Here is how I configured my Panasonic BB-HCM531A network camera to upload to weather underground. The process was straight forward, but required some tweaking until it worked well. Follow these instructions and you’ll be up and running in minutes.

Steps:

  1. Add a webcam to your weather underground user account here.
  2. Connect to your BB-HCM531A using your local web browser.
  3. Logon as an administrator, as we will making configuration changes.
  4. Click the Setup tab at the top of the screen.
  5. Under Buffer/Transfer (on the left of the screen), click Trigger.
  6. This opens your camera’s triggers. You get 5 separate triggers.
  7. Click on an available trigger number (I choose No. 2).
  8. Under Trigger Settings, check Enable Image Buffer/Transfer, and change the trigger to Timer. Click Next to continue. This will open the Timer Settings page.
  9. Under Time, make sure all days are checked. If you want to limit your camera to daytime only, change the Active Time of Trigger accordingly. I didn’t want to manage sunrise/sunset, so I left this setting to Always. Your choice.
  10. Under Image Buffer Frequency, set frequency to Every 1 min, buffer 1 images. This tells the camera how often to transfer. Leave buffer set to 1 images. Weather Underground will archive images separate from the camera settings.
  11. Under Transfer Method, select FTP, and click Next to continue.
  12. Under FTP make the following settings:
    Server IP Address or Host Name: webcam.wunderground.com
    Port No.: 21
    Logon ID: this is the camera name given to your by wunderground.com
    Password: this is your wunderground.com user password
    Upload File Name: image
  13. Change the Overwrite setting to Save as New File with Time Stamp. Don’t use Overwrite, as it will cause your transfer to fail.
  14. Set the Data Transfer Method according to your network configuration. If your behind a hardware firewall/router/gateway (i.e. Linksys router) then choose Passive. If your computer is directly connected to the internet then choose Active. If you are not sure choose Passive.
  15. Click Save.
  16. Click on the Maintenance tab, and scroll down to Protocol.
  17. To determin if your uploads are working, review the FTP protocol. Note the number of sucess and failures. If your transfers are working the success counter should increase with each transfer. You will have to refresh the browser to see the changes.
  18. Go check out you work on http://www.wunderground.com