3 iCams on one iMac not working (2 cams, 3 cams, 2 or 3 iSight cameras) firewire

[captain]

I have 1) internal iSight0, 2) firewire iSight1, 3) firewire iSight2.  All of the iSights come and go in iCamSource with apparent randomness, although the internal iSight0 seems to be the most reliable and only fails about 50% of the time.  The other two are failing 75%-100% or more of the time.  I get the error on my iPhone:
"
Source Connection Error
One or more of the iCamSources
returned by the iCam Broker Server
could not be connected to.
"

The iCams also do not display very reliably within iCamSource's Preferences panel.  i.e. when I click on each camera in the list the setup screen changes, but the video displayed is a frozen frame of either the camera in question, or iSight0.  

Sometimes unplugging and replugging the cameras gets them re-recognized by iCamSource, but that's unacceptable as a long-distance surveillance system.  This needs to get a LOT more robust to be viable.

I have tried using just ONE camera at a time, and everything works flawlessly for each camera, as long as it is the only one in iCamSource's Cameras list.

No other apps are running that access any of the cameras.


Aside: is there some way to REMOTELY reboot iCamSource, so if it freezes up while I'm half-way around the world I can get it running again?

[captain]

sorry.  double posted somehow

[OUAnthony]

I'm just guessing to give you something to test until the SKJM guys get back to you...but it sounds like it could be a power issue. I assume that, like USB cameras, too many firewire cameras could draw too much power from the system...causing the cameras to randomly stop working. Like I said though, that's just a guess. I'm not 100% sure how the power supply for firewire items works. Does the setup work consistently with 2 cameras hooked up?

As far as restarting icamsource remotely, you could set up port forwarding in your router to your computer running icamsource so that you can login to your system from your iPhone and control it...thereby giving you a way to restart icamsource remotely. I'm on a Windows machine, but do the same thing, although I never have to restart icamsource since I am using only IP cameras. If you need more cameras, you can always use some IP cameras. If you wait for a sale, you can usually pick up an entry-level one for $50-$60. Just make sure it's compatible (mjpeg feed).

[captain]

BELAY previous problem report, unless you want to fix Apple's SNAFU.  I guess Apple broke the three-cam functionality with the last updates for migration to Lion.   sigh.

iCamSource even seems to be working with both the internal iSight and ONE of the firewire iSights.  I guess I'll have to put the other camera to some other use...

Thanks!

[OUAnthony]

This is advice I see frequently for Mac users, and it works often:

"I would suggest closing the iCamSource application and then deleting your com.skjm.icamsource.plist file in your Library/Preferences folder in your home folder. Then, when you re-start the iCamSource, you will be starting with a fresh set of preferences, and hopefully things will act as expected."

You might try that. You might also look at this forum, which discusses an issue with using 2 identical brands/models of webcam:

http://skjm.com/forum/index.php?topic=2402.0

[captain]

Sorry for the trouble.  It does, in fact, appear to be yet another case of Apple breaking things that used to work just fine.  Thanks for the responses!  :-)

But, if it is at all possible for iCamSource to somehow bypass Apple's FUBAR OS and let me use both firewire iSights, that would be awesome!