Nice, I just did a video blog on the low-end Panasonic network cameras, showcasing them and giving links to the ones that I installed, but I wasn’t aware of this one. They are all good, and the fact that they don’t require a computer is golden. One question - do you know if this camera will suffer from CCD burnout if aimed at the sun? According to a comment in my blog, the inside cameras will. I’d like to see a wireless version of these low end cameras, I don’t want to have to run Ethernet outside.
got a question… so when the camera is hooked up to the router… where does the image go… ? does it load to a site that Panasonic maintains or does it sit there and we upload it somewhere else…
I forwarded a port though my router to the camera. When someone goes through my website to see the camera the image is pulled directly from the camera while the rest of the page comes from my sites host.
Or you can use WD to capture a .jpg image from the camera’s own server via your network.
I appreciate the information. As soon as the printer is paid then we move on to bigger game.
Oh my laser went funny last night and it is having difficulty, so I ordered a HP 2015d, it does duplex and I would like that function, so HP had a deal on the price so I ordered that .
The good news is the wife wants a new computer,so maybe hers is that far gone,with a lot of cleaning up the hard drive, I can once again get it to run WD and be fine, go with the IP logger or the serial, then add the camera.
I am going to bookmark the pages you provided and go from there when all this extra stuff is settled this winter. 
I was surprised to see that, after successfully forwarding port 80 to a Panasonic cam, if I forward port 81 on my router to a second cam, it doesn’t work when calling http://myipaddresshere:81
Has anyone else experienced this issue?
Did you change the port on the 2nd cam to 81?
Me too now. 
http://www.isleofskyeweather.org.uk/24elgol/wxcam.php
Though I’ve nothing to measure it aganist, I’m impressed by the dawn / dusk performance.
There is considerable flare around the sun when that is in the field of view - but that may not be helped by the fact that the camera is currently behind a double glazed window.
I’d rather the camera was pointing S towards Rum (which has a light covering of snow this morning), but that possibility will have to await construction of a box and the running of a cable.
I wasn’t sure if the low energy / low power Fit-PC Slim that WD runs on would be up to the job of producing videos from the timestamped images, but from initial tests it seems quite capable of making .swf’s without bring the system to its knees.
Nice pic at the moment :thumbright:
azjerry, how are you getting your pictures up on the internet? Im trying to get them up on wunderground and i can’t get them to refresh automatically. The image gets sent to wunderground when i save the buffered images, which deletes all the other images, but only the first image gets sent. Also it seems like it stops updating like after a 120 frames, it doesnt update anymore, this is with the cd that was given. Have you experienced the same problems?
The BL-C140A is a great cam - price/features. On Amazon you have to search with the full text “Panasonic BL-C140A” to find it.
TenM3 (www.tenm3.com ) can be used to put live-views (real-time) from this cam on the website. It puts only a single load on the camera so many people can see the live-view without impacting the camera bandwidth (as would be the case if Viewers went to the cam directly). The live streams can be recorded also.
A few live weather feeds with Panasonic’s can be seen here. None with the BL-C140 though …
http://www.tenm3.com/blogs/?p=522
to setup live streaming on the website
http://www.tenm3.com/blogs/?p=172
tombo,
I use a couple of different ways. For the streaming video I go directly to the camera via a forwarded port. I have the camera set to only stream for a minute so as to not tie up my internet connection.
For the thumbnail and main webcam page image I use two variations of the multifunction-image-handler.php script to superimpose the weather data. The base image for this also comes directly from the camera. The web page is currently set to refresh the image every 5 seconds.
I use webcamcapture.exe to capture an image every two minutes. These are used to build the hourly, daily and yesterday videos.
Upload to WU is all done by the camera.
- A single timer, always on, every day, 1 minute buffer, FTP
- WU login info, login every time, save as new file, passive mode
thanks a ton, it worked on WU
azjerry: Have you figured out how the clock works? I’m away from mine now and didn’t have chance to play with that. The manual says something like it “updates each day at power up”. Does it update each day even if the power doesn’t cycle? I think it loses the time setting if it’s powered down, so setting up the time server may be mandatory.
I’ve had automatic time update enabled since the beginning and haven’t knowingly power cycled it since then. (wish I could find an up timer in it) As far as I can tell the clock is spot on.
I see a new CGI guide that includes the BL-C140A’s firmware version is available:
http://panasonic.co.jp/pcc/products/en/netwkcam/download/us/document/Camera_CGI_Interface_v3.51.pdf
Of course it’s full of Engrish* so can be a bit hard to follow in places. :lol:
Thanks for the link. I hope to be able to spend some more time on it at the weekend.
Hello All…
Pretty nice images being created by that camera.also some nice views through your locations around the world.
I also like the idea that the cam can be placed outside, under the eaves perhaps and then also shielded from rain using a clear plastic type enclosure of sorts one would have to make themselfs by visiting local home depot or similiar store.
I do have one question also. What temp’s does it say that this cam can handle outdoors? will it survive in below freezing temps or would it need a heated enclosure if temps are to drop below 32 F.
…chris
another question also…
what lenth cat5 cable does it come with? or does it not come with any cat5 cable?
it shows that the cat5 cable from the camera to the box should be nop longer than 98 feet…how long can the cat 5 cable be from the box/juntion powered box…to the back of the router?
thanks again…chris
Cat 5/5e ethernet is generally limited to 100 metres, about 300 feet, so I would say the total length of Cat 5 between the camera and the router/hub/switch should be maximum 300 feet, so that leaves you about 200 feet between the router/hub/switch and the power injector if you use the max from the power injector to the cam.
I don’t recall any cable being in the box, certainly no long cables are supplied.
Hello Niko…
thanks for the reply and help.
I did also manage to figure out at what outside temperature’s this camera is specified to work in…and the outdoor temp range it says on spec’s page is -20