Well, I was wrong in what I put for the model of the mini. There wasn't even any made late-2009. Actually there was. They have a really poor track record of putting them out. Anyway, looking at the about for the machine, it says mid-2010.
I don't know if that is as high as it gets. It could get higher than that and it just is at that when I launch activity monitor and can finally see what is going on. What I do know is that, coupled with its activity, when my wife tries to use the machine for pretty much anything it makes the fan ramp up to make it sound like a jet engine taking off. She has to sit there waiting and waiting and waiting for the computer to finally load up what she is wanting.
Yes, we do have record on motion enabled for that one camera. It doesn't get triggered that often. Seriously, we live on a dead end street that gets maybe 6 or 7 cars over the course of 8 to 10 hours. It is a virtually brand new spinner that I just installed replacing the old, tiny hard drive, so it's speeds shouldn't be low enough writing the small amount of data that it would affect the performance in this way. Yes, laptop drives are still slower than full size drives, but still. And while replacing the hard drive I made sure everything was cleaned out with no obstructions, so it isn't dirt or dust making the fan ramp up. It is purely processor performance.
Maybe it is just the overall age of the machine and the power of the processor. I've got 8GB of RAM in it, so maybe that's it. Maybe it wants 16GB, but I can't see that being the reason. If it only had 4GB then that I could understand. LOL
Without the preferences open, it fluctuates between like 13% and 25% or so. With it open, it goes between like 20% and 30%. I have 4 cameras connected. Of those 4, only 1 does any sort of motion detection/recording. The image quality was set to the best side, so I moved it to mid-range. The motion detection is already at the middle point. I am afraid to move it any lower out of fear that I might miss events.
My wife has a late-2009 Mac Mini running the latest macOS High Sierra. when running icamsource on it, we notice that LOADS of CPU time is taken up by the application. It makes her computer run super slow. Even web pages. She can sit there having to wait on Facebook to load up. Or it takes forever for our checkbook software to load up and Excel to launch. The only way to help the situation at all is to disable the motion detection portion of it. I have set up schedules on it for when to record/detect motion. While that is *a* solution, it isn't really the best one. What happens if something happens during the times it isn't detecting/recording? What happens if I forget to turn it back on if I kill it while she is using it and then we leave?
Basically, what I'm doing here is trying to see if there is a reason why it uses so much CPU time dragging the system down. Is there anything we can do to make it work any better? Is it just because of the processing that is required when doing the detection? Would reducing the detectable zones help? Is there ANYTHING we can do to make it more useful?
Just as an update for this camera, I just got it the other day. Works pretty well as the user 1report says. Only problem I have with it is that I can't get it to detect motion through iCamSource and send a notice. It also doesn't record motion since it isn't detecting it. Not sure what's up with that. Wish it would do motion based activities. Other than that, easy to set up, easy to configure, easy to use.
I was thinking about something that might be useful to people. I know you can define an area to record motion when it occurs, but what about adding a sub-zone inside the main zone for other options? Say, for instance, I want to define my entire front yard to watch for motion and have it record whenever something happens in it, but I would like to be notified whenever someone approaches my front door. I don't want to turn on the "Send Push Notifications" function for the entire motion zone because I would be getting all sorts of notifications with audio every time something happens. My thought is this, have the primary zone set up for recording motion, but create a secondary zone within the primary zone set up for push notifications for times when you want to have an audible alert notify you of action in that secondary zone while leaving the primary zone silent.
There are times when I have a package coming and would like to know when it gets there. I can turn on the push notifications for anytime motion is detected, but I would have a lot of notifications when lighting might change because of clouds, cars passing by that might trigger the motion detection part, or something like that becoming very annoying with the notification sound each time this happens. I would love to be able to designate a sub-section of that motion zone to send the audible alert when the delivery guy walks up to the door. Or, if I am waiting for the mailman to come, I could set the zone around the mailbox for the push notifications to let me know when he gets there. Or, if I am waiting for the trash man to come so I can go get the cans back in. Things like that. Does that make any sense at all?
Is this something we can get incorporated into a future version? Also, does anyone else think this sort of thing would be useful to them or am I alone in this?
It occurred to me the other day that it would be wonderful to be able to speak back to the person/thing that I am seeing on the camera through the computer speakers.
For instance, say my cat is up on a table that I don't want it to be. I would love to be able to shout at it to get down through the speakers on the desktop. Or to tell my son to stop doing something I catch him doing.
How hard would it be for you guys to add something in to the application that will allow the user to push a button to record a short message and then transmit it out through the speakers of the computer you are looking at? I think it would add enormous value to the application if this was there. Please, let me know.
A number of users (myself included) use the free DropBox service to automatically upload a copy of the recorded motion events to a remote server in case a computer is stolen or there is a power loss: http://skjm.com/forum/index.php?topic=615.0
Just as a word of caution, I did this with my dropbox account for a while. It used up a crapload of data on my Comcast line. It made me almost go over the limit before I realized what was going on. That was before the zones feature was put in, however, so I am not sure if that will fix it. I have not tried again. I just thought I would mention the insane amount of data that was getting used on my line because of the dropbox uploading.
sorry I am just now responding. I think either something got changed or updated or something because it doesn't appear to happen anymore. at least not enough to annoy me. so, nevermind. LOL
Please let me know if that one also works for you.
Are you having problems connecting when your iPhone is connected to the same WiFi network as the computer running the iCamSource? Do you have multiple WiFi networks available? Or perhaps a router that supports a "guest" network that is separate from the "primary" one?
Yep, seems to be working. We will have to see with a little more testing, but I think it should do just fine. The wife really likes the idea of being able to keep the street in front of the house out of the detectible area.
The issues with the iPhone and WiFi is all on the same WiFi network with no other WiFi interferences. Just the one network. It is as if it can not find the iCamSource for some reason. Or, if it does, it performs very slowly. It might just be one of the odd, intermittent issues that is almost impossible to figure out. It really isn't a big deal or anything, just more of an occasional irritant. I can always just use the 3G portion of my phone when it happens. It isn't *that* big of a deal, I just thought it might be something to bring up in case someone else has the issue.
Thanks for the quick update like that. It is nice to know my meager $5 for the iPhone app is actually backed with support.
Yeah, it seems to be working fine with that checkbox done. Thanks for pointing that out for me. I would have never thought to use it.
Only issues other than this I have been running into lately is the fact that sometimes I can't get the iPhone app to work on my phone on wifi. I have to turn off wifi and use 3G instead. But if I let it sit for a while without trying to use it, it will start working again. It is very weird. This is on the full release and on the beta.
One question: If you check the "Android" checkbox next to the Audio drop-down list before you start the iCamSource are you then able to connect without problem?
Well, I never tried that before because I don't have any "Android" devices. It is appearing to be stable though for some reason. I will have to try it on the computer I want it to work on.
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I think it would add enormous value to the application if this was there. Please, let me know.