HOWTO – Avoid infrared reflections in your Y-cam Shell
The Y-cam Shell is a great way to mount your Y-cam White, Y-cam Black and Y-cam Knight camera outdoors. It is designed for ease-of-use and work with the wireless capabilities of the Y-cam range.
We are asked regularly why the cameras’ internal LEDs (Black and Knight) reflect back from the Y-cam Shell’s internal dome. There is a very simple solution to this.
Each Y-cam Shell comes with two manuals – one for the Y-Cam White and one for the Y-Cam Black and Y-Cam Knight. The difference between these cameras is night view capability through built-in infrared LEDs. When installing your camera into the Y-cam Shell ensure you follow the instructions from the appropriate manual.
The only other difference during installation is that for the Y-Cam Black and Y-Cam Knight you must remove the Shell’s internal dome before installing the camera. The dome on both the Black and the Knight cameras is capable of external installation and when mounted in the Shell this is what projects from the front of the housing.
Y-Cam Shell with internal dome in place.
Y-Cam Shell with internal dome removed for installation of Y-Cam Black or Knight.
If you install your Y-Cam Black or Knight into the Shell with the internal dome still attached the infrared LEDs on the camera will reflect on the internal dome and ruin your night-time images.
We think the Y-Cam Shell manual isn’t particularly clear on this point and many people miss this key step in the installation process.
HOWTO: Automatically create video clips using motion detection in a Y-cam IP camera
Taking what we have learned from HOWTO: Create video clips on demand for local hard disk storage using the Y-cam IP camera we can take it a step further.
How about instead of manually creating video clips each time we have the camera create them automatically when it detects motion? Sounds like that kind of thing would be useful eh? Well it’s very simple to set up so let’s take a look at how it is done.
This guide is suitable for the following Y-cam models:
HOWTO: Create video clips on demand for local hard disk storage using the Y-cam IP camera
One of the interesting features of the Y-cam home security camera is its ability to record short video clips with audio. These video files are stored natively in .asf format, suitable for playing back using Microsoft Windows Media Player.
This guide will show you how to create video files on demand by manually selecting the video start and stop points from the camera’s live view interface. We will also show you how to choose the location for storage of your video clips and also how you can limit the maximum file size per video.
This guide is suitable for the following Y-cam models:
Differences between Y-cam IP cameras, Y-cam White, Y-cam Black and Y-cam Knight
See our handy cheat-sheet below which notes the key differences between the 1st and 2nd-generation models and also the difference between the Y-cam White, Black and Knight IP cameras.
| Y-cam White | Y-cam Black | Y-cam Knight | |
| 1st Generation |
Color daylight viewing
Moonlight mode for increased brightness in low light environments down to 1 lux Finish: White |
Night vision camera with built-in infrared illumination giving highly detailed black and white images even in complete darkness
IR light travels at 15m distance Color images during the day may be prone to discoloration due to infrared light Finish: Black |
N/A |
| 2nd Generation |
Additions for the 2nd Gen model:
MJPEG mode for added compatibility with multiple browsers, platforms and applications RTSP dialog which allows a VLC player (such as Quicktime, Real Player etc.) to download and display a video stream directly from the camera 3GPP viewer for 3G mobile devices |
Additions for the 2nd Gen model:
MJPEG mode for added compatibility with multiple browsers, platforms and applications RTSP dialog which allows a VLC player (such as Quicktime, Real Player etc.) to download and display a video stream directly from the camera 3GPP viewer for 3G mobile devices |
The Y-cam Knight has only ever been available as a 2nd Generation model.
Night vision camera with built-in infrared illumination giving highly detailed black and white images even in complete darkness IR light travels at 15m distance Color images during the day may be prone to discoloration due to infrared light MJPEG mode for added compatibility with multiple browsers, platforms and applications RTSP dialog which allows a VLC player (such as Quicktime, Real Player etc.) to download and display a video stream directly from the camera 3GPP viewer for 3G mobile devices Finish: White |
Note there is no change in the camera’s physical outer appearance between 1st and 2nd generation models.
HOWTO: Set up a Y-cam to send emails using a Google Mail (Gmail) account
Here’s a quick HOWTO guide for something we get asked about a lot. How to use your Google Mail (Gmail) account with your Y-cam to send emails.
Almost all IP cameras have some form of email functionality but not all support a secure SSL connection which Google Mail requires. This isn’t normally a problem as the email account details you get from your ISP can be used in most circumstances but for people who want to use Gmail, read on.
This guide will show you the settings to use on the ‘e-Mail Server setup’ page in the Y-cam. How you then use these settings (alarm management, periodic sending) is up to you.
E-Mail Server Setup
The settings above should be self explanatory. The SMTP server name and port comes from Google Mail and you must enable both the Secure SSL connection and Authentication for it to work.
Then you must enter your own Gmail account details noting that when it asks for the user name you only use the first part of your Gmail email address.
Then the only important setting is the Receiver mail addresses of which you can enter up to 3. These are the email addresses which will receive the email from the camera.
All other settings are optional but you can see what they are by the entries we have used above.
If you find you can’t get the camera to send an email using the settings above then it could be the ISP is not allowing it. Some ISPs won’t let you use any other SMTP server other than their own (British Telecom BT are a good example of this). For these cases simply use the SMTP server details from your ISP in the camera (normally minus SSL and Authentication being enabled).
If you have any questions or feedback please leave comments below.
Y-Cam – What’s the difference
We get asked a lot what the difference between a Y-cam Black and a Y-cam knight is. In general:
- They are both ideal for home surveillance
- They can both operate wirelessly
- They are both easy to set up
- They both have audio built-in
- They both deliver quality images in zero-light environments
- They can both be used to create video clips
- They both detect motion and send an email with an image attached
- They can both be used outdoors with the Y-cam Shell
- They both have a maximum resolution of 640×480 pixels (VGA)
- They both stream to MJPEG and MPEG4
- They can both be viewed on iPhones and other cellphones
- They both come with free multi-live software
- They are not both the same color
In short, they’re exactly the same as one another apart from the color.
We hope that settles it.
HOWTO – View your Y-Cam on your iPhone, BlackBerry or Mobile Phone
Note: Applies to 2nd Generation Y-cams only.
Viewing the video feed from your 2nd Generation Y-Cam Black, Y-Cam Knight or Y-Cam White is easier than ever, now that Y-Cam have built controls into their cameras for just this purpose. Here are the details you need:
iPhone and iPod Touch
On the iPhone or iPod Touch you can visit the camera as you would in any desktop browser and once logged in the Y-cam will auto-detect the browser type (in this case Safari) and display a motion jpeg stream. This is a live video stream directly from the camera, but not optimised for the mobile viewing platform.
Mobile phone with browser and 3gpp capability – VLC player
On your phone’s browser visit http://ipaddress:port/en/mblogin.asp and you will see 3 options: Live picture, 3gpp stream and mobile settings. From here you can choose whether to view a static image, a video stream optimised for cellphones, or change the settings (which you may have to do to get the 3gpp stream working on your phone.
BlackBerry
As above. There are VLC players compatible with the BlackBerry which can be used to view 3gpp streams from the Y-Cam.
Direct 3gpp stream
The direct url for 3gpp streams is: rtsp://ipaddress:port/live_mpeg4.spd
This will work in 3gpp enabled phones, but will also work on your desktop in players like Quicktime and Real Player which support the 3gpp video stream type.
If that url does not work tyr this one: rtsp://ipaddress:port/live_mjpeg.sdp
Live picture
To view a live picture from the Y-Cam on your phone go to http://ipaddress:port/snapshot.jpg. This will display a static image captured at the time of request. To see a new snapshot you will need to refresh the page.
HOWTO: Embed the live image from your IP camera in a web page. Part 1 – Y-cam
“How can I show the live image from my IP camera on my web page?”
We get asked this question a lot. Whether it’s from a customer of ours who has a business they would like to promote, say from the leisure or tourism industry or from a customer who is an end user and is working on their family website, we can help with the answer.
We will be running a number of these guides to cover as many camera manufacturers as possible. This guide will focus on the Y-cam. The Y-cam is ideal for use as a streaming IP webcam as it is affordable and can be placed outdoors using it’s specially designed Shell housing.
This guide will be suitable for:
Y-cam White
Y-cam Black
Y-cam Knight
It will work for both 1st and 2nd generation models.
HOWTO: Set up your Y-cam IP Camera using a Mac
The 2nd Generation Y-cam boasts a new MJPEG video compression format which has been added to make the camera compatible with a wider number of Internet browsers and computer platforms.
Since the update we get a lot of interest from Mac users as the Y-cam now represents an affordable home security solution on the Mac platform. However, we must point out that the Y-cam is NOT fully supported. You won’t be able to use the video clip creation tools, you won’t recieve any audio and you won’t be able to use the installation software which comes on the CD-ROM to help set up the camera.
This is where a Mac user will struggle. The software which comes with the camera is Windows only so the initial setup can prove difficult for the average Mac user. We are here to lend a hand.
This HOWTO guide shows one method of setting up your Y-cam using a Mac. This guide is suitable for the following cameras:
Y-cam White
Y-cam Black
Y-cam Knight
You will also need an Ethernet crossover cable so that you can connect your Y-cam directly to your Mac without using a router or switch. You can obtain a crossover cable from any good computer store.
Top 5 Home Security IP Cameras for Mac Users
As any Mac user will tell you they generally get stuffed when it comes to software availability and support for their machines. Sadly when it comes to IP cameras it’s no different.
As IP video specialists it probably won’t come as any surprise that we’ve seen a one or two IP cameras in our time but luckily we also have someone who owns a Mac (yes just the one!). So here is our top 5 list of cameras which we think make ideal home security cameras for Mac users. Read more >>