RTFM! and related matters

ecc83

Well-known member
Ok, bear with...

Last week I bought a £100+ outdoor camera with full zoom/focus, pan and tilt remotely controllable from a laptop (or smart phone I do not have) .

After some 5 hours of hacking I eventually got (v good) pictures through the camera to this HP i3 laptop when the camera was on an RJ45 copper link to my home network (laptop talks to network wirelessly). Another day of intense work and frustration however ensued before I could get the pan and tilt mech' to work but I did and went to bed feeling a bit full "of it"!

Next day I resolved to get the camera working over wi fi, it will after all be outside and a cable would be a problem. Eff in 'ell! Not only could I NOT get wireless to work but "something" crashed my HP lappy to the extent that another day's work (5 hrs on chkdisc) was needed to rescue it.

The camera company HAVE been MOST helpful but I am now rather wary of starting the process again* although I am now much more convinced it was a Java update that borked my PC rather than the camera software.

The MORAL of this tale NOOBS is that computer stuff IS tricky! It needs concentration and dedication, nothing will come easy. I have been dabbling with AIs and digital audio now for well over 5 years and so have "some" smarts and instincts but, just put me a wee bit out of my sphere of experience and I am floundering like most of you!

*I am actually going to sacrifice the Wife's E-Systems laptop..Not a word!

Will post about this in Noobs as well.

Dave.
 
Well, it's an E...You don't get it Mike...It's HER laptop/brick!

Anyhooses. Got my HP cooking again and I did try the wife's, no joy at all. Before the crash I did have pictures and PZT working. Now I cannot even get the camera to show up.

Running the software finds ID's and an IP code (192.168.1.226) but clicking on that data (as before) gets me nowhere. "Cannot connect too....." and a suggestion to put the code into Google. No fear! I think that is what borked it first time!

I have now sent the company the latest non-results with screen shots of the not working software.

Watch this space (wish I could watch one wiv me £100 camera!)

Dave.
 
One of the problems is that so often stuff is supposed to be "plug'n'play" so they don't bother giving you an FM to R.

....which is fine as long as it works the first time but not so good if there's some kind of small error that takes days to trace. In some ways, computer life was easier in the days of MS-DOS when you had to install EVERYTHING manually.
 
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