No Audio Camera Stops Working/Hard Disk Never Spins Down

[treefrog]

Sorry if either of these have been answered before,  but I've been unable to find others who have posted or answered these questions.

Since the release of versions with audio support, my camera that does not have a mic shows up and works  anywhere from  about five to thirty minutes, then the message appears that it cannot find audio data - please verify the camera's URL –  and stops displaying the camera video feed.

I kept downgrading back to earlier versions (1.9), I think... I have since lost the version that worked... But that was the only way to enjoy my iCam.

Since I've lost the version that worked... I keep hoping that the problem gets repaired with updates, but it's not.  It's still been an issue for me.  In addition, I discovered by accident (when finally relenting and letting it show just the cameras that would continue feeding) that running iCam source eventually starts my hard drive spinning and never lets it spin back down.  I ultimately gave up on the program in the middle of last year because leaving my hard drive spinning for 16-18 hours while I was gone did not seem like a good idea.  (I had tested the spinning while at home and after three hours it had not spun down once... I quit using iCam).  The incessant hard drive spin seems to only start up after the non-audio camera fails.  Up until that point, it will run normally.

I missed the program and decided to give it another go with the latest version (2.6), on a different computer no less, and the exact same behavior started up again.  What's going on here?

Running 3 foscam (2 w/audio support - 1 w/no audio) cameras (and earlier, my older macbook pro's built in cam as well)
on (formerly) a MacBook Pro running 10.7 and now a Mac Mini running 10.8 (as of today, 10.8.3)

Thanks for any help here.  I really like iCam source/iCam over the other products I bought when I couldn't get iCam to cooperate (and my schedule wouldn't let me deal with it)... and really want to go back to using it.  But not if it's going to make my brand new Mac Mini hard drive die before its time.

**EDIT**
Also, I forgot to mention that I have audio switched to "OFF" on my iCam on my iPhone... but there's no way to tell the iCam Source not to look for audio from one/all cameras

[SKJM Support]

What is the fps setting for each camera? Please drop it down to about 2-5 fps to see if that improves stability.

You can adjust the frame rate of a Foscam camera by adding a parameter to the URL.

http://x.x.x.x/video.cgi?rate=<PARAM>

<PARAM> can be a value between 0 and 23, and each value corresponds to:
    0:maximum
    1:20 fps
    3:15 fps
    6:10 fps
    11:5 fps
    12:4 fps
    13:3 fps
    14:2 fps
    15:1 fps
    17:1 fp/2s
    19:1 fp/3s
    21:1 fp/4s
    23:1 fp/5s

So to connect to the camera at 2 fps, you would use http://x.x.x.x/video.cgi?rate=14 … or to connect at 5 fps, you would use http://x.x.x.x/video.cgi?rate=11

[treefrog]

Will try this and report back.  It had seemed stable this morning for more than a half hour and I left it running, but came back home to a spinning hard disk and the same "cannot find audio data" message.  Thanks.

[treefrog]

Just shy of 48 hours with the lowered frame rate, and the non-audio camera has been up the whole time.... and the hard disk has not gone into super-spin mode.

Thanks for the resolution.

FYI – because iCam Source isn't a "normal" application (with a menu and a quit option)... even closing the window won't stop the hard disk spinning when it happens.  It requires a computer restart... another situation in this ordeal I have confirmed (having stopped iCam Source, closing the window, and waiting...).  Don't know if that's helpful information for the developer.

Thanks again.  I will report back if this resolution doesn't continue operating as we hope...

[treefrog]

So, I woke up early this morning to the hard dive spinning and "cannot find audio data"/no feed from that cam. 

Hit stop... still spinning...

I discovered the right-hand menu icon (how many versions has that been there, lol?!) and quit iCam Source, which was followed immediately by a hard drive spin down (indicating to me that I have been correct in associating the hard drive spin with iCam Source).

That was 5fps... will lower to 2 and see what happens.

[OUAnthony]

Don't know if this will help any, but you might give this a read. For this user, I think the issue was with Dropbox.

http://skjm.com/forum/index.php?topic=4746.msg16028#msg16028

[treefrog]

Thanks... but none of that really applies to me.  Dropbox isn't involved with iCam source at all in my setup... and I currently have recording/motion detection/push notifications all disabled while troubleshooting.

I do appreciate the input, though!

[SKJM Support]

The only time iCamSource accesses the hard drive is when it's recording. Make sure that recording is turned off for all of the cameras and not just one of them (it's a per camera setting).

If that doesn't help, 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.
 
If you are running Lion it hides the ~/Library directory for some reason. You can get to that directory by running Finder and then holding the Option key while clicking on the "Go" menu at the top of the screen. If you're holding down the Option key, "Library" will be one of the choices available. You should choose Library, then open the Preferences folder. The plist file will be in there.