The $10 Network Camera

I was digging through a box of junk and found an old Logitech Quickcam Express. I started to throw it away, but wanted to see just what could be done with the archaic device. A little google-searching turned up a link to "webcam_server" which is a small Linux based program that allows you to view the Quickcam from a web browser. The installation is straight forward using the proper Linux Quickcam drivers. I wrote the install script for Centos, but you could modify it for other Linux flavors.

1) Download the Centos4 "Single Server CD" (it's 580 megs).

2) Install the "Minimal" software packages.

3) yum -y update && reboot

After the reboot, plug in the Quickcam to the USB port and check to see if the system recognizes it by entering lsusb at the linux prompt.
You should see the Logitech camera listed. If it does not show up, fix the problem before continuing.

4) wget http://www.prestonmoore.com/images/ezwebcam.sh

5) sh ezwebcam.sh

The Quickcam driver installation asks a bunch of questions. I just hit "Enter" for all of the prompts.

6) nano +10 /var/www/html/webcam.html
Change "http://localhost:8888" to the IP of your server "http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8888"

Now open a web browser on a network computer and enter this line => http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/webcam.html
(the IP of the machine with the cam server for the "xxx")
Remember the browser must be Java enabled for the applet to run. You should have a live webcam running like this.

The default frame rate is set to one frame per second. You can change this by entering:

nano +11 /var/www/html/webcam.html
Change the FPS value="1" to FPS value="40" (this will set the Quickcam to use maximum frame rate)

Almost forgot to mention webcam_server is started by issuing webcam_sever -s at the prompt.
Check webcam_server -h for a list of settings.

Need a cam? The Quickcams are all over ebay for $5- $10.


11-9-07
I noticed on a new Centos 5 install the script failed for some reason. If you are having problems successfully executing the script just use the "cut and paste" method. Here is the contents of the "ezwebcam.sh":


yum -y install gcc httpd kernel-devel libjpeg-devel
cd /usr/src/
wget http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/qce-ga/qc-usb-0.6.5.tar.gz
tar xvfz qc-usb-0.6.5.tar.gz
cd qc-usb-0.6.5
./quickcam.sh
echo "modprobe quickcam" >> /etc/rc.d/rc.local
modprobe quickcam
cd /usr/src/
wget http://umn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/webcamserver/webcam_server-0.50.tar.gz
tar xvfz webcam_server-0.50.tar.gz
cd webcam_server-0.50
./configure
make
make install
mv /usr/src/webcam_server-0.50/src/client/webcam.html /var/www/html/
mv /usr/src/webcam_server-0.50/src/client/applet.jar /var/www/html/
echo "webcam_server -s" >> /etc/rc.d/rc.local
service httpd start
chkconfig httpd on
webcam_server -s