IP Camera Config

[alex]

Hi guys - 

I got my Sharx camera - turns out I got the standard model instead of wide angle, so I will swap, but I'm having a hard time figuring out next steps. 

1. How can I easily connect to the video stream? Right now, I have to use a different URL if I'm home or if I'm away, and then it requires a password. Is there a site that would simplify that? My old logitech just had an easy website you went to, wherever you were

2. I tried IPTimeLapse but it doesn't seem to do what I was hoping. Does the software have to be running all the time in order to create a timelapse? Is there a true cloud based option that will just get a picture every x minutes and put it together into a timelapse, all in the cloud?

3. Sharx apparently doesn't have its own app. It says you can just bookmark it - true, but I really don't want to have to enter username/password every time. is there a good app that would work with it?

I think that's it for now... Thanks for the help!

 --Alex

[Lava Rock]

Alex
If you want to view live video away from home, I use tinycam app. IP time lapse afaik has to be running on your computer all the time. It captures an image every so many minutes depending on your setup, then you create time lapse using the software.

[alex]

Cool thanks, I'll try those. I don't have a computer that's always on - is there a cloud option that would do the same that you know of?

[Lava Rock]

Cool thanks, I'll try those. I don't have a computer that's always on - is there a cloud option that would do the same that you know of?

Do you have your own website? You could upload to that. Not sure about cloud.

[alex]

I figured most things out... but I'm still not entirely in love with the quality. Maybe it's a matter of expectations - this is what it looks like (Mt Washington is in the back but it's in the clouds). Is this quality normal? I feel like it could be a bit crisper... Model is Sharx SNCN3905 (but I will switch to the 3904 for the wide angle)

Public link is http://1800cam.click2stream.com/

 

 

[Lava Rock]

13 minutes ago, alex said:

I figured most things out... but I'm still not entirely in love with the quality. Maybe it's a matter of expectations - this is what it looks like (Mt Washington is in the back but it's in the clouds). Is this quality normal? I feel like it could be a bit crisper... Model is Sharx SNCN3905 (but I will switch to the 3904 for the wide angle)

Public link is http://1800cam.click2stream.com/

 

 

Is that mounted outside? Looks a bit grainy and blurry. Are your settings under Streaming tab set to 1920x1080? Are you the guy with the blue or red shirt? Lol, saw you walking around. Not sure, but the streaming quality may not be as good as a snapshot. I have mine set to take pic every 15min. Email Sharx guys. They will respond rapidly.

[eekuasepinniW]

The top left isn't in focus... are you shooting through glass at an angle or a screen?

Image compression is set way too high.

[wxeyeNH]

Totality non techy. Looks pretty good on the public site.   Alex,  that is a great shot.  I don't know if you will like the wide angle lens.  It will make Mt Washington and details much smaller.  Take a look at my weather site.   My old Netcam is a tighter lens and the Nest is a wide angle.  With the wide angle you see more field but loose the closeness of seeing things like seeing snow on the trees etc.  Personally I think you should keep this, view is perfect.   Oh, on the public site the image is fairly small, not near full screen.  Can you make the whole size bigger???

Here's my 2 cams   http://www.metrocast.net/~wxeye/

 

 

[wxeyeNH]

Alex,  its bigger now and perfect.  You have the deck in the foreground so if you get snow you (we) can judge depth from railings.  You got the foliage and Mt Washington and enough sky to tell cloud cover.   My vote is to keep the image just like that, don't do a wide angle.   Just my opinion!  Great job!

[dendrite]

I see a nice spot for a Davis ISS w/ FARS...

[alex]

OMG I looked at the Davis, it's SO expensive! Grr... I need to ask for government funding lol!

The camera is outside, not through glass or anything. Good point on losing some detail going to wide... gotta think about that! I sent a support request this morning, I imagine they won't get to me till tomorrow. I'm the buy in blue BTW!  But yeah, even at full screen (which I haven't figure out how to get other than through the actual Sharx interface - the public site is through Angelcam), it's blurry and that's annoying. Streaming is set at  1920x1080, and it sends snapshots every 5 minutes

[wxeyeNH]

Alex,  I'm curious about what others on the boards that have weather cams  think about the wide angle.  Last year when I was not home and was curious if it was snowing or precipitating with the wide angle I could not tell because it takes in such an expansive view.  With the Netcam and the more zoomed in view I could see individual flakes etc.   Wide angle is good for security or catching wildlife but for watching snow lines on Mt Washington or determining snowfall on your railings you might be disappointed.  Wouldn't it be nice to have a zoom type lens that the owner could adjust to their liking!  Wonder if Sharx would be willing to send you out the wide angle cam before you return this model so you could compare then decide?  Probably not but if you had your credit card on file with them perhaps they would???

[dendrite]

30 minutes ago, alex said:

OMG I looked at the Davis, it's SO expensive! Grr... I need to ask for government funding lol!

The camera is outside, not through glass or anything. Good point on losing some detail going to wide... gotta think about that! I sent a support request this morning, I imagine they won't get to me till tomorrow. I'm the buy in blue BTW!  But yeah, even at full screen (which I haven't figure out how to get other than through the actual Sharx interface - the public site is through Angelcam), it's blurry and that's annoying. Streaming is set at  1920x1080, and it sends snapshots every 5 minutes

$559 w/FARS at Scaled Instruments. Add in another $100 or so with the datalogger.

[alex]

1 hour ago, wxeyeNH said:

Alex,  I'm curious about what others on the boards that have weather cams  think about the wide angle.  Last year when I was not home and was curious if it was snowing or precipitating with the wide angle I could not tell because it takes in such an expansive view.  With the Netcam and the more zoomed in view I could see individual flakes etc.   Wide angle is good for security or catching wildlife but for watching snow lines on Mt Washington or determining snowfall on your railings you might be disappointed.  Wouldn't it be nice to have a zoom type lens that the owner could adjust to their liking!  Wonder if Sharx would be willing to send you out the wide angle cam before you return this model so you could compare then decide?  Probably not but if you had your credit card on file with them perhaps they would???

I got it from Amazon so returns are quite easy... but you have a great point. Gotta think about it. And i gotta think about the weather station. I'd love something more accurate but $199 vs $650 is a big difference, and really the time I care the most is when it's precipitating, when radiation is not a factor. Hmm...

[wxeyeNH]

I'm all for a good weather station like Brian (Dendrite)  suggests.  If your on a budget and  can't afford it you could try this to see how accurate your current readings are.  I think I mentioned something like this a few months back.  Go to a store like Walmart or on Amazon and buy one of those cheap memory thermometers with the displays.  Put the sensor in a slushy ice/water bath and see how close it is to 32.0F   Note the discrepancy high or low.  Bring it out to your weather station and set it next to your sensor and see how close it reads.  You will then know how accurate your current readings are.  Of course this is just quick and dirty but if your Meteorology is just a hobby and your obs are not official it will give you an idea where you stand.  Just a thought.....

[alex]

That's a great tip but the problem is that the issue is not really accuracy - I've checked many times and during cloudy, windy conditions it's within a half degree of the other weather station at Bretton Woods. The problem is when it's in full sun, when it can read several degrees above actual temperature, and at night, when it goes too low - so I think it's an issue with the shield. I wonder if there's a way to improve the shielding?

[alex]

So I took the weather station apart to see if the fan inside still works. It does - though of course it only works in full sun so it won't help with the low temp readings. This is a picture of it BTW. 

[dendrite]

Couple of tips...

dont mount it above your dish. That thing is absorbing a low of s/w rad from the sun and heating up....that heat is rising straight up to your instrumentation. You really should try to get the station near 2m and above grass. That could be part of your high temp problem right there.

I wouldn't worry about getting good wind readings with that. Wind is one of the hardest variables to measure anyway. I know you did your best to get it up there as high as possible, but you're still surrounded by tall vegetation. I would just sacrific the wind and try to get your temp/hum readings the best as possible. Your weenie wx variable at your location will be the temp anyways. If you were up near 2kft on a hill then I'd say get that station up there and record the wind as yu won't be radiating much anyways...there would be almost 24/7 free air at the station.

If you could piecemeal a Davis station for cheap I would maybe suggest going that route. I have a couple of used sensors I could sell you for dirt cheap or maybe some stuff to give...(temp/hum, anemometer, and maybe an old VP1 rain gauge...I'm not sure if it's compatible with a VP2). The thing is you would still need a datalogger (I'm still using mine from 1996 that went with my Davis weather monitor II...lol), a FARS, a console or envoy, and the ISS transmitter. The FARS sold separately at Scaled Instruments is already $225, the transmitter is $100, and the console $191 (Envoy $122) so you're over $500 right there. You'd be better off just buying a shiny new station. 

[wxeyeNH]

Alex,  just went to look at your new webcam.   I don't know why it is blurry on the left side of the picture.  Center and right side seems perfect.  Could the lens have a smear on the left side?.  Also thinking about your decision to swap it with the wide angle.  You bought it from Amazon and not directly from the company,right?  In a email yesterday I said maybe they would send you the wide angle version before you return this one.  If you bought from Amazon you could just buy a wide angle model too and return the one you like least.  Do you think the one you have might be defective with the blurriness on the left?   I would guess Sharx customer service would be able to go online, look at your feed and tell right away.  

[Lava Rock]

Did you hear from Sharx? They've always helped me same day, sometimes within minutes. I was also going to ask about possible smear on lens.

[J.Spin]

On ‎9‎/‎18‎/‎2016 at 3:23 PM, wxeyeNH said:

Alex,  I'm curious about what others on the boards that have weather cams  think about the wide angle.  Last year when I was not home and was curious if it was snowing or precipitating with the wide angle I could not tell because it takes in such an expansive view.  With the Netcam and the more zoomed in view I could see individual flakes etc.   Wide angle is good for security or catching wildlife but for watching snow lines on Mt Washington or determining snowfall on your railings you might be disappointed.  Wouldn't it be nice to have a zoom type lens that the owner could adjust to their liking!  Wonder if Sharx would be willing to send you out the wide angle cam before you return this model so you could compare then decide?  Probably not but if you had your credit card on file with them perhaps they would???

 

I’d been meaning to comment on the “wide” vs. “zoom” topic for this thread, and the specific inquiry above suggests that other people are indeed interested.  Personally, I don’t see a whole lot of utility in very wide angle shots – if you go too wide it essentially reduces the amount of available information from the camera to whether it snowed, or is snowing, at the camera site.  You may be able to get some information on snowfall intensity based on visibility, or on the elevation of the snow line if it’s not zoomed out to far to make the mountains miniscule.  In contrast, tighter shots can give you all that information, and much more.  Depending on the setup, you can get:

 

-qualitative information on whether it snowed or not (any field of view gives this of course)

-estimate of snow line (depending on orientation of the camera)

-intensity of snowfall

-flake size

-quantitative information on new snowfall amounts and rates

-snowpack depth

 

I’m sure there’s other information that can be gleaned from the images as well.  Obviously everyone’s setup will depend on what their goals are, but I have my Dropcam/Nestcam zoomed in as far as possible because I’m interested in monitoring snow accumulations:

 

 

I actually think the newer model of the cams has a wider angle of view than my original Dropcam (130° vs 107°) but assuming the new ones can still zoom to the same extent, it’s probably a wash with the higher 1080p vs. 720p resolution.

 

I don’t really have any practical views from the house that would provide data on the snow line in our area, so as far as I’m concerned, I’m not really losing anything with the tighter shot (I can zoom out the image remotely at any time anyway), and I’m gaining the ability to get a really good sense of just how much snow fell during a specific period, even if I’m not around in person to observe it.  Watching the close-up image stream in real time can also give one a very good idea of the snow intensity and flake size (I know PF has done this, as have I – it’s very useful in our upslope zone).  Those aspects are just a bonus as far as I’m concerned, but it is pretty neat to be able to pop open your phone wherever you are and know if it’s dumping at the house and what type of snow I’ll expect to encounter when I get home.

[alex]

2 hours ago, Lava Rock said:

Did you hear from Sharx? They've always helped me same day, sometimes within minutes. I was also going to ask about possible smear on lens.

Been working with them. They actually suspect it might be a bad lens... but we are still working back and forth with the customer service. They've been great! I am still debating the wide angle vs non... The camera has dual purpose - weather monitoring but also check out wildlife (we get moose and bears in the front yard quite often) as well as people coming and going... 

[wxeyeNH]

Alex,  we get lots of deer and turkeys too so I use my cams for more than weather also.   With my more "zoomed in"  Netcam I have a better chance of catching something in the view  but with the wide angle view they are so much smaller that I can't really tell much  because of how wide the camera view is.   So you have a better chance of catching something in the view with the wide angle you loose the detail of seeing the wildlife close up.  Wish I lived closer and I would bring my Nestcam up to you so you could compare the wide verses narrow views.

[alex]

Hmm... maybe I need 2!

Had an interesting response from Sharx recarding the lack of sharpness:

You could benefit from raising hue and contrast to 55 or 60 for a slightly more vibrant view, but beyond that, we don’t recommend changing anything from here.

 

This confirms that the camera is not defective and does not need to be replaced.

 

The focus is pre-set to a range that is most effective for security.

 

In your case it seems that maybe you want to emphasize the view of infinity, and while it is somewhat tedious, it is possible to make a slight adjustment to the focus to improve it for the mountains and woods in the distance.  Basically you’d unplug the power, then unscrew the front of the camera as shown in the user guide, then remove the IR LED board that is held with the immediately visible philips screws. It can dangle from the cable as long as the board doesn’t touch the camera body.

 

Then you see the single lockscrew on the lens, which you would loosen without removing. You would then try rotating the lens a little bit. The initial turn might stick due to the threadlocker adhesive but can be carefully broken loose without damage to the lens.

 

Making sure that the IR LED board doesn’t touch the camera body, with power connected back to the camera you can then have someone else observe the camera while making very slight adjustments. When you achieve perfect focus, you’d tighten the lockscrew. Sometimes tightening the lockscrew moves the focus a little bit, so you’d back off the focus by the corresponding amount so that it is in perfect focus after the lockscrew is tightened. 

 

After you’re done with that, remove power again while re-attaching the IR LED board and closing the camera up.

 

We also have a new professional model HTNC4404M that has motorized zoom and focus. It is $599 with an introductory price of $549

 

And we have industrial 5 MP cameras that have razor sharp images and a manually adjustable lens, but these are indoor cameras with optional outdoor enclosures and require a local PC. The camera itself is $449 but this adds up to $699 with our premium outdoor enclosure. Some samples from our HDNC5501 are attached for your information, but we believe that with slight adjustments the SCNC3905 should work well for you especially on days that are not as hazy.

[wxeyeNH]

Hey Alex.  Lots of info in their email but something doesn't make sense to me.  I understand about the preset focus they are claiming but when I look at your picture and compare trees in your field that are about the same distance from the cam the trees on the right are clear and the trees are on the left are not.  On the right it is pretty sharp in the foreground, the fields, the trees beyond the field and the Presidential Range.  On the left the whole thing is out of focus, the lawn, the trees behind and also the hill beyond.  Something is not right.  If it were me I would exchange the camera no matter what they were telling me.  I have not seen this problem in other peoples cams.  

I think your view is perfect for seeing wildlife and also being able to see what is happening up at Mount Washington.  I (personally) think your not going to like the wild angle but that is just me.  Either way I would exchange the cam if this is the best they can do for you.  Just my (probably) outspoken opinions.  Maybe the other guys would think differently.

Gene

 

PS Attached is my wide angle Nest Cam picture.  I didn't sharpen it just copied and pasted in NS Paint.  It's getting dark but pretty sharp. I also attached how your picture looks on my PC.  Tree on right is sharp, trees about the same distance on left blurry.

 

 

[wxeyeNH]

Hey Alex,  just me again.  Been checking your webcam a few times today.  It's going to be really interesting to watch.  First real cold shot Friday night/Sat.  Mt Washington will probably get a mantle of white.  Your cam image seems to be a little over exposed.  The sky is always white instead of showing blue/clouds etc.   As the sun comes around west it probably will get better as the day progresses.  Don't know if its easy to adjust shutter openings/closings.  I also looked at it last evening and was amazed how good the IR was.  If an animal came into view you would even be able to see it on the far side of your driveway!   Wish I had that for my cams.

[eekuasepinniW]

Is this doubling as a security cam? Is that why you have so much ground showing?  If you tip the camera up until you can't see the driveway, it'll expose the sky better.

And yeah, I'd vote against wide angle.  If anything, I'd want more zoom.

Also, take a chainsaw to those trees.

Maybe a suet cake feeder on that pole.

A nice bed of mixed tropical plants in that driveway island.

[dendrite]

1 minute ago, eekuasepinniW said:

Is this doubling as a security cam? Is that why you have so much ground showing?  If you tip the camera up until you can't see the driveway, it'll expose the sky better.

And yeah, I'd vote against wide angle.  If anything, I'd want more zoom.

Also, take a chainsaw to those trees.

Maybe a suet cake feeder on that pole.

A nice bed of mixed tropical plants in that driveway island.

And you thought your tropical growing season sucked...

[wxeyeNH]

1 hour ago, eekuasepinniW said:

Is this doubling as a security cam? Is that why you have so much ground showing?  If you tip the camera up until you can't see the driveway, it'll expose the sky better.

And yeah, I'd vote against wide angle.  If anything, I'd want more zoom.

Also, take a chainsaw to those trees.

Maybe a suet cake feeder on that pole.

A nice bed of mixed tropical plants in that driveway island.

....and I'd like you to hire someone to dynamite the corner of the hill that blocks Mt Washington.  For the first time you set up the cam I can see the summit.  It's great your house is situated that you can see the summit without that ridge totally blocking it.

[eekuasepinniW]

btw... you can right click on the stream and open in a new tab if you want full screen streaming.