How to set up a webcam?

On Feb 8, 2010, at 1:57 PM, Stephan Chodorov wrote:

> How can I see the feed from a camera in my house via a remote
> computer? (Not via a cellphone.) I want to be able to check the
> temperature in my house from away; the camera would focus on a
> thermometer.

Why not just use an IP addressable thermometer? They're cheaper than cameras....


Scott Wyant

On Mon, 8 Feb 2010 13:57:29 -0800, Stephan Chodorov wrote:
> How can I see the feed from a camera in my house via a remote
> computer? (Not via a cellphone.) I want to be able to check the
> temperature in my house from away; the camera would focus on a
> thermometer.

Simplest is probably to just remote the screen of the computer and fire
up an app that displays on the local screen what the camera is
showing. You could use back to my mac if coming from another Mac, or
install the free LogMeIn software and remote from any computer (they
even have an iPhone app, although it's expensive at $30)

http://logmein.com/

If you're feeling really experimental, setup a device to tweet your
home temperature:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Tweet-A-Temp/

On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 10:57, Stephan Chodorov <stephancoptonline.net> wrote:
> How can I see the feed from a camera in my house via a remote
> computer? (Not via a cellphone.)  I want to be able to check the
> temperature in my house from away; the camera would focus on a
> thermometer.

In the past I've set up a 'dogcam' to keep an eye on our two dogs
while we were out.

I pointed an iSight camera in the most suitable direction and paid for
a great piece of software called Evocam.

Evocam has useful settings that allow you to save files, make a video
from them and so on. It also has a built-in webserver, though I'm not
sure about accessing it from outside the network.

I have web skills, so I took the route of setting options for Evocam
to capture new images around every 5 minutes and upload via FTP to
one of my own websites. At that site I created a couple of simple
webpages whose sole purpose was to display the webcam images for the
last few hours at around 5 images per page.

Then I opened any web browser, entered the correct URL and saw what
the dogs had been up to recently.

Evocam is extremely capable though, and can offer many possibilities.
I'm sure it would be suitable for your thermometer project.

Amusing sidenote: I received a parking fine one day that claimed I'd
parked at a location from 10am to 3 pm. In fact I'd parked there
between 1 pm and 3 pm - within the timelimit.

I probably highly entertained the parking fine division because I sent
detailed notes and timestamped images from my webcam that showed my
bicycle present and not present in the room behind the dogs. I claimed
if I'd been using my bike at 10 am then I wasn't parking my car
several kilometres away.

It was circumstantial at best, but I was in the right, and was let off the fine.


Cheers,

Miraz

This could be done via MobileMe which allows you to remotely connect
to your Mac. You can also try "LogMeIn" From there, you can start a
iChat session and see what the webcam sees.

You could also try http://www.evological.com/evocam.html. This snaps a
picture, and downloads it to your Webserver automatically.

--
David Weintraub
qazwartgmail.com

On 8-Feb-2010, at 14:57, Stephan Chodorov wrote:
>
> How can I see the feed from a camera in my house via a remote
> computer? (Not via a cellphone.) I want to be able to check the
> temperature in my house from away; the camera would focus on a
> thermometer.

Use one of the many isight loggers to put a picture from your isight into your web space every minute or 5 minutes of 30 minutes, whatever.

I use TweetMyMac, which lets me send a message ('isight') to a dedicated twitter account that snaps a photo with the isight and posts it to twitpic. This is actually the easiest solution I've found as it requires no extra hardware, no mucking about with rotating pictures out of the ~/Sites/ folder, and only requires on very lightweight program to run on my home machine. (TweetMyMac uses about 30MB of RAM and 0.00% of the processor)

The twitter account is protected, so other people can't see the posts even if they did know the account name.

Scott Wyant wrote:
> On Feb 8, 2010, at 1:57 PM, Stephan Chodorov wrote:
>
>> How can I see the feed from a camera in my house via a remote
>> computer? (Not via a cellphone.) I want to be able to check the
>> temperature in my house from away; the camera would focus on a
>> thermometer.
>
> Why not just use an IP addressable thermometer? They're cheaper than cameras....

To hi-jack this thread somewhat.

I have a situation with a elderly parent where we're moving them to another city and their house will be empty for a while. I'm thinking of setting up a low cost internet connection plus a webcam pointed at the front door plus a thermometer on the wall so we can tell what's up and if the heat is working. I was thinking of putting everything, including the modem, on a timer that would power cycle things every 2 hours or so in case anything locked up.

An IP addressable thermometer sounds interesting.

Plus maybe a similar thing for the basement to tell me if there's water on the floor.

Any suggestions for a source for the above and similar items. Fairly low cost is important. I need +/- 5 degrees F of accuracy. No lab precision needed.

David Ross

Scott Wyant wrote:
> On Feb 8, 2010, at 1:57 PM, Stephan Chodorov wrote:
>
>> How can I see the feed from a camera in my house via a remote
>> computer? (Not via a cellphone.) I want to be able to check the
>> temperature in my house from away; the camera would focus on a
>> thermometer.
>
> Why not just use an IP addressable thermometer? They're cheaper than cameras....

Where do you find such things? Outside of a build it yourself my google searches tended to find $100 and up units.

Now I did find some HVAC controls what are web addressable for under $500 for a nice setup.

I'm really interested as I have a mother-in-law moving out of a townhouse near Baltimore and not body live anywhere withing 5 hours. I'd like to setup something on a low cost internet connection so we can at least check the temperature, water in the basement, web cam of the door, etc...

David

The utility company in Baltimore, BGE, will install a programmable, internet accessible thermostat for FREE. Plus they will give you $25 credits on your summer month utility bills.

Via the internet, you can read the temperature and reprogram the schedule.

Not much help for the water in the basement problem.

Mitch

On Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:28:10 -0800, David Ross wrote:
> Now I did find some HVAC controls what are web addressable for under
> $500 for a nice setup.

Our power company will give you one of these for free, IF you give them
permission to be able to set your temp higher in summer when cooling
loads are too high for the system.

http://144.73.222.126/residential/programs_and_services/energy_optimizer/default.html

Hello,
I've been reading the post's and I know that $250 is alot of money but
if you had something like the Network Thermostat at http://www.proliphix.com/products-network-basic.htm
  not only could you check the temp but you could do something about
it. This thing will send you emails or text's if the temp fluctuates.
And this has the bonus of being alot more reliable than a webcam
focused on a thermometer. But if that is what you really want to do I
would suggest one of the IP security camera's on tigerdirect.com. The
camera has its own IP address and I think it all it needs in an
ethernet connection. Good luck C

Network Basic SeriesOur Lowest Priced Network Thermostats!
The Uniphy Basic Series includes the NT10e and NT20e models. The NT20e
model supports two external thermal sensors for zone thermal
averaging, outdoor temperature reporting, or other uses.

Features:

On WednesdayFeb 17, 2010, at 8:02 AM, mitch.barker wrote:

> The utility company in Baltimore, BGE, will install a programmable, internet accessible thermostat for FREE. Plus they will give you $25 credits on your summer month utility bills.
>
> Via the internet, you can read the temperature and reprogram the schedule.
>
> Not much help for the water in the basement problem.

i'm in baltimore. but doesn't this require something or other. i just can't remember what. i didn't do anything about this offer because i don't have central air.


nicky schleider

i'm in baltimore. but doesn't this require something or other. i just can't remember what. i didn't do anything about this offer because i don't have central air.

You must agree that in times of high energy demands, BGE, can turn off your AC for up to 15 minutes in a 24hr period. Historically, a high demand event happens very rarely (2-3 times per summer?), and if it does happen, your house temp doesn't rise much in the 15 minutes it's off, so you never notice it. They'll also pay you if you install similar device for your hot water heater. It's free money.

This program is intended to shave off the peak demands in the summer, so they probably require that it controls the AC.

BTW, If you use a webcam or other ip device, you need an internet connection to the house. With the BGE thermostat you don't. BGE communicates to the thermostat over radio waves, and you surf over to the BGE website to check on your thermostat.

Mitch