View Larger Map Melbourne Airport Tullamarine Australia is just to the left of Gladstone Park, and has the same postcode.

WEBCAM Facts:
Current details for 7-Apr-2009

Software:
Picture on page refresh:   10 seconds.
Picture FTP Update:         5 minutes.

FTP Software Used:http://www.dontronics.om//webcam/pjWebCam.zip
pjWebCam public domain software from the years 1998-2000. Home page has now vanished, so there is no support. No bells and whistles, but it allows a picture to be ftp'd at regulated intervals. Seems very reliable.

Picture on web page refresh: http://www.msagentsoftware.com/easyfreewebcam/tutorials/addimagetoownpage.html
This is easily explained by going to the tutorial at UK Software, the home of Easy Web Cam, a commercial package available. This is default set to a 10 seconds picture refresh..

Hardware:

Eee PC 701 4G
Seven inch screen, 4Gb memory. Runs under XP SP2. Not enough memory to install SP3. Basically it has Firefox, Thunderbird, and a few utilities to keep it running. Skype installed so that I can see if it is on line.

In future, I may use it as a network backup drive also, by adding a large USB drive to it. After all, it is doing very little work at the moment.

Run Mode:
Normally on line to my wireless Linksys router.
Windows, etc., auto updates are turned off, so basically it just plods along as a web video server.
Screen is set to turn off in 1 minute in power and battery mode.
Closing case is set to do nothing.
So it will run closed with the screeen switched off.
Set pjWebCam to auto start when windows starts. See: How to make an application autostart in xp?

Battery Backup:
As well as the standard netbook battery, it has a Universal Portable DVD Battery EDV002SA 9V/44Wh. The combination of these two should give around 6 hours of backup time. Don't really need this, but it was left over from the days when I thought a Seven inch screen was the correct size for senior citizens travelling. I found ten inch to be much better. Keyboard and screen are very workable. Seven inch is too toy like. Ten inch is just right.

Camera:

Onboard EEE PC Camera:

Advantages:
Already there. Great for setting up and testing your software. Can be used as an indoor camera by sitting on a mantle-piece, shelf, table etc.

Disadvantages:
Can't be easily used for an outdoor camera unless you have it mounted in a protective box with suitable ventilation.
I tried sitting it on the floor near a window, but the ability to get a great view is reduced, and it can be seen from outside the window, as the case must be left open, to use it in this mode.
No night vision, and flakey contrast wash-out, see more on this below.
 
 

Kodak DVC325 USB Camera:
Advantages:
Simple setup, just plug it into USB. Easily adjusted for focus and direction. Placed ours on a cheap mini-tripod, so it can be adjusted to suit the view you want. Mounting hole suits standard camera screw.
Can be sat on a window sill.

Disadvantages:
USB limited to a maximum distance from the PC.
No night vision, and flakey contrast wash-out. I'm sure this isn't the technical term, but what I get on all cheap cameras is as follows:
Contrast is fine all day. I get up early in the morning, so when I go outside, the outside lights come on automatically. The camera detects this, and when the sun finally comes up, the captured picture looks like the contrast has been turned up full bore. To overcome this, I simply click on picture preview in pjWebCam, and all is fine. But this means daily attention.

As none of these cameras have night vision, I am waiting on a cheap USB capture box from Hong Kong. This should allow me to use an up-market day-night camera with RCA or BNC connectors, and it's own power supply.
Unit arrived, so I have changed my setup. See Below:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11127~r.58384759

Software pathetic, but at least the drivers work for single camera operation. Make sure you use input 2 for single camera use.
Video quality seems good, and easy to set up.

SWANN "OUTDOORCAM" COLOR SECURITY CAMERA Product Code: [SW214-ODC-23210]
 
 
 

Example Used: "pjWebCam"

1. click "Start/Windows" button on the taskbar
2. click on "Run" menu.
3. type regedit
4. after the regedit window appears, try to click the "+" sign right beside the HKEY_Local_Machine
5. next is to click the "+" sign beside "Software" folder
6. next is to click the "+" sign beside "Microsoft" folder
7. next is to click the "+" sign beside "Windows" folder
8. next is to click the "+" sign for "CurrentVersion" folder
9. next is to click the "+" sign for "Run" folder

10. now as you can see there are already been values inside the Run folder to
which these are the programs that are always activated during the start-up OS,
now "right-click" on the empty white space within the list (try not to point on
values) then a menu would appear, try to select "String Value" within the "new"
menu.

11. afterwards name the value with "pjWebCamStart" then press enter

12. after naming the new value that you have created, "double-click" on
it. (pjWebCamStart)

13. then you see a new window would appear that has a "Value Name" textbox and a
"Value Data" textbox, what we are trying to do now is to input the
"Path/Address" of the program that you wish to be activated during start-up so
the next thing to do is...

14. input this value "C:\My Download Files\webcam\pjwebcam\pjWebCam.exe" then click
ok..(Note that the disk label 'C:\' is assumed to have the OS system files, for
other users installed their OS on a different drive label such as d:, e:, f:)

15. afterwards just restart your system and then out of nowhere your pjWebCam program will
automatically start....