FOSCAM FI8905W wireless IP cam

[seabreeze3]

OK ... some areas of outdoor mounting that are of interest:

1. The provided mount is inadequate for the size of the camera. The device is fairly weighty and bulky - the mount is flimsy and cheap. In order to get the camera to stay upright and stable I had to wedge it onto the corner of my shed roof. (A good NE wind will likely move it). I will be replacing that mount asap. The mounting post itself is too small for the size of the camera. Needs something more skookum. A visit to the "used" camera store should produce some durable tripod parts with which I can cobble together something much more substantial and secure.

2. The power and data cable into the back of the cam left me a little leery as to watertight integrity. I sealed it up with silicone.

3. That same cable is rather short thus weather exposure will quickly become an issue. The data connection port and the power connection would soon allow moisture to enter. I ran them under the eave of my shed to protect them for now. There is also a reset button on the cable assembly which looks vulnerable. My fix is only interim and within the week will find all those exposed bits running through a watertight plastic container with grommets.

Pics once I get the size down.

[seabreeze3]

Here are some pictures of the areas I described above:

Hmmm momentarily ...

Here we go

back of cam.JPG

cables.JPG

flimsy mount.JPG

Cheers
Dave

(Must find that bottle of Scapa!)

[bwutwuck]

I am so glad it looks like everyone is going to install a Foscam.

The problem I have is that the ftp upload from the Foscam UI uses a camera id appended to a date stamp .jpg filename. I would like the filename to be constant to allow it to display in the <src> tag and overwrite previous uploads, saving space.

Note - The server does not support PHP, so server based manipulation is out. I also do not want to run a PC (300 watt PSU) with YAWCAM just to process the filename.

Any ideas, or do I ask Foscam for a new version of firmware to allow variable output names ?

Ta'.

[seabreeze3]

Any ideas, or do I ask Foscam for a new version of firmware to allow variable output names ?

Given the fact that this camera is about 1/4 the price of others which would provide you with the particular features you want, I'm not sure you're getting the drift of this thread.

You could ask FOSCAM to issue new firmware to meet your requirements or, as all of us are well aware, you could run any one of a hundred different 3rd party UI apps, many of which are free, and which operate seamlessly with wireless IP cams.

I'm not sure I understand your reluctance to run something like Yawcam to manage your uploaded captures. If you're running a wx stn and your accessing the UI of an IP cam, aren't you leaving your computer on 24/7? For one thing, FOSCAM has no scheduler so you'd need 3rd party software for that alone.

What am I missing here?

In any case, there are a lot of cameras that provide a much more powerful Web UI. You just have to be prepared to pay for it.

[bwutwuck]

Thank you for your feedback.

It is good that all of you are well aware... I also know there are some clever types out there who may have a JS script or something I could use to run within the actual web page that would suit my situation.

The topic title is - FOSCAM F18905W wireless IP cam, so I figured someone who had one may already have come across this problem.

I am located on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales in Australia and I have two properties that I travel between. One of the properties has satellite and the other ADSL. I currently run PC based applications Yawcam and Logitec WiLife Commander in either / or.

I am looking for a solution where I do not have to run a PC unattended for around two weeks at a time. This camera will fit the circumstance, I just need a work-around for the output filename.

Ta' anyway.

[seabreeze3]

Keep plugging. There's a good chance someone has either a script or a FW overwrite that might work. Another source for information which might help is here. A lot of FOSCAM users there and many have pushed FOSCAM into new and updated firmware.

Your idea of giving FOSCAM a tap on the shoulder is not a bad idea. They have responded to other similar requests in the past, so it certainly can't hurt. I'm going to.

Cheers
Dave

[steve]

(Hunting for a bottle of Scapa once I've completed this)

I'm surprised that it makes it over there. It's a small distillery and (I imagine) not well known outside Orkney.

For potential UK purchasers, Foscam have confirmed that 'The Happiness Shop' on eBay are authorised resellers.

[Austin]

It arrived yesterday by surface turtle.

Mine came Monday!

It looks just as described. The pictures are deceiving. This is a somewhat bulky creature, (bigger than a fizzie-pop can). That said, it also appears to be very well built and skookum enough to handle a bit of jostling.

I would agree, it is a pretty good sized camera, although the mounting screws they sent with it are so short, I decided to get longer ones so that there is no chance it can come out of the wall, I used 8 inch screws to mount my weather station, so yeah...

Immediate issues:
1. Getting the antenna mounted on the rear panel was a little fiddly. It is a small brass coupler requiring a very small wrench. (The shroud slides forward out of the way however getting the coupler to seat still required a tool).

Yes it is! And every time you try to get the antenna to look nice pointing straight up it is either to tight to move, or then loosens it...

2. The instruction manual is written in micro-print and required a magnifying glass to read. I downloaded the manual from FOSCAM which contains a quick set-up guide, a detailed manual for both Windows and Mac and, above all, is easy to read.

Their manual didn't even correspond to the camera I got. lol

3. The software CD included in the box was... EMPTY! Luckily, the FOSCAM site in (2) above has all the IPCam Tools Setup available for download. Unzipped (they're .RAR) and saved, things were pretty straight forward... sort of.

I found that software kind of stupid, all it does it tell you the LAN IP that your camera is using, which can be found easily using other means, like looking at the attached devices on your router.

4. READ THE INSTALLATION manual carefully. The grammar can be a bit tough to follow.



5. The Realtime camera control software is OK. It uses a web-browser for access to administrator functions. It uses Internet Explorer as a "preferred" browser but allows a login by "pushing" Firefox or others on a separate login button. I don't use IE normally but discovered that using any other browser didn't produce all the features available through IE. Recommend using IE to manage the camera.

Mine works fine using firefox, safari, and chrome on different OS's.

6. When doing initial set up, do it hard-wired into the router with the very short cat 5 cable provided. (or use your own longer one)

7. You can do almost everything from the camera monitoring software provided including streaming, http uploading and ftp. However, I didn't like the FTP service page in the set up. There is no scheduler so it's off to a 3rd party app to get things working.

The other thing with the FTP it offers is that it uploads new files every time, not overwriting old files (Example: uploads image1.jpg and then 5 minutes later or w/e it uploads image2.jpg not overwriting the original)

8. Yawcam was in a struggle finding the video stream. It detected the camera easily enough but could not connect. I tried WebcamXP5 and watched it cycle through endless connection attempts even though it had reported that the camera and connection was OK. Time-saver: The camera is user identified. In the password option of Yawcam or WebcamXP, (if you haven't modified it in the camera set up) check off the password box and put admin in the user id. (No password required).

9. The camera software and the manual don't describe the video stream. In Yawcam it is suggested that http://(camera ip)/video.mjpeg will acquire the stream. Not so. Luckily WebcamXP, (even though it couldn't connect), produced a dialog box with the name and file extension. http://(webcam IP)/videostream.cgi. Once I had solved the user/password issue in WebcamXP and given Yawcam the correct LAN URL/filename/file extension both worked very well.

Yawcam works fine with it, even though it says .mjpeg only, I used the .cgi file and it picked it right up.

10. I have only just started testing so have yet to put the camera outdoors. (I have a small concern given the advertised operating temperature range of the camera (0 c to 55 c) and we're having a bit of a cold snap here where temps drop below 0 c at night.) That said, initial performance is good indoors. Night vision is not bad and motion detection is quick. I hope to have it mounted and a webcam page inserted into my weather site by the end of the week. The view out the window is reasonably good - not HD - but as others have already pointed out, it's not an HD price. So far, for the cost, this seems like a darned good rig. Once you navigate around the little potholes like software hiccups and fractured English in the instructions, it all appears to be a very simple and worthwhile investment.

I am kind of scared at the operating temps, but nothing I can do about that, it is just going to have to survive the cold.

Hopefully my schedule (that's my employer's nice name for the chaos they present me) allows some time to get this beastie active and online by the end of the week.

Cheers
Dave

I'll post a link to mine after I get it outside tomorrow.

[Gina]

Strange about the 0C lower operating temperature - would tend to indicate it's not designed for outdoor use!

Regarding the cable entry, maybe it's sealed inside with a gland. I have CCTV cameras like that.

As for web page server, I found it well worth using an independent hosting company (ISP no longer does it anyway). Plenty of space, plenty of bandwidth, all the bells and whistles including PHP etc. (Mine does all that for 20 UK pounds p.a. - net name extra, xxx.xxx.uk costs £10 for 2 yrs.)

[Austin]

Strange about the 0C lower operating temperature - would tend to indicate it's not designed for outdoor use!

Regarding the cable entry, maybe it's sealed inside with a gland. I have CCTV cameras like that.

As for web page server, I found it well worth using an independent hosting company (ISP no longer does it anyway). Plenty of space, plenty of bandwidth, all the bells and whistles including PHP etc. (Mine does all that for 20 UK pounds p.a. - net name extra, xxx.xxx.uk costs £10 for 2 yrs.)

It would seem to indicate that, but not much need for a waterproof camera for inside. lol

[Gina]

Been looking at the spec of this camera. In some ways it's similar to the one we use for our main security CCTV camera but ours is wired. It was also more expensive and a higher spec., having a CCD image sensor. Here are my personal comments on the FOSCAM :-

Pros :-
Wireless and waterproof.
Relatively low price for a wireless camera.

Cons:-
CMOS chip rather than CCD - CMOS have poorer resolution and light range handling.
Narrow angle of view - only 22 degrees. So won't cover much of the sky. I think my MS LifeCam is about twice that. The security camera is 60 degrees - we need that much coverage.

[gemini06720]

Seems some webcams can put up with having the sun in their view. I have my Microsoft widescreen LifeCam pointing almost due south and the sun has been in view. There appears to be no lasting damage done to the image sensor. There's white-out around the sun when it's in the frame but so far nothing more serious.

Gina, can you Webcam 'see' anything at night - what is the minimum illumination required by your webcam?

The light sensitivity of the webcam might make the difference between a CMOS sensor that can still produce an image after being exposed to the sun...

[Gina]

Gina, can you Webcam 'see' anything at night - what is the minimum illumination required by your webcam?

The light sensitivity of the webcam might make the difference between a CMOS sensor that can still produce an image after being exposed to the sun...

The main webcam I use for my weather web site is the Microsoft LifeCam Cinema http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/digit ... px?pid=008 It's a USB webcam with 1080x720 resolution (though I only use 800x448 on the web page). I don't know what type of image sensor it uses. It can "see" distant street lights at up to a mile away and car headlights and tail lights on the far hill at over 5 miles. I don't know what the actual sensitivity is but it seems very good to me. I measured the angle of view as about 45 degrees horizontally.

The security camera is rather different. It is a Swann PRO-610 Wide Angle Security Camera. It produces PAL standard TV signal composite video and works at the 625 line TV standard. It is certainly more sensitive than the LifeCam and switches automatically from colour to mono when the light level falls. It can see in moonlight but also has IR LEDs for night vision up to 50ft. It has a Sony 1/3" CCD with 480 TV lines "Video Quality". Angle of view is quoted as 83 degrees. I think that's diagonal as I reckon the view angle is about 60 degrees horizontally.

[seabreeze3]

(Hunting for a bottle of Scapa once I've completed this)

I'm surprised that it makes it over there. It's a small distillery and (I imagine) not well known outside Orkney.

It not only makes it here, it finds its way into the far reaches of ye olde booze locker. It is known only by those with a discerning taste. Sometimes can be hard to find on the shelves.

[seabreeze3]

I've had the camera aimed out toward an intersection overnight. With the street lighting, traffic lights and vehicle headlights it's maintained a colour image through the night.