One feature I depend on for iCam is the ability to start automatically on boot, when my server reboots for whatever reason. Previously this had to be accomplished by writing a .bat file. After upgrading to v2.1.1 (Windows) my .bat files stopped working. As it turns out, this is because the developers did us a favor and made everything much simpler.
It is no longer required to run multiple instances of iCam for multiple cameras. One instance handles all of your cameras. Also, the information is stored (somewhere) so it's no longer required to include it in the batch file. The net result is that the .bat file is no longer required. Simply configure your cameras and drop a shortcut in your start folder. Or, you can be like me and just delete everything in the batch file you already have except
cd C:\Program Files\iCamSource start iCamSource.exe
So, thanks for this developers. Also thanks for accomplishing two of my top feature requests: more than four cameras AND scheduling. You guys pretty much rock.
Note to users of the command line interface: to avoid problems, you should enclose your arguments in quotations. Specifically, if your passwords contain special characters, it might cause your batch file to fail of give unexpected results. Enclosing them in quotes solves the problem.
I solved it. Should've guessed it sooner. I had an ampersand (&) in my password, which was messing everything up. It would parse correctly as far as the ampersand and then act like the rest was a separate command. So when I used the -u and -p arguments, iCam would start up but have the wrong password. When I used the -cu and -cp arguments, they had no effect, and iCam instead pulled the previous session passwords from somewhere, I'm guessing the registry, which made it seem like it was working. Same with the description. After adding quotes around my password everything seems to work. So if there is a bug report to come out of this, it's to modify the documentation to include quotes around passwords (and probably usernames) for command line arguments.
While the above is resolved I'd like to maintain my feature request to enable/disable "push" and "record" from the command line.
You should only load the batch file on startup. The batch file will launch the iCam instances. I could see how also including the iCam application to launch on startup could cause conflicts.
And, we got an interesting result! Currently when I launch using the batch, both camera descriptions come up as "Living Room", WITH a space. Note that there is no space in LivingRoom in my batch. This leads me to believe it is storing and referencing the descriptions somewhere else. Thoughts?
Hi guys. I'm having some issues using iCam Source via command line. I'll preface by saying these issues are on Windows Home Server, which I know you don't support, but I figured I'd report them anyway. I'm running iCam Source v1.4.2.5b.
Issue one: The description argument doesn't work right. With multiple cameras, a random description is applied to all the cameras. Usually it is the last one. In my example, both of my cameras are called "Basement".
Issue two: the "-cu/-cp" and "-u/-p" arguments seem reversed. In my example, I frist tried using "-u/-p" to set my source username and passwords. This didn't work. I instead tried "-cu/-cp" which as I understood it was supposed to be for IP cameras, but this worked to set my source login info.
Another issue that's semi related, but maybe is a feature request: if I have push or record selected for one camera, it applies to both cameras next time they are started. This is not terrible but I would prefer to be able to set this on a per camera basis on the command line.
I agree with the idea behind this request wholeheartedly, and I think scheduling could be one way to solve it. I'd like to propose some other solutions that could potentially meet my need better:
The home security use case is why I bought iCam. I have four cameras installed at my house, and having push notifications when movement is sensed is just what I want. Currently, when I leave the house I must enable push on each camera individually (which I can at least do from the iPhone interface, thanks!) and when I arrive home I must disable it again on each camera. Not terrible but I'm not sure I can keep that up everyday. What would be better:
- Scheduling would be pretty good. I could at least schedule it to be on from 9-5. Now, if I am home late or have a day off I would need to do some manual fiddling. Would not solve the case of leaving the house for an unscheduled event, like going to the store.
- An "ARM" button. If the iPhone interface had one button to "arm" push notifications on all cameras, that would be a step in the right direction. It could likewise be used to "disarm".
- "Profiles". Like the above, but only arming certain camera. A "normal" security system lets you have an "away" profile (all sensors armed) and a "home" profile (some armed, some disarmed). This would be better as you could use the "home" profiel to arm only exterior cameras, for example.
- Command line. If the above are hard, then adding command line support for enabling/disabling push would at least allow us to kludge our own solutions. I know you can start and stop cameras using command line, but I want the cameras to run all the time, but have push at only select times.
Thanks again for a great product, it's the best I've found.
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Here it is again:
I'm running iCam Source v1.4.2.5b.