Help!!!!!! HD Webcams connectivity issue

Finally working on getting the side view cameras input on the monitor.
The rear view will be the last piece to this puzzle.
So far all is working and I can get 3 separate windows for each camera however I have run into a problem.
It seems that there is some issue with my USB on the computer.

Here is the scenario:

Before completely installing and running all wires I made sure to test and verify all was working.
I was able to get all there camera working fine in the car and drove around without any issues.
However upon final installation and running all wires, I can now only get 2 of the 3 cameras to simultaneously.
Upon opening the third window, I get a black screen but no picture.
At first I thought it was the camera so I took it all part and tried connecting them directly to my laptop. I verified they all worked. Next I tried with the 12' and 15' USB extension respectively and again the third camera will not connect.
I went to the store and purchased yet another USB extension and this time it worked with my laptop.
Since I am troubleshooting to find the problem I decided to connect each camera individually and test.
They all worked independently with the USB extensions connected so I can rule them out.
Next I tried to connect first the front camera and verify it works.
Then I connected the second in one of the side mirrors and verified that also worked.
I then connected the third camera to my powered USB hub in the center console with my powered USB hub and it worked both with and without the extension.
However when I finally rewired it to the back of the truck where the CPU is, I am again experiencing the same symptoms
I am leaning towards this being an issue with the USB bus on the CPU not being able to supply enough power for 3 webcams
Is there anyone out there who has had experience with wiring 4 or more USB cameras to a PC?
Any Advise?


Link to my HD Webcam project

http://http://www.mp3car.com/input-d...ml#post1482570

You're going to run into three different problems.

1. power - you'll need to make sure that each camera has adequate power. Running two or more off even a powered hub could be problematic. This is the least of your problems.
2. CPU power - encoding full HD video is a VERY CPU-intensive activity. Especially at full 24fps (or greater) capture rates. I have a quad-core Ivy Bridge i5 at 3.3ghz and it runs better than 60% CPU when encoding 2 webcams at full HD. My guess is you'll max out your CPU trying to do three or four. But that's not your biggest problem.
3. Bandwidth - The USB 2.0 specification supports 480mb of bandwidth for the ENTIRE USB bus. That means that all the devices on your system share that bandwidth. A single HD webcam can easily eat up 50% or more of that bandwidth. With two, you're probably going to be dropping frames, and as you have seen, you can't even run 3.

The short answer - you will most likely never be able to run 4 USB webcams at 1080p 30fps on a single computer. There is simply not enough USB bandwidth (or CPU power) to do it.

VegasGuy

Set your resolution to 800x600 and 15fps or less and you "might' be able to do it......maybe.

VegasGuy

I was wondering how you were going to get more than 1 Microsoft camera running.

From memory the last time I tried I found all Microsoft cameras used the same PID so only one Microsoft camera would attach to a video stream. I ended up using different brands for simultaneous front / rear Hi def recording to the PC.

I doubt Microsoft has changed this but you never know.