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Tinkering my first webcam!

Posted: Sat 22 May 2010 3:14 pm
by PaulMy
It’s a work in progress - Logitech Webcam Pro 9000 and Yawcam v. 0.3.3 but quite a challenge with my limited understanding, but progressing one-step-at-a-time...

I have been uploading to WU for the last week but like others have had some issues with it such as total black image, stops sending and asks for password. Installed Tincam trial but was not able to figure out how to send to WU. Will be trying ImageSalsa in the next couple of days and hope I can get a grasp of the setup instructions.

Now back with Yawcam and think it is sending to WU
http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstat ... ONTARIO226 and also have Webcam links on my website http://www.komokaweather.comfor image and stream. Anyone see any glaring issues with it?

The cam is on an extreme angle to the window to get any sky and get away from the tree immediately in front. Will need to get some type of window covering to eliminate the glare from the computer room light. Can’t eliminate or reduce the appearance of the house underhang on the top left corner.

I’ve found that the live stream is using up to 100% of CPU and had to reduce the settings and quality considerably but still very heavvy on CPU, Disk, Memory and Network usage so may not be able to continue with that.

Now to learn how to add weather information and other text...

Edited to remove webcam links as these change on occasion
Paul.

Re: Tinkering my first webcam!

Posted: Sat 22 May 2010 10:52 pm
by hills
G'day Paul, you're doing better than me as I can't get my http stream out through my firewall :oops: any hints there would be much appreciated. ;)

To get weather details on your picture is surprisingly easy. First follow Steve's advice below:
steve wrote:Just create a "template" file, e.g. temperatureT.txt, anywhere on your PC, with the appropriate web tags(s) and text in it (e.g. just <#temp> will give you the temperature figure only), and add it to the files tab on the internet settings. Give the name and location on your PC of the destination temperature.txt file as the remote file, tick "process?" but don't tick "ftp?", and Cumulus will process and copy the file each time it does a web update.
Get Cumulus to create this new file in C:\Documents and Settings\<your user id>\.yawcam\extravars\{temperature}.txt. Be aware there are 2 extravars directories in yawcam, but only this one works yet the yawcam web site incorrectly refers to the other extravars directory in the instructions (or at least used to). My termperatureT.txt contains the following:

Temp: <#temp>c Rain: <#rfall>mm Wind: <#wspeed>kph Pressure: <#press>hPa

Then in Yawcam go into "Settings" - "Edit Settings" - "Overlay - text" and add the variable there. This is an example of my overlay line:

%hh:%mm:%ss %DD-%MM-%YYYY {temperature}

(EDIT: I've edited this post as I've now switched to use just one template file)

Re: Tinkering my first webcam!

Posted: Sun 23 May 2010 12:31 am
by werribee_au
hills wrote:G'day Paul, you're doing better than me as I can't get my http stream out through my firewall
Sounds like you need to do some port forwarding.

http://portforward.com/

What you basically need to do is, if the pc with yawcam is eg: 192.168.10.2, the port that yawcam is using on that pc needs to be port forwarded by the router to the internal ip & port of the pc eg: 192.168.10.2:8888 or 192.168.10.2:8081.

So when I connect to Paul's address http://99.255.125.102:8081 his router will route me to the internal pc eg: 192.168.10.???:8081

Does that make sense :bash:

Re: Tinkering my first webcam!

Posted: Sun 23 May 2010 1:43 am
by PaulMy
Thanks hills and werribee_au,
Does that make sense :bash:
All Greek to me :? ... but hope to get 'bailed out' soon as son-in-law is on his way over :)

Paul.

Re: Tinkering my first webcam!

Posted: Fri 09 Jul 2010 3:31 pm
by Stig
I have been working on getting text overlay on my webcam pictures, and have used Phils and Steves guide in this thread, but have not been able to get any data in the tags, in Cumulus internet settings/files I have used the following

C:\Cumulus\web\temperatureT.txt as local filename, and

C:\Users\Stig\.yawcam\extravars\{temperature}.txt as remote filename

my Yawcam settings/text/overlay
%YYYY-%MM-%DD, %hh:%mm:%ss{temperature}

and my {temperature} looks like this
<#temp>c Regn: <#rfall>mm Vind: <#wspeed>m/s Tryk: <#press>hPa

Cumulus is creating af file named {temperature}txttmp, in the web folder,
but on the pictures only the date and <#temp>c Regn: <#rfall>mm Vind: <#wspeed>m/s Tryk: <#press>hPa
any advice

Re: Tinkering my first webcam!

Posted: Fri 09 Jul 2010 4:12 pm
by steve
Stig wrote:C:\Cumulus\web\temperatureT.txt as local filename, and

C:\Users\Stig\.yawcam\extravars\{temperature}.txt as remote filename
Could you attach these two files here, please?

Re: Tinkering my first webcam!

Posted: Fri 09 Jul 2010 5:35 pm
by Stig
here they are, and thanks for your quick reply :)

Re: Tinkering my first webcam!

Posted: Fri 09 Jul 2010 5:40 pm
by steve
That looks OK, it just looks like it isn't being processed. Have you told Cumulus to process it (by ticking the 'process?' box)?

Re: Tinkering my first webcam!

Posted: Fri 09 Jul 2010 5:46 pm
by Stig
here they are, and thank you for your quick reply :)

Re: Tinkering my first webcam!

Posted: Fri 09 Jul 2010 6:01 pm
by steve
I think those are the same files you've uploaded already. I think the problem is that you haven't told Cumulus to process the file (i.e. substitute the web tags).

Re: Tinkering my first webcam!

Posted: Fri 09 Jul 2010 6:46 pm
by Stig
yes I have told Cumulus to process as you can see from the atttached picture, cumulus is loading a file named {temperature}.txttmp to the first folder , local filenames, but nothing to the remote folder :?

Re: Tinkering my first webcam!

Posted: Fri 09 Jul 2010 6:57 pm
by Stig
sorry I did not get the {temperature}.txttmp file added , I am getting this mesage "The extension txttmp is not allowed."

Re: Tinkering my first webcam!

Posted: Fri 09 Jul 2010 7:15 pm
by steve
It's normally best to zip up files to attach them, so the forum software doesn't get it in the way. But it doesn't matter, I think the txttmp file will look exactly like the other two anyway?

I don't understand this:
cumulus is loading a file named {temperature}.txttmp to the first folder , local filenames, but nothing to the remote folder
You're saying it's not creating the {temperature}.txt file at all? But what is the file that you've uploaded?

When I use your temperatureT.txt file as input, and tell Cumulus to produce a {temperature}.txt file, it works fine and creates a file with this content:

Code: Select all

11.3c Regn: 5.6mm Vind: 19.4m/s Tryk: 1008.64hPa
So I don't understand why it doesn't work on your PC. I think there must be a problem with the remote filename; is the full path definitely correct? If so, it may be a permissions problem, or something like that. Unfortunately there are no error messages available if the file creation fails, it just fails silently.

Re: Tinkering my first webcam!

Posted: Sat 10 Jul 2010 8:22 am
by Stig
well last night it suddenly showed the data on the pictures, and has worked fine since then :? , I had a couple of times re pasted the file information in cumulus internet settings/files/remote file, but as you can see here the string I first sent you and the string I am using now are identical:

C:\Users\Stig\.yawcam\extravars\{temperature}.txt

C:\Users\Stig\.yawcam\extravars\{temperature}.txt

so I think you are right Steve, it has something to do with permission problems, anyway thank you for your help :)

Re: Tinkering my first webcam!

Posted: Sat 10 Jul 2010 8:28 am
by steve
OK; glad it's working now, even if we couldn't explain what the problem was.