COBRA SC-1000 USB 2 camera setup

[mchawg]

I have 2 usb cameras I want to use but can only connect to 1 of them at a time. I have verified that they both work...but only as singles.
They have wireless USB receivers with 4 selectable channels for pairing. I have them paired as 1 and 4 but still can only get one at a time to work.
HELP!! :O)

[Semper Vaporo]

A couple of questions just to verify some info:

Is there just one receiver and is it designed to receive from multiple cameras simultaneously? i.e.: the receiver may be designed to respond to any camera, but only one at a time... Or, are there multiple receivers, one for each camera?

A single receiver might be able to be programmed to communicate with each of 4 cameras, but only one at a time, and the software doing the processing of the video needs to send a command to the receiver to switch cameras. I suppose it is possible for a progam to have 2 to 4 windows and be displaying a different camera in each window, but is rapidly swapping which camera is sending data and doing it in a 'round-robin' mode (one frame from each camera, and then do it again). I don't think VDV has the ability to actively select sub-channels to switch between cameras on one port.

Did the camera system come with a program to view the cameras? Can it show more than one camera at a time? if so, does the video become jerky when more than one is being display simultaneously (indicating that it is doing that 'round-robin' type of action).

If it is multiple receivers in multiple USB ports, I have a THEORY that there may be some limit to how many high data density (like video) devices can be connected at once. How many other USB devices are there? (Do you have more cameras plugged in beside these two?)

And just for the record... what kind of computer are you using (PC or MAC) and what operating system? Part of my theory (above) has to do with the number of PCI to USB Host Controllers that are present in the hardware... Not how many sockets there are, but how much hardware is available to process the high density (video) data streams. So your problem MIGHT (I emphasize that is a theoretical "MIGHT" on my part) be a problem with the particular model of your computer hardware.

[mchawg]

There is one receiver per camera and each receiver can be coded 1, 2, 3 or 4. The computer is a PC running XP Home Edition SP3, 2.6 GHz Celeron, 1Gig RAM.
I have 4 USB ports...2 in the front and 2 in the back. I have tried my Logitech webcam (USB) as one of the sources for Vitamin D and it works fine along with one of the COBRA cams...even auto pan/zoom to follow the image. The software that came with the camera was not capable of anything but monitoring...no recording so I didn't even bother to investigate multiple camera setup with it (VPEYE)

[bob]

A few things to try: -
- Verify that no other programs are using any of the cameras (I'm sure you've done this).
- Try one cam in the front ports and one in the back. This is a long stretch but could help.
- Can you view both cameras simultaneously when running another program? One such program is Webcam XP <http://www.webcamxp.com/download.aspx>.
- Lastly, we have typically seen this problem occur with problematic drivers. Either old drivers or defaulting to the Windows drivers. If you upgrade to the latest drivers from the manufacturer (or sometimes simply reinstall), you may see this just work. Running identical USB cameras simultaneously in Windows is a bit flakey, so you may have to try this a few times.

[mchawg]

Thanks Bob. I am beginning to suspect the 1gig memory on this machine is the problem. It is old enough that the memory can't be expanded. Vitamin D does seem to be a bit of a memory hog. It slows down any other app I try to run when the camera is armed. Maybe it's time for a new box :O/

[Semper Vaporo]

I doubt if 1 gig of memory is keeping you from connecting two cameras simultaneously. It may seriously affect the operation of the whole PC if they both got connected and VDV started processing the data... it would drive the harddrive nutz and slow everything to a crawl but you would eventually see an image from each camera appear on the VDV display.

Another problem I have seen, but doubt if it is your problem since it appears the system you have was designed to have multiple cameras in use, is that I have run into problems mounting two of the same model camera simultaneously. When other USB devices (memory sticks or printers, etc.) of the same model are mounted, the system (driver) automatically assigns a different name to each, usually appending a number after the name. I have one model of camera that does not do that and I get two devices with the exact same name and when VDV (or any other video program) tries to access them the images get confused and swap positions periodically and eventually I get the Blue Screen of Death (BSoD). It is really silly to see the two scenes swap position in the display or to have both showing just one camera, then switch to the other camera and back to both scenes but swapped in position from the way it should be. It doesn't take long for the BSoD to occur.

My THEORY is that even though you have 4 USB sockets, you may be stuck with only 1 or 2 "USB Host Controllers" and only one of those can be permanently assigned to exclusive use that Video would demand. At least one must remain available for shared use, so if you only have two, then the 1st camera installed gets one assigned to it, and the 2nd camera is locked out because it cannot get a Host Controller assigned for video work.

I had a PC that would handle 4 WebCams (1 built-in and 3 in USB sockets) but not a fifth one. Which ever order the 5 were attached, only the first 4 would work (the built-in and 3 others) but the last one connected would never mount to the system. Then after a lightning strike nearby, (which I know wiped out the PCs WiFi card,) I could only connect 3 WebCams, but I could still attach several Memory sticks and a printer with the 3 cameras... just not 4 video devices. In troubleshooting that system I noted that the Device Manager listed one less USB Host Controller than it used to and that led me to the theory that the number of Host Controllers is a limiting factor for video connections.

I THEORIZE that if you can find a system with more USB Host Controllers built-in, it would handle more cameras, but that is not a specification I ever see listed in the documentation or advertisements about computers.

[mchawg]

Lottsa food for thought. I might try one mounted in the rear as that seems to be a separate hub. When devices get plugged into the front, system whined that it will run faster if attached to another port. Thanks for the tips.