Foscam FI9821W - Support & How-To

[BOFH]

The Foscam Fi9821W seems to be a major PITA to get to work. It took me the longest time to get a picture out of mine. The Pan and Tilt buttons still are not functional in Vera but work fine on the camera's internal web page.

I'm not sure if it is Vera or Foscam causing these headaches. Perhaps it is both.

[BulldogLowell]

I had to have MCV sort mine out...

but it then worked; including pan and tilt

[epierre]

MCV did modify two times yes without success...   what are your current parameters ?

[AZReefGuy]

FYI...When I set mine up via the directions, I could never see the snapshot and assumed it failed.  I finally clicked through and filled in the other variables provided and it works. Thanks!

[asahani]

Newbie to the Vera here, but like many people who get into the smart home stuff, I am a tech professional career wise so gadget tinkering is in my wheelhouse.  I'm posting for the first time here just to log some of my observations/findings here so others may benefit and possibly avoid a DenverCoder9 situation.

Instructions/Things I've noted while adding the Foscam F19821W V2, System Firmware Version 1.4.1.8, Application Firmware Version 1.11.1.18, Plug-In Version 2.0.1.6 to my VeraLite (UI5):

1.) To start process of detecting the camera:

• Click Devices
• Click Add Devices
• Click Add next to I want to add an IP Camera
• Click Manually add
• Use the URL provided in the opening post: http://<camera IP>:<port>/cgi-bin/CGIProxy.fcgi?cmd=snapPicture2&usr=<user>&pwd=<password>
  • You will need to replace the variables in the url: <camera IP>, <port>, <user>, and <password> with the corresponding values for the camera you are setting up
  • Also note that if you have your camera operating on port 80, you can completely omit the colon and port number as port 80 is the default HTTP port so it is unnecessary
  • In case it is not clear, remove all angle brackets (the greater than and less than characters) in the URL. The example of the URL http://192.168.1.125:1117/cgi-bin/CGIProxy.fcgi?cmd=snapPicture2&user=camadmin&pwd=myc@m3r@ would be the correct URL to use for a camera that has an IP of 192.168.1.125, runs on port 1117,  and is accessed using the credentials with a username of camadmin and password of myc@m3r@
• This is where my mileage has varied from the previously mentioned steps. Do not select a camera type.  Do not enter in your  username and password.  Click Next to continue. 
• Give the Vera a second to load the high resolution image. Click Add, then go have a drink because if your situation is anything like mine, this is the most progress you've had in months.
  

2.) Now that the camera is added, go change the settings that opening poster Aaron mentioned. 

• If you are confused because you don't see the field "DirectStreamingURL" or other fields, make sure your impl_file and device_file fields are correct, save, give it a minute, then go back to the devices page to fill out the remaining necessary fields. After changing fields impl_file, and Device_file I found that I had to save the configuration, give the Vera a minute, and then go back to editing the device so I had all the necessary fields.
• Don't neglect filling out information in the "Settings" tab of the camera as well.
  • The URL I have is cgi-bin/CGIProxy.fcgi?cmd=snapPicture2&usr=<username>&pwd=<password>
  • Fill out the username and password fields that you did not provide when creating the camera.
  • The MAC address format should have colons separating the hexadecimal values, e.g. 28:B5:6E:49:50:D2 -- If you can't find your mac address, try going to your router's listing of connected devices and look for the MAC address that corresponds with your camera's IP address.

Results:

I'm able to see my thumbnail and view the camera in emulation mode through the Vera phone application.  AutHomation HD app does have pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) capability, but the picture refresh is pretty slow, so there's a good 7 second lag to update the picture, even though I can hear and see the camera physically move instantly when I use the PTZ controls.

Some other lessons learned and thoughts:

Give your camera a meaningful name and make sure you're editing the correct camera!  At one point I had edited a bunch of fields on another IP camera that I have (a non-hd Foscame FI8910W).  I had to delete that camera and go back to re-add it. 

Double check all fields for spelling errors and making sure that you properly removed the username and password variables if you used copy-and-paste.  At one point, I had not realized that I had the <username> and <password> still in the streaming URL from copying and pasting it. A

Whenever you edit the name of any of the XML files, save the configuration, let the Vera work and reload, then go back to editing the device.  Those XML files determine what variables/fields are in the configuration options for the device.

I've also been playing around with adjusting the video settings for the camera to see if there's any optimum setting for the camera to be less choppy when viewing it.  If you change resolution bit rate, frame rate, etc., it will effect the video stream that the Vera is hard coded to view. I'll report back if I find something that works better.

I haven't tried any audio or recording features yet.  At this point, I'm pretty happy that I finally can see the picture on my phone while I'm at work.  I'll post an update if I can get any of those to work.



I purchased this Foscam FI9821W V2  off of groupon in late October and it has pretty much been sitting around ever since I couldn't figure it out.  A huge thanks to Aaron here who provided the luup files and the baseline instructions I used to get this thing working.  I hope this helps someone out!

Thanks for the clarifications but I would like to piint out that you need the username and password for the pan and tilt funcation to work. for this when manually adding the camera you need to enter the username and password as this creates variables in the advanced settings for them. I would advice you to please check and if verified edit out the following "Do not enter in your  username and password. " from your instructions.

[waltzer11]

just sharing - i thought some of you might be interested.

http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/25310628/hacked-baby-monitor?clienttype=generic&mobilecgbypass&utm_content=buffer7b1c6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

[Aaron]

just sharing - i thought some of you might be interested.

http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/25310628/hacked-baby-monitor?clienttype=generic&mobilecgbypass&utm_content=buffer7b1c6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

seriously. First, REALLY OLD NEWS. Second,  DUH! If you use the default username/password (most peoples problem) and/or you don't keep updated on security fixes you are exposed. Most idiots, like this lady, use default Wifi router user/pw. Which is exactly what happened here.

What are you going to post next?  "Woman who leaves car unlocked and keys on dashboard gets car stolen from grocery store parking lot"

next time you want to post 'actions stupid people do unrelated to Vera' please open a new thread.

lets keep this on topic

[waltzer11]

just sharing - i thought some of you might be interested.

http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/25310628/hacked-baby-monitor?clienttype=generic&mobilecgbypass&utm_content=buffer7b1c6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

seriously. First, REALLY OLD NEWS. Second,  DUH! If you use the default username/password (most peoples problem) and/or you don't keep updated on security fixes you are exposed. Most idiots, like this lady, use default Wifi router user/pw. Which is exactly what happened here.

What are you going to post next?  "Woman who leaves car unlocked and keys on dashboard gets car stolen from grocery store parking lot"

next time you want to post 'actions stupid people do unrelated to Vera' please open a new thread.

lets keep this on topic

HEY DONT GET SO UPTIGHT. just ignore my post if you dont like it.

[spidersense]

for me to get this working, i had to use the IP of my vera instead of https://fwd2.mios.com.

local IP allowed vera to see my foscam cameras.

[BOFH]

Finally broke down and contacted MIOS support for my 9821 v2 PTZ setup . Within 24 hours PTZ is now working. Thanks to a Vera guru called Julian.

[BulldogLowell]

 

Finally broke down and contacted MIOS support for my 9821 v2 PTZ setup . Within 24 hours PTZ is now working. Thanks to a Vera guru called Julian.

 

[drumm1n]

Super happy to hear that it can work for somebody else.  Any reason not to share the configuration here for the rest of us mushrooms?

[Laughing Man]

I gave up and used support as well. They were very helpful and I asked what they were using to add the cameras. They linked me to this article.

http://wiki.mios.com/index.php/Manually_create_IP_Camera_device

[willyha]

I would like to thanks Aaron because I just installed a 9821w V2 using your post and worked perfect.
Thanks 

[Raiden]

First I want to start with a HUGE Thanks to Aaron. I pretty much followed his instructions on the settings, and the only file I actually uploaded to the Vera was the I_Foscam98HD.xml. I see a lot of people stating when they added the camera they got the box with an X in it. I also got the same thing, but just finished through. One thing I did figure out was that you have to use a user/pass that has been granted with administrator access from within the Foscam camera. I tried to get this working using an operator login, but the PTZ functions were not working. This method is functional in  my Veralite cp , Veramobile, ImperiHome, and AutHomationHD.

***UPDATE***
I just completed adding the second camera. Once I got the 2 cameras functional in CP, i started getting errors in VeraMobile about "Incorrect Camera Configuration for video streaming, running in emulation mode."

Any ideas? This is occurring on both cameras.