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Author Topic: iWitness and Cameras and Macros - oh my...  (Read 11632 times)

SteveC

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iWitness and Cameras and Macros - oh my...
« on: May 25, 2006, 07:50:55 AM »

O.K. folks: Before you blast me with a "Do a search" reply, I have been searching these boards for 2 days... ;)

I have AHP with iWitness, 2 XCam2 wireless cameras, and two Eagle eye sensors. The cameras are A1 and A2 and the sensors are set to turn them on and off using default times. I am kinda bummed that the functionality was not available out of the box on these so here is what I want to do:

When someone walks into the house, the motion detector should turn on camera 1 (or 2 - depending on where they enter), if they move into the range on the other camera, the first should turn off and the second should come on. All the while, I want this to be recorded! Now, that sounds simple enough for me, but to be honest, I just can't make it work!

I guess the camera that first goes on should check and make sure the other is not already on and if it is, turn it off before recording itself. If the second goes on because someone triggers it, it should do the same - check to see if the first is recording and turn it off if it is and turn on and start recording itself.

That being said, how do I do this? I know the macro has to be triggered by the sensor. The sensors are called "A1" and "A2". How do I make the above happen?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!
« Last Edit: May 25, 2006, 08:22:01 AM by SteveC »
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Tuicemen

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Re: iWitness and Cameras and Macros - oh my...
« Reply #1 on: May 25, 2006, 09:25:47 AM »

SteveC first of change the address of one of you motion sensors so there is a unit space of 1 between them eg A1 ,A3 motion sensors send code plus one used for dusk dawn. Next change the address of your cams to another Housecode say B1,B2 because of the above problem.
Next you need to make 2 macros for each cam one with the triggers A1on/off  the other with A3 on/off
macro #1
trigger a1 on
cam b1 on
start auto stills record every 5 sec (depending on the type of capture)
macro #2
trigger A1 off
stop auto stills record every 5 sec
cam b1 off

Get these working first then we can add the conditions and elses which you'll need to check for the other cam running or not. ;)

« Last Edit: May 25, 2006, 09:51:28 AM by Tuicemen »
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SteveC

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Re: iWitness and Cameras and Macros - oh my...
« Reply #2 on: May 25, 2006, 10:22:33 AM »

Thank you Tuicemen! I will do that and let you know when I get it working!
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Tuicemen

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Re: iWitness and Cameras and Macros - oh my...
« Reply #3 on: May 25, 2006, 10:54:45 AM »

Once you have the cams turning on and off with the motion senors you'll have to modify your macros a little with flags and elses
Elses can be tricky in that the else fires only if conditions from first macro aren't met so placement is key.
Macro #1 becomes Macro #1a
trigger A1 on and condition flag 2 set
clear flag 2
cam B2 off
set flag 1
cam B1 on
[/b]
(no need to turn capture on as it was already on from cam B2)
now you add an else to macro #1 this runs if cam B2 isn't running
Macro#1B
trigger A1
set flag1
cam B1 on
start autostills record every 5 sec (or the type of capture you wish I have best luck with this)
[/b]
Macro #2 becomes
trigger A1 off and flag 1 set
stop auto stills record every 5 sec
cam B1 off
clear flag 1
[/b]

Macros for cam B2 will look like this
trigger A3 on and condition flag 1 set
clear flag 1
cam B1 off
set flag 2
cam B2 on
[/b]
else
trigger A3
cam B2 on
set flag 2
start autostills record every 5 sec
[/b]
off is
trigger A3 off and flag 2 set
stop auto stills record every 5 sec
cam B2 off
clear flag 2
[/b]

your setup will look something like this for your macro #1a/b
« Last Edit: May 29, 2006, 03:31:01 PM by Tuicemen »
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billy

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Re: iWitness and Cameras and Macros - oh my...
« Reply #4 on: May 25, 2006, 11:26:40 AM »

Tuicemen,

You can simplify the macros a little, if SteveC has addressable power supplies on the Cams.
When a group of 4 Cams are addressed UC 1,2,3,4 or 5,6,7,8,.... turning on one cam will shut off the other three in the group.
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Tuicemen

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Re: iWitness and Cameras and Macros - oh my...
« Reply #5 on: May 25, 2006, 11:46:42 AM »

Billy: Yes!
Quote
When a group of 4 Cams are addressed UC 1,2,3,4 or 5,6,7,8,.... turning on one cam will shut off the other three in the group.
In theory that is suppost to happen.You could just specify the cam but I've had problems with ones actually not switching off as others have posted about as well.  This eliminates that problem of a dominate cam!
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SteveC

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Re: iWitness and Cameras and Macros - oh my...
« Reply #6 on: May 25, 2006, 11:55:55 AM »

Thanks!

O.K., when I get home I will see if I can get these working and I will report back here!!!
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SteveC

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Re: iWitness and Cameras and Macros - oh my...
« Reply #7 on: May 27, 2006, 10:50:09 AM »

I have created the macros. However, walking in front of the sensor(s) triggers both the "on" and "off" macros in each room... If I hide the motion detectors I can run the macros and they work fine. By the way, I am still on the first step, I have not added conditions. One other thing, I set the cameras to take pics every 5 seconds, but I have no idea why sometimes it takes 20 before i hear it take another picture...
« Last Edit: May 27, 2006, 11:00:55 AM by SteveC »
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Tuicemen

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Re: iWitness and Cameras and Macros - oh my...
« Reply #8 on: May 28, 2006, 05:27:45 PM »

Ok sorry was away for the week end, the sound thigy isn't always  a true indication of the number of pics.
As for the motion sensor triggering both the on and off events, thats the way I thought you wanted things set up. the motion sensors have a programable off  that you program in default I think is 2 min if no motion is detected. If  you don't want to have this option and wish to have the cams turn off at a specified time then that will need to be added to the macros. ;)
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SteveC

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Re: iWitness and Cameras and Macros - oh my...
« Reply #9 on: May 29, 2006, 01:41:56 PM »

Ok sorry was away for the week end, the sound thigy isn't always  a true indication of the number of pics.
As for the motion sensor triggering both the on and off events, thats the way I thought you wanted things set up. the motion sensors have a programable off  that you program in default I think is 2 min if no motion is detected. If  you don't want to have this option and wish to have the cams turn off at a specified time then that will need to be added to the macros. ;)

No problem, I was away as well! :) Maybe I wasn't being clear: When I walk into a room the motion sensor goes off and triggers both the "on" and "off" macro in that room. I see them both start to run...

Here is one set of the macros, can you look it over and see if they are O.K.?






« Last Edit: May 29, 2006, 02:52:39 PM by SteveC »
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Tuicemen

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Re: iWitness and Cameras and Macros - oh my...
« Reply #10 on: May 29, 2006, 03:28:27 PM »

In macro family room 2 you need to set flag1 (Looking over my macro posting I see I left that out ::) I'll edit it to be right).
Heres a couple of things to check:
As for you trigger firing both the on and off macro at the same time. Check to see if they are actualy firing (see if you are capturing anything). Have you changed the default off on the motion sensor? Do you see the off macro being triggered when you know the motion sensor didn't trigger it?(might be noise or bad batteries) Try another set of batteries in the motion sensor to rule that out. ;) Have you changed the other motion sensors address to A3 yet? if not switch it! ;)
« Last Edit: May 29, 2006, 03:32:15 PM by Tuicemen »
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