Electronics logitech cam to webserver?

I remember reading about a webserver in a pic, would it be possible to to rig up a logitech usb cam as a standalone? If anyone has any info on what I would need to do this or knows of it being done please post.

 

Yes it would be possible. Please insert a peice of wire into the right hand socket of a mains outlet, and hold the other end with your teeth.

But #1. if your posting here you have no chance of pulling it off.

2, using the USB part of the cam would be incredibly stupid.

3, processing the data fast enough in a PIC (say gif jpeg on the fly compression) no way.

 

1) why?
2) I didnt plan on using the usb part, it is just the type of cam it is.
3) It would be a static image, like updated by the pic every 5 minutes or so, just somthing I could use for like remote monitoring, when my pc is off.

Ideally, I would hook it to the router.

thanks for the reply tho.

 

What theanimus is saying, it that it would be nearly impossible unless you really realy know what you are doing. The pic microcontroller has barely enough processing power to run the TCP/IP stack (the communications for a web server); getting the pic to also talk to a camera would be very hard and time consuming. Also, you say that you want to plug it into Ethernet. This adds another layer of complexity because most of the pic based web servers plug in to a computer through the serial port and the computer routs the signals. It is not impossible but unless you have quite a bit of experience programming in assembly and allot of time to spare, it would be impossible. A much better and cheaper alternative is to buy a pre-made web cam/server. I know that they exist but I’m not sure who makes them.

 

I know they exist, and they are over $100 for the ones I have seen. I just wanted to know what it would involve. I have no problem gaining the experience, I just never really got into this stuff before. Now I am getting into it and have ideas that I would like to impliment. Also, ethernet was just an idea, I have older pcs that I could throw linux on to run it via serial, but at that point the pic wouldnt really be neccisary.

 

a PIC can do the TCP/IP stack fine, as long as you don't expect a BSD-esc socket interface.

First you need to be fluent in ARP (major boring **!*)
Then you need to be familiar in ICMP (z\zzzzzzzzzzz)
On top of that you then need some UDP (*snores*)
and to round it all off, some TCP/IP! (dribbles)

Fun!

Its very possible to do it using a PIC, if you had an external MAC interface chip, like a relteck one or similar, but ods are that would cost you $25 straight off, then add to that a hardware JPEG encoder chip deli, and your up another $20. Also you would probably need more than one micro if you intent on using a PIC (you could get away with just one high end AVR).

In short, no.

I've been using micros in ASM for over 4 years now, i found it hard making the code fast enough for doing simple mp3 control over ethernet. I never even bothered to make it stable!

Nice idea, but cost wise, you would spend more than $100.

 

thanks, that was the kind of info I was after.

 

actually...

Creating a webcam webserver isn't that difficult, even using USB. Personally, I'd go for something a bit bigger than a pic (e.g. one of the Atmel AVRs), but that's just me. You can talk to the webcam over USB via one of those nifty FTDI USB interface chips (turns USB into serial or parallel data), and you can implement the ethernet side of things using a Crystal uP ethernet controllor (forget the exact chip number). Implementing the stack isn't that difficult, as you can leave chunks of it out for something this specialised.

Actually, speaking of, I recently saw a design for a java-based webserver that did pretty much exactly what you want, and used the Dallas JVM iButton. It was in one of the Dallas design guides, I'll see if I can't dig it out when I get home.

And I'm sure you'd be able to do this for less than $100, especially if you already have the camera and are prepared to go begging for samples.

 

Getting hold of an FTDI chip is incredibly hard, at least it is in the UK. Also they are not the easyest of things to work with.

JVM iButton had the power to do this? Woh, i've seriously underestimated those things! Also it wouldn't be good to cut out important stuff like icmp responses etc.

 

The programming aspect isnt really an issue, I just wondered if it would be possible, right now my bank account is screwed up so I am putting this on hold for a while. As I said tho, the usb wasnt going to be used at all since if I had it teathered to a pc I wouldnt need to do anything. if you find that guide tho let me know.

Thanks for the info either way.