I recently bought 2 Foscam 8904W outdoor cameras. I was pleasantly surprised after I plugged them in and set them up that when I opened my Vera 3 web interface, the cameras had already been found and added automatically. It even added a motion detector for each one.
Unfortunately, after about a week, one of the cameras got stuck in IR mode. It was under warranty, so it was sent back. I decided to use the second camera in it’s place as I hadn’t installed it yet. I just went to the cameras web setup and changed its IP address to the one from the bad camera. That way, it would now appear in the correct location on my Vera 3. Well, it almost worked except the motion detector seemed to be wrong now. The motion detector associated with my old camera didn’t update when I updated the cameras IP address. I thought I could just delete the old camera motion detector and all would be fine. Instead, the motion detector and camera were deleted from my vera.
Now, this is where I am currently at. I don’t know how to re-add the camera and it’s motion detector to vera again. I was successful getting the camera added at one point, but I don’t even know how to go about added the motion detector. It’s not a z-wave device. I assume the camera just used the image to decide if there’s motion. It actually was working pretty decent for me though and I would like it back but I don’t know how to make vera automatically find the camera and motion detector again like it did that first, initial time. Any ideas?
Here is good process from another thread to add the cameras:
Apps → Develop Apps → Create Device
Enter the Following Info:
Device Type: urn:schemas-upnp-org:device:DigitalSecurityCamera:1
Internal ID: (Blank)
Descrition:
Upnp Device Filename: (Blank)
Upnp Implementation Filename: (Blank)
IP Address: (Ex. 192.168.1.200:8080)
MAC: (Blank)
Room: <Select/Associate if you already have the room created>
Parent Device: (Blank)
Select “Create Device”, “Device Created” message should appear with new Device ID
Device should now show up in “Devices → All” (It won’t show correctly at this point, but we will add the rest of the settings to fix this)
Next, find this manually added device… Click Settings (Wrench Icon) & Update at a minimum the following fields:
Settings Tab:
URL: snapshot.cgi
Username:
Password:
IP Address: (Should already be entered in ‘192.168.1.200:8080’ format)
Advanced Tab:
impl_file: I_FoscamPTZ.xml
Close the camera’s setting menu and hit save. This will cause Vera to reload again and add the motion sensor for the camera.
If you already have the camera added and just need the motion sensor, skip to the bottom part and add the I_FoscamPTZ.xml on the camera’s advanced, exit and save.
Thank you both for the replies. I will keep this in my notes as I’ll also need to re-add my returned camera when I get a new one. Hopefully, the Foscams reliability holds up.
Mark
Just a quick update. The camera and sensor seem to be working great but I’m getting a message at the top of UI5 stating:
Camera: Failed to configure camera.
It seems to be working fine though. Would be nice to figure out what is wrong so I can get rid of the error. I will do some more research on the boards…
My camera is installed and working properly, and I put this code in no problem, but the motion sensor feature does not appear to be working. Does it create a separate device that is a motion sensor? Maybe I’m just not seeing how to use it?
How do you like the outdoor camera? I want to add a couple of outdoor cameras to my house so I thought I would ask how it’s working. Thanks.[/quote]
Sorry for such a late reply. The end of last year was a bit crazy. Anyway, I only have one of two cameras running at the moment. I’m having some house work done and had to remove one. That being said, I’m generally happy, however, I think from this point on, I will aim to save up and only buy HD cameras. The normal resolution (640x480) simply are not that great. I have a mix of Trendnet, D-link and Foscam.
Wireless cameras also have some general problems where you can occasionally lose a connection. I make sure every wireless camera is on a zwave outlet or plug in so I can cycle power on a schedule and remotely (I’m using Homewave on iPhone/iPad and love it). The 8904 has held up so far though even with Hurricane Sandy and a couple big snowstorms. Based on that, I will probably stick with Foscam in the future (although, the mounting bracket is already showing some rust signs after only a few months )
[quote=“simdude, post:10, topic:172464”]Wireless cameras also have some general problems where you can occasionally lose a connection. I make sure every wireless camera is on a zwave outlet or plug in so I can cycle power on a schedule and remotely (I’m using Homewave on iPhone/iPad and love it).
Mark[/quote]
Can you expound on this more? How does an additional Zwave outlet/plug help to cycle power on a schedule/remotely? I’m trying to do something similar, purchase a few cams and set a schedule or “arm” them when out of the home. Before I do something crazy and start installing camera, I want to have a concrete understanding before climbing ladders and playing with electricity…
I am at a loss, please help. I bought 2 Foscam 8904w and installed the foscam app. Vera does not see the cameras. I then manually add them like is decribed above and i can see them but there is NO motion sensor created. Not sure where to go. I tried to add the device another way by going to device, add device, ip camera, foscam but it says it cant view the image. Please help.
[quote=“perMont, post:11, topic:172464”][quote=“simdude, post:10, topic:172464”]Wireless cameras also have some general problems where you can occasionally lose a connection. I make sure every wireless camera is on a zwave outlet or plug in so I can cycle power on a schedule and remotely (I’m using Homewave on iPhone/iPad and love it).
Mark[/quote]
Can you expound on this more? How does an additional Zwave outlet/plug help to cycle power on a schedule/remotely? I’m trying to do something similar, purchase a few cams and set a schedule or “arm” them when out of the home. Before I do something crazy and start installing camera, I want to have a concrete understanding before climbing ladders and playing with electricity… :P[/quote]
Since even these wireless cameras are not truly wireless (they do need power after all), they will have to be plugged into some outlet. I just made sure I have either a z-wave outlet or plugin module to plug them into. They, I have Vera turn off the power to that outlet and back on using the automation and schedule option. For example, turn off one of the cameras on Sunday morning at 11 am and back on at 11:01. I don’t cycle power on all at once because that would mean I have no active cameras for some period of time. Granted, it’s only a minute but I guess I’ve watched too many Mission Impossibles. You can also use this to simply shut the cameras off when you are home if you don’t want them on then. For example, in the automation tab, create a new scene where you turn off all the cameras. This can be triggered in several ways. I like to trigger from my zwave door lock so when I enter my code, the interior cameras will shut off.
I remember having a lot of problems too. I have never installed the Foscam app. When I added my second camera, it was much easier. I’m trying to recall the exact steps, but I believe all I did was the following:
Do a back up on your Micacasaverde first in case you want to restore things.
Reset the Foscam Camera so everything is wiped out.
On Micasaverde see if the camera is there. Mine was so I removed it.
Now, we should be clean.
I temporarily turned off my Vera now so it didn’t try to detect my Foscam until I was all set up.
Then, I plugged in the camera using an ethernet cable to my router (not the Micasverde because I didn’t want to get an address from it’s DHCP server).
(The next steps are about setting up the camera wirelessly with a static address. If you know how to do this, you can just glance over)
I logged directly into the camera from my web browser. This can be a bit tricky as you might have to guess the IP address if you can’t get the information from your router. Most will start with 192.168.1.xxx or 10.0.1.xxx. You might also be able to use their app at this point to get to the camera which could be easier. I recommend giving your camera a static address. Your router will have a setting for DHCP addresses it can assign. So, for example, you can tell it to assign addresses from 10.0.1.2 to 10.0.1.100. Now, you are free to use anything over 100 for a static address. So let’s pick 10.0.1.101. I set up with wifi information in the camera and had it use this static address. The gateway is the router address (in this case, probably 10.0.1.1) and the subnet mask would be 255.255.255.0. When all this is set up, I unplugged the ethernet cable, restarted the camera and pointed my web browser to the address I assigned, 10.0.1.101. If all worked, the camera connected wirelessly with a static address.
I went back to Micasaverde and had it search for cameras and it found the Foscam.
when I set this up, both the camera and “motion detector” appeared.
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