Pi sheddy cam update
Well, I've been struggling my way up the learning curve of Windows -> Linux, and the other day I got all of the html working on the PI.
Permissions and case-sensitivity were the main two issues!
So, with the bare bones working, and a manual way of getting the webcam to take snapshots every 30 seconds, I set it all up in the shed.
Outcome : failure
When testing indoors, I was using a Logitech C310 WEbcam that I usually use for Skype on my Windows 7 machine. This worked quite happily on the Raspberry Pi using the command line tool fswebcam to grab still images.
When I connected the Pi up to the shed webcam, which is a Sweex WC250
http://www.sweex.com/en/assortiment/sound-vision/webcams/WC250/, all I got was either an almost white image, or an error saying the input was corrupt.
Out of my two cams, this is the one I want to use in the shed, because it has a manual focus. (extremely manual - you screw the lens in and out!) The Logitech is fixed focus, at fairly close range - it looks blurry at longer distances.
But out of curiosity, I tried the Logitech webcam on the Pi in the shed, and got a distinctly unimpressive picture, mildy out of focus, but looking like a 1960's image. The colour balance was all wrong.
Of course, on Windows XP, there is an option on the webcam to have auto white level and various other settings *even without a driver*, but I can't see a way of adjusting this in Debian Wheezy on the Raspberry Pi.
So, although the Pi is almost working as a webserver and Webcam host, I've switched back to Windows XP again because I can't get the camera to work
Why doesn't Linux support webcams out of the box, as Windows has done since XP? Providing they're compliant (most are), they just work and appear as imaging devices. Of course, installing specific Windows drivers might give you extra functionality, but otherwise they just work. Was disappointed this doesn't extend to Linux.
Or does it, and I've missed something?
[EDIT]
I have missed something, there is incomplete support of UVC for UVC compliant webcams in the Linux Kernel, it would appear
http://www.ideasonboard.org/uvc/Incomplete, because the bit I want, individual snapshot, isn't implemented!
Ian