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Author Topic: Setting up a "Hawk-Cam" with VA12A adapter, VK79A camera and Dell Netbook  (Read 7202 times)

lcjdot

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I am at a real loss, I have uninstalled, reinstalled and still on AH Pro with the camera connected to the laptop via USB, I get the error in the lower left that says "hardware not found."  I have verified that the Dell netbook does have USB2.0.  Is there something I am missing? 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I am going to the lakehouse tonight to setup the webcam.

The netbook has XP loaded.


« Last Edit: March 13, 2009, 01:17:59 PM by lcjdot »
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trol1374

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    Do you have the Iwatch pluggin?   Is this laptop running XP or Vista?   Did you load up the drivers for the VA12?  http://www.x10.com/support/support_soft1.htm     (drivers site).

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lcjdot

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Yes, I do have the iwatch plugin.  It is running XP service pack 3.  Yes, I did load the drivers for VA12, but I am willing to do it again.
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Brian H

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We have seen posts that the VA12A needs lot of power. Do you know if the USB port on your laptop has the full USB2 specified power on it?
Someone here had to use a power hub to get their VA12A working.
Doing a Forum Search may find other threads on the VA12A.
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trol1374

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  I've seen some say the AHP needs to be version 3.236, do you have that version?
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lcjdot

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Yes, the AH Pro is 3.236
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trol1374

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   Then like Brian mentioned about the powered usb port.   Do you have anything else plugged into the usb ports?   Try having it plugged in and forcing windows to search for the driver.    Did you check device manager to make sure the driver loaded?
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HA Dave

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Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I am going to the lakehouse tonight to setup the webcam.
The netbook has XP loaded.

I recently installed the VA12A on three separate computers (in the process of testing). I used a Vista laptop, a P4 2.8GHz XP pro, and a very old P3 650MHz XP home. The only one I had trouble with was the old P3. I had installed the USB 2 card myself (USB 2 is required for the VA12A) but the USB 2 wasn't working to full compliant speed. In my case... just checking the devise manager showed none of the USB devices as "enhanced". So I forced the USB 2 to look on-line for an updated driver... and that did the trick for me.

I didn't need a powered hub (or hub of any kind) for my setups (as Brian H had mentioned). Although that doesn't mean a power hub might not help your setup. Certainly... if you are using a hub... make sure it is a USB 2 hub. An older USB 1 hub would be a no-go.
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Home Automation is an always changing technology

lcjdot

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To All:

Thank you so much for your input.  I got to the lake house and got everything hooked up and it worked without the power hub.  I must admit in my stupidity at home, I didn't open the box and hook up white "ActiveHome Pro" wireless adapter that says on the back "for X10 modules."  Wow, I feel so foolish. 

Anyways, the camera is working on the laptop screen but now I have to figure out why when I connect via Remote Client and click "Live Video" under the View menu, the camera only shows the Active Home Professional Logo and the words video monitoring.  When I look at it on the AH Pro on the netbook that is attached to the camera, I see the video feed.

Again thanks for your help, and pardon my stupidity.
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trol1374

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  What remote client are you using to view the computer?   Some are known not to show streamed video.
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lcjdot

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Using MyHouseOnline.  I have tried changing the ports to include 80, 8080, 443, etc...  Now I am just getting "Waiting for System 'B2..."
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trol1374

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  Myhouse online is flaky at best.   I've heard lots of problems getting the video.   Do you use dialup?  Sometimes, depending on which router it could be a setting to allow streaming pass through.
   If your still near the computer, have you tried logmein program?
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lcjdot

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Using DSL.  I am going to try the logmein program and will let you.  Also, I noticed that when I connect to the MyHouseOnline program from the netbook, the "video status" field is empty.  I will triumph getting this complete. 

To All:
Thanks for your help.
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lcjdot

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One more thing, I am looking at logmein and there are about 20 software downloads available.  Any suggestions on which one to use?
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lcjdot

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I have done it!  The red-shouldered hawk webcam is now up and running.  After many hours of searching on and reading expert-opinions on this forum (THANK YOU TO YOU ALL!) I have successfully added the webcam to the website with the image auto-refreshing every 10 seconds. 

I am still tweaking and this is only a 1st edition but I am very excited to report that the images taken by the VK79a camera are uploading.  That was the goal for the 1st edition. 

For the remainder of nesting season, I will be working out the kinks.  The mother is in and out of the nest and the babies should hatch in a few weeks.  This same pair of hawks comes back yearly to lay more eggs.  Last year there were 3 babies born and they all survived! 

If you would like to take a look, it is just "version 1" and please feel free to offer suggestions about x10dispatcher and ftpuploader on getting the images to my webserver faster and more efficiently.  I am using the "Image1.jpg" under the /img_cache directory and ftping that to my webserver.

http://www.heliostx.com/HawkCam.html

One more thing, I am going to have it down for the next week.  I need to make a few changes to the netbook.  So, it will be offline the week of March 23 until March 28.

CHEERS TO YOU ALL!
-lcjdot
« Last Edit: March 22, 2009, 02:49:19 PM by lcjdot »
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