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webcam software

I'm trying to snapshot a webcam, once a minute maybe, and send the image to my FTP site.

I bought Tincam, and it's a mess. I tried using it to send the snaps directly to my FTP site, and it hung up. So I figured that I'd just ask it to save the image to a file, and I could ship it up to the FTP site myself. No dice: it insists that it's in FTP mode, so it's still broken. Uninstall/reinstall doesn't help. Piece-o-crap.

So, does anybody know of a way to capture a webcam image and save it to a file? Windows does that inherently, all I have to do is double-click on the camera icon, but it only saves when you manually click "save image". I wonder if there's a command-line way to invoke that.

Or does anybody know of webcam software that actually works? Again, I'd be happy with just saving image snaps to a folder; I can take over from there.

It seems like my life would be almost perfect except for software. Most of it is varying degrees of horrible.

John

Reply to
John Larkin
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I have not tried this, so caveat caveat...

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"Webcam Timershot

This PowerToy lets you take pictures at specified time intervals from a Webcam connected to your computer and save them to a location that you designate. "

-- Les Cargill

Reply to
Les Cargill

On a sunny day (Tue, 28 Dec 2010 11:35:19 -0800) it happened John Larkin wrote in :

Get a D-Link DCS-900 if you can afford it, and then you have a web interface. It has a build in web server. Or use it with my software and mcamip program in Linux to stream video:

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Reply to
Jan Panteltje

OK, I got it to work. Gave up on Tincam.

This is free and works great:

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I have it snapshotting an image every 30 seconds, jpeg to a ramdrive. I modified my existing automation program to copy that to my FTP site once a minute. No port problem or any of the complications one might have with a web site.

ftp://jjlarkin.lmi.net/CABIN.JPG

This is a $49 Logitech camera, connected to a netbook through a 10' passive USB extender then a 30' active extender. Seems to work fine, out in the cold. Just to see, I tried two active extenders in series, plus a passive, maybe 75' total, and that worked too.

The christmas lights appear to be softly blinking, but that's actually a heterodyne between the LED lights and the camera scan. It looks cool in real time video. They are on at maybe 30% duty cycle, period about

5 seconds, three distinct phased groups.

All I have to do now is move the cam to a better location, without dying in the process.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

[snip]

John,

If this is for your cabin, you might want to check out Bruce Agee's cabin cam. He has a link to the SW & HW he is using.

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Maybe this 'ImageSalsa' will suit your needs.

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HTH, Lee Wardned

P.S. Sorry for the GoogGrups, I have no other option.

Reply to
Lee

If you're talking about the camera you use on your computer, Yes, I have software I've written that is part of a app I have, that does this.

It also can monitor up to 4 websites of live video, at the same time.

If you are referring to capturing images from a website and then moving them to your site, well, my code does not do that.

There should be tons of apps out there already that does this? I've never really looked that hard myself because I would be more geared to write my own.

Jamie

Reply to
Jamie

IT IS A TOTAL CRAP SOLUTION AS YOU ARE JUST WASTING BANDWIDTH UPLOADING THINGS ANYBODY HARDLY EVER LOOKS AT YOU NEED A ***********server************ .

Reply to
Osama B

If you use Linux it is a no-brainer to setup such a system.

--
Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply
indicates you are not using the right tools...
nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.)
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Reply to
Nico Coesel

Why? It works for me. I did all the FTP stuff, myself, in PowerBasic. Any amateur can clickey-clickey on boxes in canned software.

Lots of people use the cabin, and they can see how things are. You can even tell if the road and the driveway have been plowed. Reminds me to move the cam to a better location.

But wasting bandwidth? Is there a limited amount in the universe?

Damned lurkers! Show us some electronics you've designed.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

But you'd have to set up Linux first!

John

Reply to
John Larkin

Wow! Looks like a pretty good snowfall since yesterday.

Also John

Reply to
John - KD5YI

Well, this is a good opportunity to start learning :-) Linux is like a Swiss army knife. Its always good for something.

--
Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply
indicates you are not using the right tools...
nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to
Nico Coesel

Filling garbage cans?

Reply to
krw

It looks dark up there ;) Would be cool if it were IR.

Cheers

Reply to
Martin Riddle

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