Best camera for Groov?

What brand (specific model) cameras are easiest to setup with groov? I have heard good things about Foscam, but not sure which model to purchase.

Jacket, I’ve used Foscam F19805E and F19821E. Both were very easy to setup, were inexpensive, look great and have a lot of options. You can’t go wrong.

Hi Jaket,

Welcome to the OptoForums! We use also many Foscam cameras in our demos and in-house applications.

Especially the (pretty inexpensive) FOSCAM Fi8910w (SD). I actually reverse-engineered the packets for pan/tilt/preset values, and wrote some OptoScript to send those packets. Let me know if you’d like that PAC Control code, I can send it to you.

Are you currently using Opto 22 controllers with your groov?

-OptoMary

We have an extensive camera system using Panasonic iPro series cameras. Would we be able to use these with a groov?

Thank you for the information! I will give the FI8910W (wireless) a try!

The key to using cameras with groov is to be sure that there is a URL that delivers a jpg.
If you can hit that URL with Firefox or Chrome and see a single image, you should be fine to use that camera with groov.

Keep in mind that groov just keeps a ‘frame’ for the image on that groov page, that’s all. Its not doing anything fancy, just reserving a spot for the image from that URL.

If you are keeping the camera behind a firewall, then you need to check the proxy option. In this case groov will poll the camera over the LAN and serve the image over the WAN. This means that you do not have to expose the camera through the firewall. The image is served over port 443 along with the rest of the groov pages.
But again, groov is just calling the camera URL for a single JPG image at the refresh rate.

Hey OptoMary! Could you send the the Optoscript for utilizing the functions of the Foscams? Thanks!

Hi Jaket,
I’m hoping the code I sent you for that particular FI8910W camera works okay for you. If so, perhaps I shall post it. I also have some ideas for more generic camera-controlling code if there’s enough demand…
-Mary

I tested Groov with my existing Axis 211 cameras and they seem to work okay. The Foscam work okay if hard wired, but I am not having good luck with wireless.

I have a blog post that details some of the cool things you can do with the groov Video Camera gadget.

Hello Mary,

Will you please share your code with me (or post here) for pan/tilt/preset control of the FOSCAM Fi8910w through groov along with any tips?

Thank you kindly,

W

Hello “W”!

Welcome to the OptoForums.

On this FOSCAM code, I have to warn you it’s old and worked with a specific FOSCAM camera (NOT HD) and possibly even a particular version of FOSCAM firmware (and changing firmware on those cameras is a real drag). So, those are my big disclaimers.

FYI, the way I reverse-engineered that particular camera/version was by sniffing, via wireshark, the packets sent from the browser to control the camera, then building those same packets in OptoScript.

Anyway, I’ll attach the same here, but be aware of those limitations.

-OptoMary

A few more details on this code:

We’ve had it work w/Device Firmware Version 11.37.2.48, on several FOSCAM Fi8910w (SD) cameras around here.
Unfortunately, the other FOSCAM (HD) camera I have on my desk uses a slightly different protocol.

Basic overview (also see comments within the strategy):

The CAMERA_control_chart looks for a change in the CAMERA_command value and sends a new value when a change is made.

Typical/recommended use: Configure your FOSCAM “Presets” using the browser interface (there are up to 8). For example: “Left side” or “Right side” may correspond to preset 1 & preset 2. Then use camera commands [B]31, 33, 35[/B], etc. (corresponding to preset 1s, 2, 3, etc) to move to those previously configured presets.

These go into the variable CAMERA_command, for example from PAC Display or a groov command button. Good luck!

Testing the Groov and IP camera, the key is that IP camera must support the “snapshot or single shot” mode. This mode of operation is supported by most IP camera. The difference is only in the form of Http.I use the Hikvision IP camera and groove work well.
However, this mode of IP camera, the fastest update speed of not less than 500ms. It is not suitable for the application of high refresh rate.This 500ms is Hikvision technician told me through Emial.
My personal opinion.
Excuse me, is my understanding right?


The minimum refresh time for the video gadget is 1/2 second.
Snapshot.jpg is the only way to view the video camera.
At this time we do not offer streaming support due to the different web browsers and different camera brands not supporting a common method of video streaming. We are keeping an eye on the situation and we revisit it from time to time.

Perhaps you can put a navigation link / button on the groov page that opens a new tab to the camera stream?

Is a way, how to achieve it?

Im sorry, achieve what?
Faster than 500 msec update? No.
Link to the camera page? Yes. Use the Navigation gadget.

What kind of new tables can handle video streams?

Digging into the archives on this one, but I was recently playing with a client’s groov interface and wound up with some surprising results. They have some older Vivotek cameras that we’d installed for them a number of years ago, and had been doing the snapshot JPEG refresh (1 sec) delay this whole time.

Recently they added some new cameras (different brand) and in my fiddling to add them, I stumbled across a URL for the old Vivotek cameras that got me a live 30fps streaming camera feed into Groov View. I believe it’s using an MJPEG encoding. Has something changed/improved with the HTML5 coding that groov View is written in to allow this? Naturally I checked and H.264/H.265 doesn’t work.

I will admit I’m not super knowledgeable on the subject but seeing live streaming video on our groov page got both me and my client quite thrilled and I’m curious if I can find them more cameras that will allow for this (the Vivotek models he has have long been mothballed). Any thoughts?

No, nothing’s changed there. It’s something I need to find the time to spend on soon.

(The proxy might go right out the window if we can start streaming though, who knows?)