Weather Station Hardware > Weather Web Cams
Weather Underground (and others) Recommended Webcams
edgarp70:
Hi All
New here and really enjoying my new WeatherFlow PWS, but struggling to find a good solution to a webcam to add to my WU (or other) weather sites.
I tried an IP camera that got decent reviews and the image is great, but keep finding loopholes to get it to work correctly (must be named image.jpg, must go straight to root, cannot create subfolders etc.). I have it working, but my cam system does not match the correct formatting etc. Would prefer not to ftp to myself, rename, resize, then ftp back WU if I don't have to.
Can someone who has had success getting their images to upload to WU in an automated way from the camera (without having to setup 3rd party FTP server or software solutions) give some recommendations on best cameras to do this with?
Don't want to keep having to buy a new cam to test only find it doesn't match up either..
Thanks!
Edgarp70
galfert:
--- Quote from: edgarp70 on December 21, 2020, 11:55:09 AM ---Can someone who has had success getting their images to upload to WU in an automated way from the camera (without having to setup 3rd party FTP server or software solutions) give some recommendations on best cameras to do this with?
--- End quote ---
Welcome to the forum.
If you want to FTP directly without using any other software you are going to have to change some settings on your camera. You need to change the image resolution of the camera to be very low. This means lower than HD quality. It needs to go down to SD (standard definition). This is because WU will not accept large image files. This means that if you planed on using the camera for anything else that you'll suffer in local viewing of the camera because it will be reduced to SD quality. Some cameras have a second stream that can be configured and they may allow you to save the image from the second stream rather than the primary. I don't think it needs to be called "image.jpg" ...I just think it needs to be anything.jpg and be of the right size. UPDATE: it needs to be called image.jpg.
I still think that the best solution is to have some other software somewhere running the pulls the image and then manipulates it to then upload it. You probably already have the hardware to run this other software or a script to to this. If not you could consider a complete Raspberry Pi zero W kit for $27 to do the job.
https://www.amazon.com/Vilros-Raspberry-Starter-Power-Premium/dp/B0748MPQT4/
--- Quote ---Don't want to keep having to buy a new cam to test only find it doesn't match up either..
--- End quote ---
You shouldn't have to. Whatever you have is probably as good as it gets. You just need to work within the limitations of what an IP camera does. IP cameras are all pretty much fall into two categories. Proprietary and standards based.
- Among the standards based they are all pretty much the same. The difference is their API in how to craft their URL to pull a still image or in the FTP capabilities menu on how things get configured...but they all have FTP pretty much the same.
- The proprietary type are the type that upload to cloud based services only and nothing more. These are things like Arlo, Nest, Ring...and others. Stay away from these.
edgarp70:
Thanks Falfert
The camera I have will not let me dump directly into the root of WU. It puts each new image in a subdirectory that it creates in the WU FTP directory based on the days date. Size seems to be ok as they are under 150 (I had minimized the image in the provided camera software).
The only software that it offers to manage the cameras is on my phone and no way to really customize much of it. I have tried going directly to the camera IP to manage, but get a Server 500 error.
Guessing I will need to look at something like IPtimelapse or something similar...?
Thanks again!
Edgarp
davidmc36:
This is the camera that I use:
https://foscamcanada.com/FI9900P
It can be configured to use low image resolution, exact file name image.jpg.
It loads straight to WU via FTP.
jimi:
--- Quote --- I don't think it needs to be called "image.jpg" ...I just think it needs to be anything.jpg and be of the right size.
--- End quote ---
It needs to be called image.jpg if you call it anything else it will appear to upload ok but either your cam will remain offline or no images will show.
--- Quote ---FTP Configuration
Server: webcam.wunderground.com
Password: ************
Directory: '/' (or leave blank)
File Name: image.jpg
Transfer Type: Binary
--- End quote ---
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version