Guide needed for Zipabox and MJPEG cameras

I believe community needs a good documentation on how Zipabox is handling the MJPEG cameras.

I intend to document my findings so far based hoping so it may help someone else. My conclusions and statements below may be challenged to be wrong by Zipato or any other community member - but that would be a good thing to come closer to a better documentation.

The information is relevant to FOSCAM MJPEG cameras - which should be applicable to many other FOSCAM clones and could be adapted to others. Just search the API for your MJPEG camera.

GENERAL INFORMATION:

• Zipato's method of updating the camera thumbnails is a bit awkward. It displays the most recent picture in the FTP area as the current thumbnail. No picture in FTP area: no thumbnail! Moreover the picture must be residing in the /alarm subfolder. To keep the thumbnail fresh, motion detection FTP upload must be activated in the camera's own settings. An easier method could be Zipato utilising the snapshot URL when refresh thumbnail is clicked!!!
• Android App is able to fetch the live mjpeg stream only when both the phone and the camera is in the same IP subnet. Otherwise it fails with unable to load the camera stream.
• Web UI fetches the live mjpeg stream both when home and outside.
• (Zipato must have missed something here to make sure mjpeg stream is routed correctly when camera is accessed from the phone. Why I think so? Cause the issue does not occur with RTSP streaming - the phone plays the RTSP stream regardless of the IP subnet)
• Zipato does not relay audio even if the camera is capable.
• Important features like PTZ control, preset positions seems not to be implemented yet. But that may be on the way. Device Manager --> IP --> [Camera Main Device] --> [Camera Name] --> shows a Camera Control node, though empty. May be Zipato will allow us to configure URLs for camera control here in the future.
• (However it is still possible to do this via the rules. currently: just make the following 2 HTTP requests to PAN the camera right
• http://cameraIP:port/decoder_control.cgi?command=4&user=username&pwd=password
• http://cameraIP:port/decoder_control.cgi?command=1&user=username&pwd=password)
• Zipato does not have a setting to change camera IP. If you must change the IP, you need to delete and recreate the camera from the start!!!
• Zipato can you please give the option to change camera IP/URL. Deleting and recreating a camera is an awful process which impacts many other user preferences like alarm partition settings, rules, etc..

ADDING THE CAMERA:

Non Zipato brand cameras are generally not found by Camera Search but added through IP scan or manual IP entry.

CONFIGURING THE CAMERA:

ZIPABOX Camera Settings:

1. ADMIN DETAILS
2. URL: empty - and cannot be edited by the user.
3. Username: A user (defined in the camera's own interface) with at least OPERATOR privileges. Long usernames tend to fail. 8 characters is recommended.
4. Password: Make sure the password is max 10 characters, and does not include any special characters. Otherwise weird access problems do occur.
5. DATA FROM CAMERA
6. Mjpeg stream: /videostream.cgi?user=${username}&pwd=${password}
7. Hi quality stream: empty
8. Low quality stream: empty
9. Snapshot path: /snapshot.cgi?user=${username}&pwd=${password}
10. Thumbnail delay: 0 # No idea what this parameters does. May be Zipato can explain?

Settings to be done in Camera's own interface:

1. FTP settings: fill in the username and password shown in Zipato Camera Settings interface. Do not tick upload image now, and make sure upload interval is 0. Otherwise camera will upload a picture to the FTP area conctinuously every interval seconds - you will clutter your camera archive unnecessarily. Type "./alarm" (without quotes) into FTP Upload folder parameter. This last step is crucial otherwise Zipato's refresh thumbnail function tends to fail.
2. Alarm settings: tick the relevant checkboxes to activate motion detection alarm. Set the sensitivity as you wish (I prefer highest value). Tick to enable upload to FTP area when motion detected. This is to make sure Zipato camera thumbnail refresh shows the most current image.

That's all for now.