Rovio Unboxing… User Review…

I was considering purchasing a WowWee Rovio for over a year now, and when Woot had a ’special’ for $99.99 + $5 shipping… I just had to have one, and figured since I was ‘almost’ willing to purchase one for $200, lets double my chances for getting a problem free unit! Two were ordered…

If you did any digging into the Rovio online you would surely have found the many problems WowWee seems to have with Batteries and Power supplies. My fingers were doubly crossed but unfortunately I received 2 bad batteries(run times of approximately 4 and 5 minutes, after leaving on the base the night before running the Installation Program), and a power supply that makes such a high pitched whine that it drives one even more insane(or just can’t fall asleep with it in the same room).

After opening everything, I would have to say my opinion is that this is on the ‘higher quality’ end of what you typically expect out of China. Quality manuals, good USB cable, well boxed.

Rovio itself has a little bit of weight to it, and doesn’t feel ‘cheap’.

The power supply is as you can see a 9V DC 2.5A adapter and is a newer ’solid state’/'hollow sounding’ adapter. These in my experience fail much more often than the heavy/solid adapters from the 1990’s and earlier.

It seems when you hear about the bad batteries, more often than not they are blue in color vs the green ones. 5LMH-43SC3000-W-T (NIMH 6v 3000mAh) .

After attaching the charging stations mast (just push it on with the lens facing the rovio) and plugging in the power supply, a red targeting light shines up to the ceiling. Center the lights in the room so the rovio can later find the station to charge. If the red light goes out, just move/touch the lamp base and it should turn on again.

Download the latest installation software and follow instructions, it’s fairly straightforward from there on in. I suggest moving the base station next to the computer so you can leave Rovio charging while doing firmware updates. Given the problems so many have with the battery…

I’ll update this post with some video and my experiences with wowwee and how well they send me replacement batteries and new power supply. If only we can get WowWee to release the modified open source portions of the OS, so we can add some built-in motion detecting etc.

If you own a Rovio, leave a comment on how much run-time you get out of your battery, the battery color/model. How many I wonder get a totally working Rovio right out of the box, 1-3 hour (So I hear!) run time off station etc.

After repeated charges/discharges, one of the Rovios seems to have gotten some battery life, about 30-40 minutes so far. In addition to the full cycling, I am also restarting the charge cycle often by moving it just off and back on the docking station. This may also be aiding in the overall recovery/charge. I’ve done the same with the other Rovio and there is no change.

Rovio Sample Images:

Rovio Save Home Position Video

User Review: Panasonic BL-C1A aka PetCam

Panasonic has been in business for a while now, and their name increases price point somewhat. Over the last couple of years I have purchased a number their BL-C1A cameras paying about $40.00 each.

The software on the camera is very clean with most every feature you could hope to have with exception to the ability to place a filename of the image in a notification email on triggering of an event(motion detection say). The software seems compatible with most other Panasonic Network Cameras, and using the Multi-Camera page you can see up to 12 on a single page(updated every 3 seconds). There is also nothing stopping you from loading up multiple browsers to view even more simultaneously.

Camera Strengths:
Excellent low light performance.
Motion detection and email and/or ftp on triggering.
Digital Zoom; Really it does something ‘more’, see below.
Bandwidth Throttling * Very important in multi-camera systems.

Weaknesses:
No Infrared support
Power supply

Power Supplies included with these adapters are faulty! Model#: PQLV206, 3 failures so far, and after researching the issue, I expect more too fail. So include the costs of replacements in your budget.

Digital Zoom, is implemented properly on these cameras, the first I’ve seen. It is unusual in that, when viewing motion images at say 320×240 and you zoom in, it will take data from the maximum resolution the CCD will support(640×480). Believe me, it helps!

I could go into more detail with screenshots and all that, but why re-invent the wheel, Panasonics manual is well done.

Look at the fun this guy had with a BL-C1A!

No-name (WiFi) IP Camera ; China ; Foscam Clone

I took a chance and purchased one of these cameras new in an ebay auction for $64 shipped. Overall I would say it was worth it, but it would sure be nice to be able to tweak the ActiveX(Java would be so much nicer) software and or the software on the camera. Please comment if you know how…

The biggest negative I have to say is that there doesn’t seem to be any network throttling capabilities, and that the ActiveX program automatically tries to save event triggered video to the hard drive of current viewers, with no apparent option to disable.

No-Name China Camera

versus

Panasonic BL-C1A

The internal speaker is terrible, and the microphone only of much use a few feet away from the unit. Although it can pickup a knock on the door in the next room, it is considerably low.
The good news is it does seem to be possible to install external microphone/speakers but one would have to do some wiring/find adapter.

http://IP-or-domainname:port/videostream.asf as a link in VLC media player with steam audio and video directly from the camera.

IPCAM_PT2_V3.1f
5V DC 2 Amp Power Supply
Inside One, Two, Three
Inside Four, Five, Six.