Allan Bogild Pedersen's blog

Trendnet produce many very good and also very affordable ip cameras, in the last years I have used a lot of them in different projects that I have been involved in. A few months ago I review Trendnet TV-IP100W-N here on the page, it is a great camera, so I was quite very excited when I was offered to test and review the successor to exactly that camera the Trendnet TV-IP512WN

Trendnet TV-IP512WN and Trendnet TV-IP512P
Trendnet TV-IP512WN is a ip camera with allot of new functions never seen in any camera from Trendnet before, is has been updates in countless ways compared to the Trendnet TV-IP100-WN. You can get it in 2 different versions, TV-IP512P with Ethernet connector that support PoE and TV-IP512WN with a standard Ethernet connector and built-in wireless network radio. Please notice that TV-IP512P supports PoE, that means that you only need one cable to the camera as it gets the power from the Ethernet cable.

The wireless version TV-IP512WN, the one I have had for test, has a built-in 802.11N radio. The extra bandwidth you get with the N radio makes it possible for the camera to send video in a higher frame rate.

Trendnets camera now a days are made in all white plastic, and TV-IP512WN is not any different, it feels rock solid and has mount holes both on top and underneath for the bracket also included in the box, this way you can mount the camera to the ceiling or use it on the table. Trendnet also put a wall bracket for mounting the camera on a wall and all necessary screws are also in the box.

TV-IP512WN has replaceable 6 mm. lens with manual focus, the lens socket is made of metal and seems very solid even though it is not something that needs to be changed often.

On the backside of the camera are all the connectors the camera uses, it is Power, network, audio and also the two antennas are mounted here. There are also terminals for external add-ons and for input and output ports.

Setup
TV-IP512WN has as must other IP cameras a built-in Web server that handles all configuration of the camera, so all configurations is done on this web server. The first time you turn on the camera you need assign it an ip address, this is done by running a tool on supplied CDROM that can find and configure the wired network on the camera. It took me only a few seconds to get contact to the camera and watch the first pictures from it.

Wireless Network
I you buy the WN version, the one I have for test, you probably want to use the wireless radio instead of the wired, this way you can place it everywhere as long as you got power and are within the range of you wireless network, and you can move around as you feel like.

All configuration of the wireless network is done via the web server so you need to have it connected to the wired network the first time you use it or you can use the WPS button on the camera if your router supports it. WPS stands for Wireless Protected Setup and makes it is a much easier way of configuring the camera. First you logon on to your Routers webpage and press “add WPS device” then you push the WPS button on the camera and thats it.

Video Quality
TV-IP512-WN records video in MPEG4 format up to a resolution of 640×480 in a frame rate up to 30 frames per seconds. This is until now unseen quality for a camera of this type and price. Most IP camera needs a lot of light for the picture quality to be decent and that also seems to be the case with Tv-IP512WN. According to Trendnet the camera can work down to 0.5 lux but then the picture is very blurry. I think TV-IP512WN delivers a great picture much better that TV-IP100W-N.

2 ways audio
Trendnet has put in a microphone in TV-IP512WN so you can hear what is going on were the camera is, and if you put in a speaker in the speaker plug on the back of the camera you can talk to people near the camera, it is done from the website of the camera. I really like this feature, you can use the camera as a door phone or maybe just sit at work and yell at the dog.

Add-ons
TV-IP512-WN has a replaceable lens, you can replace it with a nigh view version. A night view lens is a lens that can see in complete dark by using infrared light. The Night view lens is connected to the terminal on the back of the camera.

There are also 2 input and 2 output ports on terminals that can be used for a door sensor or heat sensor to detect movement that can trigger the cameras record function when a door opens or a person moves in front of the camera.

Recording
With most IP cameras you need to have a place to put your recording to be able to record, this us usually a PC, NAS or FTP server, but Trendnet TV-IP512WN can actually be a completely standalone unit. On the side of TV-IP512WN there is a SD slot for a secure digital flash card up to 16 gb. where the camera can save the recording. This is a great improvement to the camera, and something I have not seen before on a IP camera. You can also save the recordings to a ftp server, a NAS, a pc and there is countless ways to configure triggers for when and when not to record. On the supplied cd-rom there was a new version of IPview that installs on a PC and basically make it a very advance surveillance station.

Conclusion
Trendnet TV-IP512WN is a great ip camera, it is without doubt the best ip camera I have ever played with to date. The setup with very fast and the camera has been improved in countless ways from its successor. I really like the way to record directly on a SD card as a standalone camera, it makes it an ideal camera for the summerhouse or other places where there is no internet or maybe even network.
I have not run to any problems of any kind in week I have spend with the camera and I can clearly recommend Trendnet TV-IP512WN for home or business use.

Papers has in many years been caused me frustration, they keep coming in and even the best intentions to keep them organized has ended out in complete chaos for me. I always have had trouble finding the papers when i need them and it has actually over the years cost me a great deal of money.

Since around mid 90′es i have had the idea to scan all my papers and though out the originals, but at the time it was not possbile for due to the hard drive space needed  and that type of scanners was also pretty expensive. Today hard drives has become very cheap and scanners with sheet feeders can be found as low as 199$, so about a year ago I started the scanning process of all papers in the house old and new.

There is a few things to consider before starting a project like that

Scanner hardware
I had thousands of documents and scanning them on a flatbed scanner was out of the question, I started out by buying a Brother 5840CN multi function printer that had a 30 pages sheet feeder. I actually scanned most of my documents on that scanner, but I did have a few problems. The Brother 5844CN scanner drivers was not that well written, they had a habit of crashing every 4-5 scan so the sheet feeder stopped and you had to sort out the paper jam that it caused. The network drivers were the worst so I switched to the USB driver versions that were a bit better but far from perfect.

I ended up buying a Canon DR 2050C this is a real document scanner build for scanning documents and i does that very well, it have a few things build that makes it really great for document scanning, first of all it scanners both pages at the same time and that makes it really fast when you have a lot of documents. The Canon DR 2050 also has a build in function in the driver that automatically though out the backside if it is empty, so scanning is as simple as bushing a button on the scanner no matter if it is one sided or two sided. The Canon DR 2050 was a bit on the expensive side but at the ending I had a lot of trouble with my Brother 5844c that was ready for anything.

Backup
Securing the electronic documents with a good backup is very impotent as well, from now one I will only have my documents digital so if I lost them in hard drive crash, my computer got stolen or a fire it would not be possible to get them back. I use Idrive for backup they are pretty cheap and a backup tool is included that automate the process for me.

Organizing digital documents
I store all my digital documents in PDF format on my Synology NAS. PDF is a widely used format for storing documents digitally and Adobe Acrobat standard can automatically run a OCR on my documents so they can be indexed and there by much easier to search. A have made a directory structure on my NAS so it is easy to find my documents even though they are indexed and can search them at anytime, I found it easier to find them manually.

The goal has been reached
Every paper in my house is now scanned, of cause there is a few documents you can’t though out but they are scanned and the few documents i need to keep in the original paper form has been put away. I have gone from around 10.000 paper documents to around 21 pages. I bet i can find every document within 30 seconds not matter if i am at home in front of my desktop or I am standing in the middle of  nowhere with my net book as long as a 3G internet connection.

All my old paper documents has been shredded before i though them out to prevent identity theft, some may think that is over kill but I sleep well at night knowing that nobody can go though my private documents, there is just a small point, keep the documents in the paper form until it has been backed up that way you won’t lose any.

For sometime now i have been reading about Slingbox from Slingmedia, and today the Slingbox solo i ordered yesterday arrived at my desk. With a Slingbox you can take you satellite or cable TV with you around in the house or even out on the internet as long as you got at least 256 Kbit upload on your broadband.

The Slingbox comes in different version, the Sole version i got is the smallest, you can only connect one signal at a time and you cant send the stream out in HD even though you can connect a HD signal to the box it will render it in a lower resolution. There is a Slingbox Pro and a Slingbox HD that takes input from more sources and the HD version can send the signal out in HD if you got the internet connection to support it.

The Slingbox solo is connected between your TV and fx. Your satellite reviver with either a special cable supplied with the Slingbox solo or by using the different plugs on the back of the Slingbox solo. There are no loos of picture quality on your ordinary TV and in this postion the Slingbox gets the same picture and audio and can broadcast it out on the network. In the box the Slingbox solo came in there were also a infrared transmitter that easily connect to the Slingbox and is put on the satellite receiver so the Slingbox can change the channel when ever needed.

The Slingbox configuration went very easy, it was by far the easies product I have ever configured. I started out by connecting supplied special SCART cable that makes the Slingbox solo able to tap in to the signal from my satellite receiver. The SCART cable has a composite and 2 audio cable that I put in to the Slingbox solo. Besides power and Ethernet i also had to plug in the small IR transmitter and put it on the satellite receiver. Connecting everything took less than 3 minutes.

There is no CD in the box but you need the Sling player to configure the Slingbox and being able to playback from it. At first it seems a bit strange they did not include a CD with software, but on the other hand it is a way to ensure that everyone gets the latest update.

The Sling player installed easily and after it is started it automatically find my Slingbox and configures it, I was all must a bit disappointed that the setup went that easy, me being a nerd i like to do everything manually, but i knew tat at least I would have to open the ports for the Slingbox in the router my self.

Running the Sling player for the first time really impressed me, et was a great picture quality, my worst fear was how good it was to change channels by using the IR transmitter, but it works perfect. In the player you get a picture of the remote control and can use either mouse or keyboard to activate the keys.

The Sling player comes in both a Windows and a Mac version but there is also a version for Symbion, Windows mobile and recently also iPhone so you can use your mobile phone to watch TV. I tried the Windows mobile version on my HTC Shift it worked great and even over a 3g connection the picture quality was ok. The mobile player will cost you 29.95$ but you can download a 30 days trial version first to make sure it works for your phone.

3D printer’s is a pretty expensive gadget and I don’t think many home users has one one their desk, but now the open source project Reprap has created a 3D printer you can buy in a kit and build for as low as 500$ and best part is that when you have build it, you can use it to print a copy of itself.

3D printing is not a new invention it has been around for 30 years and over the year they have been cheaper but they still easily cost over 40.000$. 3D printing is used in companies to print prototypes as a part of the development process.

Reprap is probably the first 3D printer that has been targeting home users, at first it will mostly be for play but in the long run it can be used for printing plastic thing you need in the general around the house, for example you can print a missing battery cover for your remote control or some plastic spare part for the kids toys. The plastic is pretty solid so the possibilities are endless.

The Reprap team is working on a version 2 that also would be able to print electronic circuits to make the 3D printer able to print more of its own parts, the release Reprap can print about 50% of its part now witch will increase on the new version.

Logitech Squeezebox duet took world by storm when it was first introduced at CES in Las Vegas January 2008, consumers selected the little music player as consumer product of the the year at that same show.

The package with Logitech Squeezebox duet includes 2 units, a remote control that runs standard wifi and the music player, a small black box with connectors for speakers and power and a wires network cable. The remote control has a LCD display and has a design that makes you think of the ipod touch but with quality of both the plastic and the LD screen does not come near to ipod quality.
By running on wifi instead of infared makes the remote usable all over the house, you don’t need to be in the same room as the receiver, that is a pretty cool detail.
Logitech Squeezebox duet can play music from a NAS or from a computer running the little server that comes with the product, and you can also play Internet radio stations directly from the Internet.

Camera surveillance is a great way to increase the protection of your home and you can actually get quite advanced surveillance if you chose to do it with ip cameras. Many IP cameras come with wireless network and can be connected to your existing networking in a matter of seconds.

A IP camera is basically just and ordinary web camera that you already know of used for chat and video conferences, but instead of connecting via USB it connect directly to the network and has a build in web server to watch and control the camera. The build it web server makes it work in-dependable and you can connect to it from anywhere on the globe as long as you have Internet connection. The camera can automatically send you a picture or short video to your email if there is movement or you can let it record what is going on to a NAS or a PC.

Trendnet TV-IP100W-N has besides ordinary network plug also built in wireless network B and G, it also comes in a model with out wireless network it is called TV-100-N and is a bit cheaper. Both cameras are identical besides the Wireless network. Trendnet TV-IP100N-W is made for indoor use but Trendnet also sells a outdoor house with build in heat and blower if you prefer to put it outside. The camera includes a foot in hard plastic that can be mounted either under the camera or on top of the camera, so it is possible to hang in the ceiling and the software can compensate if you hanging upside down. On the front of the camera there two led indicators one for power and one for network activities and can be turned completely off in the software so the camera is more discrete or it is placed outside in a outdoor house where the LED’s makes glares in the front window of the housing.

Configuring the Trendnet TV-IP100w-N
Trendnet TV-IP100W-N comes with a CD-ROM including both the manual and setup software, The installation software is actually just a small application that are able to find the camera on the network and configure it with a IP address. All other configuration is done on the build in web server, also it is important to mention that the camera has to be on the wired network when the initial configuration is done. The initial configuration went very easy and was quickly done, so i want in to  the camera web server and configured it for wireless network, TV-IP100W-N supports WEP, WPA and WPA2 wireless protocols so it should connect to any wireless network.

Build in Web Server
After the first initial configuration is done, you can use the camera’s ip address as the URL in your browser and get to the built-in web server, here you can make further configurations or watch live feeds from the camera. The live feeds and send though the browser using either a Activex component that’s only supported on the Windows platform or by using a jave script with will run on must platforms. The web server is protected by a password so you can keep your feed in private, it is also possible to configure a user account and a administrator account so only you have the rights to modify the configuration. if you want to be able to watch the camera from anywhere on the Internet, you need to NAT a few ports though to the camera in your router, it is all described in the manual.

Picture Quality
Trendnet TV-IP100W-N can deliver video feeds up to 640X480 pixels in Mpeg format with rich options for adjusting the quality/compressing. The picture quality is good in daylight but gets a little blurry in low light condition. According to the specs Trendnet says it can be used down to only 1 lux witch probably is correct but i am pretty sure the picture you would get with 1 lux is useless.

Surveillance
The IP camera can record directly to a hard drive but unless you have allot of hard disk space it is preferable that would only record when there are movement in the picture, such a function does Trendnet TV-IP100w-N not have. You can send the recording to a ftp server or in an email in intervals you decide, this can be used to display it on your web page. If you want the camera to record when there is movement in the picture you would need to use the included software IPView that runs on a Windows computer, but the computer has to be turned on when you want it to record. Another option is to use a NAS with a build in surveillance software like Synology or Qnap.

Conclusion
Trendnet TV-ip100w-N does what you expect it to do, it is easy to configure and to a very affordable price. The product seems very well tested and i didn’t experience any problems doing the one and a half week it now has been running here. I would have liked it to be able to record on activity directly to a ftp or network hard disk.

What i like about Trendnet TV-IP100W-N

• Very affordable price makes it attractive to home users
• It works wireless you only need to give it power
• Works on JAVA and ACTIVE-X so many platforms are supported

What I dont like about Trendnet TV-IP100W-N

• No function to detect movement in picture and record
• Would have liked a version with night vision

In my opinion a flat panel TV has to be mounted on the wall so you can fully enjoy the design, but even the most well designed flat panel look ugly with a large pile of different colored cables hanging from it. Here is a way you can get around that.

 The amount of cables needed to use all the functions on today’s flat panel TV’s has dramatically grown in numbers, besides power also needs a network cable to use DLNA, one or more HDMI cables for DVD players and set top boxes and of cause a SCART cable for that old VHS that you haven’t thrown out yet. All together this can be fairly large stack of cables hanging from TV, you can of cause use something to hide them but most products for this is also pretty ugly to look at.

This is how I have done it
My setup includes, besides a huge amount of ugly cables, 3 setup boxes a satellite receiver, a popcorn hour and a Slingbox solo. All 3 boxes are placed in my office which is located on the other side of the wall from where my TV is hanging. A have drilled a pretty big hole behind the TV to run cable in, and the result is absolutely no visible cables in the living room. This introduce a small problem, my normal remote controls could not reach the setup boxes though the wall.

Logitech Harmony 895
Logitech Harmony is a series of universal remote controller from Logitech that works a bit different that most other universal remote controls. Logitech harmony is event controlled and thereby know what it needs to turn on when you want to watch fx. Satellite TV. It will automatically turn on the TV and change to the correct input source, turn on the satellite receiver and change to you chosen start channel and so on. The remote also knows that when you press the volume up button it will send the code to the surround receiver or whatever you have programmed it to. This is such a cool way to do it because you really do not feel that you’re using a universal controller, normally universal remote controllers’ needs a lot of key presses to change what equipment you are controlling.

Logitech Harmony 895 also have little extra neat thing, that most of the other Harmony remotes don’t have, it comes with a remote radio transmitter, that I have placed in my office. The remote transmitter works by receiving radio waves from the remote control and send the signal to a number of IR transmitters that you can but on the equipment you want to control. The radio waves have no problem going through walls so it makes it possible for you to put everything out of view.

If you are one of those guys that like to play around with hardware inside your computer, you probably also have trouble keeping up with all the different standards of plugs, slots and CPU socket types.

A hardware guy that calls himself Sonic840 has made the world a lot easier for us nerds by creating a hardware reference poster, that you can either buy in big size or simply just download and print one your own printer. The poster can be used a reference for almost all the slots, CPU and much.

 You can find the poster here

Microsoft spends a lot of recourses on research and trying to improve their software in different ways, sometimes they release small applications that demonstrate what they are working with. Recite for Windows Mobile is one of those applications.

Recite can best be described as a advanced version of the good old Dictaphone where you can record a message and then later play it again. It is not a new idea to port the Dictaphone to Windows mobile, but in recite it is possible to search in the recordings with your voice and that is new. Recite search for part of sentences or single words and comes up with the best match.

 The video below show you how recite work, notice that the search queries can be questions, there just needs to be a part of the original recording in the query.

You can find a copy of Microsoft recite here and try for yourself

It has been about a week since Google announced there Chrome OS, and since there has been a huge press coverage, some have even called it both a Apple and Microsoft Killer.

Chrome OS was announced July 7^th as a open source project on Google official blog, it is a operation system based on Google’s Chrome web browser that Google released 9 months ago. In the start Google Chrome OS will be dedicated to netbooks, but may be available in a more feature rich version later on more suitable for desktop and laptop computers. Because Google Chrome OS is centered around the Chrome web browser all applications will be browser oriented so we won’t see applications in the same way we do on any other operation system today.

I do have some trouble in seeing what the new and fantastic in Chrome OS, well yes it is Google there is behind it this time, but at the end of the day it is just another Linux distribution, and the new part is that all the features has been removed only leaving the browser.

There are plenty of other alternatives Linux distributions for netbooks, Asus has tailored their own to send out with their netbooks and other brands has done the same.