Webcam Plugin - Server Space Analysis

[Dehatter]

This analysis is just based on my particular application. That being said, I have read where people are not using the Webcam plugin because they are worried about using all their server space.

I use 1and 1. I paid less than $12 for a year of hosting and the domain was free (a promo package). I have a storage limit of 100,000 MB, and a file limit of 262,144 files.

In the plugin, I store a photo every 10 minutes, and it only runs during the day (user specified in the settings).

The image i use for the plugin is 150k or less so if you use a large image, it will certainly change your personal statistics.

On to the analysis:
Daily space consumption over 2 weeks averaged 13.3 MB per day. File consumption averaged 159 files per day (This is for 2 templates plus daily time-lapse and interday time-lapse included - as well as storing the last alarm video from 3 cameras).

Base statistics pre-plugin: 966 MB and 8,855 files.
14 days later: 1,152 MB and 11,081 files.

Analysis of future space and file usage:

File limit reached after 39,319 days or 109 years.
Storage limit reached after 7,432 days or 20 years.

Just food for thought.

Tom

[tremors834]

Excellent analysis.
I curious about this very topic. Great to see it put into perspective.

[Steve Harpin]

Hi Tom,
That is a very helpful analysis, particularly as I am on exactly the same hosting package as you. Can you please tell me, step by step, how you have configured your upload to 1 and 1. So far I cannot get anything I try to actually work. Just now I have been tinkering about with putting my own static IP+my Reolink's refresh settings in the URL on the webcam plugin settings in the vain hope that it might work. I am also currently trying to get a valid webcam accepted on Weather Underground so that I can put a CRON job in place to drag it over from WU. I am seriously floundering here as 1 and 1 only accept SFTP uploads and my camera just offers FTP. How have you configured yours? ANY hints at all will give me something to chew over.

regards Steve

[Dehatter]

Hi Steve.

First 1and1 will accept non secure ftp. Use the provided login information, but select port 21.

the camera should start uploading. There is little to no information about that.

As to WU.... sigh....
They have a 150k limit for the image. There were no options for my camera that would reduce the image to under 150k.

I chose this option....

viewtopic.php?f=60&t=1185&p=5892#p5892

It does cost money, and I need to leave my laptop on 24/7....

but, I was already leaving my LT on anyway.
...there is absolutely no resource usage (other than dedicating approx 8GB of hard disk space to the project for photo storage - not an issue for me as I have 1TB SSD and 2TB conventional HD)
...I capture a full size image every 30 secs 24/7 (3000 files and 1.08 GB of images a day)
...it creates timelaspes and uploads them automatically
...it overlays the timelapses and images with data from WU
...it automatically deletes all video and photos older than a user specified time (I selected 4 days so it wont take more than the 8GB i intended)
...it automatically captures full size images and uploads it (using a userselectable filenane btw)
...it also creates a user selectable size thumbnail (yeah!!! something for WU) and uploads it (note all uploads are to the same ftp server (www.tempestasvigilate.com in my case) so you need to use something else to get it to WU)

So I am very happy with it.

I use my meteobridge device to ftp the thumbnail to WU every 5 mins.

so far I have about a 60% acceptance rate from WU even though every image sent is within their guidelines. They sometimes just don't take it and they refuse to put the webcam on my PWS page, but they do show it on their 'wondermap'
I can't explain WU.

https://www.wunderground.com/webcams/de ... /show.html

I have the webcam block and the video block using the same space on my home page. Select the 3 lines (menuBlock) to get to the videos.

Just ask if you need any help. I worked on this almost full time for 2 weeks.

Tom

[Dehatter]

A quick update to the above post.

Another user contacted me and suggested that I use cam1 for the FTP upload to WU.

I had originally listed cam1 for WU to url pull the image, and after 2 weeks it still said waiting for approval. So a few days ago I created cam2, but made an error and finally cam3 which I got WU to receive.

Tonight I changed cam1 to an ftp upload and and walla! The image now shows on my PWS page.

Tom

[Steve Harpin]

Hi Tom,
reading, with some fascination, your webcam exploits. Persistence with WU obviously does pay off in the end. I am currently awaiting approval though I guess that won't happen until I have images that they can see! However, progress is being made. The FTP problem is solved. I was hugely encouraged to think in simple terms once I saw that your web hosting experiences mirrored mine. My IT-minded son suggested the problem was SFTP v. FTP Not knowing any different I was almost minded to contact 1&1 to talk through the problem. Good job I didn't. It was merely a password problem. In my haste to set up the camera I completely overlooked the fact that the password requires at least one upper case letter. Slaps head in disbelief. Change password and "open sesame" is the result. I took on board your suggestion to upload to a CAM folder outside the template and I now have sensible images uploading at one minute intervals. Big plus. BUT....no images loading on the template as yet. I am trying to use the Reolink solely as a weathercam so I am suppressing, as far as possible, any motion detection settings. I hope that is right.
The webcam plugin setting is set thus http://the9libraries.org.uk/template/pl ... /index.php and the other settings are entered as you might see from the snapshot attached.

Snap 2018-03-16 at 11.03.35.png (540.11 KiB) Viewed 6232 times

The CRON job is working quite smoothly and seems to be perfectly as it should be. Which doesn't leave me with any other options. I have seen that others have experienced similar frustrations so I am hoping that I am missing something equally as basic as getting my password right in the first place

What do you, or perhaps others, think??

Steve

[Dehatter]

You image url is pointing to a php and not a .jpg

You need to point to an image.

The big question is does your camera upload an image with the exact same name, or is there some kind of date jibberish added to the back of the file name.

You need: filename.jpg

if your camera is uploading something like filename20180316150155.jpg (or some other unique identifier) PLEASE PM me.

I can help you fix it.

I would prefer your path to the image be completely outside the template path, but this is not necessary.

Examples:
www.the9libraries.org.uk/template/plugi ... /image.jpg <-- This folder is in the template path
www.the9libraries.org.uk/webcam/image.jpg <-- This folder is not in the template path

The reason is that you may need to change permissions for the folder and I don't like messing with permission changes in the template folders.

You just need to create the folder in the root directory and not the template directory. This is only my opinion.

Tom

[Dehatter]

Well I guess I have to tell on myself.
The previous title post had a math error that nobody caught.

I decided to rerun the analysis since it has been more than a month and discovered the error.

Base starting numbers=966Mb and 8,855 files.
Current after 47 days=1,762Mb and 15,697 files.

Usage has changed to 16,94Mb per day and 146 files per day.

Using my limits of 100000Mb and 262,144 files results in the following:

Available at the start:
99,034Mb and 253,289 files

Available currently:
98,232Mb and 246,447files

At the Current rate I had at the start:
5,847 days of storage space and 1,739 days of file availability

After 47 days I have left:
5,800 days left of storage and 1,692 days left of file availability
or 15ys 10mo of storage space left and 4ys 7mo of file availability left.

Still a pretty long time.

Tom

[andyk1]

Hi Tom!!!

I see your pretty much helping others solve there issues here.

I have one. I can not match my uploaded pictures to the time it actually posts. Sometimes theres a 3-4-5 min difference. If you look at any of my uploaded pic's you'll see what I mean. I tried matching cron job times 5min - 1 min and so on but unlike yours always matching mine do not. I haven't been able to pin down the cause.

Andy

[Dehatter]

a little confused andy. the plugin looks great at almost an exact 5 min interval (sometimes 6).

I can not match my uploaded pictures to the time it actually posts.

The block also seems to update every 5 mins.

You could set your camera to ftp every minute and run the cron-job at 1 min interval, then the block would update every min, while the plugin stayed at 5 mins (This is what I do, excect I use 10 mins for the plugin).

What are you trying to match?

Edit: I think I see what you are talking about now. when you click the time in the plugin, the photo is off by a little bit. the plugin just uses the current image on your server at the time it runs. This could be off by as much as +/- 3 mins.

If this is what you are talking about, then the suggestion above will get it closer. Just upload more frequently, and run the cron-job more frequently too. It won't take any extra space on your server as the previous images are deleted, and the block does not save anything. Just running the cron-job more frequently, without uploading from the camera more frequently does nothing. Just remember to change the time interval to 60 secs in the block settings too. Now it will only be off by +/- 1 min.

tom

[andyk1]

Hi Tom.

I have done as you suggested long before I posted this question. I can not seem to even get them down to one min off. The other thing I thought of was to turn the time stamp off on the camera as the plug in time is really what matters I think. Then I look at your and see a perfect time stamp on both and wondering what I'm doing wrong. I kinda think the problem lies in the meteobridge part as that is restricted to a 5 min upload that I would no want to change. even with one min cron jobs theres always a 5 min difference between my camera's pictures and the uploaded copy. See time stamps on both.

Edit: I re-read your post again and actually that makes more sense. I'll upload at or ftp every min and cron every min and let the plug in handle the rest.

Andy

[andyk1]

Well Tom it seems your suggestion did the trick to at least 1 minute difference. That's was probably the only trick I haven't tried out of every combination I have thrown at this. As usual... THANK YOU AGAIN.

P.S. Sorry haven't been on lately as we have been dealing with 6 Chihuahua puppies but lost one recently hand feeding every 2 hours. It's been a struggle between my wife and I with little sleep the past few weeks. but we tried. The 5 remaining
Chihuahua are doing better with 2 still not out of the woods so to speak.