Scott Fitzgerald

I'm working with a fire-i 400 from Unibrain, and an XP machine. Never

again after this project though, I swear it. The camera keeps

shutting itself off after an indeterminate amount of time (it varies

This has happened with both the Windows drivers and the fire-i

drivers. Currently, I'm working with the windows drivers,

surprisingly enough, they seem less wonky.

I have adapted a somewhat brute force method to keeping it open,

sending a close/open message every hour between 8am & 8pm, and sending

close once at 830pm. While this works, it's obviously not ideal.

Can someone suggest a more elegant solution to this rather mundane

issue? Most of the time there is no movement in front of the camera,

so looking for a lack of change isn't the best solution.

I'm working with a fire-i 400 from Unibrain, and an XP machine.  Never
again after this project though, I swear it.  The camera keeps
shutting itself off after an indeterminate amount of time (it varies
from 36 hours to 4 hours).

This has happened with both the Windows drivers and the fire-i
drivers.  Currently, I'm working with the windows drivers,
surprisingly enough, they seem less wonky.

I have adapted a somewhat brute force method to keeping it open,
sending a close/open message every hour between 8am & 8pm, and sending
close once at 830pm.  While this works, it's obviously not ideal.

Can someone suggest a more elegant solution to this rather mundane
issue?  Most of the time there is no movement in front of the camera,
so looking for a lack of change isn't the best solution.

fire-1-400-woes

they were remarkably nice when I called them trying to work something out a couple of years ago - I would call them and see if they can help you

the person I spoke with was seriously on the ball and one of the nicest tech support interactions I've ever had - plus they let me return my equipment in exchange for other equipment at no charge etc

Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 9:41:05 PM

----- Original Message ----
From: Scott Fitzgerald 
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 9:41:05 PM
Subject: [jitter] fire-1 400 woes

Could be a hardware issue, either with the camera itself or the XP 

machine. Is the camera powered externally? I guess so, because most 

PCs don't have powered firewire ports, but if this one does, I'd bet 

that is the cause. Maybe there is a power-saving option somewhere 

that turns off the port after some time? Or motherboard issues. 

Otherwise, there was a problem with bad chips in the cameras last 

year, maybe this is a remnant from that, and you need a new camera. 

I second the idea to call tech support, I've had good experiences 

On Jan 16, 2007, at 8:41 PM, Scott Fitzgerald wrote:

> I'm working with a fire-i 400 from Unibrain, and an XP machine. Never

> again after this project though, I swear it. The camera keeps

> shutting itself off after an indeterminate amount of time (it varies

> This has happened with both the Windows drivers and the fire-i

> drivers. Currently, I'm working with the windows drivers,

> surprisingly enough, they seem less wonky.

> I have adapted a somewhat brute force method to keeping it open,

> sending a close/open message every hour between 8am & 8pm, and sending

> close once at 830pm. While this works, it's obviously not ideal.

> Can someone suggest a more elegant solution to this rather mundane

> issue? Most of the time there is no movement in front of the camera,

> so looking for a lack of change isn't the best solution.

Could be a hardware issue, either with the camera itself or the XP  
machine.  Is the camera powered externally? I guess so, because most  
PCs don't have powered firewire ports, but if this one does, I'd bet  
that is the cause.  Maybe there is a power-saving option somewhere  
that turns off the port after some time?  Or motherboard issues.   
Otherwise, there was a problem with bad chips in the cameras last  
year, maybe this is a remnant from that, and you need a new camera.   
I second the idea to call tech support, I've had good experiences  
with unibrain's support.

> Hi jitterers!
>
> I'm working with a fire-i 400 from Unibrain, and an XP machine.  Never
> again after this project though, I swear it.  The camera keeps
> shutting itself off after an indeterminate amount of time (it varies
> from 36 hours to 4 hours).
>
> This has happened with both the Windows drivers and the fire-i
> drivers.  Currently, I'm working with the windows drivers,
> surprisingly enough, they seem less wonky.
>
> I have adapted a somewhat brute force method to keeping it open,
> sending a close/open message every hour between 8am & 8pm, and sending
> close once at 830pm.  While this works, it's obviously not ideal.
>
> Can someone suggest a more elegant solution to this rather mundane
> issue?  Most of the time there is no movement in front of the camera,
> so looking for a lack of change isn't the best solution.
>
> Thanks
>
> ~s
