Useful information

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malun
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Posts: 1589
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2004 1:29 pm

Useful information

Post by malun »

Image quality
I have noticed that several users set the image quality to 100%. This is not always a good idea, because higher quality will require more bandwidth.
This is especially important to think of when using the stream output! Lower quality will give more frames per second and a smoother stream of images. This is often more pleasant for the eye than viewing good-quality-images that are lagging.

The port numbers
Note that some internet service providers block certain ports. So if the default port numbers in Yawcam doesn't work, you can try with another.

Overlay
In Yawcam version 0.2.1 and above it is possible to add the keyword %vv in the overlay text. %vv will be replaced with the current number of stream viewers.

Skip port numbers
If you set the port number for i.e. the stream output to 80 you don't have to type the port number in the address when you are going to watch. Then it will do with just the address.
http://-your-public-ip/ will be the same as http://-your-public-ip:80/

Dynamic IP
If you have a dynamic ip-address I recommend you to use one of the following services:
http://www.dyndns.org/
http://www.no-ip.com/
This will help your viewers to remember the address to your webcam. (This works even if you have a static ip-address).
Read more about dynamic IP here: http://www.yawcam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=96

/malun
Last edited by malun on Fri Sep 10, 2004 9:25 am, edited 3 times in total.
malun
Site Admin
Posts: 1589
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2004 1:29 pm

Post by malun »

Multiple Instances of Yawcam (New instructions):
Note: Recent versions of Yawcam can start multiple instances without following the instructions below in this post. Just start Yawcam again and answer "Yes" on the prompt if you want to start another instance. I'll leave the old instructions here (that might still be needed if you want to run multiple services).

Multiple Instances of Yawcam (Old instructions):

1) Install the first yawcam instance as usual and run it like usual.
2) Make a copy of the yawcam program directory and name the copy Yawcam2.
Usually C:\Program Files\Yawcam\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Yawcam\.
You will now have two program directories for Yawcam:
C:\Program Files\Yawcam\
and
C:\Program Files\Yawcam2\
3) Create a new directory C:\yawcamsettings\
4) Create a new directory C:\yawcamsettings\yawcam2\

Now it's time to edit two files in here:
C:\Program Files\Yawcam2\
If you are using Windows XP or 2000 you can edit the files with notepad as usual, so jump to step 8 below.
If you are using Windows Vista or 7 you have to run the editor as an administrator, so continue at step 5.

5) Click on the windows start button and type "notepad" in the search field.
6) In the result list, right click on Notepad and choose "Run as administrator"
7) Now open the file in Notepad by clicking "File -> Open..." and browse to the file.

8) Edit the file C:\Program Files\Yawcam2\service_profile.cfg to contain one line like this:
C:\yawcamsettings\yawcam2
9) Edit the file C:\Program Files\Yawcam2\launcher.cfg
Add the word service on the last line. If it's correct the last line will end with:

Code: Select all

yawcam.Main service 
10) Start the second instance of Yawcam by running:
C:\Program Files\Yawcam2\Yawcam.exe
This version will now use settings located here:
C:\yawcamsettings\yawcam2\.yawcam
Browse to this path and see that the .yawcam directry has been created.

11) You now want to create a text file disablerunningcheck.txt here:
C:\yawcamsettings\yawcam2\.yawcam\disablerunningcheck.txt
to get rid of the question when starting the second instance of Yawcam.

12) [OPTIONAL] To be able to run both instances as services you will also need to change some settings in the file: Yawcam_Service.ini
Change the settings for the second instance of Yawcam. The file would then typically be located here:
C:\Program Files\Yawcam2\Yawcam_Service.ini

The file holds a section that looks like this:

Code: Select all

[service]
appname = Yawcam
servicename = Yawcam
displayname = Yawcam
servicedescription = Yawcam - Yet Another Webcam Software
Now change that to look like this:

Code: Select all

[service]
appname = Yawcam2
servicename = Yawcam2
displayname = Yawcam2
servicedescription = Yawcam2 - Yet Another Webcam Software
You can now install the service by running the batch file C:\Program Files\Yawcam2\Yawcam-NTservice-Install.bat as an administrator.

EDIT by z3r0c00l12: Information found on this forum.
z3r0c00l12
Moderator
Posts: 1210
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2009 3:50 am

Post by z3r0c00l12 »

To users that are going to use Yawcam and Windows Server 2008 (2k8), do this:

1) Install java
2) Install desktop experience feature from server manager (LINK Here)
3) Install yawcam, and it works like a dream!

Thanks to Bjorn for the information.
omoboy
Posts: 17
Joined: Tue Apr 26, 2011 8:16 pm

Post by omoboy »

Thank you very much Malun and z3r0c00l12. I will try it and update you soon. I will be getting the Logitech webcam in a few days and follow your advice.

You guys are great.
darlene59
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Nov 10, 2011 2:58 pm

Post by darlene59 »

Thanks for letting me know about other good stuff!
solorize
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Aug 16, 2011 9:18 am

Post by solorize »

I have followed the instructions above to be able to have two instances of Yawcam running so I can have two webcams running at the same time.

All was working well.... until I looked this morning and noticed that one of the webcam preview screens was not showing an image. i.e. just a black window.

I restarted my pc and now both are up and running again, after I had to reselect each webcam resolution as it seems to have forgotten the resolution I was used before rebooting.

For your info, I have had a single webcam running for over 6 months with out any trouble. The problem has started since I attached the second webcam yesterday.

Does anyone have any ideas why this may be happening? or is there something else I may need to do to get them to run ok.
solorize
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Aug 16, 2011 9:18 am

Post by solorize »

When I got home tonight I decided to have another look...

My primary webcam is: MS LIFECAM CINEMA
My secondary webcam is: HUE HD WEBCAM

I have set up two Yawcam folders;

The 1st one is my main folder Yawcam which has been working fine with my MS LIFECAM CINEMA.

and

The 2nd one, which is a copy of the main Yawcam folder but has had the files modified as per this thread, for my HUE HD WEBCAM.

The problem is when I restart my PC, the HUE HD WEBCAM starts to display under the 1st instance of Yawcam, which was set up for and should be displaying the MS LIFECAM.

It's like the HUE HD WEBCAM has taken dominance over the MS webcam.

I decided to delete all of the folders and did a full reinstall (followed by creating the 2nd Yawcam2 folder), to see if it would rectify the problem but I am still having the HUE webcam dominating and the MS webcam won't work.

The only way I can get the MS webcam to work is totally unplug the Hue webcam, restart the pc, and then re-setup & select the MS webcam which will then get the MS webcam working again. But if I plug in the Hue webcam it all messes up again.

Does anyone know how to rectify this problem?
jxoco
Posts: 40
Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2011 8:50 pm

multi instances of yawcam

Post by jxoco »

I thought that I'd add my own experience setting up a dual yawcam setup.
I had problems like others are describing when I had all of the webcams software installed. (the software that comes with the webcam)
I had black windows like others have mentioned.
I uninstalled all of the webcam's as delivered software and just installed the 'driver' part of the software that came with the webcam.
I've got logitech plain web cams and logitech 'orbit' webcams working at the same time.
The best is the cheapie, no driver needed, $6 webcam from the grocery store or the excess cargo place. I've gotten 3 of them working at the same time on one pc. They don't give a super picture but for security they are just fine.
I have tried using an IBM Thinkpad T23, because no one else in the family wanted it, I could only get one camera working on it, black screen on any second camera.
I now have migrated to an IBM Thinkpad T42, as it has gotten old as well, and it has no problem running three webcams at the same time.
I'm just about to try an original Asus EEEpc to see if it will run two cameras with the 0.3.7 version.
I picked up another T42 that has a broken screen and it is very happy running 2 cameras, as a test rig.

I have a nice autofocus rocketfish webcam that worked great as a webcam but really didn't work for more than a few hours before the pc crapped out. And it would not work with any other webcam at the same time. So I wouldn't take another one of those unless it was close to free.
I have a cabin at a remote lake, the yawcam, ftps the pictures to the ftp site my ISP gives me. I have a pc at home that runs a script every two minutes that ages the pictures. (deletes #10, renames #9 to #10, #8 to #9, etc.) So I can look at the current picture or the last ten taken every two minutes or the last 100 taken every 15 minutes (24 hrs.).
I expect to try the motion detection, soon, but I had problems before with trees blowing in the wind. I have to work on finding a proper camera placement that my wife approves of.
One of the webcams is aimed at two temperature gauges that each have a remote, one remote is in the basement beside the water supply and one remote is outside.
It's handy to see how deep the snow is and what the temperature is at my cabin.
I've put together rather simple webpages that are viewable on an iPhone as well.

The fun came when I tried to install Yawcam on a new netbook running windows 7 ultimate. The FTP wouldn't work and I tried everything I could think of. On the ftp transfer it was giving me an, Access denied, permissions error. After lots of digging through the internet I found this fix;
open a CMD box in administrator mode;
Start>in the search box type, cmd
when the CMD black box appears in the search results window,
hold down the shift and the ctrl keys and click on the cmd black box
You will probably have to answer, yes, to allow this program to make changes to the operating system.
And you are taken to a DOS box that is in the, windows/system32 directory.
( if you do it wrong, you are in the, users directory and it probably didn't ask you for permission to make changes to the operating system)
At the cmd line you type,
netsh advfirewall set global StatefulFTP disable
and after it says ok you type,
exit
And then, for me, Yawcam FTPing began working on windows 7.

Well thats my story...
lordkevin
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2013 11:44 am

Post by lordkevin »

Thanks for the nice information in this post post dear...
malun
Site Admin
Posts: 1589
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2004 1:29 pm

Post by malun »

If Yawcam doesn't start it's possible that something is wrong with your Java installation.

You might get an error dialog looking like this:
The attachment yawcam_no_java.png is no longer available
It's also possible that the ordinary startup screen is visible for a short period and then nothing more happens.

As a first attempt, please try to un-install and then re-install Java.
You find the latest Java version here:
http://www.java.com

If you have several versions of Java installed you probably want to un-install all of them before installing the latest version.

If this doesn't help, it's time to check if Java was added to the computer's path variable correctly.
1) Open Windows run dialog by pressing the windows-key and the R-key at the same time
Windows run dialog
Windows run dialog
windows_run_dialog.png (15.31 KiB) Viewed 221122 times
2) Type cmd in the dialog
3) Click OK.
Error message when Java problem.
Error message when Java problem.
yawcam_no_java.png (11.47 KiB) Viewed 221122 times
4) In the command window type:

Code: Select all

java -version
and press the Enter-key.

If Java is present on the path you will get a result similar to this:
Java on the path
Java on the path
java_on_path.png (49.76 KiB) Viewed 221122 times
If you get the message above it's probably not Java that is the cause of your problem and the following steps in this guide will not help you. Try to search the forum for an answer or start a new thread to get some help.

If Java isn't present on the path you will get a result like this:
Java not on path
Java not on path
java_not_on_path.png (50.58 KiB) Viewed 221122 times
Java needs to be added to your path. Follow the steps below.

In some occasions it's also possible to get an error like this:
java VM error
java VM error
java_vm_error.gif (3.19 KiB) Viewed 221105 times
Also in this case it's possible that the path variable needs to b updated. Follow the steps below.


You will need to add Java to your computer's path.
The first step is to locate where Java is installed on your computer. It would typically be installed here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7
5) Verify this by open the explorer in Windows and click the folders until you find the Java installation:
Java installation path
Java installation path
java_install_path.png (102.62 KiB) Viewed 221122 times
6) Open the folder named bin and then use the mouse to click in the folder path above to turn it to selectable text.
7) Select the complete path and copy it to the clipboard.
Java path to copy
Java path to copy
java_path_to_copy.png (94.8 KiB) Viewed 221122 times
Now it's time to use the path you made a copy of add it to Windows path variable.
8) Open Windows control panel.
9) Click on "System"
10) In Windows 7 and Vista you will need to click on the link "Advanced system settings" to the left to open a dialog called "System properties". (In Windows XP this dialog is opened directly when you click system in the control panel)
11) Click the tab named Advanced
12) You should now see a dialog like this:
Windows system properties
Windows system properties
windows_system_properties.png (51.98 KiB) Viewed 221122 times
13) Click the button "Environment variables..." at the bottom.
14) In the dialog that opens find and select "Path" among the systems variables in the lower part:
Windows environment variables
Windows environment variables
windows_env_vars.png (70.56 KiB) Viewed 221122 times
15) Now click "Edit..." to open a new dialog:
Windows path dialog
Windows path dialog
windows_path_opened.png (15.03 KiB) Viewed 221122 times
16) Do not replace any of the text in the variable value!
17) Place the marker at the end of the line and add a semicolon ;
18) Right click and paste the path you copied before on the right side of the semicolon
Paste to the right of the semicolon
Paste to the right of the semicolon
windows_path_paste.png (32.25 KiB) Viewed 221122 times
19) The path should now look something like this:
Updated path
Updated path
windows_path_done.png (15.27 KiB) Viewed 221122 times
20) Click the OK button to accept the new path.
21) Click the OK button in the environment variables dialog.
22) Click the OK button in the system properties dialog.

23) Open a new command window again, and see if your computer can find Java. This is done by following step 1 to 4 again. You should now get a result similar to this:
Java on the path
Java on the path
java_on_path.png (49.76 KiB) Viewed 221122 times
24) Now try to start Yawcam again. It should hopefully start:
Yawcam starting
Yawcam starting
yawcam_starts.png (23.81 KiB) Viewed 221122 times
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