Webcam - peace of mind!

[Armando]

I can now watch both my tanks, pan, tilt, zoom over the Internet.

http://www.ifragsreef.com/additions/cam.jpg

Cam $70
TrackerPod $149
Being able to watch my tanks sitting at the office... Priceless! :D

[Scuba_Dave]

another item on my list...nice

[Groove]

Demo? How much? ISP?

[etszoo]

Is that so you can watch your flood happening live Scuba?:lol:

[NickDu]

Peace of mind for the protective parent...would like to hear some of the technical dets as well!

Nick

[Armando]

thanx.

You need:
- Webcam (Logitech quickcam pro 4000 is a good one)
- TrackerPod (if you want to pan, tilt, zoom)
- Works with any ISP
- TrackerCam (http://www.enovation.com/TrackerCam/TCamWeb/solutions.htm) comes with details instructions on how to set it up. Basically you access your home computer from any other computer connected to the Internet by your computer IP address. If your ISP does not provide you a static IP (most cases IP is dynamic) then you need to sign up for a dynamic DNS service such as dyndns.org (free)

[ggomez]

MOTHER OF ALL CREATURES! I finally got my wireless ip camera
At the moment you can only see my small nano, but as soon as I clean up my 30 you will see it.
Click on this link http://66.171.66.4
login name = guest
password = password

here is a link to the camera http://www.pcmall.com/pcmall/shop/detail.asp?dpno=103719

[Groove]

Cool. I see a clown and a fire tail goby!

[Armando]

This was a lifesaver yesterday.

I looked at it at noon and the lights were off. Had to run home and when I got there I saw the circuit breakers were tripped :rolleyes:. Turned everything back on and came back to the office.

If it wasn't for the cam it would be 7 hours without pump & lights, I would probably have fish and maybe coral dead.

Close call!

[spyro]

I was researching this a while back but it fell by the wayside.
Anyway, you can get a video camera with a Web Server so that you do not have leave an open port on your router. That way, your computer is not vulnerable to hacker attacks.

Linksys sells these cameras and you can also buy a wireless video camera with built in server compatible with 802.11b ethernet.

I gotta get one !


Originally posted by Armando
thanx.

You need:
- Webcam (Logitech quickcam pro 4000 is a good one)
- TrackerPod (if you want to pan, tilt, zoom)
- Works with any ISP
- TrackerCam (http://www.enovation.com/TrackerCam/TCamWeb/solutions.htm) comes with details instructions on how to set it up. Basically you access your home computer from any other computer connected to the Internet by your computer IP address. If your ISP does not provide you a static IP (most cases IP is dynamic) then you need to sign up for a dynamic DNS service such as dyndns.org (free)

[Scuba_Dave]

Group buy!! :lol:

[Mighty Quinn]

Originally posted by ggomez
MOTHER OF ALL CREATURES! I finally got my wireless ip camera
At the moment you can only see my small nano, but as soon as I clean up my 30 you will see it.
Click on this link http://66.171.66.4
login name = guest
password = password

here is a link to the camera http://www.pcmall.com/pcmall/shop/detail.asp?dpno=103719
Very nice! Does that camera have a zoom lens?

[Armando]

I would not buy the linksys camera. Loads of 1-star bad reviews on Amazon. Here is an example:

" Unsuitable for almost any Webcam task., February 6, 2004
Reviewer: A PC Hardware Fan from Seattle, WA USA
Don't buy this product. It is not ready for sale, and does not perform even the basic functions of a web-cam.

1. Uselessly narrow range of acceptable lighting conditions.

I am pointing it out of a window to monitor our construction site across the road. The image is usually completely over- exposed. Even over-riding the 'automatic exposure' I can not adjust it to properly expose a normally bright outdoor scene.

On the other hand, it has almost no low-light sensitivity.

On a dark day with heavy overcast sky we can get a reasonable detailed picture, but most of the day the image is a useless washed out white and all night it is a dark black square.

2. The SoloLink DDNS remote access service does not work.
You have to pay for it before you can find out if it will work!
Even after following Linksys's instructions on opening a port on my Linksys firewall and 'successfully' registering the camera, it is unable to communicate.

3. Unstable. System hangs/crashes every few days.
Requires a cold-boot of the camera to restore LAN browsing."

[Ken2001]

Hmmm, I wonder if I could link that to my mobile so that I could take a quick peek while I'm on the road?

[Armando]

Ken, yes, trackercam supports cell phones, check it out:
http://trackercam.com/index4.htm

[Scuba_Dave]

Do you know what tripped the circiut breaker..?

[Armando]

Yes. I added the Ocean Light (150) last week but I suspect it was too much. So now I have it plugged with an extension cord into another circuit. I am really running out of amps now! :eek:

[Scuba_Dave]

I hope that's a heavy duty extension cord. Lamp wire won't cut it.
Better safe then sorry.

[Armando]

Yes, heavy duty.

[maractwin]

I'm using an Apple iSight camera and have been very happy with the video quality and light responsiveness. You can check out my cam at http://fins.actwin.com/articles/mar2/

[Scuba_Dave]

Nice site, are you running that on a MAC, or a PC?

[maractwin]

There are actually 3 computers involved. I do web programming and run a web hosting company for a living, so was able to cobble this all together.

The camera is connected to my Mac, which uses EvoCam to snap pictures and load them to the web server. My Aquacontroller II is connected to a linux workstation which uses a perl script to query it every 10 minutes to get the current stats, and then loads those into a database on the web server. It will also page me if anything is out of range. The web server is not in my house. It uses PHP and MySQL to generate that page each time it is requested.

[vmiller]

Cool, looking into this myself. The only thing that sucks is I'll have to set up a windows box for all this. Can the tracker pod be controlled through a web site so that I can change the camera angle and zooming while viewing remotely?

This camera will certainly help me enjoy the 2 week vacation I'll be going on in the upcoming year.

maractwin, I have a similar setup, but used java instead of perl. Here are the details ...
http://www.vinmiller.net/aquaria/control.html

Vin

[Armando]

Originally posted by vmiller
Can the tracker pod be controlled through a web site so that I can change the camera angle and zooming while viewing remotely?

Yes. The picture above is a screenshot of my browser. By clicking on the image you can move the cam up, down, left right (or you can use the keyboard). You can also zoom using the small + - buttons.

[Armando]

yup, tank still there :D

http://www.ifragsreef.com/additions/040330A.jpg

[spyro]

Be careful using remote control cameras and software. If provided acces through your router or to your computer, hackers can create havoc on your system.