There are many good IP Cameras now, and I can replace them at very reasonable prices, but my 11 year old Trendnet TV-IP422WN cameras just keep running. Which surprised me considering I mounted them outdoors and the resident zebra doves use them as a convenient potty/perch.
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| Trendnet TV-IP422WN IP Camera |
Resolution is only 640x480, and worse, the webpage uses ActiveX. But if I can use it from Linux then I can make my own webpage. And even consolidate several of them into one page, just like those CCTV screens.
Or perhaps a passive infrared sensor can be used to trigger a spotlight and cause the camera to capture a short video. All via MQTT. I found this really useful as it reduces the time required to view alarm footage.
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| Webpage viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer: the live video display needs ActiveX |
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| TV-IP422WN webpage using Google Chrome |
Getting it to work in Linux bash turned out to be surprisingly easy. From zoneminder, type this into your browser (I used Chrome):
http://192.168.10.30/cgi/mjpg/mjpg.cgi
Note if you did a factory reset the default IP address is 192.168.10.30 user is admin and password is admin. You will need to change all three for security reasons.
From Linux bash I used:
$curl -m 5 -u admin:admin -o cctv_video.mpg -k http://192.168.10.30/cgi/mjpg/mjpg.cgi
Now this gives me an output file which I can view with mplayer. The '-m 5' option is used to record a 5-second video; otherwise the curl command will never exit. This is especially useful if you trigger recording with another sensor, maybe a passive infrared sensor.
If, instead of video record, you just want a live view,
$mplayer -fps 20 -demuxer lavf -user admin -passwd admin http://192.168.10.30/cgi/mjpg/mjpg.cgi
If you want a still snapshot, you aim your browser at:
http://192.168.10.30/cgi/jpg/image.cgi
Or from bash, you can use lynx:
$lynx -dump -auth=admin:admin http://192.168.10.30/cgi/jpg/image.cgi > image.jpg
Usually, you will need different video settings for night and day. I could not find the settings I need on the Internet, but I got lucky: if I used the 'Debug' (ie F12) feature in Google Chrome, under the menu 'Network' with filter 'All', I was able to discern the url:
http://192.168.10.30/cgi/setup.cgi?page=camera
The data is in a Form posted as:
brightness=8&contrast=32&saturation=36&flicker=0&osd_enable=1
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| Google Chrome Debug mode for Video Settings page |
My curl command for day then becomes:
$curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" -u admin:admin -d "brightness=8&contrast=32&saturation=36&flicker=0&osd_enable=1" http://192.168.10.30/admin/camera.cgi
And for night:
$curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" -u admin:admin -d "brightness=100&contrast=80&saturation=64&flicker=0&osd_enable=1" http://192.168.10.30/admin/camera.cgi
There is also a 'Night Mode' radio button which in bash is replicated as:
curl --connect-timeout 2 -u admin:admin -k http://192.168.10.30/admin/ptctl.cgi?night=1
Conversely 'Day' Mode is:
curl --connect-timeout 2 -u admin:admin -k http://192.168.10.30/admin/ptctl.cgi?night=0
Using the same method, the pan commands are:
$curl --connect-timeout 2 -u admin:admin -k http://192.168.10.30/admin/ptctl.cgi?move=left
$curl --connect-timeout 2 -u admin:admin -k http://192.168.10.30/admin/ptctl.cgi?move=right
$curl --connect-timeout 2 -u admin:admin -k http://192.168.10.30/admin/ptctl.cgi?move=up
$curl --connect-timeout 2 -u admin:admin -k http://192.168.10.30/admin/ptctl.cgi?move=down
$curl --connect-timeout 2 -u admin:admin -k http://192.168.10.30/admin/ptctl.cgi?move=h
