Panasonic BL-C10 - should be PnP? And template/motionwrapper queries

[purps]

Just received 3 off Panasonic BL-C10; I understand it is meant to be PnP. None of mine appear to do anything when connected (green light on camera and all the right lights on the switch though).

Tried adding it manually using the "Panasonic IP Camera" template, but was thwarted when I couldn't find out the IP address - does anybody have any pointers please? Couldn't find it in "DHCP Leases" or "Unknown Devices" (am I even correct in assuming that after adding the template, the MAC and IP need to be entered manually?)

Also looked at this wiki page http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/IP_Cameras - is motionwrapper required in this situation, or is it specifically for those cameras that are a bit more "generic"?

Cheers,
Matt.

[tschak909]

Yes, it is plug and play. Try holding down the factory reset on the camera for a few moments and then connecting the camera back into the network.

When you plug in the camera to the network, does your DCERouter.log show a device detected for the camera?

Did you set up your network correctly?

-Thom

[gonesurfing]

hi
the pnp worked for me last week with the panasonic bl-c1 however i had no video until i had set the username and password on the camera i used a windows machine and the supplyed cd
when it came to setting up motion wrapper with the panasonic bl-c1 this should save you some time under Device data in the Configuration box -

netcam_http://192.168.80.xxx/cgi-bin/snapshot.jpg) userpass dceadmin:dcepass

-xxx                       is your ip address of the camera
-dceadmin              is your user name
- dcepass               is your password

under Device data in the path box

/SnapshotJPEG?Resolution=320x240&Quality=Standard

hope this helps steve

[tschak909]

you should not use motion wrapper with this device. Use a real motion sensor.

-Thom

[purps]

Thank you, yes, a factory reset and hard restart of my core was needed. Camera was then auto-detected.

However, cannot view the camera in any orbiter, despite numerous reloads/regens/hard restarts. Also cannot access the camera via http://192.168.80.XXX/CgiStart.

Ports? I've added "tcp    - 80 to 80 - core_input" and "tcp 80 to 80 - 80 - 192.168.80.XXX - port_forward" to Firewall Rules, no change.

Network is pretty textbook. External network: Wall -> Modem -> NIC (eth0). Internal network: NIC (eth1) -> Gigabit switch -> Everything else.

EDIT: Sorry, just saw your message Steve. Could setting the password/username be the answer to my problems, or was that just for motionwrapper? I didn't think motionwrapper was needed, as the camera has a built-in movement sensor (or is it a light sensor?). FYI I have no CD or Windows box :-S

[gonesurfing]

hi
yes i had to set the username and password for each camera i used the windows driver cd which was supplied with the camera i then used the same username and password in lmce or the motion wrapper before they showed video in lmce 

hi Thom
have i got the motion wrapper config wrong ! it seams to be working okay
steve 

[purps]

Is there any way to do this without a windows box?

When you say "i then used the same username and password in LinuxMCE", what do you mean? Where did you enter this username/password?

EDIT: I tried deleting the username and password for the camera in web admin, as I read in the camera manual that the username/password is blanked when restored to factory settings, but this did not work 

[purps]

Right, I downloaded a panasonic setup utility, ran it in wine, and set the camera up with the username and password.

However, the utility assigned a new IP address, different to the one LMCE assigned during PnP detection. I changed the original LMCE camera IP in web admin to the new panasonic one, and it worked. Is there any crime in doing this? Will it affect other camera functions?

Just need to work out this automatic recording business now, and I'm happy.

[pw44]

you should not use motion wrapper with this device. Use a real motion sensor.

Is motion (motion wrapper) not a motion sensor?

[purps]

That was my understanding, but the BL-C10 has a sensor on the front already. Using the cameras admin page, it is possible to view/transfer buffered images that have been taken, triggered by this sensor.

What I would really like to know, is can LMCE handle the capturing and storage of these sensor-triggered images onto its local hard disk? Or do I have to use the Panasonic method (setup ftp, etc)?

[pw44]

So the foscam, the linksys and the swann. I have all three. All have internal alarm / motion / triggers... whatever....
I simply did think that using motion (by motion wrapper), it would do it all, including PTZ.
But using motion, PTZ is not used, so i have them all without PTZ but under motion.
And i don't understand how to have both - motion and PTZ.

[b4rney]

Purps,

If used under motion wrapper your recorded files are stored in /home/cameras/XX/2010/11/14/

Where XX is the device id of your camera. These files are stored for a default of 5 days I think but it is configurable.

Not sure about storing your cameras own captured images. Maybe you could configure lmce as your ftp server for your camera's images? However,  it might be better to store these triggered images off site in case your core is stolen!

Barney

[purps]

So basically what you are saying is that motionwrapper is required if you want to record images to your hard disk, regardless of what model you have? What's the DISADVANTAGE of doing it this way vs a real motion sensor (PIR?) as Thom described?

Either way I'll have a play and see what happens.

Yes, short of locking the core up in a safebox, the images really need to be sent elsewhere as well don't they. Maybe I'll experiment with the email function first before going down the FTP route (don't know where I would put the FTP server, can't really do it at work).

[pw44]

What's the DISADVANTAGE? No PTZ.

[b4rney]

The motion wrapper tries to detect motion based purely on the video stream changes from one frame to another. In this regard it is inferior to a PIR detection method.

However, I have been very impressed with the captured video using motion wrapper. For one thing it always buffers recordings and when motion is detected it stores the video from the moments before movement is detected. It also takes a snapshot every minute by default and creates an amusing timelapse mpg of these captured frames too. It is quite cpu intensive on the core as you can imagine.

Like pw44 I have been unable to get both Pan/Tilt and use motion wrapper for detection/security. I chose to have motion wrapper and I use my cameras own interface if and when I want to move my camera (which is rare).

Regarding the safe storage of captured streams in the event of a burglary ... you could hide a NAS somewhere inventive and have a script copy new video files over to it regularly.

That being said, I don't do this, and as my house is the only one on my street with both visible security cameras and an alarm system I imagine (and hope) that it would be unappealing to the criminals.
Barney