I bought this on a Gold Box deal and am very glad I did. First, the image quality is superb. Trendnet supplies software to assist in setting up the camera but people with a bit of technical experience can go straight to the web interface and set things up there and there are some great features that allow you to set this camera up pretty much however you want.
All of the camera settings are configurable - brightness, contrast, saturation, frame rate, resolution, and even settings to synchronize with 50 or 60 Hz lighting or outdoors. It also supports WPA2 encryption and three levels of password-protected access. You can have it grab images based on movement (requires accessing the camera with Internet Explorer to configure that for some reason) or on a time schedule, and either have it e-mail the images or ftp them somewhere. And it supports dynamic domain name configuration so you can access the camera even if your IP address changes.
It also supports time and date stamping the images - pretty much a necessity - but it also supports accessing an NTP server to make sure the onboard clock is accurate.
And once you get the camera all set up the way you want it, you can save out the configuration file to make it a snap to reconfigure it in case you ever do a hard reset that restores all the defaults.
Not that it will matter to most, but this camera server is actually a full ARM-based computer running Linux. If you go to the Trendnet website, besides getting the latest firmware, you can also get the source code for the camera OS for those that want to tinker.
The final issue is just the value. You are getting a video camera and a web-serving computer with both wired and wireless interfaces for this price. I'm glad I got mine and am using it to monitor my front porch for visitors and also as a way to monitor the weather at home. With multiple cameras, it's easy to monitor all sorts of things if someone wants to.
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Install and set-up went OK, test position close to the WLAN router went OK.
ReplyDeleteInstalled at the intended location the "W" started to act up within a day, unplugging and replugging would get it back to work for a few hours.
Then it quit, won't even do "W" mode when close to the router. Works just fine when on the wire.
Reading a few of the other "trials and tribulations" I think this one will go back. ;) :)
Update on the above:
I obtained a RMA from the seller and a replacement (naturally it's "pay up-front" for that! ;) :) ), but then decided that there had to be a solution to the WLAN problem.
There sure was: get EVERY ONE of the settings correct and it works. That includes ALL the Wireless settings including the encryption i.e. if the router is set to HEX make sure the cam settings are in HEX too! The other pit fall: correct channel! for some strange reason the channel setting will revert back to the default (6) unless one sets the channel, selects mode as "ad-hoc", then "apply". After the "Apply" go back and reset the mode to "Infrastructure". The channel setting finally stayed!
Next project will be getting the focus as clear as possible for the outside, the reviews keep mentioning the excellent picture quality ... not so far! ;) :)
Just visit this site for more information on Trendnet Wireless Internet Camera Server TV IP110W
Thank you for the good writeup...I appreciate with that.
ReplyDeletePoint to point wireless link