Like many born between the mid-50s and early 70s, I am possessed of reasonable technological skills but am no cyber hero. Sure, I can rig up a blog, and surf the net, and create a web site, and all that. But some technology baffles my grey cells. The Eye Fi premise is simple enough: plug their card into the BirdCam SD card slot and tell its management software about your wireless network and preferred photo album platform (I am using Picasa Web Albums), and ... POOF! Your bird pictures are uploaded to the web in real time. Note that I said "premise." I bought one of these cards (the "Share" version) in January and have yet to get bird photos to go anywhere. Every so often I make an absurd effort to test and reconfigure, but the result is always the same. It seems every link in the chain has a break. I can't get the software manager to even see my network (although other wireless devices can.) I couldn't get a transmission from a modest distance even when there was a brief connection (back in May.) Perhaps my dinosaur router generates too weak a signal, but even with the BirdCam in my home office---inches from the PC---I can't get any of this equipment to work as described. Because it did work one time, and because I know the router works, I can only conclude I am prey to a thicket of incorrect software settings that my older-than-forty brain can't wrestle with. So I will persist... try and try and try again. I think that is the definition of "insanity," no?
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Eye Fi Presents Techno-Challenge
Like many born between the mid-50s and early 70s, I am possessed of reasonable technological skills but am no cyber hero. Sure, I can rig up a blog, and surf the net, and create a web site, and all that. But some technology baffles my grey cells. The Eye Fi premise is simple enough: plug their card into the BirdCam SD card slot and tell its management software about your wireless network and preferred photo album platform (I am using Picasa Web Albums), and ... POOF! Your bird pictures are uploaded to the web in real time. Note that I said "premise." I bought one of these cards (the "Share" version) in January and have yet to get bird photos to go anywhere. Every so often I make an absurd effort to test and reconfigure, but the result is always the same. It seems every link in the chain has a break. I can't get the software manager to even see my network (although other wireless devices can.) I couldn't get a transmission from a modest distance even when there was a brief connection (back in May.) Perhaps my dinosaur router generates too weak a signal, but even with the BirdCam in my home office---inches from the PC---I can't get any of this equipment to work as described. Because it did work one time, and because I know the router works, I can only conclude I am prey to a thicket of incorrect software settings that my older-than-forty brain can't wrestle with. So I will persist... try and try and try again. I think that is the definition of "insanity," no?
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7 comments:
We would love to help you get this to work. It seems like a cool application.
Please call us:
http://support.eye.fi/contact-support/
I just got my Eye-Fi card yesterday and successfully transmitted BirdCam photos and videos to Picasa and my desktop. However, today, while I am not at home but at my office instead, I have not received any email notifications that any transfers have taken place. Strange, as my feeder should have some activity by now (9:30am). I wonder what's going on?
Kathy,
You definitely achieved more than I did! I worked with Eye Fi technical support and they decided to replace my Share card. After that we will see what happens. I am sorry I don't have the benefit of experience to guide you in this one. Are the batteries in the BirdCam strong enough? Let me know what you discover. Thanks!
I've been experimenting with eye-fi cards and the birdcam 2.0 . For me the eye-fi card only works on manual mode. It does not work (ie wirelessly trasmit) in auto mode or timelapse mode. I'm mostly needing this for timelapse mode. In manual mode it worked with both the 4gb and 8gb models.
My guess is because of the sleep / power saving functions. Maybe the card is not getting enough power after the photo is taken to transmit the images? Maybe an eye fi firmware update could do the trick?
This sounds like some of you were able to make this work. Is there something I missed, a setting I can change? Which wingscapes model are you using??
For me, it's doesn't do the job I want it to do, hopefully that can change. Any advice?
Jonnydonut,
I am intrigued by your success with Manual Mode. I hadn't thought of that and hope to try it myself. But I did, once, get pictures uploaded when in Auto Mode, so I am still convinced this is an option.
I have experimented with Eye Fi both on a BirdCam 1.0 and 2.0. I do not have any data for Audubon or PlantCam models, but my sense is that they should respond the same way to the Eye Fi card.
Power *is* an issue. The one and only time I got pictures to move I had as a last resort added fresh batteries. My recollection is that anything below 40% remaining of battery life is bad news.
Firmware updates did not help me. I tried that before the Eye Fi tech replaced my Eye Fi card.
A final idea: KathyJN told me more recently (in a March or April post) that she had good results by downloading the new Eye Fi Center. That may be the first thing you want to try.
Thanks for sharing your experience. Please keep me posted on any developments!
I have downloaded the most recent version of the software (on a mac) and the most recent firmware. I've skipped the computer now and am just testing with both smugmug and picasa. Again, in manual mode everything works seemlessly.
I'm thinking it's a sleep function and not enough power is getting to the eye-fi card.
I've tried to reduce the size of the photo uploaded via the eye fi software. I've tried with and without imprinting data on the photo. I've even tried taking 2 #photos/event during the timelapse to allow for extra time for the eye-fi to transmit. No success.
erg! I'm so close, but I'm thinking this is beyond user error at this point. Manual mode. (just meaning that you can manually take a picture) does nothing other than that.
I have downloaded the most recent version of the software (on a mac) and the most recent firmware. I've skipped the computer now and am just testing with both smugmug and picasa. Again, in manual mode everything works seemlessly.
I'm thinking it's a sleep function and not enough power is getting to the eye-fi card.
I've tried to reduce the size of the photo uploaded via the eye fi software. I've tried with and without imprinting data on the photo. I've even tried taking 2 #photos/event during the timelapse to allow for extra time for the eye-fi to transmit. No success.
erg! I'm so close, but I'm thinking this is beyond user error at this point. Manual mode. (just meaning that you can manually take a picture) does nothing other than that.
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