Foscam FI8908W

Version	Status	Date Updated	Updated By
710	Unknown	N/A	N/A
810	Unknown	N/A	N/A
1004	Unknown	N/A	N/A
1204	Unknown	N/A	N/A
1404	Unknown	N/A	N/A
Usage Information

Info

Cheap IR wireless IP/Network Pan/tilt Camera

Status

Provisionally working either as a plug and play IP camera with pan/tilt commands or as a 'Generic Motion IP camera' under motion wrapper and used as a sensor as well as recording movement etc.

Generic Motion IP Camera Hack

If using under motion the pan/tilt commands do not work. It can optionally be made 'plug and play' under motion by manually adding the mac range of both the wireless and wired adapters into the 'Generic Motion IP Camera' template:

• Wireless range 79373008896 to 79389786111 (DHCP).
• Wired range 414170742784 to 414171791359 (DHCP).

After the device has been detected and assigned a room just give it a sensible name and add the following to the path parameter in web admin:

• hxxp://<CAMERA_IP_ADDRESS>/videostream.cgi?user=XXXXX&pwd=XXXXX

Replace the ip address and the XXXXX with your settings

Pros:

• Plug and Play (Just give it a sensible name)
• Installed under motion for security monitoring/recording

Cons:

• Path must be manually set as described above
• No Pan/Tilt other than via its own web interface

Plug and Play Template Settings

This camera is fully plug and play as a stand-alone pan/tilt camera by duplicating the panasonic template and inserting the following scripts.

1. 84 Get video frame

conn_.Reconnect()
auth_s="user="+device_.devdata_[114]+"&pwd="+device_.devdata_[115];

fix_path=device_.devdata_[2]+auth_s;
fix_path='/'+fix_path if(fix_path[0]!='/'[0]);

s = "GET "+fix_path+" HTTP/1.0\r\n"
s+= "Accept: */*\r\n"
s+= "\r\n"

conn_.Send(s)
recv=""
while(true)
  buff=conn_.Recv(16384, 5000)
  if(buff.length() == 0)
     break
   end
   recv = recv +  buff
end
if (recv=~ /^HTTP[^\r\n]+200\sOK.+?\r\n\r\n(.+)$/m)
  fileName="/tmp/ip_camera_img"+device_.devid_.to_s
  imageFile=File.new(fileName+".jpg",'w')
  imageFile.print $1
  imageFile.close()
  system("/usr/bin/convert "+fileName+".jpg "+fileName+".png");
  size=File.stat(fileName+".png").size 
  imageFile=File.new(fileName+".png",'r')
  img = imageFile.read(size);
  imageFile.close()
  data_set(img)
  format_set('png')
end

1. 201 Move Down

conn_.Reconnect()
auth_s="user="+device_.devdata_[114]+"&pwd="+device_.devdata_[115];
s = "GET /decoder_control.cgi?command=2&onestep=1&"+auth_s
s+= " HTTP/1.0\r\n Accept: */*\r\n"
s+= "\r\n"

conn_.Send(s)
recv=""
while(true)
  buff=conn_.Recv(256, 5000)
  if(buff.length() == 0)
     break
   end
   recv = recv +  buff
end

1. 202 move left

conn_.Reconnect()
auth_s="user="+device_.devdata_[114]+"&pwd="+device_.devdata_[115];
#auth_a=Array.new;
#auth_s.each{|c| auth_a.push(c)}
s = "GET /decoder_control.cgi?command=4&onestep=1&"+auth_s
s+= " HTTP/1.0\r\n Accept: */*\r\n"
#s+= "Authorization: Basic "+auth_a.pack("m").chop+"\r\n"
s+= "\r\n"

conn_.Send(s)
recv=""
while(true)
  buff=conn_.Recv(256, 5000)
  if(buff.length() == 0)
     break
   end
   recv = recv +  buff
end

1. 203 Move Right

conn_.Reconnect()
auth_s="user="+device_.devdata_[114]+"&pwd="+device_.devdata_[115];
#auth_a=Array.new;
#auth_s.each{|c| auth_a.push(c)}
s = "GET /decoder_control.cgi?command=6&onestep=1&"+auth_s
s+= " HTTP/1.0\r\n Accept: */*\r\n"
#s+= "Authorization: Basic "+auth_a.pack("m").chop+"\r\n"
s+= "\r\n"

conn_.Send(s)
recv=""
while(true)
  buff=conn_.Recv(256, 5000)
  if(buff.length() == 0)
     break
   end
   recv = recv +  buff
end

1. 200 Move Up

conn_.Reconnect()
auth_s="user="+device_.devdata_[114]+"&pwd="+device_.devdata_[115];
#auth_a=Array.new;
#auth_s.each{|c| auth_a.push(c)}
s = "GET /decoder_control.cgi?command=0&onestep=1&"+auth_s
s+= " HTTP/1.0\r\n Accept: */*\r\n"
#s+= "Authorization: Basic "+auth_a.pack("m").chop+"\r\n"
s+= "\r\n"

conn_.Send(s)
recv=""
while(true)
  buff=conn_.Recv(256, 5000)
  if(buff.length() == 0)
     break
   end
   recv = recv +  buff
end

It can be made 'plug and play' by adding the mac range of both the wireless and wired adapters into the new template:

• Wireless range 79373008896 to 79389786111 (DHCP).
• Wired range 414170742784 to 414171791359 (DHCP).

Pros:

• Plug and play (Just give it a sensible name)
• Pan and Tilt work from on screen arrows

Cons:

• No motion capture

Features

• Browser based
• 10/100mbit LAN

Dropouts

There have been reports of dhcp dropouts. Suggested fix: http://blog.stead.id.au/2010/06/resolving-foscam-connection-dropouts.html

Wireless Setup

How to setup IP camera wirelessly http://foscam.us/forum/post15934.html#p15934

Test and Tweak IP Camera Setup and Configuration

Make sure your IP Camera is functioning at peak ability http://foscam.us/forum/post34164.html#p34164

Links

• Hacking the Foscam FI8908W
• Foscam IP Camera (Part Two)
• Generic Browser Based Interface Example
• Forum discussion