birdfeedercams
n3wb
Hi all;
I recently added some pan/tilt capability to a fixed mini-dome ACM (ACTi) 3701 IP camera. I bought the camera used on eBay a few years ago for a good price but couldn't get it working reliably until I went back to it a few weeks ago. Turns out the internet cable was intermittent. Now that the camera is reliable, I have it pointed at a ground bird feeder and am using Blue Iris "motion detection" to get snapshots of the birds that visit. Still I found that I wanted to be able to move it around a bit; and being kind of gadgety, I wanted to be able to do that remotely. Well, I have this old Trackerpod I bought maybe ten years ago, available at eagletron.com. To my surprise, the thing still works. It is a mechanical pan/tilt device which connects to my desktop computer by USB. I have the additional "powered hub" they sell for use with longer USB cables.
The software for the trackerpod contains a server and it also does connect with USB cameras. I don't think it "sees" IP cameras, but to be honest I haven't made any effort to do that because my cameras are working great with Blue Iris. What would be nice would be if the trackerpod would "see" the ACTi 3701 camera which I have attached to it, but it doesn't. I have a ZONEWAY IP camera which webcamXP can't see either. NetcamStudio doesn't connect to it either. One of the staff there offered to get it working with NetcamStudio using remote access to my computer and we made two appointments which he didn't keep. That's when I turned to Blue Iris and had nearly immediate success connecting to the ZONEWAY. The ACTi was a cinch in Blue Iris too. Hooray Blue Iris!
Back to the trackerpod: Anyway, after considerable trial-and-error with the various (six) different folders with php and html files for remote access of various kinds, I finally am able to connect with the pan/tilt function of the trackerpod remotely and operate it. The six or seven remote folders include a chat box for connected users (and/or guests), and options for guest users to connect and either view the camera video (if served by the trackerpod server) or operate the pan/tilt or else both, as well as one folder (somewhere) for administrator. One remote folder uses a java applet, but there was a class file missing and I'm not sure I want to use a java applet anyway because maybe more security issues. The method I eventually got working is a guest access and uses javascript (I think). I tried so many things I'm not even sure what the deal was with the one that finally worked. When I feel like it, I'll go back and look in the folders again.
There were a couple reasons I had to do all the trial-and-error work. Since I didn't have a camera being served out by the trackerpod software, I only wanted the pan/tilt console to show up on a web page by itself. I guess the process intended by Eagletron would fill in my WAN IP automatically in the right remote folder for whichever option (of theirs) I wanted to use. Well, none of their options were quite what I wanted so I dived into those folders and looked at the programs and php files until I saw where I could put in my IP myself
and FTP it to my own website and access that page and the pan/tilt console through that page. I've been studying PHP a bit lately so it was kind of fun to try to make sense of their log-in scripts and such.
Another issue that led to all the trial-and-error was that I had no administrator password. I looked and looked in all the folders
and program files I could peek into. Maybe it came with the device when I bought it ten years ago. I suppose I could have emailed Eagletron but I don't have any records of my purchase and as I recall they weren't especially good at customer support. Anyway, a guest access with permission to run the pan/tilt is sufficient for me and I got that working finally the other day. While looking at my php book since then, I saw something that gave me the idea I might be able to change the log-in code for the administrator log-in so that I could get in using a user admin which I was able to add using their software. (That user admin does not for some reason work to log in to the particular remote folder files I want to use. It works for some things but not for others. Go figure!)
I'm not going to go full out and recommend the Eagletron products, because for one thing I personally find the software and instructions kind of confusing, even though they seem to be trying to give all the information you need. But they might meet the needs of someone here. That old trackerpod has been kicked around from box to box over the years and still works. I downloaded the software last week and that worked fine with it right away. The trackerpod might be useful especially if their device can connect to IP cameras. If someone has a special interest in that, I can make some attempts to see if I can get it to find any of my cameras. Besides the ACTi 3701, I have two dericam 801W IP cameras, and the chinese ZONEWAY "1.3 Megapixel IR 12X PTZ ..." camera. Since my cameras are all in use, that might be why the trackerpod software doesn't see them. I remember having that problem a lot years ago. I should disconnect my acti 3701 from blue iris and see if the trackerpod sees it and connects with it. (fat chance!) If it does though, it would be a single webpage
to view and control that camera - so that's definitely worth checking.
Eagletron makes one or maybe two more trackerpod models which can handle larger (heavier) cameras. The software allows one to set up a group of viewpoints and the speed of movement and visit time at each waypoint. There is also a "MOTION-TRACKING" built into the software. You can turn it off or on of course. I played with that years ago and it does work to some extent, but it's tricky. When it works right, if I recall correctly, it watches for regions having a color you have set for it and when such color moves, the trackerpod will mechanically move to keep that color blob in the center of the field. As I said, I had limited success with it, but wasn't needing that function so didn't fool with it much. I don't know if they have improved the software any over the last decade, their website sure hasn't changed much.
Just wanted to share my sucess with this odd-ball set-up.
Priscilla
I recently added some pan/tilt capability to a fixed mini-dome ACM (ACTi) 3701 IP camera. I bought the camera used on eBay a few years ago for a good price but couldn't get it working reliably until I went back to it a few weeks ago. Turns out the internet cable was intermittent. Now that the camera is reliable, I have it pointed at a ground bird feeder and am using Blue Iris "motion detection" to get snapshots of the birds that visit. Still I found that I wanted to be able to move it around a bit; and being kind of gadgety, I wanted to be able to do that remotely. Well, I have this old Trackerpod I bought maybe ten years ago, available at eagletron.com. To my surprise, the thing still works. It is a mechanical pan/tilt device which connects to my desktop computer by USB. I have the additional "powered hub" they sell for use with longer USB cables.
The software for the trackerpod contains a server and it also does connect with USB cameras. I don't think it "sees" IP cameras, but to be honest I haven't made any effort to do that because my cameras are working great with Blue Iris. What would be nice would be if the trackerpod would "see" the ACTi 3701 camera which I have attached to it, but it doesn't. I have a ZONEWAY IP camera which webcamXP can't see either. NetcamStudio doesn't connect to it either. One of the staff there offered to get it working with NetcamStudio using remote access to my computer and we made two appointments which he didn't keep. That's when I turned to Blue Iris and had nearly immediate success connecting to the ZONEWAY. The ACTi was a cinch in Blue Iris too. Hooray Blue Iris!
Back to the trackerpod: Anyway, after considerable trial-and-error with the various (six) different folders with php and html files for remote access of various kinds, I finally am able to connect with the pan/tilt function of the trackerpod remotely and operate it. The six or seven remote folders include a chat box for connected users (and/or guests), and options for guest users to connect and either view the camera video (if served by the trackerpod server) or operate the pan/tilt or else both, as well as one folder (somewhere) for administrator. One remote folder uses a java applet, but there was a class file missing and I'm not sure I want to use a java applet anyway because maybe more security issues. The method I eventually got working is a guest access and uses javascript (I think). I tried so many things I'm not even sure what the deal was with the one that finally worked. When I feel like it, I'll go back and look in the folders again.
There were a couple reasons I had to do all the trial-and-error work. Since I didn't have a camera being served out by the trackerpod software, I only wanted the pan/tilt console to show up on a web page by itself. I guess the process intended by Eagletron would fill in my WAN IP automatically in the right remote folder for whichever option (of theirs) I wanted to use. Well, none of their options were quite what I wanted so I dived into those folders and looked at the programs and php files until I saw where I could put in my IP myself
and FTP it to my own website and access that page and the pan/tilt console through that page. I've been studying PHP a bit lately so it was kind of fun to try to make sense of their log-in scripts and such.
Another issue that led to all the trial-and-error was that I had no administrator password. I looked and looked in all the folders
and program files I could peek into. Maybe it came with the device when I bought it ten years ago. I suppose I could have emailed Eagletron but I don't have any records of my purchase and as I recall they weren't especially good at customer support. Anyway, a guest access with permission to run the pan/tilt is sufficient for me and I got that working finally the other day. While looking at my php book since then, I saw something that gave me the idea I might be able to change the log-in code for the administrator log-in so that I could get in using a user admin which I was able to add using their software. (That user admin does not for some reason work to log in to the particular remote folder files I want to use. It works for some things but not for others. Go figure!)
I'm not going to go full out and recommend the Eagletron products, because for one thing I personally find the software and instructions kind of confusing, even though they seem to be trying to give all the information you need. But they might meet the needs of someone here. That old trackerpod has been kicked around from box to box over the years and still works. I downloaded the software last week and that worked fine with it right away. The trackerpod might be useful especially if their device can connect to IP cameras. If someone has a special interest in that, I can make some attempts to see if I can get it to find any of my cameras. Besides the ACTi 3701, I have two dericam 801W IP cameras, and the chinese ZONEWAY "1.3 Megapixel IR 12X PTZ ..." camera. Since my cameras are all in use, that might be why the trackerpod software doesn't see them. I remember having that problem a lot years ago. I should disconnect my acti 3701 from blue iris and see if the trackerpod sees it and connects with it. (fat chance!) If it does though, it would be a single webpage
to view and control that camera - so that's definitely worth checking.
Eagletron makes one or maybe two more trackerpod models which can handle larger (heavier) cameras. The software allows one to set up a group of viewpoints and the speed of movement and visit time at each waypoint. There is also a "MOTION-TRACKING" built into the software. You can turn it off or on of course. I played with that years ago and it does work to some extent, but it's tricky. When it works right, if I recall correctly, it watches for regions having a color you have set for it and when such color moves, the trackerpod will mechanically move to keep that color blob in the center of the field. As I said, I had limited success with it, but wasn't needing that function so didn't fool with it much. I don't know if they have improved the software any over the last decade, their website sure hasn't changed much.
Just wanted to share my sucess with this odd-ball set-up.
Priscilla