Dropcam has been doing great business lately. In part it's because they have nice software and hardware, but partly because they use a camera capable of 720P. They're coming out with a new camera, the Dropbox Pro, which after a software upgrade, will be able to do 1080P!
Now, I like iCam and its software, but limiting us to VGA resolution is problematic. I don't mind a lower frame rate, but I want to use a better camera!
So this is a sincere request from a dedicated user who wants iCam to support better cameras!
I've been using iCam for years with great success. I posted extensive tutorials on what to do when iCam "just doesn't work" and how to do port forwarding and the like. I recently changed my network and found some further information users might find useful.
Most DSL modems sold today (or provided by the ISP) are in fact modem/routers, and many do not have WiFi capability. In these cases (or when, for example, you want to run a Time Capsule or whatever), you need to connect your WiFi router to the modem/router. In that case, unless you do something, both the modem/router and the WiFi router will be handing out DHCP addresses. This is a bad thing. Sometimes it will work, if the two units use different starting addresses, (10.xxx.xxx.xxx versus 192.xxx.xxx.xxx), but sometimes not. What you need to do is place one of the units in Bypass mode, and let the other hand out DHCP addresses.
This can be difficult when the ISP refuses to provide information on how to put the modem/router in Bypass mode, so many (i.e., I) put the downstream unit (in my case, a Time Capsule) in Bypass mode. When you do that, you have to so the whole Port Forwarding rigamarole. You can do so, but it's a pain in the butt.
However, if you put the modem/router in Bypass mode, the magic iCam software works, and you don't need Port Forwarding. In my case, I bought a Motorola modem/router compatible with my ISP from Wally World, which did come with instructions on how to put it in Bypass mode.
You might want to try this to avoid Port Forwarding. Good luck!
Hi, Stefan. Since moving to Lion, my motion detection has stopped working. (At least, that's about when it stopped working). Image transmission, both over 3G and WiFi, is fine. I'm on both an iPhone 4S and an iPad 1, IOS 5.0, iCam 2.1.1, iCam Source 2.4. Any ideas?
BTW, I've often wished that motion sensitivity could be set less sensitive (clouds often set mine off even at the lowest sensitivity) , but I get no triggering at any sensitivity now.
We’ve previously discussed http://skjm.com/forum/index.php?topic=615.0 backing up the iCam data streams offsite by creating an alias of them and dropping the alias in Dropbox. The idea is that if you have your camera doing security monitoring, but someone pinches the computer, you’ve lost the recorded video. You need to move the MJPEG files off your machine as soon as possible (and automatically) to the cloud or another machine.
The alias trick has two problems. First, if you delete one of the image files on Dropbox, it disappears from your iCam folder on your computer. Second and more important, as shown in the thread above, this approach sometimes does not work; apparently due to changes in the Extended Attributes and Resource Forks of OSX, as described here http://www.pxc.me.uk/misc/dropbox_mac_use.html. A possible solution using Symlinks is shown here http://wiki.dropbox.com/TipsAndTricks/SyncOtherFolders, but I have not tried it yet. Evidently different versions of OSX.n have different alias properties.
Another option is to use Hazel http://www.noodlesoft.com/, though it will cost you $22USD. Hazel does quite a lot, but mostly it monitors folders, and implements actions if something happens to those folders. Hazel appears as a Preferences panel in System Preferences on a Mac and lets you setup rules for folders. Here’s one to copy files from your [user]/pictures/iCam source motion events/[gigantic hash sequence] to Dropbox:
The folder being monitored is [user]/pictures/iCam source motion events/[gigantic hash sequence]. This rule copies, rather than mirrors, the images, so if you delete an image from your smartphone, it does not get deleted from the computer. "Do not copy if duplicate" prevents multiple copies of the image, and the "If file exists" rule is pretty much irrelevant for iCam, since each JPEG is named with a time stamp.
One final trick - if you want the images to be persistent on your smartphone, mark the folder as a Favorite and use the Dropbox Settings on the phone to an appropriate size (like 500MB) or the images will be linked to, but not resident in, your phone. They'd still be on the Dropbox website, though.
True paranoids like me will want to setup a tripwire imaging capability using Hazel as described here: http://www.noodlesoft.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=409&sid=f755510ded4234571f90f506e703a1cf. In this case, if someone swipes your laptop, you can change a filename in Dropbox (using another computer), and the next time the perp goes online with your computer, Dropbox syncs, Hazel sees the changed filename and executes an AppleScript that takes his picture and gets his IP address! This last is not an iCam issue, but if you get Hazel, it's pretty cool to use it this way.
Stefan- You may recall that I, among many others, have a DSL modem which is also a router (though not advertised as such) from AT&T. This has meant that I had to use port forwarding, which is tricky for many to setup (and for which I am thankful for your extensive help in completing the setup).
My question is, does iCam Source 2.1 substantially improve the firewall penetration capabilities of iCam so that port forwarding is no longer necessary? Or should I let sleeping dogs lie, so to speak?
I have two cameras I monitor - the iSight on my iMac and a WiFi Linksys. I have two instances of iCam Source in my apps folder so I can keep both open simultaneously. As noted in the Forums, this is the way to monitor two cameras on a Mac. Each instance of the program retains the correct settings for the appropriate camera. This worked fine until the 2.1 update.
After the move to iCam Source 2.1, both instances of the iCam Source bring up the camera which was viewed last. All other functionality - port forwarding, WIFi, 3G, and Edge access, push, recording, etc work fine.
I corrected this in the original thread, and am posting it here again since many people read new items. Basically, this works very well, but one must not change the name of the alias of the iCam data in the Dropbox.
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I want to occasionally use iCam as a simple security system. I was concerned that in the event that someone broke into my house, one of the first things they'd go for was my computer. So, other than anything I was able to snap of the iCam data stream on my iPhone (assuming I acted on a push alert), the record of the burglary would be gone. I wanted some way to backup the data stream other than on the machine running iCam Source, so if the computer is stolen you can still get the perp’s picture.
I've been playing around with Dropbox, and I think it’s a killer solution. Note that the MJPEG images comprising the iCam stream are stored in Pictures are presently stored in:
If you make an alias of the [gigantic hash sequence] folder you can drop it in the Dropbox, which might be on your computer desktop. Do not rename the alias! Any images that appear in the [gigantic hash sequence] folder are immediately reflected in the Dropbox Cloud server, as well as anyplace else you have a synchronized Dropbox. This updating is continuous and does not wait for the motion trigger event to be completed!
The mirrored Dropboxes will show the JPEGs in the Dropbox files, just as they do on your computer. However, if you throw away the file from the alias in Dropbox, the file is gone for the Mac as well – so be careful.
This seems to be an ideal solution to remote backup of the MJPEG stream. I've tried it and it works! Best of all, Dropbox is free for up to 2GB storage.
And, thanks to Stefan for doing a sanity check on my ideas!
Suppose you want to create a movie from iCam JPEG stills. Maybe you want to post it, or email it. Here's how! (This approach only work for Mac users, but no doubt something similar works in Windows. It also helps if you have some experience with iPhoto and iMovie.)
Locate the iCam source files at [user]/pictures/iCam source motion events/[gigantic alphanumeric hash sequence]/[pictures with date-time stamp]. Open iPhoto and drag the JPEG pictures into it, creating an Event (which you can name for convenience). Close iPhoto (if you wish) and open iMovie.
On the right side of the iMovie window, in the middle, find the still camera import icon and click it. This brings up a window to iPhoto within which you can navigate to the correct event (the one with the iCam pictures that you just named above). Events are shown after the divider; just look for one of the iCam JPEGs you recognize.
Create a new project (File->New Project) and drag the event into the project.
Use Command-A to select all the images. Select the little Gear indicator and pull it down to get the options to edit the clips.
You can crop the images, adjust the exposure, brightness, saturation, white point, and so on. Make sure you turn off the Ken Burns effect, which is on by default. On the Clip options, set the duration of each picture to about 0.5 second, or whatever looks best to you.
Use the spacebar to preview the movie. When you have it the way you like, choose Share->Export Movie to export it as an m4v movie. Enjoy!
I want to occasionally use iCam as a simple security system. I was concerned that in the event that someone broke into my house, one of the first things they'd go for was my computer. So, other than anything I was able to snap of the iCam data stream on my iPhone (assuming I acted on a push alert), the record of the burglary would be gone. I wanted some way to backup the data stream other than on the machine running iCam Source, so if the computer is stolen you can still get the perp’s picture.
I've been playing around with Dropbox, and I think it’s a killer solution. Note that the MJPEG images comprising the iCam stream are stored in Pictures are presently stored in:
If you make an alias of the [gigantic hash sequence] folder you can drop it in the Dropbox, which might be on your computer desktop. Do not rename the alias! Any images that appear in the [gigantic hash sequence] folder are immediately reflected in the Dropbox Cloud server, as well as anyplace else you have a synchronized Dropbox. This updating is continuous and does not wait for the motion trigger event to be completed!
The mirrored Dropboxes will show the JPEGs in the Dropbox files, just as they do on your computer. However, if you throw away the file from the alias in Dropbox, the file is gone for the Mac as well – so be careful.
This seems to be an ideal solution to remote backup of the MJPEG stream. I've tried it and it works! Best of all, Dropbox is free for up to 2GB folder. If you get Dropbox using this link: https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTM0MDgwNjM5 you (and I ) will get an extra 250 MB of storage.
And, thanks to Stefan for doing a sanity check on my ideas!
Just downloaded v1.3, and it's great! Some thoughts that are only now obvious because I can look at recordings:
- Obviously you have to decide when to interpret a motion trigger as a new, unique event. Clearly a pause of a second between triggers is too short, and a minute is too long. Some experimentation seems to indicate the lockout time for new triggers is about 20 seconds. Is that right?
- It seems to me that if there is no motion in the frame, no new frames are sent. This is logical for a bandwidth-constrained system, but it was not obvious until I could look at recordings.
- One anticipated use of iCam is as a burglar alarm. However, if the bad guy gets in, one of the first things he's going to take is the PC. If your recordings of him getting in are on the PC, you have no evidence to present to the police. Right now, your only hope is to snap a picture of the screen while the triggered event is being streamed to you. A better option would be to save all the images that get to the iPhone in the Camera Roll automatically. Any chance?
- Pictures are presently stored in [user]/pictures/iCam source motion events/[gigantic arbitrary alphanumeric sequence]/[date-time stamp]. Can we rename the [gigantic arbitrary alphanumeric sequence] with our camera name, or will images get "lost"?
So, guys, how's v1.3 coming? Still hung up in the Apps process? We're all waiting for the recording capability that will make this Great App a Killer App!
I'm aware from other posts that you will shortly have v1.3 out there and that it will enable recording on the computer. I have a request that I acknowledge may be a low priority for you, but it would be "nice" someday.
Many people use iCam for home security. In case of a break-in, one can find out about it in real time (or near-real-time here in the boonies without 3G). But someone breaking into a house will go for the computer right after he goes for the jewelery and cash. No computer, no recording for evidence. At best you've taken a screen shot with your iPhone if you're fast. Two solutions would be to duplicate the recording on the iPhone itself or (less desirably) enable automatic FTP of the recording every "N" seconds to a remote server. But recording on the phone would be best. After all, the data is already being forwarded to the phone anyway, right? Why not record it there?
You really have a great product, and I will never forget the incredible support you gave me during setup. Thanks!
From what I’ve been able to glean from the Forums, iCam doesn’t work “out of the box” for some DSL setups, but it generally does (always?) for cable setups. The problem may be related to the fact that some ISPs supply modems with router functions built-in, and some do not.
Most people have external routers to provide WiFi and multiple Ethernet ports. That router is set up to hand out addresses to equipment connected to it through a protocol called DHCP. This is great, because you can add or remove equipment and the router gives it an address without you having to do anything. However, if the modem also is a router and has DHCP functions enabled, your network can get confused. And more to the point here, the iCam "zero-configuration" logic can get confused.
(Aside: I one had a Westell modem, which had router functions, feeding a Linksys router. Both had DHCP on, and both were trying to assign IP addresses to the same equipment. Very confusing! Ordinarily this does not happen unless they have been set to start handing out addresses at the same starting address, which was the case here.)
So, if iCam works on your WiFi system but not on Edge, 3G, or other WiFi systems, the problem may be that you have two routers and the iCam "zero-configuration" logic cannot pierce the firewalls of both of them. All you can do is to fix this manually, by setting up your camera and your computer with fixed IP addresses and forwarding the ports as described by SKJM.
Here’s what I did: Turn off the DHCP function for the second downstream router. In my case, I had a Netopia modem supplied by AT&T/Bellsouth feeding an Apple Time Capsule, which is essentially an Airport Extreme router. AT&T does NOT want you to mess with that modem unnecessarily, and in any event their customer support is not as good as SKJM’s. So I set the Apple router up in Bridge mode, which disables the Apple modem’s DHCP service. All IP addresses are then set by the Netopia.
Next, you have to set fixed IP addresses for the computer and the camera. The IP address of the camera is set by the application that comes with it (Windoze only for the Linksys camera). I set it to 192.168.1.155, which Linksys says is a common address for WebCams.
Use the Expert mode of the modem/router to set the IP address of the Mac computer. While you’re at it, check the DHCP range to make sure you’re not potentially handing out addresses that might interfere with the camera. My defaults were for the modem/router to hand out 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.253. Since I am unlikely to ever have 253 pieces of equipment on my network, I told it to only hand out the range 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.100. Thus the camera at 192.168.1.155 is safe.
Reboot everything in order of signal flow – modem, router, computer, and peripherals. Make sure you can still do everything you could when you had all DHCP addresses.
Get into the Expert mode of the modem/router again and setup Port Forwarding as described by SKLM. Enter the code described by SKJM via Terminal (defaults write com.skjm.icamsource PortRangeSet -bool true) into your Mac. Turn on Port Fowarding in iCam Source.
This approach worked for me. Hope it helps someone else.
Anyone wish to comment on which wireless IP video camera has the best video, works easily with a Mac, and is comparable with iCam? There are a lot out there...
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