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NetCam 

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Keep in mind that the overhead of FTP doesn’t allow for the same 

update rates that you see when accessing NetCam directly with a browser. It 

is safe to say that FTP restricts 320x240 uploads to once every 3-6 seconds, 

even on a DSL or cable connection. 640x480 images will probably not 

upload faster than once every 10-15 seconds.

Default: 

30

Upload Window

NetCam can upload images 24 hours a day, seven days a week, or you 

can set whatever time window and days of the week you like. Use military 

time for the beginning and ending window times.

Example: You can configure NetCam to only upload Between 07:30 

and 18:30 only on Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu and Fri

How do I display the live image on my web site?

The simplest way to add the live image on one of your web pages is 

with the image tag: 

<img src=”netcam.jpg”>

To see the current live image, the visitor would have to hit the refresh 

button. This reloads the web page and will display the current live image, 

assuming a new image has uploaded already.

You can add a meta tag to the 

<head>

 section of your web page 

that  tells  the  browser  to  refresh  the  web  page  at  specified  interval: 

<meta http-equiv=”refresh” content=”30”>

If you prefer a slicker solution that doesn’t require refreshing the whole 

page and visibly redrawing the live image, StarDot provides a free Java 

applet. You can download the Capture Client Java applet and instructions 

here:

www.stardot-tech.com/netcam/downloads.html

Summary of Contents for net camera

Page 1: ...netcam User s Manual w w w s t a r d o t t e c h c o m ...

Page 2: ......

Page 3: ...talling NetCam Outdoors 11 Chapter 3 Accessing NetCam 12 3 1 Viewing NetCam s Images 12 3 2 Accessing NetCam s Configuration Menus 12 3 3 Image Properties 12 3 4 Overlay Properties 16 3 5 FTP Properties 20 3 6 Applet Properties 24 3 7 Date Time Properties 26 3 8 Network Properties 28 3 9 Dial Out Properties 30 3 10 Security Properties 32 Chapter 4 Imaging Tips 34 4 1 Lighting 34 4 2 Image Processi...

Page 4: ...Page NetCam ...

Page 5: ...k or dial out settings The second step is to configure NetCam to upload images to a web server this step is optional The third step is the physical installation of the camera 1 2 What s Included and What s Required The NetCam package includes a NetCam camera a lens a wall mount a power supply a combo network power cable a null modem serial cable and the StarDot Tools software on CD ROM The Dial Ou...

Page 6: ...s IP addresses DHCP StarDot Tools will find NetCam s IP address and display it in the software To access NetCam simply double click its IP address Turn to Chapter 3 for assistance on configuring NetCam If your network does not auto assign IP addresses you ll need to configure NetCam via the included serial cable Connect one end of the null model serial cable to the S1 port of NetCam and the other ...

Page 7: ...menus accessible from any web browser on the network There are two ways NetCam can be assigned an IP address automatically or manually Automatic IP Assignment DHCP NetCam is shipped in an automatic IP assignment mode called DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol If your network has a DHCPserver in most cases a router it will automatically assign the necessary network parameters to NetCam Before ...

Page 8: ...ual IP address outside of the router s DHCP range If NetCam is connected to a network without a DHCP server IP addresses are not automatically assigned and your computer is not running Windows you ll have to manually assign NetCam an IP address This requires terminal emulation software and the included null serial cable On a Macintosh or on a Windows computer without a serial port you ll need a US...

Page 9: ...age Plug the DB9 end of the modem cable into the S0 port of NetCam Run the StarDot Tools software and click on the Setup Wizard button Follow the steps in the Setup Wizard When asked for modem type select 3JTech Test your configuration locally first Once successful you can place NetCam and the modem remotely and it will automatically dial out to the Internet and upload images according to the set ...

Page 10: ...ble Plug the included power supply into the power tail jack on one side of the cable and plug the network plug into a hub The other end of the cable plugs into the NetCam s PWR and NET jacks see illustration in Chapter 1 4 If you need a longer cable StarDot offers lengths of 100 200 and 300 feet Keep in mind that the longer combo cable lengths require a power supply with higher voltage output volt...

Page 11: ... exposure with a value below 100 If your exposure is reading below 100 adjust the iris smaller until it reads between 100 and 500 Note Make sure Auto Exposure is enabled Failure to set the iris properly in daylight lighting may result in streaky image quality and will prematurely cause permanent damage to the CCD sensor NetCam s auto exposure logic will automatically compensate for changes in brig...

Page 12: ...rowser s address bar example http 192 168 1 5 This will bring up the live image page Click on the Configuration link You will be prompted for a User Name and Password Use admin for both Tip We highly recommend that you change the default password To do so see Chapter 3 8 3 3 Image Properties All image related configuration options are located on the Image Properties page After making changes click...

Page 13: ...ropriate frequency 60Hz for US will prevent NetCam from producing a change in brightness or color balance that often accompanies imaging under fluorescent lights For outdoor shots any other non fluorescent lighting condition set to off The default value is off Manual Exposure Enabling Manual Exposure causes NetCam to expose images at the value placed in the Exposure field Keep in mind that using m...

Page 14: ...sors The highest quality image on NetCam is 320x240 On NetCam MP the highest quality image is 640x480 Saturation This represents the amount of color in the image The higher the number the more saturated the color Default 1200 Gamma Gamma correction is a post processing enhancement that increases the detail in shadowy areas of the image The higher the value the lighter the shadows at the expense of...

Page 15: ...balance of the image based on the content of the image In most situations you will want Auto Color Balance enabled You can skew the red green and blue values if needed Default On Manual Color Balance Enabling Manual Color Balance causes NetCam to use the manual Red Green and Blue values to set the color balance of the image You may want use manual color balance if you have a fixed lighting situati...

Page 16: ...internal camera parameters can all become part of the text on the live image This is handled through markup characters For instance d inserts the current day of the month on the live image There is a complete list of markup characters below and a mini reference on the Overlay page itself Default NetCam a b d H M S Y Font Five different font styles sizes are available for the overlay text FontA 24 ...

Page 17: ... from 00 FF Default R 21 G 29 B 5A A C0 Sample Colors Chart R G B FF 00 00 Red 00 FF 00 Green 00 00 FF Blue FF FF 00 Yellow 00 FF FF Cyan FF 00 FF Purple FF FF FF White 7F 7F 7F Gray 00 00 00 Black Markup Character Reference All of the following markup characters can be used in the text overlay Additionally any date time markups preceded by the character can be used to compose the filenames in the...

Page 18: ...PM Uppercase Z Timezone Time Markups H Hour Military 00 23 I Hour Standard 00 12 M Minute 00 59 S Second 00 59 03 Milliseconds 000 999 03 Microseconds 000 999 Date Time Shortcut Markups D Date String mm dd yy r Time String HH MM SS AM PM T Time String Military HH MM SS Symbol Markups 260 Degree Sign º 251 Copyright Sign 256 Registered Sign 261 Plus Minus Sign Percentage Character Camera Markups e ...

Page 19: ... text to NetCam s overlay For a list of characters visit stardot tech com netcam netcam overlay txt Positioning Markups All positioning markups that begin with 033 must be at the beginning of a line 033l Position Text on Left 033h Center Text Horizontally 033r Position Text on Right 033t Position Text on Top 033v Center Text Vertically 033b Position Text on Bottom 033t 033l Position Text in Top Le...

Page 20: ... web server This is useful if you plan on having a large number of visitors viewing the live images or if you d like to archive every image NetCam takes To enable image uploads check FTP Upload on and fill out the options below Required Fields Hostname The hostname is the name of the server where you d like NetCam to upload images to It can be a machine name or IP address Do not include the http o...

Page 21: ... enable it anyway Default On Timeout If the FTP transfer is unsuccessful Netcam will abort and re initiate the process after the specified amount of seconds Default 120 Delete Before Rename NetCam employs a file renaming scheme which greatly reduces the possibility of file collisions between NetCam uploading an image and view ers downloading the image The image is uploaded with a tmp extension Onc...

Page 22: ...percentage symbol are valid It not advisable to use date time characters that insert or space characters as this can confuse the FTP Web server Current IP Link Path File If NetCam is using an external modem to dial out to an ISP NetCam will most likely be assigned a different IP address every time it connects This makes it next to impossible to access the camera directly from a browser since its I...

Page 23: ...0 and 18 30 only on Mon Tue Wed Thu and Fri How do I display the live image on my web site The simplest way to add the live image on one of your web pages is with the image tag img src netcam jpg To see the current live image the visitor would have to hit the refresh button This reloads the web page and will display the current live image assuming a new image has uploaded already You can add a met...

Page 24: ...240 and the size is 100 the applet will display the image at its original size in this case 320x240 If the size is 50 the image will display at half size in this case 160x120 If the size is 200 the image display at double size in this case 640x480 Keep in mind that the JPEG image is still the size specified in the Image Properties page the applet resize option simply reduces or stretches the origi...

Page 25: ...text that is displayed in the applet status bar if applet status bar is enabled The color is defined in the HTML standard of 3 numbers for RGB Format RRGGBB RR red GG green BB blue all values hexadecimal 00 FF Default ffffff Status Bar Color This is the color of the background that is displayed in the applet status bar if applet status bar is enabled The color is defined in the HTML standard of 3 ...

Page 26: ...d time usually accurate to within seconds or less This will happen every time the camera is powered on or rebooted provided NetCam is connected to the Internet or a network with a time server Time Server The name or IP address of a time server is entered here Some popular ones include time nist gov tock usno navy mil ns arc nasa gov Note While these time servers have proved reliable over the years...

Page 27: ...an Standard Daylight Time Alaska parts YST9YDT Yukon Standard Daylight Time Alaska parts PST8PDT Pacific Standard Daylight Time MST7MDT Mountain Standard Daylight Time MST7 Mountain Standard Time Arizona CST6CDT Central Standard Daylight Time EST5EDT Eastern Standard Daylight Time AST4ADT Atlantic Standard Daylight Time NST3 30NDT Newfoundland Standard Daylight Time WET0WETDST Western European Sta...

Page 28: ...ally IP Assignment DHCP By default NetCam comes up in DHCP mode meaning that it probes the network for a DHCP server If there is a DHCP server on the network NetCam is automatically assigned an IPaddress subnet mask gateway and name servers No manual configuration is needed One negative of DHCP mode is not knowing which IP address NetCam was given Use the StarDot Tools software to find DHCP assign...

Page 29: ...bled Domain Name Servers DNS Domain name server IPaddress This is critical if your FTPserver and or time server is entered as a domain name and not an IP address Check with your ISP to determine your name servers you can list up to three This is disabled if DHCP is enabled Web Server Port In most situations you will want to leave the web server port at its default value of 80 The only situation th...

Page 30: ...ternet Service Provider account information here Check this option on if you d like NetCam to use an external modem to dial the Internet Baud Rate This represents the speed or baud rate at which NetCam will communicate with the external modem For most dial up accounts a baud rate of 38400 or 19200 works best Default 38400 Initialization String This is a string that configures your modem before dia...

Page 31: ...ay continuously connected to the Internet If disconnected it will automatically attempt to reconnect If NetCam is configured to upload images to a server via FTP it is not necessary to enable this option NetCam will automatically attempt to dial into the Internet when an image is scheduled to upload if dial out is enabled If your NetCam is set to FTP images it is recommended that you do not enable...

Page 32: ...changes It is important to choose your password carefully Pick something that cannot be easily guessed The password can be a combination of alpha and numeric characters upper and lowercase maximum 8 characters Tip Use a password that cannot be easily guessed maximum 8 characters viewer The viewer user only has viewing rights this user cannot access the configuration menus By default the viewer use...

Page 33: ...moved 3 11 Advanced Menu The advanced menu is a hidden menu that allows you to configure some advanced features inside NetCam such as the Weather Station and Dynamic DNS support Note The advanced menu provides access to all of the configuration files in NetCam We recommend that you do not edit these files unless you are well versed in Linux and NetCam camera settings On the upper left of the advan...

Page 34: ...ve and making configuration changes from a remote location For information on configuring port forwarding on a router visit www portforward com To set up a TZO account visit http stardot tzo com After you ve signed up enter the appropriate information in either NetCam or your router if it supports DDNS Weather Station StarDot offers an optional mini weather station AUX WX2 that plugs into the back...

Page 35: ...he iris is an adjustable ring that controls the size of an aperture inside the lens barrel The smaller the iris the less light that reaches the CCD sensor The bigger the iris the more light that reaches the CCD sensor It is critical that NetCam s lens iris is set properly when pointing NetCam outdoors The reason for this is twofold it provides much better image quality and it prevents permanent da...

Page 36: ... the buildings can become a dark silhouette against the sky Most cameras as well as the human eye are unable to capture details in both the dark foreground and the bright background at the same time Dynamic range is the term used to describe the amount of detail a camera is able to capture in both dark and light areas at the same time NetCam has great dynamic range but as is the case with most cam...

Page 37: ...ecome The default value works well in most cases If you do want more color saturation increasing the number from its default of 1200 to 1300 should do the trick Anything higher may start to produce undesired color effects Gamma This adjusts the amount of detail visible in shadowy areas at the expense of increased haziness Try increasing the default value of 1700 to 1800 to see more details in dark...

Page 38: ...ing you will almost always want the iris set to its smallest position ƒ16 or smaller pinhole sized The iris ring is usually marked in ƒ stops 1 3 4 8 16 C The C stands for closed In this example the 16 setting is the smallest marked iris opening and 1 3 is the largest You can set the iris to settings in between the marked numbers setting it between 16 and C would result in a setting closer to ƒ22 ...

Page 39: ... the included Allen or hex wrench to loosen the back focus set screw on the bottom and or top of the camera 8 While watching the live image turn the entire lens assembly lens optional spacer and chrome back focus ring counterclockwise by 1 2 turn Make sure the individual iris and focus rings do not get turned out of position Focus must be in the infinity position and the iris all the way open for ...

Page 40: ...ger the image file size with very little improvement in image quality Images are not uploading to FTP server 1 Double check all settings including hostname username password and path by using third party FTP client software the command prompt FTP in Windows is a good test 2 Try using an IPaddress in the hostname or double check your DNS settings For dial up NetCam do not use an IP address use a ho...

Page 41: ...res Auto manual color balance including skew override contrast enhancement haze subtraction gamma correction and sharpening Image Compression Industry Standard JPEG adjustable quality compression Frame Rate 96x80 4 frames per second 160x120 2 5 frames per second 192x160 2 frames per second 320x240 1 frame per second 640x480 1 frame every 3 seconds 1280x960 1 frame every 8 seconds NetCam MP only Ty...

Page 42: ...6820 H Orangethorpe Ave Buena Park CA 90620 U S A 714 228 9282 Fax 714 228 9283 E mail info stardot tech com http www stardot tech com Copyright 2001 2006 StarDot Technologies netcam manual 1 06 indd ...

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