I am using the FOSCAM F18905 which regularly drops out of the network. It is wired direct through the ethernet connection and uses power from the 5v adapter supplied. I have been working on assumption (maybe incorrect) that this is due to a voltage drop in the transformer which causes the camera to stop working temporarily.
Network is using a Apple Extreme Airport on a Dell PC and modem to broadband. Ethernet is plugged directly into airport.
Firmware is number 11.25.2.30
When the camera drops out Vitamin D attempts to reconnect without success and it requires a manual reset using the "Click here" approach.
Does anyone have any ideas why this is happening?
Failure to reconnect to camera
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Semper Vaporo - Posts: 331
- Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2010 11:51 am
Re: Failure to reconnect to camera
I had a similar problem with some USB connected web cams... one in particular that would disconnect and I had to reboot to get it to reconnect again. I tried several things, working rather blindly since I could not find any particular event causing the problem. I found that if I completely uninstalled VDV and deleted all the data files, and then started over the problem would go away for about a month (running 1 Netcam and 3 USB web cams, all different brands), but it would gradually start to occur again until it became so obnoxious I'd do another complete restart.
Then one time I decided to not only do the cleaning, but to defragment the drive before the reinstall. This seemed to extend the time before it started doing it so often. The last time I did it, I defragmented the disk multiple times (it seems that the built-in Windows 7 defrag will sometimes skip a file for some reason and it takes many passes before all of the disk is defragmented) both before I reinstalled VDV and After it was installed and the cameras were defined, but before they had created a lot of data files. This seems to have greatly extended the time before the problem became too much of a burden.
From a troubleshooting standpoint it is unfortunate that the camera that did it the most often went completely bonkers a week ago, displaying odd color bands and random rectangular dots all over. TWICE, I replaced the camera with identical models and the problem remained, so I swapped the cables and ports but the problem remained with that camera.
I replaced the camera with a different brand and the problem went away. This present setup has not run more than a few days, so I don't know if the random disconnects will start to occur again or not or how long the system might go before it starts doing it again.
My simpleton guessing at the cause of the problem of random disconnects is that if the database files are severely fragmented, that maybe VDV or some part of the system (drivers) gets too busy to receive the incoming video frame and is stuck in a mode of waiting for an image but the camera won't send the next one until the one it sent gets acknowledged; thus nothing happens until a human rattles their cages to make them happy and communicative again.
I feel that defragmenting the drive made a difference in the operation, but I have no idea if that is really true or not. Because I have only the one system runing the software and it is an active system, I don't have the time nor inclination to experiment with putting the system back the way it was to see if I can duplicate the problem and then try some other "fix" to see what happens.
Then one time I decided to not only do the cleaning, but to defragment the drive before the reinstall. This seemed to extend the time before it started doing it so often. The last time I did it, I defragmented the disk multiple times (it seems that the built-in Windows 7 defrag will sometimes skip a file for some reason and it takes many passes before all of the disk is defragmented) both before I reinstalled VDV and After it was installed and the cameras were defined, but before they had created a lot of data files. This seems to have greatly extended the time before the problem became too much of a burden.
From a troubleshooting standpoint it is unfortunate that the camera that did it the most often went completely bonkers a week ago, displaying odd color bands and random rectangular dots all over. TWICE, I replaced the camera with identical models and the problem remained, so I swapped the cables and ports but the problem remained with that camera.
I replaced the camera with a different brand and the problem went away. This present setup has not run more than a few days, so I don't know if the random disconnects will start to occur again or not or how long the system might go before it starts doing it again.
My simpleton guessing at the cause of the problem of random disconnects is that if the database files are severely fragmented, that maybe VDV or some part of the system (drivers) gets too busy to receive the incoming video frame and is stuck in a mode of waiting for an image but the camera won't send the next one until the one it sent gets acknowledged; thus nothing happens until a human rattles their cages to make them happy and communicative again.
I feel that defragmenting the drive made a difference in the operation, but I have no idea if that is really true or not. Because I have only the one system runing the software and it is an active system, I don't have the time nor inclination to experiment with putting the system back the way it was to see if I can duplicate the problem and then try some other "fix" to see what happens.
Semper Vaporo,