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Webcam Servers

Hardware/software/hints and tips/discussion/webcam links etc
hills
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Re: Webcam Servers

Post by hills »

Damn I'm going to have to change the location of mine. The perfect spot I had points directly at the morning sun. I assume that would eventually damage the cam wouldn't it?

I have pointed it to the south, to the only other clearing between our trees but now I'm getting reflection off the cutains. I think I'll have to leave it in that direction, but I'll move the cam outside.

BTW I've linked it to the "webcam" on my webpage now and moved the adelaide skyline camera to "skyline"
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RCE
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Re: Webcam Servers

Post by RCE »

Hillbilly wrote:Ahaaaa, very clever! However I think of the config I definitely need wireless, so the wireless model of yours does it at a reasonable price. Can you zoom in with it?
No zoom I am afraid.

Also ignore the Maplin Q&A they seem to suggest it can be used outside... it can't unless you put it in some kind of enclosure and get power to it.
====
Alan
Gina
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Re: Webcam Servers

Post by Gina »

I thought sun shining directly into the webcam would damage it and was a bit worried when I installed it in the summer but now have the low winter sun shining right into it and so far have seen no detrimental affect. A northerly pointing view would have been better in many respects but this location precludes it (unless you want farm buildings, trees and sky only). We are on a southeast facing side of a hill. There is a faint possibility that I might add an extra "sky cam" at a later date.

Regarding having a webcam a long way from the computer, you can get USB powered extension leads which act like a repeater and extend the USB range greatly. Also, a USB to cat5e cable (and back again) converter is available (or was) giving a cheap way of extending USB to many tens of metres. Still wired though, of course. I have both, expecting to want to run a very long wired link from webcam to PC. Beware of using a wireless webcam that uses the same frequency as wireless LAN or even that of your weather station. Interference could be a problem.
Gina

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nking
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Re: Webcam Servers

Post by nking »

There is the possibility of using the HomePlug technology. This feeds the Cat5 into your mains wiring, this link will give you the idea http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/default ... GroupID=61
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RCE
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Re: Webcam Servers

Post by RCE »

Gina wrote:Beware of using a wireless webcam that uses the same frequency as wireless LAN or even that of your weather station. Interference could be a problem.
The one I suggested is WiFi, it connects to your router by either cat5 or WiFi signal so no probs with interference ;)
====
Alan
Hillbilly
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Re: Webcam Servers

Post by Hillbilly »

Hi all,

Thanks for the suggestions. I've decided to definitely go for wireless, cable runs are certainly out, as would be too obvious and we have 3ft thick stone walls. I considered the plug solution but that would add to the cost of a cam set up so will invest in the wireless.

I learnt about wireless channels the hard way. My prized gadget is a Philips WACS music centre with wireless remote stations. (The weather station comes close but this is still top!). It has run hitch free for 2 years. I had some great playlists built for the christmas season and was looking forward to music everywhere. Then the weather station arrived. When I got round to using the music station again it lost contact with the remote station and wouldn't connect for anything. :evil: As it was christmas I had to leave it while I got on with other things and didn't have quite as much music as I had hoped for. When I got round to investigating, I discovered that the music system runs on channel 11, which I believe is the default on many devices. I changed this and bingo, the music system worked like a dream again.

So I suppose the weather station runs on channel 11. I imagine some could get into it to change it but I haven't looked. Can I set the channel for a webcam if its going through my router? - I'm on the edge of my understanding again. Otherwise if its on 11 again, I'm a bit stuck!
Many thanks
Helen

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RCE
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Re: Webcam Servers

Post by RCE »

Helen a couple of things that may help you work it all out ;)

Weather stations generally work on a public frequency of around 486MHz though this may be slightly different in the states. Things that can interfere with weather stations are, radio hams (some use the frequency), walky talkies (the domestic type sold in most stores now), baby monitors, wireless home security, wireless home automation.

WiFi... Your WACS is a WiFi device, as is your router. These work on 2.4GHz, the WiFi system has a number of channels available, however all your WiFi devices will need to be set to the same channel number. Your router is the master device, whatever channel that is set to, all your other devices need to be on the same channel, with the same security settings.

Originally France only allowed channels 11 to 13 to be used, this has now changed and channels 1 to 13 can be used. For this reason older equipment will be limited to channels 11 to 13. Therefore I would change the router channel to something like 5 and then change the WACS to match, in this way you have less chance of another WiFi network interfering with yours.

If you get the WiFi webcam you would set the channel to match the router (and the WACS), eg 5, and set the security to match the router too.

Things that can interfere with WiFi are, cordless phones, other WiFi networks on the same channel, video senders, wireless security cameras. Video senders and wireless security cameras use a similar frequency to WiFi and often knock out three or four WiFi channels, it is a real pain that they are allowed to use the same radio spectrum as WiFi.
====
Alan
Hillbilly
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Re: Webcam Servers

Post by Hillbilly »

Thanks Alan. That makes things clearer. My WACS has its own wireless network, separate to my wireless router network. I could add the WACS to the router network but haven't yet. I had hoped that the wireless camera would use the router channel, so that's good news.
Many thanks
Helen

La Locherie Weather
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RCE
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Re: Webcam Servers

Post by RCE »

If you have a PC with a wireless network card, would be worth downloading netstumbler http://stumbler.net/ it will find any used WiFi channels so you know which ones to avoid, it will also allow you to check the wireless signal strength around your property.
====
Alan
TNETWeather

Re: Webcam Servers

Post by TNETWeather »

Couple notes...

1) Wireless is not really wireless since you still need to obtain power. I've tried a number of different wireless solutions with not really great results. I do know that others have however had good results.

If you have to run power to the unit and it is reasonably close to your system, a wired webcam that runs power through the line might be a better alternative. Less expensive and better images.

2) As for my webcam, I turned mine off, because of workstation load issues. It would start out around 17% for a while and then creep up until it was almost always near 100%. Not very useful.

Software worked great for years on WinXP Pro, so it is most likely Win7 related. I suspect that there is something going on between the software and Win7 though I've not gotten a response from the sft mfg.

I switched the webcam page to use 5 locally available (allowed to use) Phoenix Metro Visibility Webcams which provide a much better view of the area than than I could anyway. They only update every 15 minutes, but... they were easy to implement. The top one is great at night too. Good city shot from South Mountain.

I'm tempted to setup one of the CCTV cams again, but have a lot of tasks that are before than happening. Low priority.
Hillbilly
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Re: Webcam Servers

Post by Hillbilly »

Thanks for these points. I now have netstumbler. Had it on an old machine but completely forgot about it so useful to have it back.

Your point 2 worries me Kevin. I have Vista so maybe it will be OK. Want to give it a go so will see what happens. I agree the webcams you have used look great so hardly worth doing your own!
Many thanks
Helen

La Locherie Weather
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Re: Webcam Servers

Post by TNETWeather »

I added the collection of frames for all 5 webcams.

Having problems getting the Lytebox to work, but I put a Replay last 24 hour link under each of the images to replay the 70+ captured images.

The script (perl), fetches using wget the images 4 times an hour after they update and updates the current viewable image which is what the website is linked to and then stores a copy of that image in a history directory for each webcam.

The current image is then used by the website for display rather than hotlinking off the originating site. So we get 4 images an hour for each of the 5 webcams for 20 images an hour total.

The history images are supposed to be clickable on the actual current image but for some reason that is not working correctly. Need to step back a bit and then relook at it as I'm sure it is something simple.

The lytebox then calls a php script that uses a flash slide show package I've used for years to display all of the images in rapid secession for a movie like effect. There is not quite 24 hours worth of frames there yet, but will be in about 5 hours.

We actually had some weather today so there are a lot of clouds and you can see rain at times in some of the images. We got butkus on rain here though. Yes it rained, but nothing registered, so a Trace was seen.

A link to on of the more interesting ones...

http://cumulus.tnetweather.com/webcams/ ... _somt1.php
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nking
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Re: Webcam Servers

Post by nking »

Hi Kevin,

I think it's a great effect you've achieved, much more interesting than a static picture or real time stream. 8-)
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Re: Webcam Servers

Post by TNETWeather »

Finally figured out the lytebox issue. Forgot when I wrote the plugin that I used a newer version than I had before which has more options. I then used the lytebox option rather than lyteframe option because it is simpler syntax. But, that only works with images, not HTML...

Switched it around to use lyteframe and added the extra parameter it requires and it works like I expected on everything except IE8. In IE8, appears to want a larger frame than the images are... so it creates scroll bars which it is not supposed to do. Will figure out a work around.

So.. now all 5 web cams have 24 hour replays simply by clicking on the image. What I was trying for originally.

http://cumulus.tnetweather.com/webcam
Gina
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Re: Webcam Servers

Post by Gina »

Very good :) Well done :)
Gina

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