Elphel 353 series quick start guide

Notes

The following guide was written for (K)Ubuntu OS
The camera has a web-based interface and it should work in any OS (Firefox browser is recommended)

Lens Mount

Lens Adapter Ring
Check if you need the C/CS adapter ring to connect your own lenses.

Connection

When the camera is properly connected to a PC the leds on the back will go solid yellow and blinking green.

1. Standard PoE Injector

Fig.1 Camera connection using a standard PoE Injector

2. 12V Power Module (ONLY FOR 12V CAMERAS)

Fig.3 12V camera connection

power injector adapter

Network

The default camera IP address is 192.168.0.9* ("ping -b 192.168.0.255" if it accidentally has some other address)

Login: root

Password: pass

* Ensure that your PC or router/switch, the camera is connected to, has an IP address from the same subnetwork – that is 192.168.0.xxx.

Camera Index Page Menu

http://192.168.0.9 *

* It is recommended to use the Firefox browser.

Main Applications menu items:
Camera Control Interface
Disk Recorder (only use this if you have an actual disk: HDD, SSD, compactflash card connected to your camera)
Parameter Editor
Terminal
System Preferences
File Browser / Text Editor

Help Tips

Open the Camera Control Interface (camvc).

Fig.4 Help

Getting the first images

camvc

In the Camera Control Interface (camvc): "Shift+Click" on the button to save.

Fig.5 Acquire an image from the Camera Control Interface

browser

http://192.168.0.9:8081/bimg

Camera GUI(camvc) Controls

Fig.6 camvc controls

Watch/record video stream over the network

There are several ways to watch/record video streams from the camera:

1. watch: camvc

First click on an icon with a "screen" (the 3rd one from the left) and then change the display mode to "a guy on a bicycle".

Fig. 7 Turn on Live Video Stream

2. watch: player GUI / command line

To watch the video stream with MPlayer or VLC open the rtsp://192.168.0.9:554. You can use either a player GUI or a command line. Here is an example command from Linux terminal window:

Mplayer

mplayer  rtsp://192.168.0.9:554 -vo x11 -zoom

VLC

vlc rtsp://192.168.0.9:554 -V x11 --rtsp-caching=50

The default setting for rtsp-caching is 5000 milliseconds which means the stream is delayed 5 seconds which is not very handy for real-time video preview so the above commands starts VLC with it set to 50 ms

3. record: command line

mencoder rtsp://192.168.0.9:554 -ovc copy -fps <fps> -o <file_name>.mov

where 
<fps>        - approximate value of the frame frequency (this parameter is mandatory); 
<file_name>.mov - the name of an output file

or

vlc rtsp://192.168.0.9:554 -V x11 --sout file/ogg:<file_name>.mov

FTP access

ftp://192.168.0.9

Command line access

a) SSH

In the terminal window: ssh root@192.168.0.9

b) Telnet

In the terminal window: telnet 192.168.0.9

c) Phpshell

Firefox address line: http://192.168.0.9/phpshell.php

Reboot

In a terminal/phpshell type reboot -f.

Serial port (10369 board required)

Speed: 115200 8N1

RTS/CTS: None

XON/XOFF : None

PHP samples

On the camera

PHP API Reference Documentation

List of PHP Constants

PHP Examples

On the PC

Accessing camera parameters

http://192.168.0.9 -> "Parameter Editor"

Navigate through the 1st table links.

Keeping settings after power off

http://192.168.0.9 -> "Parameter Editor"

Scroll to the 2nd table.

"Save" button
Optionally write some comment and press "Update" to the right of it. Next time the camera will boot with these settings.
To set the parameter group used at boot time, select it and press "Update Default" button.