noob247 0 Posted June 18, 2013 Can anyone recommend a cam to use as a weather cam? We have a remote location on a mountain and would like to put a weather cam up there. We were going to try the Dahua HFW3200C. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Douglaster 0 Posted June 19, 2013 Can anyone recommend a cam to use as a weather cam? We have a remote location on a mountain and would like to put a weather cam up there. We were going to try the Dahua HFW3200C. Its a very nice for weather measuring for sure. One warning though, in mine, water managed to come inside the dome by the cords hole. Just put some hotglue there and it will be nice. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kawboy12R 0 Posted June 19, 2013 How cheap and easy will it be to troubleshoot or replace a defective cam? That depends on location and the importance of uptime. You might want to balance cheap with reliable. My money is on Axis or Mobotix being a cheaper long term option over 5 or ten years (possibly sooner) if you are going to send someone to fix or replace it every time it stops working. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hardwired 0 Posted June 19, 2013 Stardot has cameras that are designed with that use in mind, they also have a data input for connecting a personal weather station to display real-time statistics. http://www.stardot-tech.com/ip_cameras.html Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
buellwinkle 0 Posted June 19, 2013 Maybe overkill to have a 1080P camera on a website for weather. Were you planning on having live streaming video or still images updated on a regular basis. Were you going to integrate weather data into the camera display or keep it separate. For example, if the weather data is separate, having more than even VGA resolution may take up too much screen real estate, maybe 800x600 at most with weather data integrated in the display. The reason I ask is why put money into a 1080P camera when the money may better go towards a more reliable camera. Also, how important is low light capability because the Dahua with the illuminators works well if your subject is say 30-40' away, but a panoramic mountain view would not benefit from this at all. Also, what's weather like? Because maybe a box camera in a housing with a heater/fan/wiper may make more sense. BTW, here's a Stardot webcam near me. I really don't like the image quality but it could be how the camera was setup. Here's another on the same lake, a very old Mobotix camera - http://www.golakearrowhead.com/webcams/view Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
noob247 0 Posted June 19, 2013 Hi Everyone, Here is an example of one of our current weather cams using a Ubiquiti AirCam. http://www.samuiwebcam.com/the_lookout_samui.html The camera is set up to stream at 1FPS. I really like these cameras but wanted to improve on the image quality. The issue I have with these cameras is when it's cloudy the image is very dark and blocky. In bright light the picture looks great. My idea was to set up a 1080p cam and stream that. I thought a 1080p cam streaming 1FPS would be fine for our system, I was wrong... I set up a 3200SP yesterday at a new site and it really struggled to stream. I had to drop back down to 720p at 1FS. http://www.samuiwebcam.com/jungle_club_koh_samui.html The other issue with this cam is the focus, the foreground is in focus, where the background isn't. I'd really like a camera (if possible) that can keep the whole picture in focus. I guess this would need a high F-Stop setting? This camera is also too wide for me. I wish I'd tried the 3300C with the varifocal lens, so I could zoom in until I got the picture how I liked it. Any advice on how I could improve the quality of the cams on my site would be appreciated. I'm new to IP cameras and learning day by day. It took a lot of hard work to set up and build my site and I want to improve on it as much as possible. All the best. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quantum 0 Posted June 20, 2013 noob247, I just get a blank frame where your webcam shot should be in Firefox, and in Konqueror it comes up with the error: "Scanstyles does nothing in Webkit/Firefox/Opera". Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
noob247 0 Posted June 20, 2013 Quantum - our cams turn of at night local hours here. We had to to do this to save bandwidth as it was costing a lot to run the site. The cam hours are on the front home page. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MaxIcon 0 Posted June 21, 2013 You might try sending a PM to user petecress, and check the threads he's posted in: memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=22678 He's been running a variety of cams as surfcams for a while, and has a lot of experience with what works well and what doesn't. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
noob247 0 Posted June 21, 2013 Thanks Max - I've sent Pete an IM. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
