New skin/generator for Toshiba IK-WB21A IP/Network PTZ Camera

[JoeP]

Woot! I got the new skin and generator working for capturing images
and adding a caption for the subject camera. I need to add another
similar section for interface for a IP Video 9100A video server. When
I get that done I'll post the skin.conf and cameragenerator.py files
(doctored to remove passwords)
This report is intended only to grab the images and put them in their
own file so that a subsequent ftp report can scoop them up and put
them in the desired web server directory.
Thanks everyone for all your help getting me this far!
joe

[JoeP]

With just a very minor hack to the FTP report generator class, I
managed to get the new report generator and it's associated ftp report
working.
Tomorrow it's onward and forward to my semi-standard report that just
uses a custom skin and ftp report spec. Should be a piece of cake
compared to this.
If anyone's interested in having a look, let me know and I'll post the
code.
The cameragenerator needs a good refactoring to make it more fault
tolerant, but it works as is most of the time. The biggest problem is
that the IP Video 9100A response time is often so slow that the
connection times out.
joe

[John Canfield]

Joe - do you have your cam set up to patrol (or whatever Sony calls
it) and then you FTP at each position? That is a good looking picture
- I've had my eye on that one or the competing Panasonic model, but I
want PoE and when you add an outdoor enclosure, the cost really shoots
up.

You guys are inspiring me to create a custom weather page
incorporating a cam image. I'll wait a couple of days to see if the
urge passes ;-)

John

[JoeP]

Just to be clear, it's a Toshiba, not Sony camera.
The camera does have a patrol mode, but I don't use it. Instead, I
use the camera api (all http gets) to move the camera to a specific
preset, wait for a few seconds for it to get into position, then take
the snapshot.
This way I know exactly which preset i'm dealing with and can assign
an appropriate caption. I thought that this approach would give me
the greatest flexibility. For example, I could have a routine that
figures out where in the sky the Sun is, and avoid presets that would
point the camera in that direction. With the patrol function, that's
not possible.
For the time being, I don't do anything fancy. I pretty much just
replicate a patrol type function with the additional feature of adding
a caption to the picture.

BTW, one of the things I learned while setting this up is that when
you set up your presets, you want to make sure and adjust the focus
manually. If you have it in autofocus when you define the preset,
that's what it remembers so when you go to that preset it takes much
longer for the camera to be ready for a snapshot. If the focus is set
manually then that's what it remembers and the snapshot can be taken
as soon as the camera gets into position.

Yes, the cost is pretty big. Fortunately, my website has a pretty big
fan base and they have generously donated to offset the cost. The
cameras are really for them, not me... I can just look out the window
or step outside ;-)
I looked at a lot of cameras, and for 22x optical zoom, 1280x960
resolution, and pretty good light sensitivity, this one seemed like
the most cost effective, thought there are so many out there that it's
hard to be sure. POE would have been a little more convenient, but
they seemed more expensive and it wasn't clear to me if it would also
power the environmental enclosure.
One of the other key criteria for my selection was the availability of
a documented api.

You can have a look at the difference between "standard" resolution
fixed position camera images and the ptzcamera images at http://www.bigtreestech.com.
The images are not current because I'm in the midst of development and
transition to weewx.
joe

[JoeP]

Oh, also John, as I've indicated elsewhere I do not create any html or
css in WeeWx. I'll be using WeeWx strictly as a data source, sending
weather data to my webserver via xml and sending charts and images
directly to the server. I do all my "View" work in PHP on the
server. Since I have a lot more content than just the weather and
cameras, it makes it easier to maintain and modify IMHO.
I may, as an interim step use the Standard Report, but eventually I'll
move back to keeping all the html generation on the webserver.

joe

On Jan 17, 6:23 am, John Canfield <johnwcanfi...@gmail.com> wrote:

[John Canfield]

Doh! I didn't mean Sony - that's one of the PTZ cams I was looking at
a few weeks ago. I have an old Toshiba IK-WB11A that has been
truckin' along at least a dozen years in an outdoor setting. Also
have an IK-WB15A with real optical zoom (fixed focus), but it's
ActiveX to stream video and control the cam. I have a static IP at
the house, so I just let anybody control the cams.

I wish I had some programming talent - I discovered a long time ago I
had no real aptitude in that department. I can do some simple things
(hello world) and can usually pick apart code (a higher level
language) and modify, but can't really sit down and punch out code.
Your home page is nicely done and you are lucky to have a fan base!

I am testing a cheapie Chinese cam - a Wansview NC543W (around 90
bucks) with infrared, alarm, email, FTP, 2-way audio. It's not a PTZ,
but they do have a PTZ model. The color balance is usually horrible
but what is impressive to me is the effectiveness of its night
properties in total darkness due to IR illumination. I am using the
cam to monitor an automatic feeder for our pet axis deer to make sure
the hopper isn't low on food and we have a green light on the feeder
timer and on the trickle charger. I need to find my microphone to test
out the sound - I would like to hear the food drop just as a double-
check.

You can look at the cam if you want at: 67.128.182.125:88 - login is
guest, password is pass You can use IE (full features) or FF/Safari -
it pushes the video stream.

John