OT: webcam

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M

Mr.Nice.

Guest
ok boys and girls..
What would be the cheapest and easiest way to install a webcam in a
room three floors up and on the opposite side of the house and have it
upload a new capture every hour to a page on my website?
my internet connection is broadband through a router.

I thought wireless until I saw the price.

then I thought USB but it's a long way and a pain to wire.



Regards.
Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)
--
___________________________________________________________
"To know the character of a man, give him anonymity" - Mr.Nice.
www.mrnice.me.uk - www.markvarleyphoto.co.uk
1984 110 CSW 2.5(na)D
___________________________________________________________
 
"Mr.Nice." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> ok boys and girls..
> What would be the cheapest and easiest way to install a webcam in a
> room three floors up and on the opposite side of the house and have it
> upload a new capture every hour to a page on my website?
> my internet connection is broadband through a router.
>
> I thought wireless until I saw the price.
>
> then I thought USB but it's a long way and a pain to wire.


You could go wireless using basic video equiptment, then get more hitech at
the computer end. Cheap colour video camera would cost you £30/40 from one
of the many internet retailers or maybe Maplins, otherwisde rig up a
camcorder. A 2.4GHz video sender would cost £30 from Lidl, Maplin etc. Stick
them together and wiggle it round till you get the best picture. Sometimes
it works perfectly over long distances, sometimes you need to have someone
moving the sender or reciever while you watch the picture.

At the PC end all you would need would be a cheap TV capture card from PC
world, they are only £20/30. Put the phono video signal from the reciever
into the capture card and take captures.
The updating depends on whether you are hosting the website from your PC or
somewhere else. If it is your PC then you could have the capture software
save an image using the same filename everyhour and link to that on your
page. Would be more tricky if it needed to ftp it to your server as well,
I'm not sure how you would do that bit.

I like these kind of projects, good luck.
DavidM



 
On Fri, 9 Jul 2004 13:30:21 +0100, "DavidM" <djm81@(I hate
spam)cam.ac.uk> wrote:

>You could go wireless using basic video equiptment, then get more hitech at
>the computer end. Cheap colour video camera would cost you £30/40 from one
>of the many internet retailers or maybe Maplins, otherwisde rig up a
>camcorder. A 2.4GHz video sender would cost £30 from Lidl, Maplin etc. Stick
>them together and wiggle it round till you get the best picture. Sometimes
>it works perfectly over long distances, sometimes you need to have someone
>moving the sender or reciever while you watch the picture.


You can go wireless for less than that.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3825665650

I paid £29 inc. P&P for a similar gizmo and it does what it says on
the tin.

--
QrizB

"On second thought, let's not go to Z'Ha'Dum. It is a silly place."
 

"Mr.Nice." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> ok boys and girls..
> What would be the cheapest and easiest way to install a webcam in a
> room three floors up and on the opposite side of the house and have it
> upload a new capture every hour to a page on my website?
> my internet connection is broadband through a router.
>
> I thought wireless until I saw the price.
>
> then I thought USB but it's a long way and a pain to wire.




Have a look at www.supervisioncam.com the software looks like it will do
what you are wanting.

Regards

Liam


 
"Mr.Nice." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> ok boys and girls..
> What would be the cheapest and easiest way to install a webcam in a
> room three floors up and on the opposite side of the house and have it
> upload a new capture every hour to a page on my website?
> my internet connection is broadband through a router.
>
> I thought wireless until I saw the price.
>
> then I thought USB but it's a long way and a pain to wire.


You could go wireless using basic video equiptment, then get more hitech at
the computer end. Cheap colour video camera would cost you £30/40 from one
of the many internet retailers or maybe Maplins, otherwisde rig up a
camcorder. A 2.4GHz video sender would cost £30 from Lidl, Maplin etc. Stick
them together and wiggle it round till you get the best picture. Sometimes
it works perfectly over long distances, sometimes you need to have someone
moving the sender or reciever while you watch the picture.

At the PC end all you would need would be a cheap TV capture card from PC
world, they are only £20/30. Put the phono video signal from the reciever
into the capture card and take captures.
The updating depends on whether you are hosting the website from your PC or
somewhere else. If it is your PC then you could have the capture software
save an image using the same filename everyhour and link to that on your
page. Would be more tricky if it needed to ftp it to your server as well,
I'm not sure how you would do that bit.

I like these kind of projects, good luck.
DavidM



 
On Fri, 9 Jul 2004 13:30:21 +0100, "DavidM" <djm81@(I hate
spam)cam.ac.uk> wrote:

>You could go wireless using basic video equiptment, then get more hitech at
>the computer end. Cheap colour video camera would cost you £30/40 from one
>of the many internet retailers or maybe Maplins, otherwisde rig up a
>camcorder. A 2.4GHz video sender would cost £30 from Lidl, Maplin etc. Stick
>them together and wiggle it round till you get the best picture. Sometimes
>it works perfectly over long distances, sometimes you need to have someone
>moving the sender or reciever while you watch the picture.


You can go wireless for less than that.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3825665650

I paid £29 inc. P&P for a similar gizmo and it does what it says on
the tin.

--
QrizB

"On second thought, let's not go to Z'Ha'Dum. It is a silly place."
 

"Mr.Nice." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> ok boys and girls..
> What would be the cheapest and easiest way to install a webcam in a
> room three floors up and on the opposite side of the house and have it
> upload a new capture every hour to a page on my website?
> my internet connection is broadband through a router.
>
> I thought wireless until I saw the price.
>
> then I thought USB but it's a long way and a pain to wire.




Have a look at www.supervisioncam.com the software looks like it will do
what you are wanting.

Regards

Liam


 

> The updating depends on whether you are hosting the website from your PC or
> somewhere else. If it is your PC then you could have the capture software
> save an image using the same filename everyhour and link to that on your
> page. Would be more tricky if it needed to ftp it to your server as well,
> I'm not sure how you would do that bit.


Have someone write a perl script to upload the file to the server, use
windows task scheduler (win2k & above) or cron if on Linux to run the
script whenever necessary.

Something like this should do;

#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Transfering file to ftp server........";
open(FTP,">.ftp.txt");
print FTP "open www.myserver.com\n"; <--replace with your server!!
print FTP "MyLoginName\n"; <--replace with your login !!
print FTP "MyPassword\n"; <replace with your password!!
print FTP "put c:\MyPicture\n"; <--replace with your file !!
print FTP "bye\n";
@out = `ftp -s:.ftp.txt`;

perl is freely available for win & Linux from
www.activestate.com

you will also need an ftp client (win2k & winXP have this already pro
versions do anyway..)

Hope this helps, Tezza ( '68 series2a )
 
Mr.Nice. wrote:

> can't make it work..
> and how cheap is cheap?


What are you using to look at it with ?

Cheap is around 70 quid all in.

Steve
 
Twas Tue, 13 Jul 2004 16:58:02 +0100 when Steve Taylor
<[email protected]> put finger to keyboard producing:

>Mr.Nice. wrote:
>
>> can't make it work..
>> and how cheap is cheap?

>
>What are you using to look at it with ?
>
>Cheap is around 70 quid all in.
>
>Steve


IE6

is that £70 for a wireless camera and associated stuff to put an image
on a website?


Regards.
Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)
--
___________________________________________________________
"To know the character of a man, give him anonymity" - Mr.Nice.
www.mrnice.me.uk - www.markvarleyphoto.co.uk
1984 110 CSW 2.5(na)D
___________________________________________________________
 
On Tue, 13 Jul 2004 17:36:03 +0100, Mr.Nice.
<[email protected]> wrote:

>IE6


Shouldn't be a problem, ****ty as it is, IE is the preferred browser
for this device (make ya wanna puke dunnit...)

>is that £70 for a wireless camera and associated stuff to put an image
>on a website?


No, no, no... listen very carefully...

The camera has a built in mini-webserver. It IS therefore, as you put
it 'the website'.

You give the camera an IP address - it knows about dyndns - so even
you* could give it a web address accessible from anywhere in the world
via a web browser...

(*not intended to sound partonising, I mean 'even you - with a
variable ISP IP address). Ask Phil or David about dyndns

By the way, Steve, can you work out how big the EPROM is?

I'm tempted to try a linux blow on it with a very cut down apache
install...


--
Some Land Roveresque (101 biased), links available
from: http://links.solis.co.uk/Geek/X4_Land_Rover/
I also have a little Land Rover site biased toward
my beloved 101 "Grumble", at: http://www.101fc.net


Reading this in 'alt.fan.landrover'? Did you know
there's a group FAQ: http://www.aflfaq.dyndns.info
 
Mother wrote:
>
> No, no, no... listen very carefully...
>
> The camera has a built in mini-webserver. It IS therefore, as you put
> it 'the website'.


As my learned colleague says,

AND the camera will auto-magically FTP images to your official server,
every X seconds, or when it detects motion in the image, whereupon, it
will ALSO send you an email, and acopy of the picture. ( careful with
this option- it put 300 messages in my email that way.)
>
> By the way, Steve, can you work out how big the EPROM is?


No, but I can do.
>
> I'm tempted to try a linux blow on it with a very cut down apache
> install...

How will you know what to do ? The hardware is hardly open.Do you want
our list of deduced CGI commands ?


Steve


 
On or around Tue, 13 Jul 2004 11:25:10 +0100, Mother <"@ {mother}
@"@101fc.net> enlightened us thusly:

>
>Dunno if this'll work, but try pointing your browser at:



not a lot of picture happening. blank frame, broken image doofrit, and a
certain amount of net activity. how big are the pictures, filewise?


--
Austin Shackles. www.ddol-las.fsnet.co.uk my opinions are just that
"Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero" (sieze today, and put
as little trust as you can in tomorrow) Horace (65 - 8 BC) Odes, I.xi.8
 
Austin Shackles wrote:
> On or around Tue, 13 Jul 2004 11:25:10 +0100, Mother <"@ {mother}
> @"@101fc.net> enlightened us thusly:
>
>
>>Dunno if this'll work, but try pointing your browser at:

>
>
>
> not a lot of picture happening. blank frame, broken image doofrit, and a
> certain amount of net activity. how big are the pictures, filewise?
>
>

It pulls an active X from the camera, a firewall might block the transfer.

Steve
 
On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 13:24:48 +0100, Steve Taylor
<[email protected]> wrote:

>>

>It pulls an active X from the camera, a firewall might block the transfer.


That might explain the several hits for this particular ip (72 thru 78
IIRC). I have a router and software firewall any way I can safely view
it?

AJH
 
Twas Fri, 09 Jul 2004 12:42:45 +0100 when Mr.Nice.
<[email protected]> put finger to keyboard producing:

>ok boys and girls..
>What would be the cheapest and easiest way to install a webcam in a
>room three floors up and on the opposite side of the house and have it
>upload a new capture every hour to a page on my website?
>my internet connection is broadband through a router.
>
>I thought wireless until I saw the price.
>
>then I thought USB but it's a long way and a pain to wire.
>
>
>
>Regards.
>Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)


newsflash...

I have an old nasty digital camera that works as a webcam when plugged
in...

how long a usb cable can I use?


Regards.
Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)
--
___________________________________________________________
"To know the character of a man, give him anonymity" - Mr.Nice.
www.mrnice.me.uk - www.markvarleyphoto.co.uk
1984 110 CSW 2.5(na)D
___________________________________________________________
 
Mr.Nice. wrote:

>
> how long a usb cable can I use?


IIRC the active cables max out at about 5 metres but you can string up
to 5 of them together, so max looks like 25 metres (but the cost of 5
active cables and joiners is likely to be a bit high).



--
EMB
change two to number to reply
 
On Fri, 09 Jul 2004 12:42:45 +0100, Mr.Nice.
<[email protected]> wrote:

>I thought wireless until I saw the price.


Wireless is cheeeep these days...

I'm playing with a few cheap IP cams from aria.co.uk
Steve???

Dunno if this'll work, but try pointing your browser at:

www.pogglewood.tv

login if asked as: 1
password blank.

I've set the camera in very low resolution.


--
Some Land Roveresque (101 biased), links available
from: http://links.solis.co.uk/Geek/X4_Land_Rover/
I also have a little Land Rover site biased toward
my beloved 101 "Grumble", at: http://www.101fc.net


Reading this in 'alt.fan.landrover'? Did you know
there's a group FAQ: http://www.aflfaq.dyndns.info
 
Twas Tue, 13 Jul 2004 16:58:02 +0100 when Steve Taylor
<[email protected]> put finger to keyboard producing:

>Mr.Nice. wrote:
>
>> can't make it work..
>> and how cheap is cheap?

>
>What are you using to look at it with ?
>
>Cheap is around 70 quid all in.
>
>Steve


IE6

is that £70 for a wireless camera and associated stuff to put an image
on a website?


Regards.
Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)
--
___________________________________________________________
"To know the character of a man, give him anonymity" - Mr.Nice.
www.mrnice.me.uk - www.markvarleyphoto.co.uk
1984 110 CSW 2.5(na)D
___________________________________________________________
 
Twas Mon, 12 Jul 2004 22:39:49 GMT when terry
<[email protected]> put finger to keyboard producing:

>
>> The updating depends on whether you are hosting the website from your PC or
>> somewhere else. If it is your PC then you could have the capture software
>> save an image using the same filename everyhour and link to that on your
>> page. Would be more tricky if it needed to ftp it to your server as well,
>> I'm not sure how you would do that bit.

>
>Have someone write a perl script to upload the file to the server, use
>windows task scheduler (win2k & above) or cron if on Linux to run the
>script whenever necessary.
>
>Something like this should do;
>
>#!/usr/bin/perl
>print "Transfering file to ftp server........";
>open(FTP,">.ftp.txt");
>print FTP "open www.myserver.com\n"; <--replace with your server!!
> print FTP "MyLoginName\n"; <--replace with your login !!
>print FTP "MyPassword\n"; <replace with your password!!
>print FTP "put c:\MyPicture\n"; <--replace with your file !!
>print FTP "bye\n";
>@out = `ftp -s:.ftp.txt`;
>
>perl is freely available for win & Linux from
>www.activestate.com
>
>you will also need an ftp client (win2k & winXP have this already pro
>versions do anyway..)
>
>Hope this helps, Tezza ( '68 series2a )


Thanks for that,
I'm running win2kpro here so that should be fine.

Thanks everyone for the info, I'm now saving the cash to get a camera
set up. the land rover still needs stuff though :eek:(


Regards.
Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)
--
___________________________________________________________
"To know the character of a man, give him anonymity" - Mr.Nice.
www.mrnice.me.uk - www.markvarleyphoto.co.uk
1984 110 CSW 2.5(na)D
___________________________________________________________
 
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