IP Cams with external trigger

Other Hardware Sensors
1

Yes! I know this is the Arduino forum... bear with me?....

By chance, I came across an IP Cam with an external trigger... by hooking up a switch, you could make the IP Cam take a snapshot when the switch was pressed.

After many, many hours of trying to make motion detection, etc, built into various web cams, ip cams, CCTV software, etc, etc, I WANT TO DO IT MYSELF!! (Fed up! Forgive the shouting?)

(P.S.: Ooops... Why this is an Arduino post, in case that's not clear yet: I would generate the "take picture" signal to go to the camera with an Arduino... in fact I am already using one that way via the LED trick explained below.)

If I had a decent IP cam which would respond as the one I have is supposed to respond, I would at least be able to start banging my head against a different wall.

Anyone know of a GOOD ip cam, hobbyist price... say under $120, eBay... which such a feature?

Not, please, the Foscam/ Wansview/ Wanscam/ Storage Options/ Shinntto/ Tenvis clones.

Something reliable? Linksys? Panasonic? DLink? Logitech?

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And, just to amuse you... I've found a way to "cheat" with some cams: Put an LED close to a camera, in the corner of the field of view. If the camera allows you to specify the area to watch for "movement", you can (try to) use its built in "motion detection", and trip the camera by turning the LED on or off.

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"Catch-22": Want to use motion detection for a view of passing wildlife? It will "catch" the animal... mostly (and moving shadows, etc, etc)... but it will also, almost immediately, take another picture: The EMPTY scene which arises just after the animal has left. Sigh.

Not a problem if you are just collecting images... although you have a lot to discard... but it IS a problem if you have something like....

http://mon7NC.dyndns.org/

... where, SOMEDAY, the images will be of the most recent INTERESTING views. Sigh.

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Remember, please!! The question was: What IP Cams have external "take picture" inputs. Feel free to start new threads, if any of my ramblings strike you as worth discussion?

2

Are you wanting the IP camera to take a still image when directed, and normally have video for motion detection? If so, I would say the simplest approach is to separate the two, have a video camera you use for your own motion detection, and get a still camera that takes a wired shutter release for the still shots.

Now, a lot of low end cameras don't have support for a wired shutter release. If you don't care about the camera, you could always take off the plastic housing and put wires to fire the shutter via an opto-isolator from the Arduino. Or you could rig up a servo to press the camera's button. Or you could get a Canon camera that supports the CHDK, which allows you to modify the camera's firmware (CHDK Wiki | Fandom).

One approach is just to blindly take photos every n seconds, and then just discard the shots that are the same.

I did run into a site (http://www.diytrailcams.com/) where people talk about this all of the time, and it might be a better place to ask questions.