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Author Topic: Using a computer as a recording device 2  (Read 17305 times)

Mr. Jones

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Using a computer as a recording device 2
« on: September 12, 2011, 02:09:49 PM »

Well I was able to get everything hooked up ok. I was able to install the drivers for the VA11A. I got PCC up and running along with AHP but I have some questions about the programs themselves.

AHP
This program doesn’t do anything but talk to other modules to turn things on and off? Plus, for what I am using it for, talk to PCC and keeping logs of the cameras turning off and on? If I didn’t have PCC, I would have to buy a different program to see my cameras? Reason being, once I set-up my room which I called “Cameras” that is all I used AHP for. The manual just showed me how to set-up my room, timed events, macros, and controlling lights. I could see that AHP was logging events because when a car went by it logged those triggers as “camera ON” but it doesn’t do anything else, as far as I could see. So, I went on to PCC.

PCC
I must be missing something because I used the “read me” file (manual) and it got me going well enough but the manual kept telling me it was going explain things later and after I finished, it didn’t. Am I missing another document I should have downloaded?

I was able to load the drivers for the VA11A and I noticed that the device manager saw it as “VA11A” but not in the Universal Serial Bus. It just read “X10 compliant”.  Maybe this help s you guys maybe it doesn’t but I just thought that I would add it.

Camera view page loaded and I was able to configure the 3 cameras and label them to house codes as A1, A2 and A3. This is where I get a bit lost and maybe if I were to download the rest of the manual I may be able to figure it out but….I clicked on each camera on the left part of the screen and I got the “not responding” message first and it finally loaded but the screen was first solid green,  and then when an image did come up, it was scrambled. You know, remember when you would try to watch TV movies when they scrambled the screen so all you saw were wavy pictures with no audio? That’s what all three cameras look like. I moved the receiver around and saw interference of me doing that but no solid good picture. That’s where I am at right now. That is my problem; I can’t see the cameras clearly. Plus, multi camera view didn’t do anything at all.

Also, when I hit the “record” button on the camera view page and went out to trigger the motion sensor, (I had it set up to take one picture every second it saw motion) all I got was error messages that read “files not found” every second it was supposed to take a picture. So, it kept pumping out errors and when I clicked stop, it wouldn’t, and I had to use “Ctrl+Alt+Delete” to make it stop. It seemed that it was looking for a file to load the pictures too. When I tried to create a file to load the pictures too, it came up with “OpenFile” so I figured sure, why not. Another error popped up saying file not found. How do I/ where does it, save the pictures it was taking too?  

I notice that I have the trial version but wondered why in the camera set up page that the house code, name, and address were in “red” at the top? It look as if the first 4 cameras would be okay but adding more couldn’t be done because it needed the full version. Is that correct? To get the full version, do I have to bring that tower back down to load that full version? Or can I load the info on a jump drive to finish the install? Or do I even need that upgrade?


I really appreciate all your help on this. I feel I made some progress and felt like I was “oh so close” but I had to leave with the whole house unprotected. Right now I have nothing watching the place. Any help would be really appreciated so I can get this up and running.
« Last Edit: September 12, 2011, 02:45:42 PM by Mr. Jones »
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Tuicemen

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Re: Using a computer as a recording device 2
« Reply #1 on: September 12, 2011, 04:04:33 PM »

If you Plan to us AHP for capturing images you'll need the video plug-in pack other wise you don't need it running.

As for the Manual for PCC, that is an on going project that never seems to get completed. :-[
It is possible you have an outdated manual or I just haven't got to adding the info you need :-[ .
You Can get the latest manual Here
It sounds like you may not have the va11a drivers installed correctly.
see:
VA11A does not work
I'll look into the issue of the error message it may be the result ofthe va11a not set up right or may be a issue with the code.
However you don't need to press the record button. That could be the issue as well your telling it to record then trying to trigger stills as well.
video and stills should be saved to the video foldewr of PCC unless told else where in the cam setup page.
PCC trial only allows 4 cam recording full version enables  I think 12 cams. ::)
A new download isn't needed to get the full version the program will switch to full version with a password.
 >!

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Mr. Jones

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Re: Using a computer as a recording device 2
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2011, 04:20:22 PM »

I plan on using PCC not AHP so I think I’m fine where I’m at….

If I understand you correctly…Are you thinking because it wasn’t listed in the Universal Serial Bus that the VA11A wasn’t load correctly? Or is it because the picture wasn’t displaying properly?
 
I’ll read the new manual link and see if I do indeed have an outdated manual.

Record button; I see your point about grabbing one or the other…Video or stills.

“video and stills should be saved to the video foldewr of PCC unless told else where in the cam setup page.” I don’t I did but I’ll look into the video folder of PCC and see if there is a folder there. What is the name of that folder where to pic.’s should be stored in, in the Video folder of PCC?

4 cameras is all I’ll ever need so I think I’m fine there.

Oh, by the way. Nice job on the program! :)%

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Tuicemen

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Re: Using a computer as a recording device 2
« Reply #3 on: September 12, 2011, 04:57:10 PM »

If I understand you correctly…Are you thinking because it wasn’t listed in the Universal Serial Bus that the VA11A wasn’t load correctly? Or is it because the picture wasn’t displaying properly?
may be both
Quote

I’ll read the new manual link and see if I do indeed have an outdated manual.
I hope thats all it is And I didn't forget to follow up

Quote
“video and stills should be saved to the video foldewr of PCC unless told else where in the cam setup page.” I don’t I did but I’ll look into the video folder of PCC and see if there is a folder there. What is the name of that folder where to pic.’s should be stored in, in the Video folder of PCC?
both stills and video are stored in the same folder video saved as avi and pics saved as jpg

Quote
Oh, by the way. Nice job on the program! :)%


Thanks, I'll dig into the code just to be sure Murphy didn't get into it and mess with it! ::) :'
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msauto

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Re: Using a computer as a recording device 2
« Reply #4 on: September 12, 2011, 07:38:46 PM »

This may be the problem,at least it was with me
In pcc when you select the cam you have to change "select capture device at the top of the cam setup page.
On mine when I change to the correct device it will show the cam but every time i switch cams it changes back to tv tuner instead of composit.
Just figured this was a setback of using the trial.
I am still working things out with my system and really only use pcc for my automated sound files (which works great by the way :)%)awesome Job tuicman.
Was having problems with x10wavplayer and pcc fixed it.
Any way hope this helps.
 >!
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Tuicemen

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Re: Using a computer as a recording device 2
« Reply #5 on: September 14, 2011, 09:39:13 AM »

This may be the problem,at least it was with me
In pcc when you select the cam you have to change "select capture device at the top of the cam setup page.
On mine when I change to the correct device it will show the cam but every time i switch cams it changes back to tv tuner instead of composit.
Just figured this was a setback of using the trial.
It appears this issue is windows 7 and maybe vista related and not an intentional trial limitation by me
this doesn't happen in XP at least not in my tests.
I'm working on this but may take a bit to nail down. :(

Update:
I think I've found the issue with the save file. It seems when I was rebuilding PCC with extra commandline options and single instance code a bug was introduced which wasn't caught in the beta testing. :-[
I'll go threw the rest of the camera code to see if I can find anything else that was missed and try to have a updated installer ready before the week end.
 >!
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Mr. Jones

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Re: Using a computer as a recording device 2
« Reply #6 on: September 14, 2011, 12:36:35 PM »

Dude, you are amazing! You don't have rush on my account. I'm just very thankful you are helping me.
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msauto

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Re: Using a computer as a recording device 2
« Reply #7 on: September 14, 2011, 02:06:52 PM »

Ditto to what Mrjones said But wow Thanks for all your effort :)%
Fix that and I will have to donate just on principle
THANKS TUICMAN !! :)% :)% :)% :)% >!
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Tuicemen

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Re: Using a computer as a recording device 2
« Reply #8 on: September 14, 2011, 02:27:44 PM »

Thanks for the complements guys!
This issues has been a little difficult to pin down since I move my deveopment over to a win7 64 bit machine.
The Va11a won't work on Windows 7 and the VA12A has to be recalibrated each time a camera switches or the program is restarted.
I'm not sure why the VA12A is showing the possibility to use video composite, video tuner  or s-video as a video source B:(
In my case it defaults to tuner ??? I don't even have a tuner in my PC!
This maybe a question for X10 programmers to look at although I didn't recall seeing that on my XP machine.
Watch the PCC thread for the next release or my forum
 >!
« Last Edit: September 14, 2011, 02:30:07 PM by Tuicemen »
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msauto

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Re: Using a computer as a recording device 2
« Reply #9 on: September 14, 2011, 05:20:52 PM »

I'm not real sharp on programing
But could it possibly be a problem with the microsoft wdm capture software
Just a thought
I noticed that in ahp and vanguard you can change that info and mine is locked at microsoft wdm in pcc.
By the way my system info mite be helpful here it is
Brand new emachine el1852g
3 gigs ram
3.6 gig dual core processor
windows 7 x64 ultimate sp2
If there is anything else i can do to help just let me know >!
« Last Edit: September 20, 2011, 04:14:38 PM by msauto »
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Tuicemen

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Re: Using a computer as a recording device 2
« Reply #10 on: September 15, 2011, 04:29:48 PM »

Just fired up a Xp machine seems the VA12A Driver is the culprit.
It is telling windows moviemaker it has 3 lines for input maybe X10 Is planing a upgrade to this or added this bit of code so it only works in their software.
Good thing Mr.Jones you picked up a VA11A as this works fine in PCC and other programs not made by X10.
I'll look at another method for capture to see if the VA12A will work without having to reconfigure each cam switch.
 >!
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Mr. Jones

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Re: Using a computer as a recording device 2
« Reply #11 on: September 15, 2011, 05:46:45 PM »

Good for me! Once you get things figured out, do you think you can give some direction to what i need to do to fix my issue? I know you're still fixing/ figuring things out. Thanks!
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Tuicemen

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Re: Using a computer as a recording device 2
« Reply #12 on: September 15, 2011, 05:57:52 PM »

I've posted a new version that should fix your issues.
You can download the new version and place it on a flash drive or cd and take to your other place that doesn't have internet.
UpDate link
 >!
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Mr. Jones

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Re: Using a computer as a recording device 2
« Reply #13 on: September 19, 2011, 09:53:13 AM »

Wow thanks! Now, do I uninstall the version of PCC I have from that computer? And load this version, or does it act like an update?

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Tuicemen

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Re: Using a computer as a recording device 2
« Reply #14 on: September 19, 2011, 10:48:23 AM »

No need to uninstall.
This works like a update.
I distribute a full installer as well as this one so those on dial up don't spend all day downloading. ;)
The link above doesn't give key componets for an initial first install.
 >!
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