Trixology
Weather => Weather Hardware/Measurement => Topic started by: Blicj11 on June 23, 2014, 09:40:10 PM
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I'm still shopping around for a webcam. I found a camera (Dropcam Pro) that records an mp4 file on a cloud server. Will that work with WeatherCat?
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Hi Blick and WeatherCat fans,
I'm still shopping around for a webcam. I found a camera (Dropcam Pro) that records an mp4 file on a cloud server. Will that work with WeatherCat?
If you can get from Dropcam a URL so that WeatherCat could download the file. it should work. See the Webcam preferences in the WeatherCat manual around page 150.
Cheers, Edouard [cheers1]
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If you can get from Dropcam a URL so that WeatherCat could download the file. it should work. See the Webcam preferences in the WeatherCat manual around page 150.
Thanks Edouard. I had looked at the manual but not close enough to figure it out. It turns out that DropCam will record to a URL only for an extra subscription fee. If you don't subscribe to the iCloud service, you can only view live footage in their app on your Mac or iOS device. Sounds like I need to keep looking for a camera.
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WebCams have come a long way since my first USB cam that I adapted for weather; gave up on it, so bad was the quality. Decided to try one of the new wireless cams (DropCam is one of many available now). Ordered the D-Link DCS-2330L which is "HD" and rated for outdoor use. It will work with EvoCam and/or will upload pictures to the D-Link site from which I should be able to import to WeatherUnderground or into WeatherCat. Will update when it arrives via free and slow delivery from Amazon.
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Hi LesCimes,
I went through this same issue 2 weeks ago when upgrading to HD. The first camera I bought only offered the 'cloud service view', and I ended up sending it back - replacing it with something else (an Axis M1004-W indoor IP camera).
When using an IP camera, WeatherCat will want to grab a JPG or PNG image (believe these are the formats supported). So it is important to buy a camera which offers a URL to allow for 'grabbing' the image. In my case this is http://<camera ip-address>/jpg/image.jpg for my Axis M1004-W. For the previous camera I used (a D-Link 930L), it was simply http://<camera ip-address>/image.jpg (I suspect it could be same for your DCS-2330L).
Unfortunately not all camera's have this functionality, and for those that do, it may require some help from Google as it is not always mentioned in the manual.
Jos
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LesCimes,
Are you still using the previous (3.7.6) version of EvoCam, or have you moved to the newer (current 4.x.x) version? I've tried v4 a couple of times since its release, but never got it to work as good and with the features of 3.7.6.
Steve
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Jos, appreciate the tip on capturing the image directly from the cam. I'll certainly give that a try. Wasn't sure how I was going to do it. Thanks!
Steve, I did download and install the newer version of EvoCam. I noticed it had profiles for D-Link cams but not sure how it will look with my new cam. Am looking forward to giving it a try. Been too long since I used the older EvoCam with a crude USB desktop cam. So I didn't even think twice. I just saw there was a new version and downloaded it; plus I figured there wouldn't be compatibility issues with Yosemitee. I'll post updates as to how the setup is going when the camera arrives. Thanks for the feedback.
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Are you still using the previous (3.7.6) version of EvoCam, or have you moved to the newer (current 4.x.x) version? I've tried v4 a couple of times since its release, but never got it to work as good and with the features of 3.7.6.
Steve:
I have had a number of WeatherCat crashes related to WC trying to grab my webcam image. When I get a chance, I am going to give Evocam 4 a spin. I've never used it so the newer version is the only option for me, but I am hoping it might resolve some of my issues. I'm using one of the new IP cameras from Sharx and both Sharx and Evocam Tech support said my combination should play nice, although Evocam says they haven't tested my specific camera. I'll keep you posted.
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The new D-Link DCS-2330L cam arrived. It is "high definition" and rated for outdoor use. Setup up fairly easily, though instructions are a bit technical, i.e. not very well written. It is also wireless which makes it quite convenient to place outside near the house. Am using EvoCam 4 to capture the image and upload to WeatherUnderground. Attempted to setup WeatherCat to grab the image from the camera but couldn't figure out how to get that to work. So, for now, I'll use EvoCam to to the job until I can figure out the configurations via WeatherCat.
Now all I need to viewers to enjoy it. For those so inclined... http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KGAGRACE1 (http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KGAGRACE1)
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I've had my eye on that HD cam as well, Les. But the 500+ one-star "reviews" on Amazon gave me pause so I hesitated. Your experience may give me the needed push. ;-)
Was looking at your bird feeder earlier this morning (in B&W) and then I hit refresh to get a feel for how frequently you're uploading and very next shot (somewhere around 0720) came up in color. Very nice quality pics!
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Whoops, looks like I spoke too soon. Went back to look again after I wrote the above and see that the feeder shot hasn't been updated since 7:49:58 a.m. :-(
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When I get a chance, I am going to give Evocam 4 a spin. I've never used it so the newer version is the only option for me.
If you find v4.x doesn't work for you, note that v3.7.6 is still available under Evological's "Downloads" pull-down menu, and works with my Sharx cameras. There is a bit of the software that is outdated, so it quits twice a day, but I wrote an AppleScript to check to see if EvoCam is running, and if not, to restart it. That breaks up the daily time-lapse videos, but that's not a problem for me.
Steve
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Thanks Steve. I'll keep that in mind. Still haven't had time to give Evo a 14 day trial.
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Whoops, looks like I spoke too soon. Went back to look again after I wrote the above and see that the feeder shot hasn't been updated since 7:49:58 a.m. :-(
Appreciate the input on the WebCam. I have it set to upload a new image every two minutes, but WeatherUnderground doesn't seem to refresh its image that often. EvoCam log doesn't indicate any problems with the uploading. So, I'm not sure what is going on. It is one of the things that I anticipate digging into.
The camera comes with an Infrared light that activates at sunset and deactivates at sunrise. Therefore the picture is black and white when using the "night vision" and then goes full color once it get light enough outside to automatically drop the infrared.
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Appreciate the input on the WebCam. I have it set to upload a new image every two minutes, but WeatherUnderground doesn't seem to refresh its image that often. EvoCam log doesn't indicate any problems with the uploading. So, I'm not sure what is going on. It is one of the things that I anticipate digging into.
I'm not sure how often WU actually uses a refreshed webcam still shot. I am set to upload every 5 minutes and that used to work but lately I have noticed WU doesn't refresh more than a few times an hour. I am going to play around with the WC preference setting and see what happens on the WU end.
The camera comes with an Infrared light that activates at sunset and deactivates at sunrise. Therefore the picture is black and white when using the "night vision" and then goes full color once it get light enough outside to automatically drop the infrared.
My Sharx indoor IP camera has the same feature. It's quite nice for running around the clock. Uses less bandwidth at night.
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I did a little searching in the help section of WeatherUnderground and found this information of interest relevant to image updates from webcams...
"We are currently processing over 1,000,000 images a day from over 2600 webcams. We try to process as many images as we can, but if the system gets too overloaded, we drop images until the upload volume slows down or the servers catch up. I suspect this is what is happening to your station, and you may see this behavior again in the future."
So, that may be the reason why the website doesn't show the most recent image. Seems odd, however, that the servers could be so busy as to delay updates for hours. I emailed Wu asking for clarification/elaboration.
Currently for my personal weather website I use WeatherCat to grab the cam image via WeatherUnderground. If I can figure out how to pull the image directly from the webcam then at least my personal weather site would show a fresh image. Any tips out there on how to configure WeatherCat?
I tried a couple of things unsuccessfully. If EvoCam can do it, shouldn't WC be able? I configured WC to access the cam via html but that didn't work. Wrong URL perhaps?
Also tried to have the cam save an image to file but haven't figured out how to set that up; it appears you have to have a NAS disk, which I don't
Suggestions?
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I did a little searching in the help section of WeatherUnderground and found this information of interest relevant to image updates from webcams...
"We are currently processing over 1,000,000 images a day from over 2600 webcams. We try to process as many images as we can, but if the system gets too overloaded, we drop images until the upload volume slows down or the servers catch up. I suspect this is what is happening to your station, and you may see this behavior again in the future."
This is helpful. Thanks.
Currently for my personal weather website I use WeatherCat to grab the cam image via WeatherUnderground. If I can figure out how to pull the image directly from the webcam then at least my personal weather site would show a fresh image. Any tips out there on how to configure WeatherCat?
I tried a couple of things unsuccessfully. If EvoCam can do it, shouldn't WC be able? I configured WC to access the cam via html but that didn't work. Wrong URL perhaps?
Also tried to have the cam save an image to file but haven't figured out how to set that up; it appears you have to have a NAS disk, which I don't
Suggestions?
Your camera is providing a live stream somewhere on your wireless network. Your D-Link manual should tell you how to capture a still frame image from the live stream using an internal URL. Mine is something like http://10.0.1.50/live/jpeg.jpg (which won't work for you - just giving you an example).
Enter your internal URL into WeatherCat | Preferences | Webcam | File From URL, click on Web-cam Enabled, set the Capture Image Every option, and click on Keep Images for 24 hours.
WeatherCat will now store your still shots in your Home/Library/Application Support/WeatherCatMedia folder. I am having WeatherCat upload the resulting WebCamForPicture.jpg in the WeatherCatMedia folder to my website.
WeatherCat also uploads the photo to Wunderground using the settings in WeatherCat | Preferences | On-Line | Wunderground PWS.
Hope this helps. Check out pages 170-171 in the WC Manual.
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Must be a lot of bird lovers down in your area of GA, Les. Big increase in 'hits' on your WU site after you installed the HD cam.
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Here's a page that lists URL's for a number of D-Link cams:
http://www.ispyconnect.com/man.aspx?n=D-Link (http://www.ispyconnect.com/man.aspx?n=D-Link)
It looks like for the DCS 2330L these are the ones to try:
http://IPADDRESS:554/dms?nowprofileid=2
and
http://IPADDRESS:554/image/jpeg.cgi
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Appreciate the info on capturing images via WeatherCat! Hopefully, with the day off tomorrow, MLK Day, tomorrow I can give it a try. Thanks!
Must be a lot of bird lovers down in your area of GA, Les. Big increase in 'hits' on your WU site after you installed the HD cam.
If the birds realize how popular they are they might start showing off. :)
I suspect what is happening is that WU is counting as a "hit" every time WeatherCat grabs the webcam image from the page. I guess that is one way to make your site look popular. Oh well, that is another reason why I should configure WC to upload the image directly from the cam for my custom webpage instead of pulling it off of WU.
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Question about how weather cam works...
The observation was brought to my attention above that the number of "hits" on my WU page has soared since I started using the webcam. In a matter of a couple of weeks I have over 19,000 "viewings." I seriously doubt that is actual viewership. So, what is causing the inflated count on the web page? EvoCam is set to FTP the webcam image every six minutes. WeatherCat pulls that image for the custom webpage every 15 minutes. At most, the two pieces of software might account for 300 - 400 "hits" per day on WU. But the viewership per day is much higher than that, averaging well over a 1,000, guess-timated. Thoughts anyone?
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I have noticed that if I leave my browser open for long periods of time whilst on my own WU page, the views soar. I concluded that in this state, every time my data refreshes counts as one view, which is every 2.5 seconds using Rapid Fire. To prove this I just hit the refresh button every 4 or 5 seconds and watched my view count increment by two each time. If you leave your browser open on your WU page, you should record more than 34,000 views per day, which is how one of my neighbours down the mountain a few miles makes sure his station has more views than mine. This does not bother me because he only paid US$80 for his hardware and it is not very accurate. You get that for which you pay. (Notice how far out of way I had to go to not end the previous sentence with a preposition? :) )
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High grammatical standards appreciated, as well as high standards in data collection. ;)
Good point about leaving the WU page open. I thought that WU had made accommodations for that, i.e. discounting hits from the station owner, at least there use to be an option available for that in owner preferences. Maybe that option has been removed since Weather Channel bought out WU. (I don't think I will lose any sleep over it. [sleep])
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The new cam has been working very well. The infrared feature for night viewing is pretty neat, though it is short range. Some of the cams advertise 30 foot range. The D-Link model I bought is only 15 ft. It is cool anyway. The cam crashed on me once the day after I set it up. But since then, now over a week, no problems.
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Anyone using the EvoCam 64-bit version 5?
I downloaded the trial version and it runs fine with Yosemite and the memory leak problems I've read about appear to have been solved.
But there doesn't seem to be a way to tie a specific action to a specific condition. Or at least I haven't figured out how. If there's a way, please post it.
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Didn't know EvoCam was available in a version 5. Can't help with the question, but anticipate trying it out myself. Thanks.
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Update on the webcam setup... After messing it up the other day while tweaking the system, I decided to start over and try a new configuration. The cam has a Linux system built into it so it has all sorts of configuration options. So I set it to FTP directly to Weather Underground. (Am no longer using EvoCam; it didn't have a profile for my camera and the profile I was substituting quit working.) Additionally I connected the cam to MyDLink service (free) which allows me to get a live view 24/7, including sound. The sound is good enough to easily hear the birds on the feeder which hangs in front of the cam.
You may know that webcams are notorious for security breaches, a matter of concern since I am tinkering here and don't know much about the hidden pitfalls. So, I connected the cam to the Internet via my guest WiFi signal. Thus the camera has no connection to the main weather server which is on my main WiFi signal. Lastly, having the cam working as a mini-server for the image takes a bit of load off my Mac Mini which is feeling its age; it needs more memory and maybe a new hard drive. After 36 hours the new setup is working well. Think I'll tweak it a bit. :o
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Thanks for the update. Interesting approach.
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Borrowing the thread...
Looking at a web cam (new month on the CC!). USB types are the least expensive, but the distance will require ~150+ in USB to Ethernet to USB, although the attic run is possible. However, SWMBO will not be happy with even the short run of cable and the tiny holes that will require. Same problem comes with many of the ethernet capable cams.
These issues lead me to WiFi. These will still need power supply wires, but that can be tucked into the window casing and wall corners. I did find one cam that is battery powered... for up to 4 hours! ??? Obviously not intended for 24/7, unattended use. :o
I also found a "great" Asian site with hundreds of web cams, indoor/outdoor/WiFi/Ethernet/USB/etc./etc. Just not sure their "native speakers for 27 languages" would be on duty at the same time I'm awake! [rolleyes2]
I also read one comment that some people were getting reflections on the window glass from the IR lights! I'm not sure I really care about the 'spy' image of the back yard, even it it is hail! [lol]
So, I've gather the following brands in recent posts at Trixology:- Logitech 9000
- D-Link 930L
- Sharx Security IP exterior camera
- Mobotix M24M
I'm sure I've missed some. Might be good to have a poll on what cams are being used. It would have to allow for "Other" and probably need some Admin help in modifying the list. I could start a pol and just make a list of "others" manually... back to my own selfish needs/wants/must haves!!! [blush]
Has anyone used a Foscam brand? They are not US made, but have some excellent <videos (http://foscam.us/tools-support.html/#usermanual)> on different aspects of setting their cameras up, even on a Mac (at least on Lion). Looks like the majority of their equipment works with a Mac. Right now, I'm considering the <FI9821W v2 (http://www.amazon.com/Foscam-FI9821W-Megapixel-Wireless-Camera/dp/B00F5CTTAU/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1430938832&sr=1-3&keywords=foscam)>.
Lastly, the <WiKi info (http://wiki.trixology.com/index.php/WebCams)> on web cams seems to say that WC can now do everything that's needed for a camera that saves its video on the same drive that is running WC or uploading it to another cloud location. All WC needs is a link to the file or the hosting service. It can even capture a single frame from a movie! Please edit that page if it needs it.
EDIT: "Good" or bad, I did start a Poll on what camera's are being used. It's located in this same forum titled "Web cams in use (http://athena.trixology.com/index.php?topic=1686.0)"... OK, originality is not my most developed quality. I actually have quite a few un-developed qualities, some are even good! [rolleyes2] Please vote and post there about any details or experiences.
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hi xairbusdriver
i'm running a logitech 9000
cheers
[cheers1]
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as long as you are not looking for anything Mac specific, there is a *vast* amount of knowledge about webcams on the wxforum.net
http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?board=72.0
Steve
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I tried one of the low cost Chinese cameras first. The brand was SriCam but I found out that there is one manufacturer for most of the Chinese low cost webcams and they provide the same camera to lots of retailers. I never could get it to connect to my Wifi. It worked great cabled but I could not configure it to run on the network. Tech support with these Chinese vendors is a nonexistent mess. I was able to track down the manufacturer but they refused to provide support. They did give me the email for the retailer, who did not have anyone who could speak English. I eventually gave up and do not recommend you go that route. There is a reason why they are low cost. They say they will run on a Mac but all software and documentation is for a PC.
I returned it and bought an indoor Sharx and I love it. I had it set up in 15 minutes and it gives you the ability to turn off the power lights and other things that might reflect back through the glass at night if you are shooting out of a window.
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I'm not using a cam with WC, so can't make any recommendations. However, ? just recently I replaced my network router and in the process discovered that Netgear has a consumer level "? 100% wire-free, weatherproof, indoor/outdoor HD home security camera ?" called the Arlo?. (http://www.arlo.com/en-us/?utm_source=Bluehornet&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=Arlo%20Logo&utm_campaign=arlomothersdayvms3230415email)
Don't know much else about it.
[cheers1]
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Sharx SCNC3905 wide-angle.
At first I had the "standard" lens 3905 model but after being a tester for the prototype wide-angle version (still not being retailed, available direct), I swapped out my old cameras for the 3905 wide-angle prototypes.
Powered via PoE.
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PoE can be simple and very stable method, not sure of the max distance of PoE as compared to simple Ethernet, need to do some searching... My problem is still putting a hole in the ceiling/wall intersection... at least in the room where most of our sleeping is done! Would you mind, Felix, using the poll to register your Brand? I'm going to edit the choices, somewhat, just listing the brand, not specific models. Some have complained about not having their model listed, perhaps a few more will make the effort to increase the value of the data.
Bull, that's exactly the name of one of the 'brands' at the Chinese site I mentioned elsewhere. They've put a lot of effort into building a site, but even that is inconsistent. I usually over-look any grammar/language problems; I speak/write absolutely no Chinese (or any of its many dialects!). But support is where most companies fall down. It may just be poor planning at best or lack of knowledge of Macs. Fortunately, many hardware companies are realizing that a web interface can be all the 'localization' needed for different hardware as well as world-wide access. And pixels can be a lot cheaper than paper!