Any tips for getting an saa7146 DVR Board to work?

jgazin · Post by **jgazin** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 7:41 pm

Hi,
I've been trying to get an saa7146 sixteen channel DVR board to worl with ZoneMinder. There is a video4linux driver for it and it shows up under /dev as:
individual devices: vcs, vcs1 through vcs7 and vcsa0 through vcsa7.
and in the /dev/vcc directory as: 0 through 7 and a0 through a7.

Is there any Linux trick I can use to get this device to show up under /dev/video? The uncompressed video output of the board should be compatible with those handled by ZoneMinder. This is a basic board w/o any hardware compression.

I'm using the ZoneMinder Live cd upgraded to ver 1.21.0

Any help or comments would be appreciated. Even knowing it can't be done would be a big help.

Thanks,
jgazin

matrix · Post by **matrix** » Tue May 10, 2005 12:45 am

if the output is really v4l, you can just symlink /dev/video0 -> /dev/vcs0 (for each one)

--francois

dmit · Post by **dmit** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 10:03 am

jgazin: so is it working for you?

what kind of driver do you use?

what is the name of the board?

I just have a SAA7146 sixteen channel DVR board from unknown manufacturer and trying to make it work too. But still no success.

I see a HICAP50B written on the board, and that's all.

Some info from the manual:

Model Name: HC50
Camera Inputs: 8,16ea
Default Resolutions: 352*240(NTSC) / 352*288(PAL)
Total Display FPS: Ave. 50, Max. 60
Total Recording FPS: Ave. 50, Max. 60
Connector Type: External BNC Cable / Internal Molex Cable
Sensor In / Alarm Out: Sensor Inputs: 16ea, Alarm Outputs: 4ea
Overlay Function: Software Overlay
TV Out Function: 1 Channel selectable
Watch-Dog Function: Yes
Video Compression: Both Software MJPEG and Wavelet supported

sixgun · Post by **sixgun** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 11:58 am

I have an SAA7146 based board sort of working in ubuntu 5.10.

I say sort of because i cannot get streaming to work in mpeg mode, only in jpeg mode.

I am new to zoneminder and getting video working in linux too. So it could just be that.

Anyway, i have got a camera connected up to the board in motion detection mode, and it seems to work ok, capturing a bunch of still frames when anything moves.

I was trying out ubuntu on the machine which just happened to have the card in the PCI slot and the little red LED lit up, so i figured i'd stick with ubuntu for the CCTV machine i am building.

If there is anything i can look at on my machine to help you guys out, let me know. You might have to take me step-by-step through it though. I am familiar with linux, but by no means an expert.

fatbanb · Post by **fatbanb** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 12:51 pm

SixGun
what do you have in inital page. This like in in my ZM:

1. Cam_1 Monitor /dev/video0 (0)

If I perform:
# v4l-info

I get:
open /dev/video0: No such file or directory

and similar with v4l-conf
# v4l-conf
ioctl VT_GETSTATE: Invalid argument

What are results of this in your machine?

sixgun · Post by **sixgun** » Thu Aug 10, 2006 4:55 pm

I had to use the hardware for something else, so i don't have a running system at the moment.

I will come back to it at some point, but other "projects" are more pressing.

Thanks anyway.

freeman.bg · Post by **freeman.bg** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 10:03 am

Hello.
I have the same problem. My card is HICAP 50B and my linux fouund the prorpyate driver for it saa7146, but i have no respond from vcs->vcs8.
When i try to run v4l-info the result is :
"open /dev/video0: No such file or directory".

Can anyone help me ?