I'm currently running a website that basically features photographs taken by a series of setup cameras across a stretch of water near my home. Its quite busy and has lots of naval ships as well as tankers etc. The weather can also get a little extreme as well.
I have one streaming camera set up. I've spoken of it before, the Linksys jobbie, well since replacing the power supply for it, its run quite happily. I am planning on setting up another but didn't really want the expence of another wireless camera.
I discovered a piece of software at www.tincam.com which enables you to stream video or pictures (as well as motion detection) from your webcam via a PC. It involves portforwarding (hence previous adventure) if you're working behind a router. You can use if for free for 30 days and then its $19 to buy.
Its fairly easy to setup (once you've dealt with your TCP trade union) and with a little extra research I managed to find some HTML code that allows you to embed the footage into your webpage rather than Media Player opening up. Follow this link and go straight to the last post. It works a treat!
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
Port forwarding...
This seems to be a such a hit and miss affair! I'm currently running two routers. One that filters straight off the DSL (Virgin Media) modem and a second in line with the first in my hallway. I put in a second as my kitchen is in an extension meaning there's a bloody great external wall between my kitchen and the rest of the flat. The second router is setup to act as an access point thus enabling a nice strong signal throughout the flat.
I use www.portforward.com for a lot of my router info, its very well put together and the people/person who hosts it writes in an easy to understand way. I won't go into how I setup the routers to work together other than to say you need to switch of DHCP on the second and assign it an IP address. The previously mentioned website will explain this far better than I can. (s/he also includes a downloadable port tester)
The only discrepancy I've noticed so far is when it comes to port forwarding. Having setup remote desktop and an FTP server I've had a bit of experience of port forwarding and have found it to be a little temperaMENTAL to setup. The site suggests that port forwarding through 2 routers involved pointing the port from the first router to the second, then from the second router to your intended recipient PC. I tried this and it didn't/wouldn't work. Then I skipped the routing from first to second router and just directed from the first router to the intended PC. This worked?... I left the port forward settings on the second router so maybe thats playing its part in some way... I would have to say that this is the most human part of computing that I've found so far. Some bits work in some ways... and other bits don't. There does not seem to be a clear cut "this will definatley work" method, so don't give up if you're trying it. Just remember to be mythodical in your efforts, otherwise its very easy to end up going round and around in circles.
Other other thing I've noticed is that opening your desired port in the Windows Firewall won't always open it straight away. I've often found that you need to allow the port to open, close the firewall, test the connection, then restart the firewall...
I get the sence the TCP section of a computer has its own trade union.
I use www.portforward.com for a lot of my router info, its very well put together and the people/person who hosts it writes in an easy to understand way. I won't go into how I setup the routers to work together other than to say you need to switch of DHCP on the second and assign it an IP address. The previously mentioned website will explain this far better than I can. (s/he also includes a downloadable port tester)
The only discrepancy I've noticed so far is when it comes to port forwarding. Having setup remote desktop and an FTP server I've had a bit of experience of port forwarding and have found it to be a little temperaMENTAL to setup. The site suggests that port forwarding through 2 routers involved pointing the port from the first router to the second, then from the second router to your intended recipient PC. I tried this and it didn't/wouldn't work. Then I skipped the routing from first to second router and just directed from the first router to the intended PC. This worked?... I left the port forward settings on the second router so maybe thats playing its part in some way... I would have to say that this is the most human part of computing that I've found so far. Some bits work in some ways... and other bits don't. There does not seem to be a clear cut "this will definatley work" method, so don't give up if you're trying it. Just remember to be mythodical in your efforts, otherwise its very easy to end up going round and around in circles.
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Lightning detector!
Whilst searching around for extra things to add to my site, I came across lightning detection equipment! I thought it would be a great addition to the site if I could set this up along with some sort of subscription service whereby you could sign up to receive an email when a storm was on its way and be able to watch it on the streaming camera link...
Telescope...
... I have a feeling bad things will happen if I point this at any Royal Navy ships..
I'm a little out of my depth with this..I have absolutely no idea how to use it... I did very little research into these things and was a little surprised to find it worked on mirrrors and not lenses.. I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting.. Although having done a little retrospective research it seems this will be able to produce much clearer pictures than a regular telescope... plus I might even be able to take some night time shots of the sky over the Plymouth Sound!
Saturday, 15 May 2010
TAMAR TAG!
I know it has nothing to do with this website.... but here it is.. my TamarTag finally arrived.. I feel like a real Devonshireman now! Cornwall here I come!
no dice..
Well, I went out and got the telescope yesterday.. I spent a fair bit of time making an adaptor that would attach the webcam to the telescope eye piece.. it worked but the picture quality was awful. On further reading I've discovered that there are two different types of image receivers on webcams. 1 type is called CMOS, the other is CCD (you might recognise this from your digital camera). Anyway, the better webcams for this sort of thing have CCD. Annoyingly they're rare and expenise.. I will continue my search for one. I will not be defeated!
...the adaptor I made....
the little bits you need to remove from the webcam after pulling it apart..
Friday, 14 May 2010
Todays the day...
I'm too impatient to wait for the ebay items to come around.. I've just seen a National Geographic telescope in Argos for £20.. i'm going to give it a go! Apparently you can see things on the moons of Jupiter with it, so it should be powerful enough to look at ships etc in the Sound... stand by for the results!
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