Newbie to the Vera here, but like many people who get into the smart home stuff, I am a tech professional career wise so gadget tinkering is in my wheelhouse. I’m posting for the first time here just to log some of my observations/findings here so others may benefit and possibly avoid a DenverCoder9 situation.
Instructions/Things I’ve noted while adding the Foscam F19821W V2, System Firmware Version 1.4.1.8, Application Firmware Version 1.11.1.18, Plug-In Version 2.0.1.6 to my VeraLite (UI5):
1.) To start process of detecting the camera:
[ul][li]Click Devices[/li]
[li]Click Add Devices[/li]
[li]Click Add next to I want to add an IP Camera[/li]
[li]Click Manually add[/li]
[li]Use the URL provided in the opening post: http://:/cgi-bin/CGIProxy.fcgi?cmd=snapPicture2&usr=&pwd=[list]
[li]You will need to replace the variables in the url: , , , and with the corresponding values for the camera you are setting up[/li]
[li]Also note that if you have your camera operating on port 80, you can completely omit the colon and port number as port 80 is the default HTTP port so it is unnecessary[/li]
[li]In case it is not clear, remove all angle brackets (the greater than and less than characters) in the URL. The example of the URL http://192.168.1.125:1117/cgi-bin/CGIProxy.fcgi?cmd=snapPicture2&user=camadmin&pwd=myc@m3r@ would be the correct URL to use for a camera that has an IP of 192.168.1.125, runs on port 1117, and is accessed using the credentials with a username of camadmin and password of myc@m3r@[/li]
[/list][/li]
[li]This is where my mileage has varied from the previously mentioned steps. Do not select a camera type. Do not enter in your username and password. Click [b]Next[b] to continue. [/li]
[li]Give the Vera a second to load the high resolution image. Click Add, then go have a drink because if your situation is anything like mine, this is the most progress you’ve had in months.[/ul]
2.) Now that the camera is added, go change the settings that opening poster Aaron mentioned.
[ul][li]If you are confused because you don’t see the field “DirectStreamingURL” or other fields, make sure your impl_file and device_file fields are correct, save, give it a minute, then go back to the devices page to fill out the remaining necessary fields. After changing fields impl_file, and Device_file I found that I had to save the configuration, give the Vera a minute, and then go back to editing the device so I had all the necessary fields.[/li]
[li]Don’t neglect filling out information in the “Settings” tab of the camera as well. [list]
[li]The URL I have is cgi-bin/CGIProxy.fcgi?cmd=snapPicture2&usr=&pwd=[/li]
[li]Fill out the username and password fields that you did not provide when creating the camera.[/li]
[li]The MAC address format should have colons separating the hexadecimal values, e.g. 28:B5:6E:49:50:D2 – If you can’t find your mac address, try going to your router’s listing of connected devices and look for the MAC address that corresponds with your camera’s IP address.[/li]
[/list] [/li][/ul]
Results:
I’m able to see my thumbnail and view the camera in emulation mode through the Vera phone application. AutHomation HD app does have pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) capability, but the picture refresh is pretty slow, so there’s a good 7 second lag to update the picture, even though I can hear and see the camera physically move instantly when I use the PTZ controls.
Some other lessons learned and thoughts:
Give your camera a meaningful name and make sure you’re editing the correct camera! At one point I had edited a bunch of fields on another IP camera that I have (a non-hd Foscame FI8910W). I had to delete that camera and go back to re-add it.
Double check all fields for spelling errors and making sure that you properly removed the username and password variables if you used copy-and-paste. At one point, I had not realized that I had the and still in the streaming URL from copying and pasting it. A
Whenever you edit the name of any of the XML files, save the configuration, let the Vera work and reload, then go back to editing the device. Those XML files determine what variables/fields are in the configuration options for the device.
I’ve also been playing around with adjusting the video settings for the camera to see if there’s any optimum setting for the camera to be less choppy when viewing it. If you change resolution bit rate, frame rate, etc., it will effect the video stream that the Vera is hard coded to view. I’ll report back if I find something that works better.
I haven’t tried any audio or recording features yet. At this point, I’m pretty happy that I finally can see the picture on my phone while I’m at work. I’ll post an update if I can get any of those to work.
I purchased this Foscam FI9821W V2 off of groupon in late October and it has pretty much been sitting around ever since I couldn’t figure it out. A huge thanks to Aaron here who provided the luup files and the baseline instructions I used to get this thing working. I hope this helps someone out!
