Active X control of D-Link DCS-2100+ Wireless Network Camera

[fadenoid]

Hello,

I need to periodically grab a still image from the above camera using LabVIEW 8+. I've seen some similar stuff on the forum regarding the use of activeX with other types of D-Link camera, but would like to know exactly which activeX control should be used, and where I can get it from.

The camera comes with some bundled surveillance software with a few dlls that it may be possible to register, to allow access to some functions, but has anybody else had a go at this?!

Previously I used a linksys camera which worked with the 80211netcam.ocx, but the activeX functionality was extremely limited and would not allow a snapshot to be downloaded directly by labview. Instead, I had to stream the video image into the front panel activeX container then perform a screendump which would then be cropped and saved to HDD. The whole process took at least 2 seconds, so the ability to get a pic directly to HDD from the camera without having to go through the above process would be extremely useful. I think it can be done using the D-Link, but need some pointers on how to create the ActiveX functionality.

Cheers

Chris

[Tom O]

Hi Chris,

Unfortunately, neither I nor any of my colleagues have had experience with this camera, in or out of LabVIEW. Hopefully someone in the community with some experience of it will come across this!

As another possible apporach, the DLLs supplied can be called with a "Call Library Function Node" from within LabVIEW which could let you interface with the camera. This would require a working knowledge of the DLLs, though.

Good luck with the camera, sorry we can't be of more help.

Best regards,

[fadenoid]

Hello Tom

After reverting back to the linksys wvc54g camera I have managed to neatly get it to snapshot to hdd in labview using the activeX functionality available on the camera. Took a fair bit of experimentation, but does work with the netcamplayer11g ocx.

Cheers

[Tom O]

Hi Fadenoid,

I'm glad you've had success with this! Thanks for posting back, I'm sure this will be useful for people with a similar setup in the future.

Cheers,

[pepic]

I have an identical camera, linksys wvc54g, done the same tric you mention in another email to download an image and it works but I would love to do it exploiting the activeX functionalty available with the camera.

Could you please tell me how to do it, possibly with a sample program?

I still use labview 7.1 but if necessary I would upgrade, thanks, pepic.

[fadenoid]

Hello Pepic,

I've attached a copy of the netcamplayer11g.ocx. Put this in C:/Windows/System 32, then run the following in the command line:

regsvr32 "C:\WINDOWS\system32\netcamplayer11g.ocx"

A message box will pop saying that registration has succeeded. Open up a new vi, put an empty activeX container on it and you should now be able to access the properties of the camera via activeX. Let me know if this works, and if you can see "snapshot" as one of those properties.

Best Regards

[pepic]

Thanks Chris, everything you told me worked flawlessly and I can see the Snapshot property.

I am still struggleing to get an image saved, I am just not a good enough programmer to succeed immediately but I am still trying, thanks again, p.-

[fadenoid]

Hello Pepic,

If you're still having problems in a day or so I'll downgrade some code to 7.1 (currently using it with 8.5) and attach it. Let me know.

Cheers

[Klein]

Hi Fadenoid,

Did this activeX control (netcamplayer11g.ocx) work or not with D-Link DCS-2100+ Wireless Camera?

Did you find a way to grab images from D-link cam?

I have to buy an IP wireless webcam to save snapshots using LabVIEW 8.5.1.

Thanks a lot!

Klein

[fadenoid]

Hello Klein,

The netcamplayer ocx was native to the linksys so wouldn't work with the D link. I didn't have any success storing images with the d link and have found the linksys units to be better at the job at least from a programming perspective. There is some other info on the forum regarding d link cam access via activeX but I could never get it to work!

Cheers