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On the Deep Lake page I have installed an Mcam 100 Motion Digital Web Camera.  Created by a Korean company,  this camera features 180 degree Pan and 100 degree tilt controlled remotely via the Internet.  It really allows me to enjoy my lake view when I am away traveling for business or when I’m at our other residence. 

Initially, installation was a bit troublesome for me…  The camera that I purchased had a lower version of software included in the box and I could not get it to function over the Internet.   I quickly contacted tech support and within just a few hours I had upgraded to version 3 of the software and things began to work as I had hoped and planned.

The version of the camera that I have does require not only a USB connection but also a serial connection to your PC.  There are versions of the camera that function solely on a USB connection.  They also offer as an accessory an extension cables that allows you to extend the standard 9 foot cable for those difficult and hard to reach camera placements.  For now, I just installed it in my office window.  I didn’t need the extension.

If you have an Internet connection that uses a router you will need to “open” the necessary port to allow for the UDP traffic from the Internet to reach the PC where the camera was attached.  A typical installation would be to open the port that is 7000 + the last octet of the PC’s IP address.  (DHCP could be problematic because you would not know which IP address to redirect the traffic to.)  In my setup I just changed the PC to have a static IP of 10.1.1.99 and then I opened port 7099 to forward to that IP address. 

A quick installation would include:

1. Create an account at the mcam website.  (This is used to direct people to your camera) 
2. Configure your PC’s IP address and your router’s port forwarding to that IP.
3. Install the software (version 3) - It is going to ask you for your mcam login information.
4. Attach the camera and allow the drivers to be found by Windows,  then perform a reboot.
5. Configure the camera as you would like in the server software.  You can include time, some camera setup options, etc.
6. Link to the camera from your web page (if you want others to see it) or simply save the address as a bookmark for your own private use.

So far I am quite happy with the installation…  If you would like to try it out, there is a demonstration camera on their website.   You can also find additional tech information here.  If you have an interest in Deep Lake and would like to be able to control the camera up there leave me a comment on the Deep Lake page.

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