PCI card to send me a email ?? is it possible?

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Lex

Lex

Lex

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question:

Is there a piece of software that displays whether there is signal coming into a pci slot and can alert me via email to do so? Do you think this is possible and if so HOW exactly what i achieve this?

someone told me you'd have to go right down into the pci bios and write a windows driven program to come up with these kinda results which means huge amounts of programming. i was wondering if there is any other way.

basically the setup i have is a camera and i want to detetermine whether there is a problem with the camera or not and if signal = null then send automated email to me.

possible? please let me know the complications or the feasibility

gracias!
 
oh riight i wasnt sure why one of them got locked thats impressive. i just wasnt sure of the thread to post this message so i put it in two.

yes its cctv recording so now you know do you have any suggestions?
 
It would be easier to do it through the Parallel or Serial port, but you will probably have to write your own program to do it.
 
Hamish said:
It would be easier to do it through the Parallel or Serial port, but you will probably have to write your own program to do it.
Click to expand...

but its information coming through the pci card that i care about. So how does that work ?
 
the vid capture card is supplying an image, all the software has to do is check whether that image is valid or not.
i.e. no image means camera is dead, so send email

the alternative is to get the API software for the vid card.
like:
http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/features.html

the other alternative is to generate an external event, like an LED flash, and check the camera can see it. if it can, it's working.


("signal coming into PCI slot" doesn't make a lot of sense ?
and PCI slots don't have a BIOS)


btw,
what happenned with your wireless repeater thing, the thread was left hanging ?
 
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bitslice said:
the vid capture card is supplying an image, all the software has to do is check whether that image is valid or not.
i.e. no image means camera is dead, so send email

the alternative is to get the API software for the vid card.
like:
http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/features.html

the other alternative is to generate an external event, like an LED flash, and check the camera can see it. if it can, it working.


("signal coming into PCI slot" doesn't make a lot of sense ?
and PCI slots don't have a BIOS)
Click to expand...

You said this isnt correct so how does it work?

"signal coming into PCI slot" doesn't make a lot of sense ?
and PCI slots don't have a BIOS"

The API software can be installed and used on top of the current application that i'm using? and is it capable of alerting me a camera is down?
The current application i'm using if a camera does not display an image aka the camera is broken it merely displays a blue screen. That is not good enough because i have a few cameras so i want to be alerted of which one is down thats all i want.

possible?

sorry to be a hassle.
 
Lex said:
You said this isnt correct so how does it work?
"signal coming into PCI slot" doesn't make a lot of sense ?
and PCI slots don't have a BIOS"
Click to expand...


the camera signal is going into the vid capture card, it isn't going into a PCI slot as such.

PCI slots don't have a BIOS, the motherboard does. You can control some features of the slot from this BIOS

"write a windows driven program" - I'm assuming your mate is talking about a device driver ?


Lex said:
The API software can be installed and used on top of the current application that i'm using? and is it capable of alerting me a camera is down?
Click to expand...

nope, API = application program interface

application program talks to API, API talks to hardware, hardware talks to camera. so it sits underneath program.

Do you know any programing languages ?
 
bitslice said:
Do you know any programing languages ?
Click to expand...

I have a programmer and he knows asp and sql as well as some other programming languagaes i'm sure. If not i can get someone who may know the language that maybe required to fulfill my requirements just let me know what's needed.



bitslice said:
it isn't going into a PCI slot as such.
Click to expand...

sorry i didnt really mean pci i should be more clear i meant the video capture card because thats where it sits in the PCI slot right?
 
bitslice said:
....not to dis the ASP bods on the forum, but I meant a proper language like C++, and a programmer who's done more than 10 classes at Uni.
:-)


.
Click to expand...

Yes i know. I have an experienced programmer thank you and he does a range of languages including experience in c++ and he's experienced enough. Just what are you suggesting anyway?
 
Lex said:
Yes i know. I have an experienced programmer thank you and he does a range of languages including experience in c++ and he's experienced enough. Just what are you suggesting anyway?
Click to expand...

Sounds like he is suggesting you find someone to write you a program to manage this. This is a real task even for the good programmers.
 
zen62619 said:
Sounds like he is suggesting you find someone to write you a program to manage this. This is a real task even for the good programmers.
Click to expand...

Yeh i think it is a real task. But i need this so i need more help and suggestions.
 
Lex said:
I have an experienced programmer
Click to expand...

no problem then :-)
he'll need to know a bit about image processing

tell him you want a program to interface to (insert vid cap card here)
and if it helps, he/she could use the API here: http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/features.html

write a program to poll the cameras and pull off an image every minute
turn off one of the cameras and see what image you get back
get the program to detect this image
if detected, send email.

I still kinda like the external event trigger thing though, more reliable.


---
sorry, idea number #47.

write program to screen capture your existing CCTV software to a .bmp,
scan the .bmp file for that blue screen (dead camera) image.
corrolate the blue square to the camera number
once dead camera is identified, send email.



might be an idea to go talk to your programmer, I've a feeling he's washing his hair that day :-)


.
 
bitslice said:
I still kinda like the external event trigger thing though, more reliable..
Click to expand...

what external event trigger thing?

BITSLICE said:
write a program to poll the cameras and pull off an image every minute.
Click to expand...

explain please.
 
Lex said:
what external event trigger thing?
Click to expand...

...t'was just another option.
If a dead camera produces no identifiable image for the program to detect, then you will need some other way of detecting a dead camera.
- one way is to flash an LED in front of the camera under program control

program turns LED on
capture 1st image
analyse image for red blob at co-ord X.Y.
turn LED off
capture 2nd image
analyse image for no red blob at co-ord X.Y.
if both are true, then camera is on


this requires more hardware than just looking for a dead signal though,
so not the first option.
------------

>write a program to poll the cameras and pull off an image every minute.

what it says, go talk it over with your programmer before he buys more shampoo
:-)
 
i'll give this some further research is it possible get your e-mail just so i can get some further knowledge if required?

p.s thanks for your help!
 
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