Yet another webcam query

[LeMarchand]

I don't think this has been covered (at least not in the threads I found).

 

One of my schools has a (Y-Cam Black) IP cam mounted in a bird box, and anyone on the school network can see what's going on in there. With the Easter holidays coming up, I was hoping to make the feed available on the school's website but restrictions seem to make this impossible. (I can code the page, but it only works in "preview mode" in school).

 

The camera can also automatically ftp still pictures at set intervals or based on motion, but the pictures are named according to the camera's own convention (YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS). I've gone for a picture every 5 minutes as motion detection seems to create a lot of pictures if the bird is fluttering around in the box. I can find lots of PHP scripts that will allow a basic gallery of "everything in /Birdbox/Images" but (guess what?) our website doesn't support PHP. Is there a way to do it in HTML?

 

If not (and this sounds overly complex) is there some way to automatically rename images in a folder and then ftp them up to a folder on a set interval, overwriting existing files so that I could put up a fairly standard page?

 

I looked at YAWCAM, but it wouldn't find the camera .

[mattx]

I'm surprised YAWCAM didn't work [ You do have JAVA installed ? ] - I've just finished setting up ours & got it working on an external address - just some simple port forwarding on port 8081.

Watching the blue tits make up a nest as I write this !!

[LeMarchand]

It may be because the camera has its own built-in web server(?).

 

How do you assign an external address? I suspect that's where the problem lies.

[LeMarchand]

Just a little bump before I admit defeat.

[SimpleSi]

Not actually used one myself but there are "virtual camera" programs that will take an image sequence and convert it into a "virtual camera" feed that can then be used to feed things like Yawcam or directly ftp them up to a website

 

I'm stick behind our filtering (and our DNS servers seem to be wonky at the moment) - but maybe worth having a google at your end.

 

Or mabye someone could write a quick and dirty batch file that just loops and looks for most recent image in folder, rename it to say webcam.jpg and then ftp that up every few secs

 

regards

 

Simon

[LeMarchand]

Cheers, I'll have a look at virtual camera software (probably tonight as it has to be free and our LEA is pretty strict about freeware sites ).

 

I could probably sort out the renaming part of a batch file, but I'm clueless as how to automate the ftp (and overwrite the existing file on the server). Could anyone point me in the right direction?

[LeMarchand]

Just in case anyone else has the same problem, I cludged together a far from ideal solution.

 

The camera takes a picture every 5 minutes, starting at 3m57s past the hour (just when it was set up) and uploads it to a file on the webserver. A page on our site holds links to 12 images (01, 02 etc). I've scheduled the following tasks to run hourly starting at:

 

00:00 Batch file to call ftp file (it seems it has to be done as 2 files) that collects all images from the folder.

 

00:01 Batch file deletes image 01, 02 etc and renames the remaining (therefore newer) images to 01, 02 etc.

 

00:02 Batch file(s) delete all bird box images on webserver and then puts up the renamed images.

 

00:04 Final batch file deletes the images on the local machine, ready for the next round.

 

I can't help but feel there should be an easier/more elegant way to do it, but I needed it done before this afternoon.

[SimpleSi]

But you got i done! :-)

 

Good on yer!

 

regards

 

Simon

[SimpleSi]

But you got it done! :-)

 

Good on yer!

 

regards

 

Simon

[LeMarchand]

Cheers!

 

The bird is being a bit elusive though! Over the holidays, I'll have to work out how to do something similar with the video footage it can store (based on motion detection). It'll be more difficult because there more variables, so my brain needs a rest from it at the moment.