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Weather Station Hardware => Weather Web Cams => Topic started by: Anole on October 25, 2007, 08:41:01 PM

Title: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anole on October 25, 2007, 08:41:01 PM
Nice shiny Mopar box found it's way to my door today:

http://65.40.44.37:8081/

Just playing with the cam now. Scoped out it's final location but I don't have enough outdoor cat5 to make the run. I should have it in place by the weekend. In the meantime if you jump on in the next 30 minutes or so you can watch me take apart a PC and drink some nice Kentucky Bourbon  8-).
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: NoQuitters on October 25, 2007, 09:37:36 PM
Larry you are a brave man. Setting it up inside with lights and everything. :lol:
I looked for the bottle but the only one I saw was the glue on the shelf to your right.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anole on October 25, 2007, 09:46:54 PM
The bottle is upstairs. It's sort of a self regulation. Drink too much and I can't make it back up or I fall on the way back down.  :lol:

I've already picked my spot and now I just have to get some cable so I can get it installed. Then you can watch my namesake lizards and manatee, dolphins and the occasional school of rays frolic in the canal. Lord knows there hasn't been any weather around here of any interest lately. We had a really good shot this week for some significant rainfall but I ended up with .26 inches. Pretty disappointing. Another chance for some good rains tomorrow but I'm not holding my breath given the way things have been here this year.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: capeweather on October 26, 2007, 06:32:53 AM
Sweet Image Larry. What kind of cam is that? Very clear.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: NoQuitters on October 26, 2007, 07:40:34 AM
That would be the Toshiba network camera that I sold him. ;)
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anole on October 26, 2007, 07:46:15 AM
I've got it pointing out the back door at the moment. Decent view of the sky from there but it's a bit washed out because it's looking out through a substantial overhang.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: ocala on October 26, 2007, 01:21:36 PM
Can't get it to work. I guess maybe your installing it.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anole on October 26, 2007, 01:36:05 PM
What browser are you using? The live display and controls of the toshiba cams don't play well with firefox I'm told. Once everything is fully installed, I'll be capturing stills to make that a non issue for the non-IE crowd.

On a side note you can now reach the live cam at http://weather.anolecomputer.com/anolecam01/

I am currently working on installing it but it's up and operational. In fact it you view it over the next hour or two you might get to see me fall off a ladder  :shock:
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: NoQuitters on October 26, 2007, 01:53:02 PM
I see the ladder, a whole bunch of cat 5, and some strange guy with a cordless Dewalt drill in his hand.
Got to see a little black boxer dog go flying by as well. UU
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: capeweather on October 26, 2007, 02:05:35 PM
hehe, i just saw the dog  :lol: :lol:
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: ocala on October 26, 2007, 02:23:31 PM
I guess it doesn't work with FF. After downloading a plug-in it worked in IE.
By the way, great quality!
 By the way who was that guy taking stuff out of the boat?
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: saratogaWX on October 26, 2007, 04:37:46 PM
I agree.. great quality of the image!  Firefox never worked with the controller software, and IE7 was griping about a JavaScript error on the viewer page.

Got to see the last image (white-socked sneaker in foreground, then image stopped  :lol: )

Thanks for letting us play too! UU

Ken
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anole on October 26, 2007, 05:02:56 PM
Back up now and in it's final location. You must have caught me as I unplugged it.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: tbweather on October 26, 2007, 05:39:53 PM
Larry-
That's a great picture. What kind of bandwidth does your connection have? While I was watching, someone else was controlling the camera and there was no perceptible change in the frame rate. I'd like to get a network camera but don't know if my connection is fast enough. (about 400Kbs upload).
Lew
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anole on October 26, 2007, 07:15:52 PM
I typically get about 700K upload speeds. You also have to consider that I'm doing a bit more uploading than a lot of folks. I have a couple of full time VPN connections that are really never idle (moving stuff back and forth a lot), and I've got all my weather data uploading at various intervals, including the fairly massive every five minute upload of all the graphics (including 30 radar images). I've not seen any impact on the quality of the picutre streaming from the camera which is quite impressive really.

The camera is currently set to the standard compression level. I probably play with the compression and some other settings this weekend and work on the static images.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anole on October 26, 2007, 10:30:05 PM
Been playing with the settings a bit tonight and I have a pretty decent night image. Of course it helps that the moon is just about full and I have some landscape lighting. Caught a really nice moonrise earlier too. I also changed the frame rate though it's impossible to tell right now what effect that had. We'll see what these changes look like in the morning.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anthony on October 27, 2007, 09:03:29 AM
Great picture. Sure wish I had a toy like that. Don't you just love playing with other peoples stuff?

Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: capeweather on October 27, 2007, 10:23:27 AM
Now that is cool. I zoomed all the way in and can even tell what the tide level is. That's going to be helpful whenever I go fishing over your way. Schweet.  :-)
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anole on October 27, 2007, 10:51:29 AM
Good idea  :!: 
I set a "Tide Check" preset which zooms in on the seawall directly north.

Here's a couple of pics of the installation:

(http://weather.anolecomputer.com/images/station/anolecam01-1-small.jpg)

(http://weather.anolecomputer.com/images/station/anolecam01-2-small.jpg)

It's a bit overcast today and the image is reflecting that nicely. What I see from the cam is pretty dang close to what I see with the naked eye. I thought about adjusting the picture but given it's purpose as a weather cam, looking a bit muted when it's overcast is not a bad thing.

Currently I have the frame rate set down to 7.5 from the 30 it was set to yesterday. The difference isn't too noticeable.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anole on October 28, 2007, 10:08:01 AM
Dang I'm stupid! I've been beating my head against the wall since I installed this camera because of the apparent flakiness of the local interface. I was having to make multiple attempts to log on the the admin interface and eventually would get connected but sometimes had to try 10 or more times. Then the connection would drop with no warning. I was also having issues with webcamXP not be able to consistently connect to the cam. It was getting very frustrating.

Turns out I had and IP address conflict with one of my print servers. Changed the IP address and like magic everything works as it should.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: tbweather on October 28, 2007, 11:12:52 AM
How does the camera handle multiple users attempting to control it at the same time?
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: capeweather on October 28, 2007, 11:18:48 AM
Cam image looks great today with the sun out.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: ocala on October 28, 2007, 12:32:20 PM
Anole, do you people believe in grass down there?
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: carterlake on October 28, 2007, 12:42:14 PM
I guess it doesn't work with FF. After downloading a plug-in it worked in IE.

I thought it was just me.  #-o

Wow. Nice backyard.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anole on October 28, 2007, 01:02:52 PM
I ran a lawn care business for two years. After that I decided I'd never mow grass again  :lol:
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anole on October 28, 2007, 01:10:34 PM
I guess it doesn't work with FF. After downloading a plug-in it worked in IE.

I thought it was just me. #-o

Wow. Nice backyard.

I'll have a version up shortly utilizing webcamXP that will work with FF. There won't be any access to the presets but you can still pan tilt and zoom.

We literally just finished the house addtions and landscaping within the past month. The "lawn" is made up of 42 cubic yards of washed shell (the white areas most of which are out of sight of the camera), 32 cubic yards of small river rock 9the brownish areas) and 11 yards of green granite gravel (the walkways). It all got moved by shovel and wheelbarrow on weekends. All the plants, with the exception of the coconut palms are newly planted. Hopefully by this time next year things will be a bit more lush.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anole on October 28, 2007, 01:11:31 PM
How does the camera handle multiple users attempting to control it at the same time?

It's all done with http requests so it's first come first served.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anole on October 28, 2007, 01:21:05 PM
New official site for the webcam is:

http://weather.anolecomputer.com/webcams/

Works on everything but Safari in testing. I still have to get that figured out and i'm working on getting the still images doing what I want.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: carterlake on October 28, 2007, 02:46:39 PM
Now you got me wondering how much longer before they start passing laws about these webcams.

I mean... 2 to 5 more years and we'll be panning and zooming right into the neighbor's windows (yeah, even that one house 200 yards away).

I always kidded the wife that I was going to setup the cam on a pole on the roof, pointing right into the neighbor's pool. I could start charging for access to the cam.  :lol:
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: ocala on October 28, 2007, 04:06:27 PM
But first they have to remove them from all the intersections. You know, the ones that catch you running a red light then mail the ticket to your house. :-x
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anthony on October 29, 2007, 08:23:13 AM
Anole, When I visited the web cam link this morning. The bottom half of the image disapears evey time the camera does a refresh. This is happenign about every second. I don't think it's my connection, 6MB. Could be my computer or something on it?? Any way. Great picture.

Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anole on October 29, 2007, 10:57:58 AM
You arent' the first to mention that. I don't see it even loking at it externally. I'm still experimenting trying to find a way that it's compatible with all browsers and still allows control. I'll try a different set up a little later today.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: capeweather on October 29, 2007, 11:54:34 AM
Larry,
I had the same problem. Once I changed it to run in Flash from WebcamXP the problem was resolved. Just go to options/HTTP client type and select Flash client. That may help you out.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anole on October 29, 2007, 12:04:52 PM
I've been experimenting with all the different client types and the only one I haven't been able to get to work is the flash one. I uploaded the flash file but things just don't want to load.

EDIT: Figured out the problem. The webcamXP.swf file was actually named webcamxp.swf. It's running on the flash version right now. Seems to be quite a bit more responsive as well.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: capeweather on October 29, 2007, 12:06:54 PM
Running really smooth on my end. No more chop chop.  :grin:
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: capeweather on October 29, 2007, 12:08:42 PM
Tom's Cam at Carterlake is doing exactly what your cam was doing if you want to see an example. I'm not sure what he runs but he may want to consider Flash as well.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anthony on October 30, 2007, 08:19:38 AM
Excellent. Looks a little choppy. But I think it's my piece of crap cpmputer.

Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: ncpilot on October 30, 2007, 11:50:51 AM
I'm getting updates about every 2 seconds... IE, at work, new Lenovo T60 laptop, T1 line most likely...

Oops, take that back, now it's approx. every second... it was slower earlier this morning...
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anole on October 30, 2007, 02:35:01 PM
I'm going to reduce the resolution and see if that helps.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: NoQuitters on October 30, 2007, 10:33:47 PM
Not to hijack the thread but the new cam will be here Friday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it is all that the reviews say. I'm getting this: http://www.4xem.com/products/wireless/IPCAMWLPTZ/index.html

The demo is here: http://www.4xem.com/camerademos/ if you want to test drive it. 3rd one down.

I also picked up the new Logitech 9000 web cam. By far the best usb cam I've seen hands down. It will be online tomorow in place of my current web cam. 2 megapix and auto focus from a web cam for under $100 is hard to believe but it's true.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anole on October 30, 2007, 10:41:38 PM
Those 4xem cams look pretty nice. I'm looking forward to seeing your results.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: carterlake on October 30, 2007, 10:56:24 PM
Tom's Cam at Carterlake is doing exactly what your cam was doing if you want to see an example. I'm not sure what he runs but he may want to consider Flash as well.

Really? It never does that for me... home or at work.

The problem with flash is that you immediately eliminate some folks from viewing... hum... maybe I'll have to play with the compression and see what comes up.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: capeweather on October 30, 2007, 11:37:10 PM
Yes, it does it mainly during the day. Almost like half the image gets chopped off on the bottom. At night the image size is much smaller so it's not very noticeable. I ran into that issue when running my cams and just said the heck with it and started running it in flash. Maybe you could confirm with a few other forum members on here. It might be happening when multiple users are logged on fighting for bandwidth and a little down tweak of the image compression might resolve your issue. 8-)
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: NoQuitters on October 31, 2007, 10:49:05 AM
Well I must say I'm very impressed with the picture quality from the 9000. Much better than I expected.
Here's the link to the picture that is looking through a window that needs cleaned. :-)

http://opweather.com/VidCap.jpg
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: ncpilot on October 31, 2007, 01:33:47 PM
When I go to NoQuitters home page, and click on web cam, I only get the top 1/4 of the image on my screen. Multiple refreshes don't help... curious...

Otherwise, the image link to the jpeg does look real nice...
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anthony on October 31, 2007, 04:53:03 PM
NoQuitters, The web cam image looks great. No problem viewing it.

Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: NoQuitters on October 31, 2007, 05:28:59 PM
Quote
When I go to NoQuitters home page, and click on web cam, I only get the top 1/4 of the image on my screen. Multiple refreshes don't help... curious...

You might have caught it in mid upload. It changes every 5 minutes. I've had it do that to me as well. It always corrects itself on the next upload though.

On a side note, I'm going to get rid of my Logitech 4000 if anyone needs a good webcam cheap.
$35 shipped in the continental US.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: carterlake on October 31, 2007, 05:42:56 PM
Quote
When I go to NoQuitters home page, and click on web cam, I only get the top 1/4 of the image on my screen. Multiple refreshes don't help... curious...

You might have caught it in mid upload. It changes every 5 minutes. I've had it do that to me as well. It always corrects itself on the next upload though.

On a side note, I'm going to get rid of my Logitech 4000 if anyone needs a good webcam cheap.
$35 shipped in the continental US.

So, that's the 9000 image?

Well, it looks good but I think you're getting about the same image as the Notebooks Pro. I wonder how it's low light looks.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: carterlake on October 31, 2007, 09:25:12 PM
I wonder how it's low light looks.

 :-( looks to be the same as the Notebooks Pro.

I'm thinking of adding a spot light to hit the pine tree and provide some light for the camera.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: carterlake on November 04, 2007, 12:38:48 PM
Yes, it does it mainly during the day. Almost like half the image gets chopped off on the bottom. At night the image size is much smaller so it's not very noticeable. I ran into that issue when running my cams and just said the heck with it and started running it in flash. Maybe you could confirm with a few other forum members on here. It might be happening when multiple users are logged on fighting for bandwidth and a little down tweak of the image compression might resolve your issue. 8-)

Ok, I think I fixed the problem by adding two different refresh rates for folks... I currently have it as a popup.

What do you think? Webcam page (http://www.carterlake.org/wx12.php)
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Anthony on November 05, 2007, 07:58:12 AM
The image looks great. Nice and smooth. Didn't apear to be choppy at all.

Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: kray1000 on November 05, 2007, 09:08:49 AM
Looks good from here also.  Got to see some neighborhood kids walking to school.
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: capeweather on November 05, 2007, 01:26:25 PM
Yes, it does it mainly during the day. Almost like half the image gets chopped off on the bottom. At night the image size is much smaller so it's not very noticeable. I ran into that issue when running my cams and just said the heck with it and started running it in flash. Maybe you could confirm with a few other forum members on here. It might be happening when multiple users are logged on fighting for bandwidth and a little down tweak of the image compression might resolve your issue. 8-)

Ok, I think I fixed the problem by adding two different refresh rates for folks... I currently have it as a popup.

What do you think? Webcam page (http://www.carterlake.org/wx12.php)

Much better!
Title: Re: Shiny new web cam (well almost new)
Post by: Mark / Ohio on November 05, 2007, 10:56:19 PM
Looks good from here also.  Got to see some neighborhood kids walking to school.

I got to see the neighbor leaving in his truck at 9:54pm.   ;)