Animated webcam: EDIT: WUnderground ftp

Hi. After my frustrating and failed attempts at the video (most likely due to my pc), I thought I would try this instead.

I have looked at the tabs concerned but I am not 100% sure on what needs to be done (no changes there then :()

I can’t have another day at the pc and to achieve nothing and so I thought if there is anyone who has a successful animated webcam image set-up would be kind enough to post their screenshots.

I am only having the one ‘webcamimage.jpg’ file produced by my wdwebcamcapture at the moment - every one minute. No gif.

Does the animated set up involve continually growing file sizes (i.e date stamped) or are the files overwritten? Or if the former, is it just a case where I must manually delete every few days as to keep the sizes down?

Thanks.

Mike,

Just contribute your webcam images to WU and then do this :slight_smile:
http://jaxweather.net/Previous24.php

-Bob

you need to have a gif file also being updated
(animated gifs need to be created from gifs, not jpegs)
and then in the webcam setup, first screen, under set/load the image needed, select that .gif image
and then in the animated web cam setup, set up the settings there

Thanks Brian.

In the animated webcam set up tab, must the switch be on or can it be left off? It may sound silly to ask but I’m sure I read somewhere that the switch being on can conflict with the normal wdwebcamcapture… resulting in the gif being created/uploaded every one minute instead of say the 30 minutes which I want for the animated gif.

And the last question would be ‘how does it actually work?’ Are the gifs time stamped and overwritten the next day?

i think that might have been refering to the java web cam
no, they are not date/time stamped
you just have the latest animatedwebcam.gif file image
(unless you set them to be saved as time stamped)

Thanks Brian.

Hello Nordic,

if you only have an image say every 30 minutes…The final animation is not going to be very long in lenth, as that will only be 2 frames per hour Times x 24 hours. so you’ll end up with only a 48 frame animation.

my all day, from 5am -8pm all day vido’s with the captured image every minute…total about 15 hours X 60 frames, which equals about 900 frames…if you playback one of my all day (5am-8pm) video’s and notice, the entire thing plays through in about 1 minute, at the time lapse speed within Windows Media Player.

so why I am mentioning this is because…48 frames will probabbly play through in less than 3 seconds

my 900 frames divided by the 60 seconds it is played in = 15 frames per second, so 45 frames would play through in 3 seconds

just a thought and you may consider making the capture interval every five- ten minutes instead,

I also wanted to mention, and as bob also suggestted above (Thanks Bob)…The easiest way fro you to make the all day, which will be…the last previous 24 hours…is to go through wunderground webcam’s

everything will be on their server, including a link you can add to your webpage for the video, or have it embeded into your webpage, as you are looking to do.

there will be no need to use and have running in background the movie maker program, and you also wont have to worry about your hard drive filling with all types of images/files/jpg’s/ time stamped etc etc etc.

the only one thing that you will need to do, after setting everything up…is be sure that an image is sent to wunderground, via the 2nd FTP option within WD, and it should be sent either every minute, or every 5 minutes, to make a half way decent looking all day video.

doing it this way, will be your best bet. even though the webcamimage.jpg, will have to be ftp’d to the wunderground server every 1 or 5 minutes, it will happen so fast it shouldnt effect the performance of your PC if you happen to be on the PC at the same time doing other thing’s you need to do.

This is just my suggestion, and it will get you the link/embeded link/all day video capture, then once you configure it n your webpage…it will be complete.

step one of doing this, as I said is to go to wunderground and sign up on the wunderground web cam sign up page, so you can get your CAM ID & Password.

…when you do this and are ready for step 2…let me know

I just recently went through all of this and it is very simple to do, but it is your decision

Have a good day and stay out of the snow…Chris

If you do go the WU route - you are best to use a 320 x 240 image size as when they shrink a 640 x 480, they make a hash of it :frowning: Mine are fuzzy and pixelated…

And if you do think of logging on with them, its easiest on WD to go Control Panel and WUnderground there - there is a smart setup already configured for WU - just enter your Webcam ID and your password, and your webcam image location/name, wherever that is and it automatically generates the correct image name for uploading to WU.

I set mine for 2mins after my main site update times so as not to conflict with too many update images at the same time.

Thanks all.

Chris - I have registered with WU and have a CAM ID etc.

No image is showing as the ftp hasn’t been sorted of course.

I await your instructions :smiley:

Where do I set the ftp to WU?

In WD’s WU, I see there is the ‘set webcam’ button. But this only allows the username and password to be set.

Do I have to go into the general ftp functions and put it there? And if so, is there any need to go direct into WD’s WU tab?

I don’t want my station data to be uploaded to them - just the webcam.

“Well Brian, no it’s not (FTP) I’m still using 8.24 (September version) FTP it’s the only one it will work ok for me all newer versions don’t work for me. So I’ll stay with the “general ftp” upload to WU.
Thank you.
Peter”

A quote from the Pink Panther dude from the WUnderground webcam feature thread.

I also read that I would have the same problem as he did earlier. My ftp hung. I also use the older version of wdftp.exe as the newer ones don’t work for me… be the reason a firewall issue or whatever. Peter did in fact send me the last September version by mail and I still use this today - even though I use the latest WD version.

I will use the general ftp function and do it that way.
One question… do I click the 2nd set up or do it from just entering the main screen? Would I select the upload time (5 mins) from there and totally disregard WD’s Wu section?

X’csd posts…

WD/control panel/WeatherUnderground (set webcam upload)/wunderground webcam upload …use the webcam “username” and it’s password…set the upload times required and the relevant image to upload…ON/OFF switch to ON…if needs be you can do a Test (press) on the marked button…It may take a few mins for the first image to appear on WunderGround but from then on will do so automatically…

So no joy with the above system then…

I myself do it by the other method via WD/Control panel/FTP and Connections/General FTP functions…Lower LHS of panel “upload to another server”…fill in details as before for the webcam user and password, top line is webcam.wunderground.com and the lower line Directory is just forward slash (/)…Obviously you have to have the panel to the right with the correct webcam image setup…and the tick on the RHS


Norway Wunder 2007-08-19_102732.jpg

Thanks for that. I have already done that way (your way, the 2nd method) but I have no image:-

http://www.wunderground.com/webcams/index.html?range=intl#Norway

:frowning:

The ftp is obviously working. I have the right image file (webcamimage.jpg).

Could it be this temporary file which is created first?

Is it being changed to WUwebcam.jpg name for WU? Probably doesn’t matter.

It takes a while for the system to recognize new Webcam ID and before theyb get populated. Perhaps even 2 days…

Now, I think your photos are in a temporary place as it is in a place we have no permission for… soon. :slight_smile:

The properties of the image on WD shows as below:-
http://icons.wunderground.com/webcamramdisk/b/j/bjorli/1/current.jpg?1187517342

I thought I could just select my webcamimage.jpg file?

There is obviously some recognition by Wunderground that you are FTPing as the Lesjaskog panel is in the Norway slot and gives a time that the image was uploaded…I use jpg and Wunderground have an image size limitation (forgot what that is) but I do know that 320 x 240 is fine…What does your FTP say as it is being uploaded

Edit: are you sure that you have the correct image trail for upload in the General FTP panel with Chosen, Remote and Local

The max size is 150kb. Mine is just 40kb.

The ftp is working okay. It has something to do with the name of the file.

See my Edit previous…Yes 150kb it is, just remembered…

File annotation trail as an example:
Edit: in blue, ticked?


Norway wund file 2007-08-19_110908.jpg

and to make for completeness the LHS panel…


Norway LHS 2007-08-19_111523.jpg