MOBOTIX cameras are full-fledged computers with on-board video management that are based on ❑ Linux operating system. These cameras are highly reliable devices that are expected to be even more reliable than file servers. Since most of the MOBOTIX cameras are used for security purposes, all MOBOTIX cameras have been designed to be available 99.999% of the time.
Although it is possible to run MOBOTIX cameras 100% of the time without ever rebooting (and many cameras we use in the company are proof of this), we feel that controlled reboots at specific intervals help avoid certain internal problems. Such problems are commonly caused by certain types of high-energy radiation, which may alter the contents of the camera’s RAM, thus leading to unexpected behavior in the long run. Proof of this is the fact that running a MOBOTIX camera at very high altitudes and in areas with high amounts of radiation without rebooting will result in more failures than cameras running under “regular” conditions.
In order to avoid such problems, it is thus recommended to execute periodic reboots every week or at least every month. Such a controlled reboot is the approved method recommended by MOBOTIX that is aimed at increasing the overall reliability of the system. The cameras themselves should be set to execute such a reboot at different times so as to avoid groups of cameras rebooting at the same time. This would obviously be leading to major gaps in a security system, for example. MOBOTIX cameras with a firmware MX-V4.x and higher are automatically rebooting at a randomly chosen time within one hour by factory default.
In this context, it should also be noted that regular computers are commonly grouped in clusters to provide such a high degree of availability. We at MOBOTIX thus feel that manufacturing a computerized camera and providing this outstanding degree of availability is quite an accomplishment.