously, a new M series NVR has freed up a couple of PoE slots on my old 7716-I4. I wanted to utilise the 3rd-party, 12v, wifi cameras as they were some distance (40m) away but worked well with line-of-site wifi. The IP range of all existing IP cameras is in the 192.168.254.* range, being the internal IPv4 of the NVR. I still can't work out how to allocate them the 192.168.1.* range so I could access them via a desktop login, but that's for another day.

Using the 'Fing' facility I found the IP addresses of the two wifi cameras. Then selecting the empty PoE slots (D1 & D2) I used the 'edit' (Menu>Camera>Figure View) facility to 'remotely' add both cameras manually using their 192.168.1.* addresses. I changed the 'adding method' from 'plug & play' to 'manual' to change the protocol from Hikvision to 'ONVIF'. I put the Management port to 8000 (nothing else, be it 80 or 8080) seemed to work. Then clicked on 'Use Channel Default' password - and for the first wifi camera it worked! .....

Until I tried to add the second one to the empty D2. I did exactly the same as for the first wifi cam and all was well for exactly 3 minutes. Then the NVR did a complete reset/restart. I tried everything under the sun (carefully avoiding Einstein's definition of insanity) from changing management ports, reallocating IP addresses, and checking for obvious conflicts but nothing would stop the dreaded 3 minute reset. It wasn't the PoE power settings - I was only using 42W (21%) - and there were no other power issues. The Log info gave no hint of trouble until (Operation) 'Abnormal Shutdown'. Time & time again.

I considered there might be a conflict somewhere so removed three or four PoE (Hik) cameras and tried again. This time the 2nd remote wifi camera was accepted and passed the 3 minute test. Replacing the recently pulled PoE plugs, the last one would always trigger a reset irrespective of the order of replacement. Other Poe plugs were pulled and the suspect ones replaced - all well until the last of the newly pulled were replaced. PoE power checked again - still only 21% used. HDDs checked - no faults. LAN usage checked - receiving was between 4100kbps and 730 Kbps but no idea if that had any bearing. MTU(B) set at 1500. I even cross checked any problems by plugging the 'suspect' IP cameras into the new M series NVR - all worked properly.

Bottom line - I pulled all 14 IP cameras & deleted the wifi cameras from bays 1 & 2. I then did a complete factory defaults restore (Maintenance>Default>Factory Defaults) and started from the beginning. Quite a lot of work as I'd had it running well for 6+ years. Tip: photograph the settings in the Network TCP/IP and the Advanced Email settings. I use a dedicated Hotmail address for the email, and found the SMTP server needed to be smtp-mail.outlook.com.

I then put all the IP cameras back and tentatively added the remote wifi ones using the settings that had previously suggested they'd work...
And they did! One happy bunny with absolutely no idea what was causing the problem. But there was a hiccup in replacing the PoE plugs when I got an IP Conflict with one (an older 2CD-2T55-FWD-I, but with current firmware). Using SADP , it seems the allocated, sequential IP was different from that shown on SADP. I manually altered it to the SADP one and the only way it would retain that IP was by leaving it in 'Manual' when adding.

My attempts to resolve the problem will probably raise a smile with those who understand the secret world of IP - perhaps my forum name says it all







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