Aquarium Webcam

[Clown Monarch]

Not sure what topic this should fall under, but I want to put a webcam on my 125 SW aquarium and stream video to my website. It would also be cool to monitor temperature, pH, salinity, sump levels etc and post them to the internet - but first things first.

How would I do this?

 

[Jchillin]

Wow Monarch...great idea! You would definitely need a high quality cam. The majority of webcams are pretty limited in picture quality, especially for streaming video. Once a decent cam is found, it's just a matter of mounting it in an area to capture the view you want.

Do you have an existing video program on your computer now?

(edit)

This link can provide some helpful info

http://www.vitalstream.com/

 

[Clown Monarch]

I have absolutely nothing right now except for webspace. I'm just trying to wrap my arms around what would be involved (costs, equipment, programs, webspace).

I don't want to wrap up a bunch of money only to find the best I can do is update the picture every 5 minutes or something. I want it to actually be LIVE action footage with a decent, clear picture.

 

[BillyZ]

actual LIVE feed, meaning full motion video, will be costly. You'll need a computer with a full time internet connection at your home with the camera and software hooked up and always running. You would then need the ability with your web hosting company, to allow you to feed full time datastreams through them as web traffic. I think most hosting companies will have fairly high prices for this. But look around, theres a LOT of stuff out there, there could quite possibly be a way to do it without streaming, may just be delayed

 

[Clown Monarch]

You would then need the ability with your web hosting company, to allow you to feed full time datastreams through them as web traffic. I think most hosting companies will have fairly high prices for this.

Damn, I knew there was a catch. Maybe I'll check into a refresh rate of every 10-15 seconds or something. It's not the same, though.

 

[happyhillbilly]

Usually the refresh rate is one picture every 5 seconds, I tried to do it before but I didn't have the patience.

 

[BillyZ]

Maybe I'll check into a refresh rate of every 10-15 seconds or something. It's not the same, though.

It's certainly not, but it is MUCH more feasible. There are a few free-ware programs out there that will do exactly what you're looking for. You put their software on your computer at home (the one the cam is connected to) and it drives your camera and maintains an "open" ftp style connection to your web server and upload an upaded pic every X seconds. Your webpage then just shows that image with a lill javascript to update the image every X seconds. Thats all there is to it really.

 

[Clown Monarch]

Cool, maybe I'll give it a shot. My connection at home is cable - lightning fast.

 

[BillyZ]

then you should be able to accomplish fairly easily.

One question... can people "hit" your home computer from the web? If so, you may still be able to do the streaming thing. Not all cable ISP's allow this, is why I ask.

 

[Clown Monarch]

I don't know enough about it to know if they can "hit" my machine directly or not. Are you asking if I have a server?

I'm challenged when it comes to computer hardware.

 

[Clown Monarch]

I think a live webcam of someone else's SW tank could be a dangerous thing at work, considering I can stare at mine for hours at a time.

 

[Petey]

This is somehting that I think might work. Someone I know has a new born at home and has to work during the day. The wife gets to stay home and take care of the little guy. He set this up so that he could be at work and log into his home computer and catch some of the action. Not sure how you would go about linking it into your webpage but now you'd be able to at least capture the video. It shouldn't be too hard to tie a DNS into an IP address that the router assings to the camera, but I'm no expert!

http://www.mytelus.com/homesitter/display.do

 

[Clown Monarch]

Oh, so my webspace doesn't matter - I would need some other type of internet storage?

 

[swissfish]

Hey here is a simple solution.

I use the internet to talk to my family i switzerland per videophone. Just hook a webcam to your computer, download the yahoo messanger, give it a sign in name, stream the video and make it available to everybody (if you want). then go to the office, get a different sign in name, connect to your other sign in name and watch your fish

 

[swissfish]

oh let me know if it works if you go that rout.
I want to see your fish if you let me.

All you can loose is $40 bucks for the web cam

 

[Clown Monarch]

Of course I'd let you

but I can't check outside e-mail at work, so I doubt I'd go that route. But who knows, if it's my only option...


Thanks for the tip!

 

[youronlysin]

I've used a piece of software called Kabcam in the past. You can set it to take a snapshot with your webcam at a rate that you decide. Once a minute, once every 5 minutes, you put in any rate you want. It will automatically publish to an internet site if you set it up for that also. I know there are TONS of other programs that do the same thing, some better than others, but this is the only one I have experience with. In the least, it will give you an idea of what is available out there. Last I checked, they had a free download, but it comes with limitations. Not a bad start jsut toget an idea of how it all works.

 

[malkore]

I can tell you that most Creative Labs webcams will come with software that'll do an auto image update every X number of seconds. I used to run one outside my window, pointing at the driveway, so I knew when my wife got home from class so I could call her from work. It kept up to a dozen 'previous' images in a web page it auto-generated. That was with a $25 webcam, so you can only imagine what else is out there for a few dollars more.

 

[smc]

Aquarium WebCam

Several existing www services lke YAahoo both e-mai & their geoCities accounts (which are free & can be upgraded); Lycos-Tripod & MSN -- provide bandwidth & webspace for still & video webcam hook-ups. I'd try one of those (if your use is not commercial) .. or buy a home or office computer with space for you & the webcam's processing capacity and memory & internet service - or you'll alternate. In the latter case .. your home or office computer's hard drive is the memory storage .. which also means another otion is a small (domain-host style) additional computer for the camera alone.

All the above is why I'd probably use a www service provider's free or purchase offer of space & bandwidth. (Of course the data originates from your aquarium webcam).

 

[penguinsix]

I use a program called WebcamXP. It uses your computer as a server so you don't have to pay the price of another host. It is constant stream, the qualaty depends on the cam and the max upload speed of your connection. You can check mine out at www.penguinsix.uni.cc It is down now, but I will put it up for yah.