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Time-lapse FAQ

What is the image URL of my IP camera ?

Try searching for YOUR-WEBCAM-MODEL webcam current image url or similar in search engines.

Or try here to find the webcam model in ispy’s camera connection database

How can I use a password protected camera ?

Username and password can be included in the URL like this:

http://user:password@your-domain/img.jpg

If your camera requires advanced authentication mode (digest, ntlm), please activate Use advanced HTTP authentication (Image URL) in “Advanced settings”. Using the default basic authentication can lead to “empty file” errors in the dashboard.

If there are special chars in password, they need to be encoded to be used in the URL. Using a guest account in your camera with a simpler password might be a solution.

My camera image is always the same, but not when tested in browser ?

Perhaps your camera or webserver is caching the images. Please try adding the string ‘{timestamp}’ to bypass caches. Example:

http://your-domain/img.jpg?{timestamp}

If your URL has a parameter like t=1234412315, just replace it with “t={timestamp}`. A different value for the timestamp variable will be used on each request.

How can I upload the current image with a script ?

You can use the FTP connection. Get your FTP credentials (step 1, then use some ftp client. On unix systems we recommend lftp. Example upload:

lftp -e "put image.jpg; bye" -u user_19g3em20,GbGfp2Umv ftp.webcam.io

How do I connect my USB desktop camera ?

You can use FTP Upload tools for your operating system to capture and upload the current image. Some examples are: yawcam or tincam.

Then see FTP-Upload howto (Step 1) to get your FTP credentials and set your software to an upload schedule matching your ‘snapshots per day’ interval setting.

How do I use dynamic text overlays ?

Please see here for setup details

Dynamic text overlays are inserted by using variables in your Webcam settings -> Text Overlays. Just insert the variable into the text overlay field, i.e.:

{timestamp}

This adds the current timestamp for you webcam timezone to your images. Press the ‘Image Preview’ button to see if it works and do not forget to save the settings when everything is ok.

You can insert the text data from a website (weather data is a good example – an updating website showing ‘temp: 10°C’ etc).

{url:http://your-domain.com/data.txt}

You can also use the API to push data to be used for the next image. There are two variables available:

{dynamic1}
{dynamic2}

What is the privacy mode ?

There are 2 levels to hide your webcam from the public (in ‘Advanced Settings’ for your webcam):

Do not list: Your webcam is not listed in ‘Webcams & Videos’, ‘Clips’ and search machines do not index the page. Webcam page can be accessed by anyone knowning the URL.

Login required: Webcam page can only be accessed as logged in owner. Otherwise ‘You are not authorized to access this page.’ is displayed.

Note: Embedding the widget code for your webcam will not work. Please use ‘Do not list’ mode with widgets.

Can I delete all images of a day ?

Yes, to delete all images (and clips!) of a day, go to your webcam page and press the trash-icon next to a day in the ‘Days’ box.

There is also a delete button for the full week or all images below.

Note: You need to be logged in. And it takes a few minutes until images are deleted and the day is removed from the list.

This is the link to the latest image in 640x480px (default / free plan) resolution:

https://assets1.webcam.io/w/WEBCAM-ID/latest.jpg

Higher resolution (max 1920x1080, not on free plan):

https://assets1.webcam.io/w/WEBCAM-ID/latest_hd.jpg

240x180:

https://assets1.webcam.io/w/WEBCAM-ID/latest_sm.jpg

full resolution image (max 1920x1080, not on free plan):

https://assets1.webcam.io/w/WEBCAM-ID/latest_hd.jpg

Preview images (animated GIF), updated every 5 minutes (1 hour on free plan):

https://assets1.webcam.io/w/WEBCAM-ID/preview.gif

Get your webcam ID from Dashboard -> Webcams list. Example: x9vlLz

Why is my rendered video flipped / mirrored ?

This happens with some camera models. Please use the workaround setting: go to “advanced settings” for your webcam and check the “flip horizontal” or “flip vertical” box.

This will change the next video. If you need the old video files please contact us to get the videos rerendered.

Widgets: which values can I use for custom ranges ?

some examples for the from/to fields:

7 days ago 12:30
3 days ago
yesterday 2am
last week monday 00:00
last week sunday 23:59

The default range will be used if the custom range has errors or can not be parsed. You will get a not found page if from-date is newer than to-date, or from-date is older than your plans storage time.

My YouTube upload is not working, what can I do ?

Please go to Dashboard -> Integrations and re-authorize the YouTube connection.

If that still does not work, please remove the connection to webcam-io in your google account settings for connected applications., then re-authorize.