Simatic HMI and IP video camera

plclady

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Jul 2018
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utah
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I connected a Lorex security camera to a Simatic KTP700F HMI via a PoE switch. It shows up on the screen, but the refresh rate is atrocious--like 30+ seconds. Can I speed it up? I already minimized the resolution

In college I wrote a space invaders video game for a PanelView, but it sucked because the button read rate was so slow. Maybe this is just how HMI's go?
 
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yes

The HMI was designed for crane control. We want to add a camera to the lift so we can watch it operate remotely since it is in an unmanned automated area. I stuck the camera view into an existing page that has four buttons but I'm testing it at my desk, so nothing is going on besides the camera and the HMI communication. The PLC is just idle, not involved here.
 
Gotcha
I’ve only seen it done via usb (if I recall correctly)
And (what I stated previously) that was one of the requirements for a faster update
 
USB faster than ethernet?

Two problems there: A) I don't know how to connect anything USB to an HMI. Is that a thing? and B) why the heck would USB be faster than Ethernet?

BTW thanks for jumping into this rabbit hole with me. I'm a first year engineer with more ambition than skill.
 
You say you minimized the resolution, what is it at now? What codec are you using? What is the frame rate of the video?

If you poke around in the help file, you'll see a number of cameras that Siemens did testing with, and what settings gave what results on which panels. I don't see any reason an Ethernet camera should be avoided.

The short version is that these things have tiny CPUs, and just aren't built for video. The help file also specifically says that you shouldn't be using the camera view for control; I think it's intended more for verification purposes with 80's security camera level quality.
 
camera settings

Resolution is 1280*720. Streaming protocol RTSP. Codec H.264. I have varied the frame rate between 1/s and 25/s with no difference in viewability. I have also varied the bit rate between 256kbps and 2048 kbps.

No matter what it seems to wait a minute, update two or three (45-second-old) snapshots in rapid succession, and repeat. I think you are right. The processor is wimpy. Which stinks considering what we pay for these things.
 
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plclady

Can you use start simulation (hmi) and run it from your laptop/pc?
What happens?


BTW
I don't see anything regarding usb- so I was wrong on that.
I must have been thinking about something else

cam.png
 
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plclady said:
Resolution is 1280*720. Streaming protocol RTSP. Codec H.264. I have varied the frame rate between 1/s and 25/s with no difference in viewability. I have also varied the bit rate between 256kbps and 2048 kbps.
Click to expand...




In the help file, most of the recommended resolutions are 640x480 or less.



plclady said:
The processor is wimpy. Which stinks considering what we pay for these things.
Click to expand...

To be fair, a lot of what you're paying is the difference between an industrial rated device with a promised long support life vs something cheap and disposable. Downside of a long support life is they don't get refreshed with the latest and greatest very often, and have to maintain backwards compatibility.



That said, yeah, they aren't super powerful. I assume Siemens wants you to move to the PC based systems when you want to do something serious. The engineering change from a comfort panel to WinCC Advanced is pretty minimal: the Portal part is mostly right click -> change device.
 
No personnal experience with IP camera and Basic panels, but I am not surprised that it s***s.
I am surprised however, that you can even have an IP camera viewer in a Basic panel.
 
JesperMP said:
No personnal experience with IP camera and Basic panels, but I am not surprised that it s***s.
I am surprised however, that you can even have an IP camera viewer in a Basic panel.
Click to expand...


I think this is one of the newer gen mobile panels; they are the only ones I know of with the F in the name KTP700F.


I REALLY wish Siemens had done something like 710 for 7 inch basic, 720 for 7 inch comfort, etc. It gets so confusing trying to track the names against each other. Sure the part numbers are unique, but who actually recognizes those at a glance? That's what the product name is for....
 
Solved!

From the hints here I decided I needed to find a way to drop the resolution further. This wasn't possible in the main camera stream but it has two substreams with a 352*288 CPI resolution. So I enabled substream 1, set the resolution and saved the camera settings. Then in the HMI I changed the IP call to say
rtsp://<username:password>@<ip address:port>/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=1

It was that subtype = 1 that did the job of changing streams.
Thanks everybody for the help! It's running perfectly with no lag.
 

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