Foscam FI8918W has anybody got it working?

[ladekribs]

I Ordered a Foscam FI8908W after reading that Barney had got it working, but the supplier where out of that type so I got one FI8918W instead, it is supposed to be better wider viewing angles and such,but it dies after five to ten minutes when I have it connected to my LinuxMCE LAN, so I connected it to a router with only one pc on the lan, and there it stays alive.

what can be killing the camera so that I have to power it off/on to get it working (disconnecting/reconnecting ethernet wire might help)?

any Ideas?

BR Stefan

[pw44]

Try defining a static ip address for it.

[b4rney]

Hi Stefan,

I have this problem with the outdoor version FI8904W (wired cat5 cable). Not tested with wireless. I started a thread regarding it back in May:
http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=10134.0

I have seen similar problems mentioned by pw44 too (Hi Paulo):
http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=10195.msg70089#msg70089

As a workaround I have it set up on the external network where it works fine. I simply point my device at the external IP address in web admin. I suspect a DHCP related problem as it retains dhcp on my router but not in lmce. Read the second thread above regarding networks with more than 5 static dhcp entries.

My wireless FI8908s work great on wireless (internal lmce network).

Regards
Barney

[stress1ner]

Hi. Do you mind helping me with a step by step for the wireless FI8908 cam. I can only get it to work on windows.

[tschak909]

hmm, you guys need to make a device template, so that the device can be detected, and configured automatically. Come on, guys!

-Thom

[b4rney]

Hi Thom,

I've had this as a working template using a copy of the panasonic camera with the scripts in the wiki page I did:
http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Foscam_FI8908W

However, I personally use this camera under motion wrapper for security reasons. Is it possible to give other users this flexibility?

Is there a way to create a new template or pnp script which can prompt the user to select their preference?
1. As a simple controllable pan/tilt camera (uses new template)
2. Under motion for security (uses 'generic motion ip camera template')

Barney

[b4rney]

@stress1ner

Welcome to the forum 
See the wiki I mentioned in the previous post.

You will also need to configure the camera to connect to your 'internal' wifi network in the foscam interface.

Barney

[ladekribs]

correct me if I am wrong, but if we make one template "Foscam pan/tilt" and one "Foscam fixed and enter MAC range in both of them, the Sara will ask if we would like to use both of them, but will she ignore the one not used? or will it be rediscowered all the time?

Best regard Stefan

[Marie.O]

It won't be rediscovered, as the devices MAC address has already been discovered.

[pw44]

Like Barney, i also did try to create a template. Either under motion (without PTZ) or as surveillance camera (with PTZ). Had a lot of problems. I gave up, and added it as generic ip camera, with fixed ip address, and since then, no headache. No PTZ, but better then nothing

[b4rney]

For the record, the wiki describes 2 tested and working methods for using these cameras exactly as pw44 describes.

1. PnP Under Motion (No pan/tilt)
2. PnP As standard IP surveillance camera (with pan/tilt)

At the moment though it's a case of choosing and manually configuring .... until a template is submitted.
Barney

[joshpond]

Hi all,

I've tried following the wiki for the settings for a IP camera with PTZ, Foscam FI8918.
I don't know if it is any different to the FI8908 but I'm not getting any video on the orbiter. It all works through firefox.

Is the get_video for the 8918 different and if so anyone know how I can find it?

Thanks Josh

[b4rney]

Hi Josh,

If you can view the stream in a browser it should work.
http://<CAMERA_IP_ADDRESS>/videostream.cgi?user=XXXXX&pwd=XXXXX

The template needs to be carefully followed and you need to have your path, user and password in the device data. All the ruby code does is construct the above link from the device data.

Looking at the '#84 Get video frame' script it looks like the 'path' might have to be in this format.
http://<CAMERA_IP_ADDRESS>/videostream.cgi?

Hope this helps.
Barney

[purps]

Did you ever get to the bottom of the ARP/dropout problem, Barney? I have two Foscams waiting to go fleaBay, planning on replacing them unless there was a solution? I certainly could never get them to work reliably.

Cheers,
Matt.

[b4rney]

Funny you should ask...

I just dug out my old Satellite receiver (a technomate 9100) and hooked it up to the internal network.

I couldn't access the web frontend of the STB and I couldn't get it to go on the internet ...... UNTIL I added it to the external network and it works fine. Sound familiar?

I'm beginning to think it is not related to the Foscam camera but to DHCP. It might be that there is a problem with dhcp and most users only experience the problem when adding IP devices.

Of course I may be completely wrong but I'm out of ideas.

My camera is stable hooked up to my external network.
Barney