Release Notes for MOBOTIX Software
These Release Notes contain a technical description of the most important changes of the MOBOTIX network camera's software.
Refer to News for a more general description of the release news in this help.
Please note that some features in the dialogs will only be visible if the More button at the bottom of a dialog has been pressed.
Changes in Software M10-V2.2.3.24
Major Improvements
- Individual exposure control for both image sensors.
- Redesigned image control and white balance handling to avoid showing tiles in the images.
- Extended access control dialog to provide granular access control to groups of users. See Group Access Control List and User Groups and Passwords
- Event Logic (EL) events allow logical linking of basic events and also provide for testing the order of occurrence of the selected events.
Detailed Release Notes
Image and Exposure Control
Improvements
- The camera software can now set to individual exposure times for the image sensors. Even extreme differences in brightness detected by the two image sensors are handled well now.
- Full frame rate is now attained by the left image sensor as well.
- Dual image and picture-in-picture modes are available for Day/Night models.
- Automatic day/night switch (Night models only) improved by occasional evaluation of Day sensor to avoid locking on the Night sensor when IR illumination is used or when night mode is set manually.
Note: When trying to manually switch from day to night mode by covering the Day sensor (right lens as seen by the camera), the software may require up to 17 minutes to return to day mode.
- The new Gray World color profile can be used for white balance if all other color profiles produce unsatisfactory results.
Limitations
- M10 DevKit sometimes shows loss of image quality when using sensor cables with different lengths (greater than 50 cm/20").
Bugfixes
- $(IMG.EXP.LEFT.SECOND) image variable had led to undefined software behavior under rare conditions.
- Under certain rare conditions, a camera set to deliver live dual megapixel images was prone to delete all images stored on a file server. A typical symptom of this behavior was a value of 999,999 lost events in the Camera Status dialog.
- When showing picture-in-picture images (RiL or LiR), switching back to single image display (Right or Left) sometimes displayed faulty image areas where the picture-in-picture image had been before.
Known Bugs
- For certain panning positions (image area moved by clicking into the live image) and with zoom levels 2x or 4x on the right image sensor, switching to the left image sensor may produce faulty images or distorted colors. Moving the panned image area to a different position will resume normal operation.
Events, Actions and Messages
Improvements
- Second Video Motion (VM2) event with separate window definitions available (click on More). VM windows are displayed with darker dotted (bbbwbbbwbbb...) frames, while VM2 windows have brighter dotted (bbwwbbwwbbww) frames (where b = black and w = white).
- Video Motion (VM, VM2) may be extended to the image sensor that is not shown on the Live screen using the Dual Lens Video Motion parameter.
Note: This may reduce the frame rate.
- Video Motion (VM, VM2) windows from the right image sensor can be used on the left image sensor when camera switches from Day to Night mode (Night models only). Use the Copy Video Motion Definitions parameter in Event Settings to control this behavior.
- Events can be linked logically by evaluating two sets of events. You may define two different (logical) Event Logic events, EL and EL2.
Note: These events should be used for filtering actions and messages.
- Event Logic allows evaluating logical AND relationships between events, including order of occurrence, sliding time window and minimum time between events. This provides a method for detecting direction of motion.
- When arming the camera using signal input (e.g. a key switch), arming is delayed by 60 seconds to allow leaving the camera's image area; this delay is counted down at the bottom of the image.
- Improved Signal Input: Up to four signal input events (SI, SI2, SI3, SI4) can be set, using the signal input pin and the pins of the serial interface (extended signal input). Besides detecting the current state (open or closed), you may also trigger upon rising, falling or changing signal flanks.
- De-Bounce Time prevents uncontrolled flip-flopping of signal input events.
- FTP Profiles: When using temporary file names for FTP transfers, the new Enable, delete before rename option will delete an existing file before renaming the temporary file. This option is intended for FTP on Microsoft IIS servers as IIS does not support renaming to an existing file name.
- When using FTP transfers, JPEG clip files will be stored in a common directory.
- When using FTP transfers, MxPEG clip files will be stored in a common directory named after the first frame number of the clip.
- Control of signal output (SO) removed from LED Setup dialog and new link to test signal output has been added to the Actions dialog.
- The standard softbuttons Actions enable and Actions disable of the Player screen have been replaced by the Recording on and Recording off buttons. These softbuttons will no longer activate/deactivate the complete event control, but only event recording.
Extended Access Control
Improvements
- Access to function sets like live image, recorded image, image link, and image control vs. event control etc. can be permitted to groups of users by defining Group Access Control Lists.
- Up to 10 access groups can be defined in Group Access Control Lists.
- Up to 30 users can be be assigned to access groups in User Groups and Passwords.
- Public Access to function sets can be granted or denied in Group Access Control Lists. (In former versions everything was public that was not protected by a password.)
- Enabling access to Screen/View basic function groups in Group Access Control Lists will set necessary additional access rights for the group, but can removed manually one by one.
- Administrator group admins cannot be removed in User, Groups, and Passwords . At least one member of that group (not necessarily called "admin") cannot be removed.
- New user names, group names and passwords may only contain these characters: "A-Z", "a-z", numbers, "_", "." and "-". Old user names and passwords will be kept.
- Minimum length for user and group names is 3, maximum length is 16 characters.
- Minimum length for passwords is 5, maximum length is 8 characters.
- New users may be created using the undefined group. This is intended behavior to allow presetting users and assigning them to groups later on.
Limitations
- Access to event directories of other cameras on the same file server is restricted by the accessing camera, not by the camera administering the directory as it was before.
- Access to event images on file server of a camera running software equal or higher than M10-V2.2.3.24 requires software M10-V2.2.3.24 or higher.
- Some help pages are still missing.
Network, Phone
Improvements
- Incoming SIP calls can be restricted to allowed phone numbers in the Phone Call-In dialog.
- ISDN data transfer: disabled compression for protocol headers for shorter delay and better performance.
- Camera Information lists all ports the camera is listening on.
Help, Documentation
Limitations
- Only English and German language is up-to-date.
- Some help pages are missing in English and German.
Miscellaneous
Improvements
- New link to Manage Other Cameras dialog in Admin Menu.
- Background image can be set in Language and Entry Page.
- Announcement of IP address and network information by pressing a camera button can be disabled in the Loudspeaker and Microphone dialog.
- Support of two weather stations added (Reinhardt and Davis) that are connected to the serial interface. For additional information, see MOBOTIX Kurzanleitung Wetterstation (MOBOTIX Weather Station Manual, German). To configure weather stations, open Serial Interface and Modem Setup and set Serial Interface to Weather.
- When using an NTP time server for periodic time synchronization, one camera may provide NTP time service for all other cameras. This will also work if the connection to the NTP time server fails.
- When an external time server is not available or the connection is shaky, one camera can be used to run as backup time server On the "time server" camera, enter the IP address
127.127.1.0 as time server and enter the "time server" camera's IP address as time server on the other cameras.
MxViewer (named MxPEG Viewer previously).
- MxViewer is not part of the camera software M10-V2.2.2 any more. To download the newest version of MxViewer, see www.mobotix.com/download/.
- For current features of MxViewer see separate documentation.
MxViewer ActiveX
- Improved image quality for scaled images.
Changes in Software M10-V2.2.1.9
New Functions
- It is now possible to connect two weather stations (from Reinhardt and Davis Instruments) to the serial interface. The camera can display the weather data in the image and it can automatically upload the data to an FTP server. The weather station application is configured in the Serial Interface and Modem Setup dialog.
Bugfixes
-
Under certain circumstances, the camera disabled the Obscure Image Area (OA) function:
This error occurred only when Obscure Image Area had been enabled and the configuration had been changed (right/left lens, resolution, zoom/panning, softbuttons, etc.) while the specified time table had deactivated the function. After that, it was impossible to reactivate the Obscure Image Area function. Reactivating was only possible if a configuration change was taking place at a time when the time table had activated the Obscure Image Area function. This bug was part of all releases of MOBOTIX cameras M10/D10/V10 since software version M10-2.0.
- The Java applet for the live image (Browser Quick Control) did not show the live images properly any more.
- It is now again possible to delete the default route in the Ethernet Interface dialog.
- If the NTP time server in the Time and Date dialog had been set using a host name (i.e. not an IP address) and the DNS server was not reachable, the camera stopped booting and initiated a reboot.
- If the NTP server had been used in conjunction with ISDN data dial-out, but ISDN data dial-out had not been set as default route, the camera stopped booting and initiated a reboot.
- The second IP address in the Ethernet Interface dialog had not been set with activated DHCP and an empty main IP address.
Other Changes
- Initial DNS server for ISDN dial-out has been changed; the DNS server address that is being used is now listed in the Test Network Configuration dialog.
- A timeout has been included in all functions that use NTP requests. If the timeout is reached, the corresponding application will issue an error and the normal operation will resume. Errors had occurred when network settings had not been set properly or DNS servers had failed to respond.
Changes in Software M10-V2.2.1.4
Basic Changes
New Functions
Bugfixes
- Reading 'multiline replies' from some severs created problems with some providers when sending e-mails.
- When starting ISDN phone call-in using the web interface of the camera (i.e. not after a reboot), the phone key "3" did not work.
- The web server logfile in "Less" viewing mode sometimes missed the date information although accesses occurred on different days, leading the user to believe that the accesses had actually occurred on the same day.
- FTP event tar file transfer in the Time Tasks has been fixed (bug since version 2.1.0.6).
- FTP profiles starting with the string "
FTP-" were not available for transferring an event tar file in the Time Tasks dialog.
- ActiveX plug-in in the Player screen will work with a user and password set for the user access level in the Users and Passwords dialog.
Other Changes
- The options for event LEDs have been moved from Admin Menu > LED Setup to Setup Menu > General Event Settings.
- The Functional Overview marks new features using the "New Feature!" bullet (
), enhanced features are marked by an "Enhanced Feature!" (
) bullet.
Changes in Software M10-V2.2.0
These notes list the most important news of the software releases M10-V2.0.3 and M10-V2.0.5 for MOBOTIX M10 and M10-V2.1.0 for MOBOTIX D10 camera models.
Basic Changes
- As the most important improvement of this software release, recording has been completely redesigned to omit the scheme that was used up until now (pre-alarm, alarm and post-alarm images), introducing a clip-based recording mechanism that is completely based on the MOBOTIX MxPEG streaming format. The old functionality can be used almost as before with minor changes. The new recording mechanism also provides for continuous and event-controlled video clip recording. Recording in MxPEG format also allows recording the sound from the camera microphone.
- Common software for all MOBOTIX camera models. Specific model differences are read from the different camera models.
- Reorganization of the permanent flash memory in preparation of future software enhancements (especially the VoIP telephony feature).
- Changed format of upload files. Upgrading a camera to M10-V2.2.0 will activate a new upload format that will not allow downgrading to previous software releases. This was necessary due to the reorganization of the permanent flash memory.
System
General System Properties
- Change: Prefix for default camera name changed from M to mx, to avoid confusion with the M10 model designation. Example for camera
10.1.1.15: was M10-1-1-15, now mx10-1-1-15.
- New: If the camera starts using the backup operating system (e.g. after a failed software update), the sound Alarm is played and the user interface is red instead of blue.
- New for D10 models: When using the magnet to activate the reed switch at boot time, the factory default configuration is used (except passwords). After that, the reed switch is polled for another five seconds; if it is still on, the camera tries to obtain an IP address using DHCP.
- New: When booting with an IP address assigned by DHCP (reed switch or front key), the sound Boing will be played twice.
Network Settings
- Enhancement: Camera Status contains statistics on Ethernet packets.
- New: Web Server Logfile logs all accesses and failed access attempts (wrong passwords). This list can be saved externally.
- New: Time and Date no allows using the
NTP protocol with up to three time servers. If Adjust periodically has been activated, you can see the status of time synchronization.
- Bugfix: Modem receives Disconnect Modem string before trying to establish a connection. This resolves sporadic problems with the Siemens MC35T GPRS modem at boot time.
Basic Settings
- Enhancement: LED Setup dialog has been adapted to D10 camera models.
- New: For M10-DevKit, Image Sensor Configuration in the Admin Menu can be used to control, which sensors have been installed.
Image Creation
- New: Image format VGA2 with 640x240 pixels resolution, high frame rate and interpolated lines.
- New: When displaying dual or picture-in-picture images (only Dual, not Night models), the images can be separated by a small bar. This feature can be deactivated using the Text & Display Settings > Cover Borders parameter.
- Bugfix: MxPEG Stream does not contain sound data when accessing the camera with a guest login.
- Dropped: Custom image size is dropped for image profiles and image link.
- Bugfix: Obscure Image Area (OA) feature now works with rotated, mirrored, zoomed and panned images.
- Bugfix: Auto contrast in image link was not working properly at times.
- Enhancement: When getting an image from the image sensor that is currently not active, both camera images are read for ten seconds and the
[dual] symbol is shown in the image.
- Enhancement: Improved Camera Night Switch (DY/NI), trigger value for switching back is adjusted dynamically.
- New: Night Improvement is only activated with MxPEG mode when set to Auto, but can also be activated/deactivated manually for MxPEG and JPEG modes.
- New: Symbol
[exp] signals reduced image rate due to high exposure times, [dual] signals reduced image rate when reading dual images.
Image Display, User Interface
- New: Enhanced functions in ActiveX component for the Live and Player screens (only when using Microsoft Internet Explorer on Windows).
- New: When switching between the Live and Player screens, the ActiveX component "remembers" its last mode (only when using Microsoft Internet Explorer on Windows).
- Bugfix: Several workarounds to fix problems when viewing live images with Konqueror or Safari browsers.
- New: Additional pages for images on mobile devices with small screens (PDAs, ...). Clicking the image with the mouse will load a new image. If JavaScript is available, device will reload the images automatically; mouse click will start/stop automatic reloading. Image Formats: 160x120 (small), 320x240 (medium), 640x480 (large).
Storing images
- New: Recording settings moved to new dialog linked from the Setup Menu.
- New: Recording enhanced to MxPEG format (video clips with audio).
- New: Recording offers three modes: Snap Shot Recording (JPEGs as before), Event Recording and Continuous Recording (the latter two only available in Secure models).
- New: Recording can now be triggered, retriggered and stopped explicitly. All activated events can be used for these features. Additional parameters provide for adequate post-alarm recording after the selected events have been detected.
- New: When using Event Recording or Continuous Recording, the Recording dialog allows setting the standard frame rate. Continuous Recording can automatically increase the frame rate if the camera detects one of the selected events.
- New: Sound from the camera microphone can be stored when using Event Recording or Continuous Recording.
- Change: The interval between images of pre- and post-alarm images for Snap Shot Recording in the Recording dialog can now be set to values smaller than one second. The behavior now corresponds to recording in version M10-V2.0.
- New: When using Event Recording in the expanded Recording dialog, History Images can be stored at regular intervals triggered by the Periodic Event (PE) or the Time Task (TT) event. The image format is selected from one of the Image Profiles. (From model M10-IT).
- New: Recording can now be controlled using the Arm Recording main switch or time table profiles.
- New: In Snap Shot Recording mode, activate the Pack story option to pack JPEG images into one single
C00001.jpg file on the external image storage (file server).
- New: When using Event or Continuous Recording, the camera creates MxPEG
Mnnnnn.jpg files on the file server. Event and history images are stored as JPEG files.
- Change: Switching to clip-based Event and Continuous Recording has led to a changed meaning of the folder structure. The folder number does not necessarily correspond to the number of recorded events.
- Change: File deletion strategy on file server has been optimized.
- Change: The
REC symbol will always be shown in the image, even when recording has been deactivated.
Colors of the REC symbol:
| Grey | Not active (e.g. Arm Recording set to Off) |
| Yellow | Waiting for action |
| aqua | Recording |
| green | Continuous Recording |
Events and actions
- New: Phone Call-In and Phone Profile provide for controlling the camera arming main switch. The "3" key of the phone now toggles between Arming activated and Arming deactivated.
- Bugfix: Removed error that led to preemptive exit of the function for evaluating the IP Receive (RC) event when receiving several IP messages at once.
- New: Additional signal inputs
SC, SR and SX of the serial interface can be set in the expanded Event Settings dialog (from M10-IT models). The serial interface has to be set to Data, I/O Mode. (This feature was present in software M10-V1.9).
- Enhancement: IP Notify Profiles dialog expanded. Messages can be sent sequentially or in parallel to one or more IP addresses; message can be sent as text only or using HTTP/1.0 protocol with password authentication. Besides text, the message can include a video clip file, image information (JPEG header) or the system messages of a specific time frame.
- Enhancement: System messages can be limited to specific time ranges when sending the messages via E-Mail.
- New: New events in expanded Event Settings dialog:
- Bugfix: Signal Output (SO) stopped working after rebooting a camera with software version M10-V2.1.0.
- Change: Error messages for E-Mail (EM), FTP (FT), IP Notify (IP) and Phone Call-Out (CL) messages and actions are only shown as general message in the image; details are available in the System Messages dialog.
- Dropped: Highlight Area for Video Motion Window (VM).
- Change: Object Tracing (OT) and Video Motion Window (VM) are only detected by the image sensor that is currently visible.
- Bugfix: The temporary file name for FTP transfers is now created from
mx, the serial number of the camera in hex notation and the internal profile name in hex notation, to prevent errors from simultaneous transfers using different profiles. Until now, FTP transfers were only using the host name.
Telephony
- Change: Key 2 of the phone control now toggles the preset Audio Call-Out Profile between dial out and close connection. Key 3 of the phone is now used to control the Arming of the complete camera event control.
- Bugfix: Updated the phone number in the "Zeitansage" example ISDN Audio Call-Out Profile.
- Bugfix: Testing the ISDN Audio Call-Out Profiles was not possible under certain circumstances; error message sometimes returned the wrong profile names.
Archive
Release Notes M10-2.0.3
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