Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Skycam
Q: What is Skycam and how does it work?A: Skycam is a Panasonic Model WV-4051 color television camera mounted in a weather-proof pan/tilt remotely controlled outdoor security housing. This housing is mounted on the roof of Odegard Hall, at the west end of the University of North Dakota campus. The camera control and video cables are run to the broadcast facility of the Regional Weather Information Center, which is part of the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences. UND is located in Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA.
The camera is used by our broadcast meteorology students for taping footage of weather and backgrounds for their productions. This means that the direction the camera is pointed is not under the control of the RWIC Webmaster, and will change from time to time without notice. There is also no interface to control the camera direction, pan/tilt, or zoom via the web.
The video for the webcam is split off the main signal at our 3M audio/video switcher and runs to the webcam computer. There it is plugged into a Manhattan USB video frame grabber unit, which is connected to an eMachine eTower 333k running Windows 2000. This computer runs Webcam32, which uploads a new frame from the camera to the website every 30 seconds.
Q: What direction is Skycam pointing?
A: The camera is usually pointed in a westerly direction, since this is the direction most of our weather comes from. The big glass building usually in the shot with the white ball on top is Clifford Hall (the white ball is the radome that houses our Doppler radar system).
Q: Can the camera be pointed via web control?
A: No.
Q: Can you send me an image from (some date/time)?
A: The images from the webcam are not archived. One image per hour is copied to a temporary area that contains 24 images. These images may be accessed via the buttons on the left side of the screen on the webcam page. These images are overwritten as a new hourly image is saved. So, to answer the question, if you find the image you're looking for under the past 24 hour images, great. If not, we can't help you.
Q: Can I link to your webcam?
A: Sure. Please link to the actual webcam page ( http://www.rwic.und.edu/webcam/) rather than just the image (or have the image be a link to the actual webcam page). Thanks.
Q: Why are the time stamps on the saved images not exactly on the hour?
A: The image time stamps are generated by Webcam32 from the eMachine's local clock. The web server saves the images according to its own local clock. These two don't always match.
Q: Why did you use the hardware you did for the webcam instead of something newer/better?
A: The webcam project was done with essentially zero dollars for a budget. Thus, we had to use as much existing equipment as possible, and cut as many corners as we could. We already had the camera mounted on the roof, the video cables run to our broadcast control room, and a spare computer. The frame grabber and Webcam32 were chosen because they worked well and were low-cost.
Q: I want to set up a webcam. Should I copy your setup?
A: If you like. There are many webcam solutions on the market these days. The Webcam32 program supports just about any device that provides a video for Windows interface. There are many cameras, frame grabbers, etc. out there with Windows drivers, so choose whatever suits your situation, and good luck.
Q: Why is the webcam showing powerpoint slides?
A: The video signal to our webcam capture computer runs through an audio/video switcher used by the broadcast meteorology students. When power to this unit fails, it wipes the memory and the system defaults to certain connections burned into its ROM. This default setting chooses the video from our internal video bulletin board system as the source rather than the roof-top camera, and has to be reset manually. There is no way to change this, since the switcher is old and doesn't support nice things like SRAM or programmable defaults.
Q: What happened to the old 'Snappy' system?
A: Our first webcam capture system was based on a Play Inc. 'Snappy' frame grabber connected to an old Ambra 486-50 PC running Windows 95. During the summer of 2003, the Snappy unit began to degrade. The images got washed out and the color went away. Snappy's aren't manufactured anymore (Play Inc. is out of business), and relying on a 486 running Win95 didn't seem like an ideal thing, so we upgraded to the cheapest frame grabber we could find, and used an old computer with USB capability to interface with it. We liked the Snappy, it ran for 5 years without a hitch. If the new system is that reliable we will be happy.