camera shuts off after a while

[kray416376]

new user here..
im sure this has been addressed but i did not see it so i apologize.

set up icam last night with an integrated laptop webcam. everything worked perfect out of the box. i left the settings mostly as they defaulted. tried watching the feed via my mobile app and the new icam web. all was great.

my laptop's (running the source) backlight went off and screen went to sleep and i could still see the feed. no problems there. if i woke the laptop the camera was still going.

then after a few hours i checked again and the whole thing had stopped. what is usually the camera was a black box now. i had to restart to resume.

im using this a dog cam so i need it to run all day.

do i need to adjust some settings or what?

thanks in advance

[OUAnthony]

Most likely, your power settings are set to shut off the monitor (LCD screen) after X number of minutes, then the computer is going to sleep (all hardware enters low-power state...meaning the webcam is no longer powered) at some point later on. To adjust these settings, click Start > Control Panel > Power. If the settings for disabling sleep mode aren't immediately visible, look for an option to change advance settings...or to customize them. It's ok if the monitor turns off...but you need to keep the computer from going to sleep or hibernating.

[kray416376]

no my computer is set to never go to sleep. the display turns off after 30 min though.. but not the pc. in advanced setting the sleep and hibernate are both disabled

[OUAnthony]

Are you on a PC or Mac?

[kray416376]

Laptop. Windows 7.

It actually shut off again last night. Its still connected. Just a black window where the camera is on the source software

update: it just came back on.. out of no where, then went off again. so it goes off and comes on...

[OUAnthony]

That's odd. And you're leaving the laptop open so the camera is facing toward the room the entire time, right? Is the laptop always plugged in?

When it came back on, had you just starting using the laptop and/or plugged the laptop into the wall? Or is the video randomly coming and going while you're away from the computer?

There are a couple of USB power-saving settings buried in Windows (in the Device Manager, if I remember correctly)...so it could be those, but I'd think the video would regularly disappear a certain number of minutes after you stop using the computer or a certain number of minutes and/or while the laptop is unplugged.

Do you have a bunch of USB devices plugged into the laptop? I guess it could also be an issue of the webcam not getting enough power due to other USB devices using too much power.

[kray416376]

none of the above. it stays plugged in and sitting at the right angle. nothing else plugged in

its random apparently. i had been testing it over weekend but im at work today so nothing is changing at the source and when i open the app on my phone sometimes i get the feed, sometimes i dont...

[OUAnthony]

So it's not necessarily feeding you a black image...it just isn't connecting in the first place? Are you getting any connection errors in the iCam app? It might take a couple of minutes for the connection error to show up...so make sure to keep your phone screen active while it's trying to connect. If you get a connection error, then you'll want to either enable or disable the "auto config router" setting in icamsource (make it the opposite of what it's set to now) and test the new setting over the 3G/LTE network (turn off your wifi if at home). In my experience, disabling the auto config router usually works best for only one camera, and enabling works best for multiple cameras. If it's already disabled and you end up enabling it, you'll also want to make sure that uPNP is enabled in your router's settings.

[kray416376]

sorry if my post was confusing... yes it is just feeding me a black screen.. everything is staying connected. my phone still shows the record light and the timer going, but black screen. (its back on now at the moment) and when i check the laptop its still connected as well, but black screen.

[OUAnthony]

Ok, so when you connect to the camera in iCam, you can view recorded motion events even with the video feed is black? And you're saying that when you open icamsource on the computer, the video preview window is also displaying black?

If I'm understanding everything correctly now, it definitely sounds like an issue with the camera hardware or a possible power or power-saving issue (or maybe a driver issue)...and not an issue with your connection between iCam and the computer OR with icamsource.

Do you have all Windows updates installed? Have you gone to the support page for your particular laptop brand/model to verify that you have the latest webcam driver installed?

If the answer to both questions is yes, you could go to Start > Control Panel > Device Manager > Universal Serial Bus controllers, right-click on each sub-item and click properties and, if available for that item, go to the "Power Management" tab and make sure the "Allow the computer to turn off this device..." box is unchecked. Then reboot and see if that fixes the problem.

If it doesn't, it could be a problem with the actual webcam hardware. If you're really determined to eliminate the hardware as the problem, you could use video capture software (your computer probably came with some for the webcam) to record a sufficiently-long video with the webcam to see if it randomly blacks-out during recording.

Otherwise, I'm out of ideas at this point...especially since your computer isn't in front of me.

[kray416376]

ok so now i feel like an idiot

after doing some testing when i came home i think i have discovered the problem..... lighting

the room with the camera has a large window (patio door) on the south facing wall. seems the sunlight is enough to light the room quite well, but when its overcast or rainy, the room is too dark and the video feed appears black. hence the back and forth of the video feed.

that totally was not my first guess!

[OUAnthony]

LOL Sometimes it's the most obvious issue, I guess.