Problem adding second camera

Forum for questions and support relating to the 1.25.x releases only.
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dadkind
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2012 8:02 pm

Problem adding second camera

Post by dadkind »

Hello (newbie here),
I have installed v1.25 with a cheap generic CCD I got off ebay. Everything was working OK.

Today, I tried adding a second CCD camera but I'm having some trouble. The new camera is another generic/cheap ebay purchase. (I'm a newbie so the forum won't let me post links to the cameras/video card).

I've set it up to use the 352x288 resolution mode and I can see the output. But then things get screwy.

On both monitors, the old camera and the new camera, I get an extra band of "stuff" at the bottom. It looks like part of the image from Camera2 is showing up on Camera1 monitor, and vice versa. I've attached a screen cap from Camera1/Monitor6 and Camera2/Monitor7 so you can see what I'm trying to describe.

The problem is that Camera1 is set to "modetect" and my movement on Camera2 is raising hundreds of alarms on Camera1 (Camera2 is sitting on my desk pointing at me at this time). I believe that the image from Camera2/Monitor7 that bleeds on to Camera1/Monitor6 is triggering the alarm.

So, how can I keep Camera2/Monitor7 from showing up on Camera1/Monitor6? And vice versa?

More importantly, what is causing the overlap? Can I simply adjust the resolution settings to make things work? Or is there something else going on here?

Any insights are appreciated.
Attachments
Screen cap of monitor 7
Screen cap of monitor 7
Monitor7.png (129.21 KiB) Viewed 3443 times
This is the screen cap of Monitor6
This is the screen cap of Monitor6
Monitor6.png (145.52 KiB) Viewed 3443 times
bb99
Posts: 943
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2008 12:04 am

Re: Problem adding second camera

Post by bb99 »

Not much relevant information given here so I'll make some assumptions: I assume these cameras are analog and connected via a capture card. The capture card has only one video chip or both the monitors are set up on the same chip of a multi chip card. If this is describing your system then bring up options::config and untick V4L_MULTI_BUFFER and change the CAPTURES_PER_FRAME to a value of 2 (or more), restart ZM or reboot system and check. Post results
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punch-card
Posts: 39
Joined: Thu Nov 25, 2010 10:29 pm
Location: St Peters MO

Re: Problem adding second camera

Post by punch-card »

ditto on not much info, but if are using a capture card (bttv), your modprobe.conf configuration is important for issues like you are seeing. Not that I am an expert, but I just finished fixing my similar issues by editing on the "options" line.
Best Regards
Mike
dadkind
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2012 8:02 pm

Re: Problem adding second camera

Post by dadkind »

(Apologies on the lack of info; the forum won't let me post links to my card/cameras).

Making changes to V4L_MULTI_BUFFER and CAPTURES_PER_FRAME didn't clear everything up. I still get the "junk" at the bottom of the monitors. But I am no longer getting unexpected alarms. So the system seems to be working, even though the monitors "look funny".

What info can I post that will help the most?

On my SUSE 12 system "find" can't locate a "modprobe.conf" (not the first oddity I've run into with SUSE), but there are several "*.conf" files including "zm.conf".

Is there any command line dump/info that would help here?


Lastly, let me retry posting the links.
Video card: www (dot) amazon (dot) com/gp/product/B008TMD3I2/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00
Camera2/Monitor7: www (dot) ebay (dot) com/itm/261097942288?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
dadkind
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2012 8:02 pm

Re: Problem adding second camera

Post by dadkind »

I've adjusted the height/width of the Monitor definitions to exclude the "extra stuff" and everything now looks correct. The "extra stuff" at the bottom is gone and the alarms are going off as expected. (I seem to recall that my trying these adjustments caused the monitors to scroll, so I must have made the adjustments incorrectly).

So I think that the changes to V4L_MULTI_BUFFER and CAPTURES_PER_FRAME did the trick.

Thanks for your help!

-tomas
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