Project Skip Find Web/weather Cam

[Turvey]

Always liked the idea of setting up a weather camera but couldn't really justify to the Head of Finance (Mrs Turvey) going out and spending X amount of money on the equipment needed.

However I have now found (skip-dived) what seems to be a working system, albeit a bit old. It comprises of 3 Swann cameras and an IQ? camera, a Vivotek VS3100 video server and a Norbain VQLC box. I've rigged it all up in the garage and all cameras show up on a TV which was a good start

My problem is that I can't seem to get the cameras to show up on the laptop I'm trying to setup. I'm not going via the router just now as it's stuck in our son's bedroom (used to be a home office before we bought the house) so not very practical to get to. I've got as far as the laptop 'finding' the video server but anything I've tried to get it to show the camera just results in a blank screen. I'm just using one camera connected to the video server with this in turn connected via ethernet cable to the laptop initially to try and get it all set up.

Am I missing something simple? Probably or am I on a hiding to nothing with the equipment I have?

I've tried various CCTV software including iSpy and Agent, as well as Yawcam and Security Eye but none seems easy to understand, to me anyway.

Any hints or tips will be gratefully received.

[Cortmalaw]

TBH, I'm surprised you got as far as you have.
Security cameras generally aim at recording video to hard drive or DVD, without any ability to get images back into your home network. Have you got a manual for the video server telling you how you are meant to access it, or even that it is possible?

[Turvey]

Thank you for your quick reply.

I've downloaded the manual from here..https://www.manualslib.com/manual/48533 ... tml#manual and to be honest it's a lot more complicated than I thought

Obviously there was no CD so I've downloaded some software from the Vivotek website but I seem to be going around in circles with it! I just thought that there might be an easier way to get it all connected.

[Cortmalaw]

I just came back to your post. The manual is of course very helpful, and the device looks versatile!

Looking at around page 56, you'll see that issuing simple webpage requests from your laptop should be able to access whatever you want. For example,

Capture update Snapshot of JPEG image
/cgi-bin/video.jpg
The Video Server will return the most up-to-date snapshot in JPEG format.

This means if you ask your web browser for http://192.168.1.201/cgi-bin/video.jpg you should receive a jpg picture (obviously, you'll need to replace the 192.168.1.201 with whatever the assigned IP address of the device is - you seem to have already found that)

[Turvey]

Thanks for having a look at the manual, you obviously have more understanding than me!

Would the use of Chrome instead of Explorer make a difference? Or is it just mentioned because it was probably the only browser available at the time?

I will get back to it but things are hectic here just now, mum has gone into care home and trying to sort her house out before we go on holiday next Friday!

If I do decide that it's too complicated and too much hassle can you, or anyone else, recommend an affordable DVR that will run a couple of CCTV cameras for security and a weather cam? Or is mixing CCTV and weather cams not advisable? Or are all DVRs much as such the same?

Thanks in advance.

[Phil23]

It comprises of 3 Swann cameras and an IQ? camera, a Vivotek VS3100 video server and a Norbain VQLC box. I've rigged it all up in the garage and all cameras show up on a TV which was a good start

I'm using iSpy/Agent here on mine.

But sounds like your camerars are primarily connected to an NVR.....

My Weather Cams are all individual IP Cams configured in Agent.

BUT, I can have Agent connect to the Cameras behind my NVR and do that as well.

For My Hikvision NVR the stream URL's are something like this....

Code: Select all

rtsp://username:password@192.168.59.150/Streaming/Channels/102
rtsp://username:password@192.168.59.150/Streaming/Channels/202
rtsp://username:password@192.168.59.150/Streaming/Channels/302
rtsp://username:password@192.168.59.150/Streaming/Channels/1202

In the above IP address is that of the NVR,
the first number (or 2) is the camera number on the Hik NVR,
The 02 is the Substream & if 01 is used it's the main stream.

I'd be guessing the "box" you are using might be slightly similar