I have decided on the Logitech 4000 for my webcam, but I need some information before I buy one, the local shop here does not have them and does not appear to be very interested (Nothing new there).
The things I need to know is a rough size of the base, the height of the lens from the base, and the length of the usb cable and how long it can be, It is 12 metres from the computer to where I want the camera to be mounted.
Also I need to know if the camera will hang and work upside down, the idea at the moment is to screw it to the top of a window frame, upside down.
If mine wasn’t mounted outside in an enclosure I could measure it up. It is very much the same as the logitech quickcam express in size of the camera housing but it does stand a bit higher. It comes with 2 bases. One designed as a stand and the other for bending to hang in your flat screen monitor. The cable is longer. My express is a bit shy of 2 metres, the 4000 would have to have about 3 metres of cable.
I bought mine via mail order, as the local shops didn’t have much or were dearer than the other delivered.
Having the camera inverted may be a problem. I know it can invert and mirror the images in the cam software but not sure how that will go used with WD.
Maybe tomorrow I can experiment and see what I can do. The problem may be that with every restart you will have to go into the camera drivers and reset the inversion.
Everyone thinks we are back to front at the best of times without you showing them…
How does the face tracking affect the camera? sounds like a pain to have to turn it off all the time.
With face tracking on it goes zooming in and out trying to lock onto a face in my palm trees or the clouds. I have it set so the cam controls pop up when WD starts. Not a problem, just one press of the mouse to turn it off. The only time it is annoying is if WD restarts it’s self when your not around. I was away for a week just recently and that happened. Made for some interesting allday video.
Mine is mounted on the outside of the wall. Cable runs up through cieling and out under the pointy part of the roof and down the wall. Camera cable plus a 3 metre standard extension is all that’s required.
I’d say you should not have a problem mounting it upside down. The ball press-snaps onto the base. Depending on the distance between top sill and the glass a spacer may be required. I have heard that light inside the room at night can be a problem with glear from the glass, but if it’s dark outside there isn’t anything to see anyway. You just have to remember to clean the window every so often depending on how dusty it gets.
Face tracking is something that has been discussed in another thread on here before. It’s something to do with the drivers and WD. I forget exactly. http://discourse.weather-watch.com/t/10559 here’s one thread. There are others as well.
Please note that ANY USB cable cannot be longer
then approximately 5 meters, due to design !!!
There is NO -repeat NO- way of getting any
USB device working beyond these lengths of
cable, unless a repeater is installed.
Be aware of this when purchasing USB webcams !!!
I have the Pro 4000 and it is approximately 30 feet from my PC… 6 feet of included cord, 16 foot active repeater cable and 10 foot USB extension. Works great and the face tracking is only an issue when first starting WD and for me since mine gets restarted only when I upgrade or reboot the PC it hasn’t been any issue at all really.
i can see where it would be an isue for a mostly unattended setup if yours will mostly be attended it should not be an issue.
The 16 foot active repeater cable cost about $15.00 USD and the 10 foot extension about 3 or 4 dollars USD…
My cam is set for stills and also streaming and the still can be viewed here: http://jaxweather.net/JaxWeatherCam.php
(if you click on the large image it will launch the streaming view)
I have the 4000 and think I found a way to turn off or at least stop the face tracking. Not sure if the face tracking would kick in the way my is mounted now but…
If you look in the task manager under processes there are two applications associated with Logitech (can’t remember the names right now and at work) one Quick Assistant and one that I believe is a web server. Anyway I just Googled the file name and found a site that has a database of all these type of applications and gives a discreption. I stopped both from the task manager and the face tracking no longer starts up if you start and stop WD. You could do the same and see of the face tracking actually comes on. Mine doesn’t but then again not sure if it will. On the same site they have a trial version of a program, kinda like task manager, which will allow you to disable any programs executed during start-up.
That makes sense, you would think there would have to be some sort of software running to process the face tracking.
It would be great if we could stop it from starting…
I use msconfig to stop the programs at startup.
Click Start, Click Run
In the text box that appears, type msconfig
You would not believe where my Logitec Pro 4000 is mounted. Been there going on 7 months now.
It is sitting on the window ledge outside my office window on the outside in the elements. Been through monsoons, high heat and is now starting to get a taste of some cool temps (32.1 F the other morning which is cold for around here). No special mount, just kinda wedged in there so it won’t move with a rock under it to make it level. A very unique AZ jerryrig.
Its guarded by a mess of albino gekco’s that nest near it (about 20 of them).
I found it to be a very rugged camera that performs very very well. Caught some ladies taking oranges off the orange trees the other day while I was sitting at work even…
Doesn’t do fantastic in the dark, but works okay with the street lamp on the corner.
Well worth the $30 I paid for it.
I’m currently using Active Webcam to provide two feeds at the same time to the same page.
Just found out that when I have my VPN connection up, I can’t access the webcams… think it might be blocking everybody when it is up. Will have to check the VPN connection to find out.
OK, I have my Logitech 4000, but I still have the problem of the cable length needed to reach where I want the camera, which is about 12 metres. What is more reliable, a couple of usb repeaters joined together or a usb to cat5 extender, also which brands do you recommend.
Unless you have some sort of signal booster in the USB - Cat5 deal I don’t think it would work as I understand it the problem with USB over distance is the signal strength…
I am running my Pro 4000 with the following cable setup successfully… Cord from web cam 6 feet, 16 foot Active USB Repeater cable and then 10’ passive USB cable, total run 32 feet, which is only what 9.75 meters? two 16’ active repeater cables and the web cam cord would total 38 feet which may be closer to what you need?
$60.00 plus the price of the Cat5, if you need a long run I have no doubt this would be the best way to go however you can get two 16’ USB repeater cables for about 24 bucks… and 10’ passive cord for about $2.50…
