Live Video Feed from Machine Shop

[Ployd]

I want to set up live streaming video, over the Internet, of our machine while it is running. If I pack up for the night and head home the machine would be unattended until morning. This way we could check on it from home and run down if we need to.

 

So it seems easy enough to run a camera on the computer because we have a couple windows overlooking the machine. But I would like to stream it through our website. Then we can check on it and possibly customers could check progress on their tooling.

 

Also, it would be really slick to setup a secure login and password so we could some how kill the machine from home if we needed to. And I might be reaching a little bit here, but if we could set it up so that it would send a text message or email if it goes into emergency stop.

 

If anyone has done something similar to this and has any resources, advice, suggestions I would appreciate it.

 

Thanks!

[Thee Rickster ™]

Done the live video.

 

But a crash occurs too instantaneously to

do any thing about it.

 

To check to see if the machine stopped

so I could go back and do another setup.

Is all I found it to be good for.

 

Remember you will be spending time at home, not

getting paid to monitor a machine and that sucks.

especially if your on salary.

[Ployd]

Rickster,

 

Thanks for the reply. You are right a crash happens fast. Even if you are there you can't do much.

 

But, I think it would be nice to hop online and make sure everything is good. For example we poped a breaker the other day when a connection to the dust collector shorted out.

 

Did you just use an inexpensive web camera hooked to your computer, or did you buy a more expensive camera? Did you use any particular software?

 

Thanks, Bill

[Thee Rickster ™]

It does have many advantages, I got sour from

using it because I work at home way too much.

 

I used a $70 dollar piece of crap.

it zoomed 1X and 2X but the res. got grainier

each time you soomed

 

But If I do it again I want to get a security

camera that has optical zoom and software that

allows who ever is logged on to rotate and zoom

 

It is handy if, like me, you work 12 to 16hrs aday

some times I rough and semi finish my molds when I leave and program the rest at home when the kids

go to bed.

 

I email the finish path and using desktop remote

I put them on the dnc computer.

 

i already have the cutters in the cnc and I get

the afternoon cnc shop lead hand to inspect

to mold and them run the finishers the rest of the

night.

 

The camera I used came with software and from home, I logged on to my p.c. in my office(desktop

remote) and that is how I view it. but I could of

used the software on any p.c. as long as I have

the IP address that I used to set it up

at work.

 

I liked using it but I had a crappy camera that

I rigged up to a magnetic base stuck to the

inside of the door.

[Patternmaker]

Hi Bill,

 

I use my local Phone/Internet providers "Telus Homesitter" service. It costs $15.00 per month and is usaully used to monitor your home/Nanny etc... but it works great to monitor our cnc machines. I use two wireless cameras, and a wireless router, I only wish I could view the Telus Homesitter website from my Palm Treo.

 

Tim

[Ployd]

Tim, That is another good idea.

 

That is something I was also thinking about. I have a PDA. But if you have a web capable phone like a Treo you should be able to view the website that your CNC is on.

 

If you set up two different websites one sized for a regular monitor and one sized for a PDA screen it should work.

 

Is Telus Homesitter through Comcast?

 

Thanks, Bill

[Greg VN]

You probably already know this but though I would mention it. There is software out there that you can use the computer from a different location.

 

I had PC Anywhere that the we used between Utah and Texas. Maybe you can find a way to use something like that.

[Ployd]

Greg, Right now we can transfer files between our computer and the xxxxor controller. But we can't access the controller from our computer to do an emergencey stop or anything like that.

 

Does anyone know how to set something like that up? To control certain functions on the xxxxor through our PC?

 

Then we could use something like PC Anywhere to stop the machine if we see a problem from the live video feed.

 

Thanks, Bill

[Greg VN]

Do you drip feed the file to the controller?

 

If you do could it be possible to interupt the flow of data to stop the machine?

[Ployd]

We use Explorer to drag and drop files from PC to xxxxor - hard disk. But if you try and delete a file the xxxxor is using it will not let you.

[Ocean Lacky™]

NetOp

 

 

We used this on our Mazaks. The Mazak controls are windoze based, so it worked fairly well. Couldn't see inside the machine, it's not a webcame program, but could see the control screen and interact with the control over the net......For what it's worth.