Revision as of 18:39, 14 July 2009

Introduction

IP cameras, a.k.a. "network cameras", are digital cameras that have a built-in web server. This allows the camera to be accessed by any computer on the same network using a web browser. Video is streamed to the web browser from the camera without additional equipment. In a LinuxMCE system, IP cameras are easy to setup, but require some extra manipulation to get them to record.

IP Cameras and Motion Wrapper

IP cameras can be used under the Motion Wrapper to enable it to detect motion and alert based on that function.

To add Motion Wrapper and IP Cameras

• Open your webadmin control panel and on the left pane at the bottom click on "Show Device Tree".

• In the left pane Click on "core/hybrid".

• On the right pane near the top, click on "Create Child Device", then leave everything blank and click "Pick Device Template" button.

• Click the pull down box under "Device Template" and find the template labeled "Motion Wrapper", select this item and click "Pick Device Template"

• Now on the right pane, click "Create Child Device" again. Enter your IP Cameras IP address and MAC address here, then click "Pick Device Template"

• Click the pull down box under "Device Template" and use "Generic Analog Camera", then click "Pick Device Template"

• Now on the right window pane, scroll down to the bottom and find the field named "Configuration". This is where you put your cameras URL normally used by your web browser, to view your cameras video feed. My examples are based on Axis based IP Cameras.

netcam_url http://<you.cameras.ip.addreess>/mjpg/video.mjpg
netcam_userpass username:password

• Now click save at the bottom, reload your router, now on your mce interface go to "Security" -> "Generic Analog Camera" and see if it's working.

Adding Axis IP cameras to Motion

Axis camera is auto detected and device is generated, but not under Motion as parent. If you run IP Camera under moton you get all features motion has (motion detection,recording,etc...). Quick and not so clean workaround for adding IP camera device under Motion:

1. Add Generic Analog Camera #66 Device
   
2. Change Configuraton field to add data for IP camera
   
   

Example for Axis camera :

netcam_url  http://192.168.0.90/axis-cgi/jpg/image.cgi?resolution=640x480
netcam_userpass username:password    

Omit the last one if you don't have a access password specified.

Tips on finding your camera's URL

• Try to use ftp to connect to your camera. The username and pass is usually whatever you set up on the web interface of the camera. Traverse the folders to find your html documents folder. Typically, your looking for a .jpg or .mjpg file to point the Motion Wrapper to. For example, these are the possible links on an Axis 2100 IP Camera.

/jpg/image.jpg (Works fine using the wrapper)
/mjpg/video.mjpg (Works fine using the wrapper)
/cgi-bin/jpg/image.cgi (I could not get this one working under the wrapper)
/cgi-bin/mjpg/video.cgi (Again, could not get it to work)

Available IP Cameras

IP security cameras that have been tested with LinuxMCE:

• Camera Category