Author Topic: SP-500UZ Questions  (Read 14327 times)

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Offline Moose Whisperer

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SP-500UZ Questions
« on: April 14, 2012, 03:07:39 AM »
OK, I've been convinced to get a SP-500UZ for a high-res webcam - I have a used one on the way. Thanks to Greg and Mike (Sebectec) for all of their help so far. But I don't want to keep pestering just one or two people with my ignorance, so I figure I will open it up to the whole forum.  \:D/

Regarding the Olympus SP-500UZ specifically:

1. USB cable - Is the cable just a generic USB like the drawer full I already have, or is it some kind of proprietary cable just for this camera? (Bet I can guess the answer, but just thought I'd ask anyway).
2. Power Supply - 6VDC? I have a bunch of those too.
3. Sun damage - I've read some older posts about burning the CCD from direct sun exposure. Is this a big issue? Here in Alaska, low sun angles are the rule, not the exception. Particularly in summer, there is virtually no direction I can aim the camera (other that straight down at the ground) that won't get some direct sun exposure.
4. Has anyone tried one of those wide angle accessory adapters? Do they produce acceptable images? Worth the cost?

Thx

-Derek

Offline sebeclake

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #1 on: April 14, 2012, 08:23:47 AM »
Derek, I think I can answer most of that.

1. USB cable is a special cable.  If one doesn't come with your camera you can get it on Ebay.
2. I have found the camera will work in the range 5.2v to 6.5v dc
3. The sun does no visible damage to this camera.  Nothing to worry about there.  This camera gets direct sun in the morning and has for years: http://www.sebeclake.net/greeleys.html
4. Wide angle lens works really good.  I have one here: http://www.portsmouthwebcam.com/index.php/market-square/  It's looking through window glass.  You can also get a fish eye lens to watch the full sky.  The quality of the fish  eye is not as good especially near the edges of the frame.

-Mike

Offline Moose Whisperer

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #2 on: April 14, 2012, 07:33:04 PM »
Thanks Mike.

What about the issue of the USB dropping connection intermittently? Is that a function of those USB extender setups? I will only need about 30-40 ft of cable. Which is a better option - a USB/Cat 5 extender, or two or three powered USB Hubs in series?

-Derek

Offline GregJ

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #3 on: April 14, 2012, 09:49:01 PM »
Mike has a great solution for USB drops that he has designed and builds himself, so I'm not gonna touch that one.  I really hate to promote Wallymart, but I recently bought this one http://www.walmart.com/ip/PowerLine-1300-mah-Universal-AC-Adapter-w-USB-Power-Port/16778839 and it works perfect.  Plus it's in my budget..... As in under the CFO (wife) radar...

Greg
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Offline Moose Whisperer

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #4 on: April 15, 2012, 02:06:45 PM »
I really hate to promote Wallymart, but I recently bought this one http://www.walmart.com/ip/PowerLine-1300-mah-Universal-AC-Adapter-w-USB-Power-Port/16778839 and it works perfect. 

Cool, I've got a couple of those lying around. Plus that means at least the tip is standard!


Plus it's in my budget..... As in under the CFO (wife) radar...

Greg

I know exactly what you mean!

-Derek

Offline Cienega32

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #5 on: April 15, 2012, 06:19:40 PM »
Mike has a great solution for USB drops that he has designed and builds himself, so I'm not gonna touch that one. 
Greg

I would like to hear more about that!

Pat ~ Davis VP2 6153-Weatherlink-Weather Display-StartWatch-VirtualVP-Win7 Pro-64bit
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Offline Moose Whisperer

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2012, 04:12:23 PM »
BTW, if anyone is interested, the DC Power adapter tip for these cameras are 1.75 mm X 4.75 mm. Philmore Part# 48-1475.

Offline Moose Whisperer

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #7 on: April 20, 2012, 10:45:04 PM »
Ok, I am confused. I just received an Sp-500uz in the mail. The camera works fine on batteries. However it won't turn on with just the AC adapter plugged in. Nor will it turn on automatically when the USB is plugged in like the manual says. What am I doing wrong?  :?:

Offline Moose Whisperer

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #8 on: April 21, 2012, 01:03:01 AM »
Well, I've pretty much hit a wall with this camera. Power adapter issue aside, I was able to update the camera firmware with the Olypus Master program. But can cannot find any type of menu setting to put the camera into "romote control" mode. And of course, the Sebectec Software doesn't display any image from the camera.

Anyone have ANY idea what is going on? Anyone?

Offline sebeclake

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #9 on: April 21, 2012, 08:24:08 AM »
There is a link on how to configure the SP-500UZ at the bottom of this page: http://sebectec.com/download/index.htm

Also, if you are using Windows 7 you need to do some additional configuring: http://sebectec.com/how%20to/win7.htm

-Mike

Offline Moose Whisperer

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #10 on: April 21, 2012, 02:30:11 PM »
SUCCESS!!!   \:D/



As always, Mike came through an saved the day. Now I just have to learn how to use the software.

I still haven't figured out the power supply issue though. For now the camera is running on batteries.

Offline Cienega32

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #11 on: April 21, 2012, 02:42:51 PM »
WOW! Well worth the effort, IMHO! Beautiful view!!!

Pat ~ Davis VP2 6153-Weatherlink-Weather Display-StartWatch-VirtualVP-Win7 Pro-64bit
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Offline Moose Whisperer

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #12 on: April 21, 2012, 02:51:20 PM »
This is simply pointed out the window in front of my computer. I can definitely see that one of those wide angle attachments will work really nice.

Offline larryf

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #13 on: April 21, 2012, 03:44:16 PM »

I still haven't figured out the power supply issue though. For now the camera is running on batteries.

Is that a C-7AU power supply bought on Ebay (with an adapter near the end)? I had a lot of problems with one, the adapter did not fit well. Check the voltage with a meter, or buy an Olympus adapter...  Not really all that expensive.

I've found my C-740Z works better with batteries and an adapter, won't power off during a brownout.

What a beautiful view, you'd never get that shot with a webcam!

Larry

Offline Moose Whisperer

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #14 on: April 21, 2012, 06:09:20 PM »
No its just some generic 6 vdc brick I had lying around. I was having this discussion with Mike as well. When I put a meter on it is shows an "open" or "no-load" voltage of 10.43 vdc. I'm no electrical guru - is that normal for these bricks? Just to check, I found a 7.5 vdc one and it also shows a no-load voltage of around 10 vdc too. Maybe the camera just doesn't like this and won't turn on.

You are right, the genuine Olympus C-7AU's are pretty cheap on fleabay. That might be the way to go.

The only other thing I can think of is that there is something physically wrong with the adapter socket on this particular camera. I have never had this much trouble with an ac adapter for a device before. I have a second camera on the way as well so I can verify if it is indeed the adapter, or maybe something specific to this camera.

Offline larryf

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #15 on: April 21, 2012, 08:36:13 PM »
No its just some generic 6 vdc brick I had lying around. I was having this discussion with Mike as well. When I put a meter on it is shows an "open" or "no-load" voltage of 10.43 vdc. I'm no electrical guru - is that normal for these bricks? Just to check, I found a 7.5 vdc one and it also shows a no-load voltage of around 10 vdc too. Maybe the camera just doesn't like this and won't turn on.


The no load voltage can be high, that's just poor regulation on the power supply. Make sure your brick has a high current rating, my 'genuine' Olympus is rated at 6.5 volts 2.0 Amps. I had my C740 on the desk snapping pics for a few hours to test, and it does get a little warm.

If it were me, I'd try a new power supply with the replacement camera first in case there is something wrong with the generic supply, or the polarity is wrong.

I have two cameras running right now, once you get past the intial setup they seem to run flawlessly. My next project is to set one up in the garden with an old laptop and a long extension cord. I might turn the flash on, and set the cam to take pics every 40 minutes or so...  Maybe the flash will scare away those dang deer! And maybe the laptop can play some coyote MP3s before the flash goes off :)

Larry

Offline GregJ

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #16 on: April 22, 2012, 10:23:38 AM »
That's a great view Moose......  It looks great!

Greg
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Offline Moose Whisperer

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #17 on: April 22, 2012, 07:58:12 PM »
Thanks Greg.

I'm working on figuring out all of the timelapse settings now.

BTW, anyone have any suggestions on the best ways to embed time lapse movies into a web page?



ps. I understand now why its best to put these cameras outside in their own enclosure. The continuous clickety-click-click every thirty seconds is a bit distracting!  :eek:

Offline sebeclake

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #18 on: April 22, 2012, 09:00:50 PM »
Re clickety-click - you can turn off the fake camera click sounds on the camera using the menu softkeys.  Go down the list and shut off all the sounds.  The only sound that will be left is a faint click.  Flowplayer or jwplayer are popular embed options.  -Mike

Offline Moose Whisperer

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #19 on: April 22, 2012, 10:03:25 PM »
So it looks like with either of those, the best option is to output the file as mp4? What happens if my computer doesn't support that format?

Offline sebeclake

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #20 on: April 22, 2012, 10:12:22 PM »
.mp4 is supported by Windows, Mac, iPhone and iPad. That should about cover it ;)

Offline Moose Whisperer

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #21 on: April 22, 2012, 11:04:31 PM »
I created a mp4 movie file, then tried to open it in Windows media player:

Quote
Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file.

??????  :-(

Never mind. The computer I have it running on is older, and I got it to work with Quicktime. My newer Win 7 machines have no problem with mp4.
« Last Edit: April 23, 2012, 12:03:21 AM by Moose Whisperer »

Offline Stetson1

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #22 on: April 23, 2012, 11:07:10 AM »
If you go to my daily time lapse page, you'll see how I incorporated the video I update nightly (Flash). I also used WMV for a while but that required a plug-in for non-IE browsers.

Todd

I created a mp4 movie file, then tried to open it in Windows media player:

Quote
Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file.

??????  :-(

Never mind. The computer I have it running on is older, and I got it to work with Quicktime. My newer Win 7 machines have no problem with mp4.

Offline DaculaWeather

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #23 on: April 23, 2012, 12:00:30 PM »
I have a current day link, yesterday link, and a link for each day of the week. Hopefully I can get the partial image thing figured out so I can get some cleaner videos.

http://www.daculaweather.com/4_video_6-9.php

Offline Moose Whisperer

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Re: SP-500UZ Questions
« Reply #24 on: April 23, 2012, 01:59:00 PM »
Mike, Greg, Steve, Todd,

Thanks for all of your help! I was able to get a test movie running on my site with flowplayer last night:

http://www.ak-image.com/weather/webcam/hires1.htm

I plan to put the camera online full time once I get the power supply issue fixed. Right now, it looks like a fresh set of batteries is only good for about 3 or 4 hours.

BTW, does anyone know how to set the flowplayer so it only starts the movie on command? As you can see, my page starts the movie when the page loads.

-Derek
« Last Edit: April 23, 2012, 02:00:50 PM by Moose Whisperer »