mn23,

Don't rule out your USB Cable(s). You have a total of 23 feet there. Even if it is from a powered hub thats a long way.

You might try using an "Active" USB Cable. I am running 2 "Active" USB Cables in series, from the computers USB Port, along with the 3 foot Camera USB cable (total of 33 feet) and it works good.

Good Luck,

Thanks for all the replies. I broke down and actually went up to the mountains and snow to see what was going on with the camera. I also moved the computer up to the attic so that it is 4ft from the camera with no hubs. Moving the computer closer, and unplugging the camera AC power did not reset the camera. I had to get up on a ladder unplug the usb, cycle the power to the camera with the power button, and then plug the usb back in. It was then recognized There HAS to be a better way. Also, it seemed to me that you have to unplug the USB to get the power button to respond. Does this match everyone else's experience?

I then unplugged the camera AC again, and tested what happened: The camera was not recognized by the computer. I did this 3 more times, and only on the last time did it recognize the camera. I had the zoom on some of the previous times, so maybe if it loses power with the zoom extended, this messes up the camera. This is the only thing I can think of since the camera seemed to be able to recover from outages during testing. I think that EVS uses some type of hardware hack to simulate a button press on the power button. This functionality is available if you have EVS hardware. I wonder if this feature can be used with hobbyist derived hardware. I would guess not as this is free software, and this is an advanced feature you should pay for.

olsongt, very impressive effort with the power cycling problem. I think your experience will save a lot of effort with people trying the wrong thing. Another possibility I was thinking of was to put another computer up there, and have it dial in enabling logmein.com. I would put a usb controlled power strip (one that turns off the AC when usb power is not present) and power cycle the computer remotely thereby cycling the AC power. It's amazing that perhaps putting another computer up there may be the cheapest solution.

wwestphal I really enjoy your camera it looks like one of the best out there. I shortened the length just to rule out the usb problem. Thanks for the suggestions.

For what it's worth, My C-5050Z is powered by an AC Adapter mounted in the rafters of my garage. The AC Adapter is powered via a 25 ft extension cord which runs down to a UPS at my workbench. The few times I've had to reset the power on the camera, I've done so by simply unplugging the extension cord at the UPS for a few seconds and then plugging it back in. I don't recall ever having to do it on the camera itself.

That being said, I realize you're using a different model and it may behave differently.

And my heart goes out to you trying to do this all remotely! That certainly is an added degree of dificulty.

Good Luck,

A couple of the older olympus models we had to hold down the power button in order to toggle the power. C-730 could have been one. We are not sure since its been so long since we've had one around here.

If you are willing to trade up, you may want to try a one of the models people are having sucess with. c4000, c5050, c5060, c7070, sp500 all have proven to be very reliable.

Otherwise you need to find a way to hold down the power button. This is the probably very easy if you have a clamp, or you may be able to wedge a little piece of someting between the edge of the button and the camera body. Another way to do it is with a paper clip, create a clamp that holds the button and the front side of the camera, though the paper clip metal may fatigue.

There is a camera setting called "all reset" under the setup tab that needs to be set to "off". The camera dial must be set ot a/s/m or p and your camera must be in control mode.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will try the clamp as that seems the easiest. Perhaps I will open it up, and solder a some wires to the switch and install another switch. If that doesn't work I will trade up to a new camera. Thanks for the advice on the models.

olsongt,
sounds like you and I may be in the same boat, and I love your webcam. This may be one of my favorites.

I am interested in how and when you camera fails. Is it related to power outages? Or does it just hang sometimes and needs to be reset? How long has yours been set up? I ask these things since I think we have the same setup: Dial up, c-730/c-750, remote management, cold weather, and a long drive.

One option I was thinking of if it is simply a power cycling problem is to just attach a UPS to it. A decent sized ups should be able to provide power to a small device for an extended period. This would depend on the efficiency of the inverter since that may drain the power faster than the camera. If you try the clamp solution, let me know if this works.

Nick with the clamp solution, am I to understand that this makes the power switch constantly closed? It sounds like the camera can operate this way if the "all reset" option is deselected. Is this true, or have I misinterpreted? How does operation in this mode make the camera able to recover from power outages? Does a closed switch just make the camera search for a power cycle whereas an open switch may not? I hesitate to keep asking questions really appreciate your time.

mn23,

Forget another computer - it'll just complicate things.

That being said, the dial-up connection may make things a little tougher to troubleshoot. I'd look into a telephone controlled power cycler. I have a CPS power strip with telephone control(TTL):

http://www.cpscom.com/gprod/cps.htm

I bought it to be able to power cycle the internet modem, however, I couldn't get it working (which reminds me I need to call them and see if I can return it for them to fix.) Ended up just using a Home Depot AC outlet timer for the modem power. Anyway, if you can get a CPS unit that works, it would allow you to call up the power strip and power cycle the outlets via telephone or telnet. It's a pretty good solution since you could also power cycle your computer if it locks (be sure your BIOS is set-up right to restart on power outage). It also passes the phone line through it for dial-up internet connections. (I think you'd have to change the number of rings to wait before answering on the CPS unit to allow the computer to answer the phone if you wanted to connect directly to your computer though - check with them though, they are pretty helpful folks)

My main advice to you is to eBay a C4000 camera. I haven't ever had lock-up issues with these units. I recently have bought three of them, all for less than $50 on the 'bay. Remote computer management software is obviously key. I use VNC but I don't know if it works over dial-up.



As to these issues, my camera fails when there's cool stuff to photograph. It's pretty unpredictable. I have to perform the same reset you detailed to get it working again. I'm taking it off the system and replacing it with a C4000 the next chance I get. (and adding a couple more )My system has been going for three and a half years so far:

http://www.gartholson.net/horca/conejoswebcammultyears.php

You're also right about the remote set-up, except, believe it or not, the phone company up there offers DSL, which has been really great(except when the modem locks up - which turns out to be pretty frequently).

Anyway, good luck. I'll be glad to give you any advice/experience I have.

GTO

olsongt,
Thanks, I didn't know you weren't using your c-750 anymore and thought you had dial up. I did put a digital outlet timer with battery backup on my system, but didn't connect it to the camera, just the computer. It power cycles after the computer should be already off (I put a shutdown command in before the power is physically cut each night.) It wakes up every morning from the BIOS schedule.

The remote controlled power strip is something I will have to look into if I need to have a little more control on what is turned on and off.

I think that my remote management scheme is a bit different than yours. I simply dial up the ISP every night for an hour and leave an open connection. I use free logmein.com during that time, and this lets me access the computer.

For the benefit of others the .bat file to open a connection is as follows:
rasdial DialupProfileName UserName Password

the dialup profile name must be created using the new connection wizard, and I just run the .bat file with the window scheduler (in control panel)

I hang up by scheduling another .bat file using the command:
rasdial /d

How do you know your dial up IP Address?

You don't need to know your IP with logmein.com. You can even use it through routers. You have to install logmein on your remote computer. Whenever there is an open connection to the internet, logmein will find your computer and broadcast its IP location. This is of course all transparent to the user. You don't have to deal with IPs at all. You just sign on to logmein.com, and a list of your available computers appear. You simply click on one, and ask to start a remote session. Then your remote desktop appears in your internet browser.

It is really convenient, and free, for now. I suppose they could start charging, but I have been using it for over a year for remote management of other things. I was surprised to find that it was usable at 22.1Kbs on a dial up line, but it is.

The only thing I cannot do is alter the bios. If the phone line is not connecting then I can't do anything either. That's why I have an outlet timer so that I lose at most a day of any sort of operation.

About the outlet that you recommend for power cycling - can you control it via your computer? For example, if you are sitting in front of your computer, can you control power, or is it just through the phone line?

Yep, you can control it through the computer with a phone to serial adapter. There's even a free program to ping the web and reset outlets if there's no answer (reboot the cable modem). It would be easy to write one to look for the camera on the system and reset the outlet if none is seen. That being said, the 750 is the only camera I've ever had problems with. In theory, it would be great, but the one I have won't re-power the outlets after they power down. I think it's defective somehow.

I'm going to look into logmein.com, it looks interesting. right now I use EZDNS to update a page with my IP address on it. Sometimes it doesn't update though.

Just got the third C4000 in the mail today. After Christmas I'll have to drive up there (if the roads are open) and install a couple of new ones on the system. BTW I also tried resetting the USB ports on the computer remotely, but that doesn't cause it to see the camera either.

GTO

Very nice to hear that it can be controlled from the computer. For now I will just keep an eye out for a C-4000 at a good price. I hope we haven't given the c-730 or c-750 a bad name unjustly, but it seems like other cameras may be better for remote operation. Perhaps a clamp will do the trick though. Good luck getting to your cabin.

Installed another 4000Z . . .Well actually, two new 4000Zs. I finally made it up and junked the c750 on my system and installed two new 4000Zs. Two considerations:

1) The active USB 2.0 extension cord I bought (to get rid of my old 1.0 cord) was crap. The program gave some sort of buffer file error and then died, so I used my old USB extension cord and so far it's working great with the 4000Z.

2) I can't get the image resolution to change on the scene with the new camera I installed. I want it to be only at 600X800 but it's stuck at a higher res setting, despite specifying 600X800 in the scene set-up page. Pretty minor issue, but higher res images do eat up my server space and are harder to manipulate on my server as I would like (rotate and crop).

Anyway, my new (used) snow gauge camera is up and running:
http://www.gartholson.net/horca/snowcam.php

Just read my old post and thought I should share the system I eventually ended up with. I replaced the c-730 with a c-4000. It seems to be much more robust.

To review, I am running a camera at an unattended remote cabin with dial up. It has been running trouble free for about a year now. For remote management, I have been quite happy with a combination of digital timers, daily shutdowns and the free logmein.com software. The main problem with remote management is leaving the computer on for an extended period. Therefore I simply give it a command everyday to shut down at 2am and have the BIOS wake it up at 6AM. I physically cut the power with the timer between 3AM and 4AM. That way I am guaranteed a fresh start every day even if there is some weird loop that prevents a software shut down.

Remotely managing with logmein.com is convenient for changing zoom, focus, flash settings etc. from the comfort of home rather than traveling to the mountains to press a button. For those who don't know logmein.com lets you see the desktop of a remote computer and control it as if you were sitting in front of it.

About the USB cable, the 20ft length was fine. and that is what I am using now.

Do you have a link to your working cam. I'd be interested to see it.