DroidNetCam

What's New in 1.1.0

Added a screen dimming option which gradually dims the screen to a very dim level, to save power.
Bug-fix for the smallest image size.

Having Motorola Droid Auto-Focus Problems?

Please take a look at the following pages:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/17/motorola-droid-camera-autofocus-fixed-in-secrecy/
And:
http://www.slashgear.com/motorola-droid-camera-woes-fixed-by-a-good-lens-clean-1763653/

Overview

DroidNetCam is a program to turn your Android phone into a web cam. You set its timer from 30 seconds to several hundred minutes. Every time the timer goes off (default is once per minute), it takes a picture and uploads it to either an FTP or HTTP server.

If you have any questions or concerns about DroidNetCam,
feel free to contact us at: slackeysupport@slackey.com

For access to this application, please search for
"slackey" on the Android Market -- available on your
Android-powered phone.

DroidNetCam Application QuickStart Guide

Here is a set of configuration and example screen shots for the Android DroidNetCam application:

QuickStart Guide

FTP Image Upload

FTP uploads are done to any normal FTP server you have write permission to. Simply specify the server location, username and password. Options are available to set it into "Passive" mode.

HTTP Image Upload

For the HTTP server uploads, you need a form on the server to receive the image. The form handler CGI takes fields for user-name, password and the image data. There is an example Python-based CGI available for download.

To use the example HTTP upload CGI:

Right-click on the following link and select "Save to disc": Python HTTP upload CGI
Modify the top of the file to specify the username/password and a directory to save the uploaded files to.
Copy the saved file up to your web server.
Place it in your web server's CGI directory (often "/var/www/cgi-bin")
Make sure it is executable (On Unix systems: "chmod 755 http-upload.cgi")

You can now use those values to upload files to your server.

FTP/HTTP File Names*

*see update below

The file-names that the files can be uploaded to can include many date/time based "macros" to make every file-name. The macros are a two character combination starting with percent "%" and a character from the following table. These format styles follow the POSIX standard fairly closely.

Note: These characters are case-sensitive.

Macro	Meaning	Example
%a	Abbreviated week-day name.	Mon
%A	Full week-day name.	Monday
%b	Abbreviated month name.	Jan
%B	Full month name.	January
%d	Day of month.	01
%H	Hour (00-23).	00
%I	Hour (01-12)	01
%m	Month number.	01
%M	Minute within hour.	59
%p	AM/PM.	AM
%S	Seconds within minute.	59
%y	Two-digit year.	09
%Y	Four digit year.	2009
%%	The literal percent character.	%

Update — Please Note:

File names with special characters like colons, slashes, etc. may cause errors.

Depending on the "Locale" setting on your phone, this may or may not be a problem for you since different regions use different characters as date and time separators.

In any case, if you are using the Time or Date macros "%T" "%D" in the FTP/HTTP File Name format string, we advise you to change to the alternatives in the tables below.

You can still include the whole time and date as part of the file name by replacing "%T" and "%D" with strings that don't contain problem characters, like: "%H.%M.%S" and "%Y-%m-%d".

Avoid Macro	Meaning	Possibly Yields	Use Instead	OK
%D	Full date string	2009/01/23	%Y-%m-%d	2009-01-23
%T	Full time string	23:59:45	%H.%M.%S	23.59.45

Example	format	filename
Don't Use:	pic_%D_%T.jpg	pic_2009/01/23_23:59:45.jpg
Instead, Use:	pic_%Y-%m-%d_%H.%M.%S.jpg	pic_2009-01-23_23.59.45.jpg

FAQ

Thank you for the questions.
Please include your email address if you would like a direct reply (we won't spam you).

Q: Can I use this to chat with people on the internet?
A: No, sorry, at this time, DroidNetCam only takes still, silent pictures.
Q: Does DroidNetCam only work over a WiFi network?
A: No, it should work fine, on 3G, Edge, etc. If your cell data connection is slow, however, some uploads could time out before completing.
Q: What is wrong? Pictures will not upload to my server, and I am sure all the server parameters are correct.
A: You may have a filename format problem. Please see the note above regarding Time and Date macros.

Suggestions

Thank you for the suggestions.
Please include your email address if you would like a direct reply (we won't spam you).

Add GeoTagging support. -- Paul Hummer
Option for timer to be counting down during file upload, so that the result is closer to shutter-to-shutter time rather than upload-to-shutter. -- Sean Reifschneider
Run as a service in the background. -- Gufastian
Support scp uploading. -- Jim Surles