IP Camera Assistance - ACTi Camera

Ignition
1

I have an ACTi B47 Camera I am trying to view the MJPEG stream as well as issue URL CGI commands to the camera. I have successfully done this with a Sony camera, but I cannot get either to work with this ACTi camera. I am hoping someone will be able to assist.

For viewing the feed I have tried both of the following URLs. They both result in displaying “IOException: Max buffer size reached.”. What does this error mean?

http://192.168.0.100/cgi-bin/cmd/system?GET_STREAM&USER=admin&PWD=123456 http://192.168.0.100/cgi-bin/encoder?USER=admin&PWD=123456&channel=1&GET_STREAM

A second issue is I am not able to send URL CGI commands from Ignition to this camera. I can enter a URL command such as an absolute zoom position in a normal web browser and the camera will zoom to that position. Such as: “http://192.168.0.100/cgi-bin/encoder?USER=Admin&PWD=123456&ZOOM=DIRECT,1000”

I have tried the following code in a button mouse pressed event, but nothing happens when attempting these commands from Ignition.

system.net.httpPost("http://192.168.0.100/cgi-bin/encoder?USER=Admin&PWD=123456&ZOOM=DIRECT,1000")

Any thoughts?

2

I made some progress on the second part using the URL CGI commands. I still have not had any luck displaying the live stream, I can only get the “IOException: Max buffer size reached” error.

For anyone that needs it, you can format the URL commands as follows for ACTi:

system.net.httpPost("http://192.168.0.100/cgi-bin/cmd/encoder?ZOOM=DIRECT,500","/","/",10000,60000,"Admin","123456")

Or the following format allows the user/password to be encrypted and prompts for it:

system.net.httpPost("http://192.168.0.100/cgi-bin/cmd/encoder", {"ZOOM":"DIRECT,1000"})
3

Ok, I got the mjpeg stream to display finally with the URL below and the objects built-in authentication. I am having to play with reducing the cameras resolution and the MJPEG quality on the camera side. Hopefully I can find a happy medium with this. I assume there is no way to increase the buffer size of the camera object.

http://192.168.0.100/cgi-bin/cmd/system?GET_STREAM
4

In 7.7.2-rc2, which will be out soon, we’ve made the buffer size into a settable property.

5

Do you know how long before Ignition supports the H.264 encoder type?

I have some lagging problems with the MJPEG type that I do not see with H.264.

6

As far as I know, there’s no immediate plans to support H.264. It’s definitely a popular encoding with the camera makers, but it’s not free to license. Their licensing model is murky at best and doesn’t work well with how we charge for our software. IIRC, they are going to revamp their licensing in a year or so – we might take a look at it again when they do.