Watchbot - Was sold by groupon - AKA Foscam

[icepick]

Hi,
I got myself a Watchbot camera via Groupon.. and I must say.. for 49 euro you get a lot of camera.. it can pan/tilt (not zoom!).. has an integrated motion detection and you can quite easily script it from linux.. (so you can have it move to certain positions or in my case have it shoot a panorama).
The logfile for the motion detector can be read using wget and integrated into your website (as I did on Icepick.com ).

The video quality is quite good.. it comes with IR lights and at night it still gives quite a nice b/w image.. at daytime it switches to color... the only downside is the resolution is 640x480 and when it's between night and day it sometimes gives strange color because of the bright IR lights (but once its light outside this problem dissapears).

Hope it helps!

[jrkalf]

Yes!!!

I got my watchbot today as well. Brilliant device.
To let me put it this way. Indeed it's a rebranded foscam. It took me a bit of fiddling around but here's the basics:

http://<ip>/snapshot.cgi <-- still image. Constant refresh is also video
http://<ip>/videostream.cgi <-- self explanatory, right?


http://<ip>/decoder_control.cgi <- YEAH BABY ptz funtime!
How does it work, don't ask me.. I'm not that technical

But, to make life easier, I have some xml bits off from the MicasaVerde Vera forums with the right information:
What they basically do is a string of wget commands to stear the device by doing the following:

left: http://<ip>/decoder_control.cgi?command=4&onestep=1
right: http://<ip>/decoder_control.cgi?command=6&onestep=1
up: http://<ip>/decoder_control.cgi?command=0&onestep=1
down: http://<ip>/decoder_control.cgi?command=2&onestep=1
patrol up/down: http://<ip>/decoder_control.cgi?command=26
patrol left/right: http://<ip>/decoder_control.cgi?command=28
Center: http://<ip>/decoder_control.cgi?command=31

and on another site I found all commands:

0 up
1 Stop up
2 down
3 Stop down
4 left
5 Stop left
6 right
7 Stop right
8...24 Reserved
25 center
26 Vertical patrol
27 Stop vertical patrol
28 Horizon patrol
29 Stop horizon patrol
30 Set preset 0
31 Go preset 0
32 Set preset 1
33 Go preset 1
34 Set preset 2
35 Go preset 2
....
62 Set preset 16
63 Go preset 16
And the list goes further until preset 16
94 IO output high
95 IO output low

and don't forget, it uses http auth to authenticate you or &user= and &pwd=

[jrkalf]

Documentation by these gadget guys that sell the watchbot WAAAAY to expensive on their website, but cheap on onlinedeals sites:

http://www.mygadgetsandgifts.co.uk/watchbotguide/
English guides:
Revision 4 - januari 2012: http://www.mygadgetsandgifts.co.uk/watc ... de_eng.pdf
Revision 3 - December 2011: http://www.mygadgetsandgifts.co.uk/watc ... ec2011.pdf

French guides:
Rev 3 - December 2011: http://www.mygadgetsandgifts.co.uk/watc ... e_2011.pdf
Rev 4 - Januari 2012: http://www.mygadgetsandgifts.co.uk/watc ... ide_fr.pdf


Editted 2012-02-02: youtube channel for watchbot: http://www.youtube.com/user/watchbotipcam

[jrkalf]

found on the zoneminder website: http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/Foscam

advanced videostream.cgi usage:
http://<ip-webcam>/videostream.cgi?user=SUPERADMIN&pwd=SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS&resolution=32&rate=6

Resolution has 2 options: 8 and 32
8 = 320x240
32 = 640x480

There are several known rate options:
0 => maxframe
1 => 20 fps
3 => 15 fps
6 => 10 fps
11 => 5 fps
12 => 4 fps
13 => 3 fps
14 => 2 fps
15 => 1 fps
17 => 1 fps/2s
19 => 1 fps/3s
21 => 1 fps/4s
23 => 1 fps/5s

[jrkalf]

Closest match to the watchbot I've now found is an old foscam rebuild named Apexis.
Specifically this one: http://apexis-us.com/products/apexis-ap ... amera.html

[KidE]

whahaha check out this website http://apexis-us.com/firmware.html/

Specially the big ass text in the middle "Download Latest Foscam Firmware"

I signed up and here are the download links

Please find below links to the latest Foscam firmware:

WARNING: Updating your camera with the wrong firmware could severely damage and/or break your camera. Please update at your own risk.

Foscam FI8918W - foscam.com/Private/ProductFiles/FI8918W ... 2.2.38.zip

Foscam FI8904W - foscam.com/Private/ProductFiles/FI8903W ... 5.2.44.zip

Foscam FI8905W - foscam.com/Private/ProductFiles/FI8903W ... 5.2.44.zip

Foscam FI8909W - foscam.com/Private/ProductFiles/FI8909W ... 8.2.38.rar

Foscam FI8908W - foscam.com/Private/ProductFiles/FI8908W ... 2.2.30.zip

Thank you,

Foscam Digital Technologies LLC

Your welcome,

Ernst

[KidE]

The Apexis APM-J802-WS




The Foscam FI8908W



This Foscam type does look the most likely candidate which board has been used

The backside:



The motherboard + custom hack

http://www.nextgvoip.com/?p=72

And a nice domotica article hit-mob.com/2011/05/30/use-a-foscam-or- ... rage-door/

[jrkalf]

so I got bored today and I did some "if an infinite amount of monkeys would press an infinite amount of keys" approach to the videostream.cgi to see if I could get some more information.

videostream.cgi?resolution=

the value and it's result:
0 = 640x480
2 = 160x120
4 = 176x144
8 = 320x240
16 = 352x288
32 = 640x480

[KidE]

Voila and upgraded via the webui with the latest Foscam firmware

[jrkalf]

Voila and upgraded via the webui with the latest Foscam firmware

goed bezig!

what are the advantages of this "latest&greatest" firmware besides the most obvious reason: "because I can"

[KidE]

Well to stretch the "because i can" segment i've upgraded the watchbots firmware top the latest available firmware from the Foscam FI8918W cam

Download location: foscam.nl/index.php/support/downloads/c ... 5-firmware

[jrkalf]

I've also tested that firmware and I confirm it does work. Except for the fact that the wifi chip on that foscam firmware seems to be off and disfunctional.
So together tested with Ernst another firmware option, being the apexis J802-WS. The microlinux firmware of that device does support the right wifi chip.

the right firmware being the: Apexis firmware J011 J802 J803 firmware_17_37_2_41.bin which can be downloaded from mediafire.cc. Really weird that a company would host their firmwares there, but what the heck, it works.

Then I started off testing the foscam webUI firmwares, because they're less bloated or poisongreen (like the apexis one). I tried the latest and greatest like Ernst initially did as well, but I noticed that it had a bug in the live video push UI switching the left and right ptz controls around.

I downgraded the webUI to the version found in the foscam firmware package: FI8908W 11.22.2.30
It comes loaded with version: 2.4.8.15.bin and that one works great.

3 downsides to the combination of the apexis firmware and the foscam firmware combined:

• you've just voided your waranty. (who cares for €49,-)
• There's a undefined button in the date/time interface. This is where the foscam firmware has a DST offset switch.
• It seems the webinterface doens't allow weird characters in the passwords. Mine got rejected when I tried to use a #.

[Digit]

I stumbled upon some scripts that might be interesting to some:
http://edvoncken.net/2012/01/controllin ... -ip-camer/

[odolphie]

Managed to get those firmwares installed OK, which is great as the camera now does WPA2.

I have tried codes 95 and 94 to control the IR LEDs but it seems fixed in Auto - have any of you wizards been able to find a way to manually control them?

[labium]

i sold those cameras to, got them last week (ordered round christmass). mine does wpa2 whitout updating. after updating from fosam.nl i got another userinterface.

it also has a light snsor to manage the leds isnt that to be read someway, for input in homeseer eg ?