Night Cameras and Timing

[mgraph220]

This is the first time I've worked with anything X10 related, so my question may be a little hard to follow...

I currently have 4 X10 night cameras positioned around my business.  The goal is to have each camera record for 5 seconds, then switch to the next camera which will then record for 5 seconds, and have this rolling record continue over all 4 cameras.  I am using ActiveHome and assume the macros are capable of doing this, but the shortest length of time I've found for a delay is 60 seconds.  Does anyone know a workaround to get cause the delay to be 5 seconds?

[JimC]

I have macros with delays set to 5 seconds  and even a few with 1 second delays and they work fine. How are you setting up the macro? Are you using the IWitness plug in? Are you trying to record to the hard drive or to a VCR?

If you are setting up a basic macro select the delay function and simply over write the default delay time.

Jim

[Charles Sullivan]

User mgraph220 mentions "ActiveHome", by which I assume he means the original AH for the CM11A, and the CM11A only supports delays in multiples of minutes.

It also appears that he wants to run his camera sequence repeatedly over (probably) a long period of time, so unless ActiveHome Pro can run macros in a continual loop, upgrading to a CM15A and ActiveHome Pro probably won't solve the problem - for one thing it'd be a bear to program a macro with 720 steps/hour times the number of hours.

I thought X-10 sold some software which would allow doing what he needs using the CM11A or a Firecracker/Transceiver combo, but I'm not enough into cameras to know what's available.  And if the output from the cameras is only going directly into a recorder or TV, something like this would add needless complexity.

Depending on the operating system he is running there are probably alternative solutions using batch files.

[JimC]

Charles Sullivan,

Thanks for the corrections. You are correct on all accounts. I was incorrectly assuming AHP. With the Iwitness plug in in AHP not AH you can have the software continually step through each camera and the dwell time can be specified in seconds. 

Jim

[Dan Lawrence]

Since this topic appears to be about Active Home, any Community Organizer (except me) should move it to the Active Home section.

[Charles Sullivan]

Let's wait until mgraph220 confirms he/she indeed has the original ActiveHome and a CM11A.

(And it would help if mgraph220 describes his/her operating system, and any other X-10 equipment owned.)

[jawaid]

mgraph220,

With AHP CM15A and iWitness module this is pretty easy to do. You do not even need any macros. When you set up the house codes, make sure that these are in a group of consecutive 4 house codes, i.e. B1-4, or B5-8 etc. In iWitness, you can use the scan function to rotate through the four cameras.

[mgraph220]

mgraph220,

With AHP CM15A and iWitness module this is pretty easy to do. You do not even need any macros. When you set up the house codes, make sure that these are in a group of consecutive 4 house codes, i.e. B1-4, or B5-8 etc. In iWitness, you can use the scan function to rotate through the four cameras.

This is what I am currently using.  The goal is to switch from 30 seconds to 5 seconds by using a macro if possible.

[jawaid]

You may not need a macro to do this. Got to the menu option Tools and click on Preferences. A new window called 'Preferences' will pop up with the 'ActiveHome Prp' tab selected. The tabs are displayed along the top of the window. Selecet the 6th tab called 'Multi-Camera'. Find the filed called 'camera Scanning Interval' and set it to 00:05 for 5 seconds. Make sure that the scan list of the cameras shown on this tab is as you want it. You can change the order of the scan on this tab. Start the camera scan and you will see the cameras rotate every 5 seconds. Also make sure that the cameras are grouped in 4 consecutive house codes. You can also do this through the macros but this is a simpler way.

[Tuicemen]

You may not need a macro to do this. Got to the menu option Tools and click on Preferences. A new window called 'Preferences' will pop up with the 'ActiveHome Prp' tab selected. The tabs are displayed along the top of the window. Selecet the 6th tab called 'Multi-Camera'. Find the filed called 'camera Scanning Interval' and set it to 00:05 for 5 seconds. Make sure that the scan list of the cameras shown on this tab is as you want it. You can change the order of the scan on this tab. Start the camera scan and you will see the cameras rotate every 5 seconds.

Hey I didn't realize that setting was in the preferences 
When you stop learning new things your Dead!

[jawaid]

yes, it is in the preferences. A second way to access the preferences is to right click on an image being displayed from a camera scan.