The MountCam

CanisLupusArctos · 07-26-2008, 12:59 PM

As of yesterday, the beta version of the MountCam is up and running. The camera has been mounted on the port forward corner of the wheelhouse and looks straight ahead, with the point of the bow in the right side of the frame. If you stand there, you'll be in it.

We took a cruise yesterday from Weirs to Wolfeborough during which one of the crew members (Bob Reed) and I got up on the wheelhouse to make adjustments to focus, aperture, and image composition. That was done by the time we got to Wolfeborough. (Trivia: The captain said I was the first non-crew member to ride up there since the Secret Service for Pres. Bush Sr... Felt kind of like the summer version of "The Polar Express" where the kid gets up on the roof of the train.)

On the return cruise, we started ironing out problems with the internet connection. One of the ship's owners called Stardot on cell phone to ask why it wasn't uploading so often as it should. We needed to increase the timeout settings so it wouldn't time out and quit if the signal had hiccups (which it does.) Stardot was GREAT. A+++ for tech support. They speak English, with a California accent, because they are in California and not India. And they care about their product.

Stardot reccomends we get an exterior antenna for the wireless broadband router. It would be yet another antenna on the roof of the wheelhouse but well worth it. The antenna in there now is tiny, about 6 inches tall.

Now the camera is set to come on at 9 a.m. when the ship is powered up for the day, and goes off at 9 p.m. We're trying an image refresh rate of once per minute and see how that goes. When the signal is good, it does it. When it's not, it can be 10 minutes between images. At dock, interference has been an issue, sometimes resulting in up to 40 minutes between images. It actually runs better out on the lake. They said they have had a lot of interference with radios, and EMFs from a million arcade games and other stuff at Weirs Dock and have had to relocate antennas as a result (the whole place is an FCC nightmare,) so this probably won't be updating a lot from Weirs.

Island Girl will be working on improving the network connection.

If that can be significantly improved, we may try the archive of past images. Until then, that feature has been disabled because it makes the automated FTP sessions take longer, which can result in delays between images when connection isn't great.

The latest image is now at www.cruisenh.com/webcam.html. This may change as their webmaster figures out what he's going to do with the presentation of the image.

Here is a teaser:

07-26-2008, 12:59 PM	#12
CanisLupusArctos Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Center Harbor Posts: 1,049 Thanks: 15 Thanked 472 Times in 107 Posts	Beta version up and running As of yesterday, the beta version of the MountCam is up and running. The camera has been mounted on the port forward corner of the wheelhouse and looks straight ahead, with the point of the bow in the right side of the frame. If you stand there, you'll be in it. We took a cruise yesterday from Weirs to Wolfeborough during which one of the crew members (Bob Reed) and I got up on the wheelhouse to make adjustments to focus, aperture, and image composition. That was done by the time we got to Wolfeborough. (Trivia: The captain said I was the first non-crew member to ride up there since the Secret Service for Pres. Bush Sr... Felt kind of like the summer version of "The Polar Express" where the kid gets up on the roof of the train.) On the return cruise, we started ironing out problems with the internet connection. One of the ship's owners called Stardot on cell phone to ask why it wasn't uploading so often as it should. We needed to increase the timeout settings so it wouldn't time out and quit if the signal had hiccups (which it does.) Stardot was GREAT. A+++ for tech support. They speak English, with a California accent, because they are in California and not India. And they care about their product. Stardot reccomends we get an exterior antenna for the wireless broadband router. It would be yet another antenna on the roof of the wheelhouse but well worth it. The antenna in there now is tiny, about 6 inches tall. Now the camera is set to come on at 9 a.m. when the ship is powered up for the day, and goes off at 9 p.m. We're trying an image refresh rate of once per minute and see how that goes. When the signal is good, it does it. When it's not, it can be 10 minutes between images. At dock, interference has been an issue, sometimes resulting in up to 40 minutes between images. It actually runs better out on the lake. They said they have had a lot of interference with radios, and EMFs from a million arcade games and other stuff at Weirs Dock and have had to relocate antennas as a result (the whole place is an FCC nightmare,) so this probably won't be updating a lot from Weirs. Island Girl will be working on improving the network connection. If that can be significantly improved, we may try the archive of past images. Until then, that feature has been disabled because it makes the automated FTP sessions take longer, which can result in delays between images when connection isn't great. The latest image is now at www.cruisenh.com/webcam.html. This may change as their webmaster figures out what he's going to do with the presentation of the image. Here is a teaser: Attached Images