Philips SPC900NC no go

MJN · Post by **MJN** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 8:35 pm

It's the CCD sensor that allows the low-light performance, it's why astronomers are so fond of this camera (or rather any camera which uses this CCD sensor from Sony).

It looks like we posted at the same time - have another read of my post above.

Mathew

robsmiler · Post by **robsmiler** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 8:53 pm

Thanks!

I take it you've tried a smaller capture size?

That's it! Tried with 320x240 worked! Back to 640x480 5 fps nope! Again this ever appearing memory messages. Probably a USB2 data transfer problem... This machine should be sufficient for this purpose Core2 2,44 GHz. Maybe bad cable. Or the hub? mumble mumble...

Just for clarification: It seems not to be possible to switch off single cams completely? As it appears if disabling monitor/device then device is still active. Log is telling me this capturing at xx fps. Also this device seems not to be released by ZM?

Stupid that 640x480 does not work with ZM. Would it be possible to take snapshots with high res but motion detect with 320x240? I think of something that enables internally switching between low/highres...

This cambozola server thing does it slow down things further? What CPU should be used at least.

A friend will bring a BlueCherry card from the US in about two weeks. Then I will do further tests with real cams. Hopefully results will be more predictable with Bt878. Of course it be better to use IP cams like Axis or Mobotix? No just kidding, this is no option. They are way to expensive.

rob*

[edit]

Yes - we posted the same time...

MJN · Post by **MJN** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 8:58 pm

Search the forums/FAQ - the shared memory issue is a common one with larger image sizes. You should be able to get it working fine with 640x480 images with the necessary tweaks.

Mathew

robsmiler · Post by **robsmiler** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 9:10 pm

Deleting /dev/video0 in localhost/zm dialog does not disable/release device.

Only the hard way:

Code: Select all

# sudo /etc/init.d/zoneminder restart

quits the access. Maybe it can be released actively by the web interface in a different way?

rob*

MJN · Post by **MJN** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 9:30 pm

You can restart ZM using the web interface.

Mathew

MJN · Post by **MJN** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 3:24 pm

To follow-up, are you up-and-running at 640x480?

In case you haven't already found it, I stumbled across the necessary shared memory settings - see step 13 in the first post at:

http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewto ... 68&start=0

Mathew

robsmiler · Post by **robsmiler** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 8:48 am

MJN wrote:To follow-up, are you up-and-running at 640x480?
In case you haven't already found it, I stumbled across the necessary shared memory settings - see step 13 in the first post at:
http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewto ... 68&start=0

No. Not running hires, yet. According to less time for experiments :/
thx for link Mathew. Will get into this on sunday (hopefully).

rob*

robsmiler · Post by **robsmiler** » Sun Feb 10, 2008 3:35 pm

@Mat:
yes, 640x480 working now with ZM and SPC900NC, too.

according to the link, I set in /etc/sysctl.conf shared memory to
kernel.shmall = 134217728 (=128MB) and same on
kernel.shmmax = 134217728

(maybe anyone is interested in further reading while stumbling over this thread http://www.rwitkop.com/VistA/ConfigureSysctl4Cache.html)

rob*

robsmiler · Post by **robsmiler** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 12:36 pm

I ran into some troubles when increasing kernel.shmall and kernel.shmmax. Several times ZM did freeze system capabilities. Load went from nominal 20% system load up to nowhere (100%) leaving me sitting in front of an unusable machine. (Will add log entries below)

Other negative (unacceptable) side effect is that my VMware wksta does not work anymore when manipulating kernel values. So using SPC900NC USB device with 640x480 is no go on this box.

No ask: The features built into ZM I discovered with during my short capturing adventure (until crash) are amazing. Congrats to those of you, who built this great solution.