If anyone wanted to add a tank cam to their Apex Dashboard or even a security camera for indoors. I figured out an easy and Free way of doing it. I used my home WiFi network and and old HTC One with a cracked screen.
Just pull out one of your old Android phones with a half way decent camera. Make sure its not too old as some of the earlier versions aren't capable of this method. Turn on the phone's Wifi and look for your wireless access point. Select it and enter your pass code, usually its found on the side of your modem box.
1. Make sure you take off any screen password required for the cell phone you are using.
2. Open up the Google Play Store, download and install "IP Webcam".
3. Open the app and setup your preferences. I recommend resolution to be set at max of 720 X 480. The output screen gets buggy at higher rates of resolution.
4. You can setup a password and login, for Apex I wouldn't recommend it unless you want a third layer of security. It does get annoying if you have to enter the login and password every time to view your video in the dashboard.
5. Another important option is to prevent it from going to sleep, and in my case I want it to stream on device boot. This is so that it will continue video in the event of a power failure or device error and your phone decides to reboot. As a preference, I also disabled audio mode for obvious reasons.
6. Click on "Start Server" at the bottom of the page. The screen on your cell phone should be showing the video feed. Write down the IP address at the bottom of the video feed exactly as it appears.
7. Open your web browser you must use Mozilla or Chrome as Internet explorer sometimes has issues with handling this format of video streaming. Go ahead and type in the IP address just as it appeared. For example: "http://100.182.151.285:8080" the last 4 digits are the port that will be accessed through your cell phone. You may or may not have changed it earlier and it must match the port you set earlier.
8. If everything is setup right your browser will show a page called "Android Webcam Server". All we are interested in is the address for Third Party software support: URL for MJPG-compatible software: http://192.168.1.50:8080/videofeed">http://192.168.1.50:8080/videofeed</a>[/B][IMG]http://192.168.1.50:8080/videofeed"> </a>[B] This address is an example. Your address will be different and assigned by your router.
[/B]9. This is your local IP address for your cell phone with the port it is accessing and then what its looking for. Copy the address exactly as it appears.
10. Open Apex go to the dashboard you want to add the video feed to. Hit edit and add the video tile. Click on the wrench on the left side and put in your[B] local[/B] IP address as you copied it from the Android Webcam Server.
You should now be able to view your local camera feed. Keep in mind you will not be able to view it outside your network, unless you add port forwarding for that local IP address in your router settings. Just as you did when you setup the Apex to your home network and added port forwarding.
That is another discussion.
Put your camera wherever you want. I might suggest that you keep it plugged in to an outlet as it will be on 24/7.
I hope this helps.
Just pull out one of your old Android phones with a half way decent camera. Make sure its not too old as some of the earlier versions aren't capable of this method. Turn on the phone's Wifi and look for your wireless access point. Select it and enter your pass code, usually its found on the side of your modem box.
1. Make sure you take off any screen password required for the cell phone you are using.
2. Open up the Google Play Store, download and install "IP Webcam".
3. Open the app and setup your preferences. I recommend resolution to be set at max of 720 X 480. The output screen gets buggy at higher rates of resolution.
4. You can setup a password and login, for Apex I wouldn't recommend it unless you want a third layer of security. It does get annoying if you have to enter the login and password every time to view your video in the dashboard.
5. Another important option is to prevent it from going to sleep, and in my case I want it to stream on device boot. This is so that it will continue video in the event of a power failure or device error and your phone decides to reboot. As a preference, I also disabled audio mode for obvious reasons.
6. Click on "Start Server" at the bottom of the page. The screen on your cell phone should be showing the video feed. Write down the IP address at the bottom of the video feed exactly as it appears.
7. Open your web browser you must use Mozilla or Chrome as Internet explorer sometimes has issues with handling this format of video streaming. Go ahead and type in the IP address just as it appeared. For example: "http://100.182.151.285:8080" the last 4 digits are the port that will be accessed through your cell phone. You may or may not have changed it earlier and it must match the port you set earlier.
8. If everything is setup right your browser will show a page called "Android Webcam Server". All we are interested in is the address for Third Party software support: URL for MJPG-compatible software: http://192.168.1.50:8080/videofeed">http://192.168.1.50:8080/videofeed</a>[/B][IMG]http://192.168.1.50:8080/videofeed"> </a>[B] This address is an example. Your address will be different and assigned by your router.
[/B]9. This is your local IP address for your cell phone with the port it is accessing and then what its looking for. Copy the address exactly as it appears.
10. Open Apex go to the dashboard you want to add the video feed to. Hit edit and add the video tile. Click on the wrench on the left side and put in your[B] local[/B] IP address as you copied it from the Android Webcam Server.
You should now be able to view your local camera feed. Keep in mind you will not be able to view it outside your network, unless you add port forwarding for that local IP address in your router settings. Just as you did when you setup the Apex to your home network and added port forwarding.
That is another discussion.
Put your camera wherever you want. I might suggest that you keep it plugged in to an outlet as it will be on 24/7.
I hope this helps.
