Anyone using mControl with Foscam's ??

[cw-kid]

Hi

Is anyone using mControl for Windows Media Center and Foscam IP camera's ?

If so I would love to hear from you, having some problems setting up my first Foscam IP camera with the MCML mcontrol add-in for WMC.

http://www.embeddedautomation.com/forum ... 0#post9950

Thanks

[kc8emd]

cw-kid, I hope you still monitor this thread.

I just recently upgraded all my IP cameras to Foscam 9821W V2. I am using mControl V2 and am wondering I f you ever got these cameras working with mControl?

I have tried to manually add the camera to the mServer.exe.xml file, but have had no success.

[cw-kid]

I don't know about that particular camera but I was able to add my Foscam FI8905W.

In the mControl Editor I added a camera device and selected the Foscam_FI89XX_MJPEG profile. Specified the IP and port number of the camera and entered the cameras username and password. Streaming protocol was HTTP MJPEG.

Does this help?

[kc8emd]

Ok Thanks. It sounds like you are using mControl version 3. I am planning to upgrade at some point, but I am just so happy with everything working so good right now Except for my foscam cameras

[cw-kid]

Yeah its mControl V3. I am not actually really using mControl as I moved to Vera, but its still installed and up and running on my WHS. I can't remember about mControl V2 and IP cameras too long ago now. I am not using Windows Media Center either now on Kodi.

[cw-kid]

Are the old mControl user forums still up? If I had any solution I probably talked about it on there somewhere!

[kc8emd]

Unfortunately the forum for mControl is no longer up and I know there was lots of information on how to do this.

[cw-kid]

Maybe its time to buy a Micasaverde Vera Z-wave controller unit then! They support Foscams and have a plug-in for their integration.

[cw-kid]

Looks like I had it working in MCE at one point you can see my screen shots on this thread

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=9&p=8823

I think that is mControl V2 as well as the V3 UI in MCE looked slightly different.

I seem to remember having to edit the mControl cameras XML file to add in support for the foscam. I'll have a look on the WHS for the file.

[cw-kid]

My memory is not good on this but..

If I look in this folder on the WHS server:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Embedded Automation\mControl v3\server\plugins

There is a file called:

drv_IPCAM.xml

I remember having to edit this file to add or edit a profile for the Foscam.

This is the Foscam section in that XML file:

Code: Select all

<!-- FOSCAM SERIES START -->
    <module base="FOSCAM_FI89xx_MJPEG" class="IPCAMERA" use="Y">
      <param name="DISPLAY-AS" value="FOSCAM_FI89xx_MJPEG" />
      <param name="Description" value="Foscam Camera" locID="FOSCAM_FI89xx_MJPEG" />
      <param name="MProtocol" value="IPCAM" />
      <param name="FieldsGrp" value="IPCAM" />
      <param name="DefaultImage" value="Camera" />
      <param name="UseActiveX" value="true" />
      <param name="HasAudio" value="false" />
      <param name="CanDetectMotion" value="false" />
      <param name="CanPan" value="false" />
      <param name="CanTilt" value="false" />
      <param name="CanZoom" value="true" />
      <param name="CanSendJPeg" value="true" />
      <param name="CanSendMJPeg" value="false" />
      <param name="RecordCompressed" value="true" />
      <param name="PresetsCount" value="0" />
      <param name="MOVEHOME" value="/ptzctrl.cgi?-step=0&-act=home" />
      <param name="MOVEUP" value="/ptzctrl.cgi?-step=0&-act=up" />
      <param name="MOVEDOWN" value="/ptzctrl.cgi?-step=0&-act=down" />
      <param name="MOVELEFT" value="/ptzctrl.cgi?-step=0&-act=left" />
      <param name="MOVERIGHT" value="/ptzctrl.cgi?-step=0&-act=right" />
      <param name="STOP" value="/ptzctrl.cgi?-step=0&-act=stop" />
      <param name="GetSnapshot" value="/snapshot.cgi" />
      <param name="StartRecording" value="/videostream.cgi" />
      <param name="StartStreaming" value="/videostream.cgi" />
      <param name="SnapExtension" value="jpg" />
      <param name="RecordExtension" value="mp4" />
      <param name="RtspUrl" value="rtsp://{0}/11" />
	  <param name="HttpMpegH264" value="" />
    </module>

    <module base="FOSCAM_FI8xx_FI98xx_RTSP" class="IPCAMERA" use="Y">
      <param name="DISPLAY-AS" value="FOSCAM_FI86xx_FI98xx_UDP_RTSP" />
      <param name="Description" value="Foscam Camera" locID="FOSCAM_FI86xx_FI98xx_RTSP" />
      <param name="MProtocol" value="IPCAM" />
      <param name="FieldsGrp" value="IPCAM" />
      <param name="DefaultImage" value="Camera" />
      <param name="UseActiveX" value="true" />
      <param name="HasAudio" value="false" />
      <param name="CanDetectMotion" value="false" />
      <param name="CanPan" value="false" />
      <param name="CanTilt" value="false" />
      <param name="CanZoom" value="true" />
      <param name="CanSendJPeg" value="true" />
      <param name="CanSendMJPeg" value="false" />
      <param name="RecordCompressed" value="true" />
      <param name="PresetsCount" value="0" />
      <param name="MOVEHOME" value="/ptzctrl.cgi?-step=0&-act=home" />
      <param name="MOVEUP" value="/ptzctrl.cgi?-step=0&-act=up" />
      <param name="MOVEDOWN" value="/ptzctrl.cgi?-step=0&-act=down" />
      <param name="MOVELEFT" value="/ptzctrl.cgi?-step=0&-act=left" />
      <param name="MOVERIGHT" value="/ptzctrl.cgi?-step=0&-act=right" />
      <param name="STOP" value="/ptzctrl.cgi?-step=0&-act=stop" />
      <param name="GetSnapshot" value="/tmpfs/snap.jpg" />
      <param name="StartRecording" value="/tmpfs/auto.jpg" />
      <param name="StartStreaming" value="/tmpfs/auto.jpg" />
      <param name="SnapExtension" value="jpg" />
	  <param name="RecordExtension" value="mp4" />
      <param name="RtspUrl" value="rtsp://{0}/11" />
      <param name="HttpMpegH264" value="" />
    </module>
<!-- FOSCAM SERIES END -->

We either added that entire section or we tweaked it to make it work better.

If you need the entire drv_IPCAM.xml file let me know and I'll put it on my Dropbox.

EDIT:

Or maybe I just edited that file to add in support for my other IP dome camera (AMOVision) ? As I've just seen a section in the code called

<!-- AMOVision SERIES START -->

And I know I definitely added that section myself.

But I do seem to remember having to tweak the Foscam code as well. Was a long time ago now I forget!

[kc8emd]

Thank you, this is exactly what I was looking for. I will need to do some testing in mControl V2, but I think this code you have provided will point me in the right direction. I'll will let you know if I get it to work.

[cw-kid]

Thank you, this is exactly what I was looking for. I will need to do some testing in mControl V2, but I think this code you have provided will point me in the right direction. I'll will let you know if I get it to work.

OK great let me know either way..

[cw-kid]

Is mControl even still being developed? Last time I emailed their support to submit various bug reports on numerous occasions, I never got any replies. And they were normally pretty good at getting back to me quickly, because of "The Media Center Blog" and the coverage I had given them in my posts.

There is a module you can buy to bridge the mControl system with a Vera unit, I was using this for a while, but half of it never worked properly and I had missing buttons on various Z-wave devices in the mControl mobile web UI and in the iOS app, amongst other issues.

So I gave up on mControl completely in the end when I also stopped using MCE, as that was the only reason to use mControl for the MCE add-on.