Evolution of M801W: now with IR-Cut !

Following the general trend in IP cameras, Dericam added IR-Cut to its M801W range.

This new version of the M801W offers an improved picture quality thanks to the automatic IR-Cut system. It is already available at Andy.lig's shop. The price is about 10€ slightly higher than for the old model.

I took some comparative pictures with both old and new models.

The IR-Cut shows sharper images and better color rendering: no more purple foliages!
(Going green has a different meaning in the IP camera world)

Before

After

---

Before

After

Live testing:

The M801W IR cut can be tried here:    http://dericam.dyndns.org:89     User name:admin, no password

links for other models:

M601W IR cut     http://dericam.dyndns.org:83     User name:admin, no password

M204W IR cut     http://dericam.dyndns.org:82     User name:admin, no password

H218W Mega pixel IR cut   http://dericam.dyndns.org:86 User name:admin, password：123456

H501W  Mega pixel IR cut      http://dericam.dyndns.org:81 User name:admin, password：123456

Read More

Firmware 2.38 for FI8918W

Foscam brought last month some long awaited improvements through this latest update for FI8918W.

I was busy with other gadgets lately and didn't pay attention to this latest update from Foscam.
However the improvements brought by fw 11.22.2.38 (webUI 2.4.18.17) are worth noticing,

1.Support setting schedule more conveniently.
Now you can do some group selection thanks to some additional controls in the UI:

2.Support changing the upload image name for FTP.
Many of us have asked Foscam for a way to set a name for saved files.
In my view it should have allowed to cycle within a range of files, with the newer ones overwritting the older. Well, the Foscam implementation is not exactly what we expected:

By default the uploaded filename looks like:
000XC5D05555(FI8918W)_1_20111122205544_5.jpg,...

Now if you set the filename e.g. "test", it will look like:
000DC5D05179(FI8918W)_test.jpg,
000DC5D05179(FI8918W)_test.1.jpg,
000DC5D05179(FI8918W)_test.2.jpg

...but this is only for the uploads that are not triggered by the motion alarm!

3.Support setting the automatic patrol circles.

4.Add the option to turn off the alarm beep sound when alarm activated.Yes, that irritating "honk" when the motion alarm is activated in IE can be now turned off!!!

5.Add preset in firefox,google chrome and safari.
One reason less to keep using IE!

6.Support saving fps.
makes sense!


Resolved bugs:
1)Fix display issues on some language pages.
2)Fix the issue about saving recording path.

As usual, a gentle reminder: this is not for FI8908W!

Where to get it: Foscam.com

Read More

Another note to myself: HL-340

That's how I started this blog: keeping a trace of the drivers, firmware files and installation methods in case I'd need them again, saving me from having to figure out the whole thing again. This post is another place holder for the always-vanishing drivers for my USB to Serial adapter

Item description:
I purchased this thingy two years ago off eBay for ~€5.
It provides a way to create "virtual" COM ports on recent computers that only offer USB ports.

The model appears on the serial connector as HL-340.



As for most Chinese accessories, the drivers are not provided
and I first had to spend some time searching the forums.


I'll keep my findings here so you won't need to go through this yourself.


The item sold by DealExtreme is also based on chip CH340 so it should use the same the drivers.

 The drivers for HL-340:
Manufacturer page: http://www.wch.cn/download/list.asp?id=65
I've stored a copy on FileFactory as well.

Side note:
These drivers are compatible with Windows from versions 95 to 2008 R2.
On OS from Vista ansd up, the installation program may not work.
Instead: unzip the exe file (7zip can do this all right),
go to the device manager and right click on the USB-Serial entry,
then select "Update Driver Software..." then browse to the location of CH341SER.INF

This adapter works for connecting Terminal Emulators via COM port.

You use the paper clip test to check that your serial interface is working fine.
It also work fine with the old X10 Computer Interface CM12U that came with a RS-232C connector.

Read More

New Blogger Feature: Open Link in a New Window

Until recently, the easiest way to have all links in a post to open in a new window, was to insert the following  HTML code as the first line of the page:

<base target="_blank"></base> 

But now, Blogger has got a new option to make this frequent operation much simpler...
From the Post editor, just click on Link

...and click on the box next to "Open this link in a new window"

It's not clear since when this has been implemented as I found no official announcement for this. Just ran into this option today.

Read More