I have two Foscam FI8918W cameras set up on my Vera network. I had to add them manually since they were not showing up using the wizard. I cannot control the camera (pan/tilt) but the image does show up. I know there are plugins available for the camera but I’m not sure why I’d use those. Is it just to enable pan/tilt control? If so, how do I set it up once I install the plugin?
It is very difficult to support all the different cameras out there. That is why there are plugins for the different cameras, they are created to support features like pan tilt, presets, etc. If you have no use for those, than there is no need to install the plugin. If you want to control the pan tilt and presets, etc. Finding the correct plugin (if on exists) would be required.
- Garrett
I just set up one of these cameras - well I’m still in the process of trying to do it.
I thought I was pretty smart but these things are finnicky so let me purge what I know all over this page:
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to start out with you need to connect the camera with an ethernet cable to your router. this will give you a “wired” IP address with which to communicate to the camera. The instructions give a few different ways to then connect wirelessly.
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I tried the method where you hold down the tiny (and not well designed) reset button for about 5 seconds and press the WPS button on the router. I wasnt sure if this worked properly at first. I noticed that I could unplug the camera from the router and still use the controls though so I knew it had. When I closed the control window in my browser went to open it again it used a new IP address - thats the wireless IP address.
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I tried to change my password - for some reason the camera didnt like what I did and I lost contact with it and had to do a factory reset and start over (longer press on that awful reset button)
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finally had it controllable in my Chrome browser. so looked at my UI5 Vera control window and now two cameras had been loaded (presumably done automatically each time the camera booted). One seemed to work, the other seemed blank. I thought I would just delete them both and start over by adding them new. That was a mistake. By deleting them I ended up deleting the plug-in that is needed (foscam plug in for the vera controls). I tried adding them manually but that simply doesnt work, probably because you need more configuration info than just the IP address - but at that point I didnt really know. It creates a device called “undefined” but it doesnt do anything. I think this is your problem, your camera may not be detected on the Wifi yet so the vera isnt seeing it and adding it automatically (which it needs to do to work). I think the Wifi needs to have WPS capability too.
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I unplugged the camera and plugged it back in. By rebooting the camera the veralite saw it again - re-added the foscam plug in and added the camera. My “undefined” camera device remains and for some reason the vera UI5 wont let me delete or remove it. It lets me click the trash icon, gives me a dialogue box asking me if I am sure, and then another asking me if I want to delete the plug-in (without giving me any options other than OK or cancel) and then it fails to remove it telling me “command failed - invalid plug in” which is odd because the failed camera device didnt use a plug in. So for now that undefined device remains until I can figure out how to remove it.
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the Vera Mobile app on Android has trouble with this camera. It sees the video from the camera as a thumbnail but when you try to view it larger it tells me “Incorrect Camera configuration for streaming, running in emulation mode” and it doesnt give me pan or tilt controls - or any controls at all for that matter. No audio, no control just the video image. I think that may be a problem with the plug in or something I really dont know, but from what I can tell this camera by default sends out a motion Jpeg signal (mjpeg) which doesnt carry audio and I think this may be confusing the vera mobile app. The controls in UI5 work OK, but I dont get any audio into my computer that I can tell.
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I have not yet figured out how to record video, where it gets stored, how to replay it, or if it contains sound yet.
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Chrome browser controls do not seem as sophisticated - apparently due to lack of ActiveX support in chrome. In Windows IE the controller for the camera allows audio, although again I cant hear anything from my computer. Supposedly there is a plug in (VLS media player?) for firefox users that helps but I dont have firefox and I didnt want to install a special browser just for this.
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to set presets for pan and tilt (the numbered Pan and tilt postions that the camera can return to) you need to go into the PT settings in the cameras browser based control panel and allow it. Otherwise by default its set to disallow it - stupid default setting but whatever. I was able to set presets after that, which now work in UI5, but Vera Mobile still only gets a video feed and nothing else.
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I downloaded IP cam viewer for android. It asks you the IP address, port number and password for the camera and bam - lets you do everything. I was impressed. Compared to Vera Mobile it was seamless. It asks you what your camera model is and you are up and running - it has a LOT of cameras in its database too. I quickly paid for the full version which allows audio. Sure enough I can turn on audio and hear good sound from the Microphone built into the camera. Its delayed by about a second or so but other than some hiss it works fine.
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Earlier versions of this camera (2011-2012 era?) had problems with the internal mic, and may need to be modified internally - something about replacing a resistor to increase gain. Thankfully I didnt need to do that.
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I turned on the speaker to send audio to the camera - you could use this to talk to you dog or something while away, or yell at an intruder or something. It worked momentarily, then I couldnt get it to work again. I may need to reboot the camera but I left it alone for the night.
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Woke up this morning and the IP camera veiwer app was still working on my nightstand, didnt mess with anything just went to work. At work discovered the IP camera viewer app cant connect to the camera for some reason. I wonder if the phone or computer needs to be on the same Wifi network? I read that to see this camera outside of the Vera system or your home wifi you need to use port forwarding or something. That may be the problem. More research needed for me on that. UI5 at work still controls it, Vera Mobile still just gets a video feed without any controls. - I assume because its running through the veralite and the foscam plug in.
So still to work out:
How to view and control remotely using IP cam viewer on my phone.
How to get 2 way audio to work properly. May just need a reboot and lower frame rate.
How to record and use motion sensor alarms - not to important for me because for a while I plan on just using it as a baby monitor, but someday I will want this to work and record.
I hope helps someone, I feel like I am about halfway into this and its way more complex than typical projects I am used to. Im not very well versed in networking technology.
So just to add - I have solved one of my issues.
Viewing the camera from outside my home network was solved by port forwarding but it wasnt as simple as that.
Heres what I did:
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Used the ipconfig command on my windows command line to find my computers IP address.
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type that in to a browser - it then lets you log in to your router to configure the router.
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Router has an “advanced” menu that lets me add some port forwarding info, so I used the cameras wifi IP address and port numbers (same port for internal and external) and hit apply. It rebooted the router.
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Checked that port to make sure it was open by using one of those “can you see me” websites that checks for open ports.
I thought I was done at that point, but no - still couldnt see the camera from outside my home network.
More checking found that my router has a dynamic IP address for WAN connections, and that means a bunch more work. I went to no-ip.com and created an account. They basically set you up with a little program that gives you a single host name that stays permanently mapped to your dynamic IP address on your router.
Once I created that account I pointed it at the camera IP internally, and then when I try use the hostname they gave me from the web it sees the camera.
Much of the online instructions that I find are confusing because they either miss out the dynamic IP portion of the problem or the instructions for creating a host that maps to it are unclear.
But now I can view and control my camera using IP camera viewer app on android - from anywhere (4G data connection or anyone elses wifi etc…)
I can hear the audio, still cant seem to get the cameras internal speaker to work. Still have no idea where recorded video gets sent (on my phone app its probably stored on my phone?) and I have no idea yet how to set up motion alerts. But I am happy at this point and we can use it as a baby monitor.