RPi Cam Web Interface

[RPi_Lukker]

Hallo,

I got the same problems with the user buttons, that wouldn`t work.
I did many tries ... checking the execution rights ... following suggestions from other users ... without success
At last I realised, that in the button definition line in the userbuttons file no space between the colon and the filename of the macro is allowed.
As I removed the space
for example "GPIO_27_ON, gpio27on.sh" I changed in "GPIO_27_ON,gpio27on.sh" and suddenly it works as desired.

[ChAoSWK]

...There is, however, buffering in the MMAL interface. Currently these are set to the recommended numbers. There is a config for the h264_buffers in the /etc/raspiconfig file. It has a value of 0 which then sets to the recommended level of 1. One can increase that to see if it helps.

Hello btidey,

thank you for that great tip. I set:


h264_buffer_size 262144 (doubled the size)
h264_buffers 1 (change from 0 to 1)

And now for round about 40 hours I had no abort in recording. All files are round about 59 minutes and average 1,62 gb in size outer in dawn and dusk, there the bitrate is sometimes smaller because of some black areas.

Thank you

[btidey]

Thanks a lot, seems to be working !
(BTW, my camera is in 1080p:25 and not 1080p50 as previously stated)

Edit : I forgot to reduce frame start before testing, recording is still getting triggered at md start (just to be sure, I set delay frames to 1000)

Strange thing is that the Delay Frames to detect: parameter seems not to be recorded : when I reboot my rpi it get back to 0 (does the same when I close/re-open the web interface).

Saves OK on my system.

After you change a setting, if you check in Schedule log you should see an entry like
{2018/02/19 09:37:42} Change: motion_initframes = 50

If you look in uconfig in the /var/www/html folder (or wherever you installed to then you should see a line like
motion_initframes 50

[btidey]

Hallo,

I got the same problems with the user buttons, that wouldn`t work.
I did many tries ... checking the execution rights ... following suggestions from other users ... without success
At last I realised, that in the button definition line in the userbuttons file no space between the colon and the filename of the macro is allowed.
As I removed the space
for example "GPIO_27_ON, gpio27on.sh" I changed in "GPIO_27_ON,gpio27on.sh" and suddenly it works as desired.

Yes. No space allowed. I have clarified in the userbuttonsD example.

[Yannick292]

Thanks a lot, seems to be working !
(BTW, my camera is in 1080p:25 and not 1080p50 as previously stated)

Edit : I forgot to reduce frame start before testing, recording is still getting triggered at md start (just to be sure, I set delay frames to 1000)

Strange thing is that the Delay Frames to detect: parameter seems not to be recorded : when I reboot my rpi it get back to 0 (does the same when I close/re-open the web interface).

Saves OK on my system.

After you change a setting, if you check in Schedule log you should see an entry like
{2018/02/19 09:37:42} Change: motion_initframes = 50

If you look in uconfig in the /var/www/html folder (or wherever you installed to then you should see a line like
motion_initframes 50

I don't have motion_initframes in uconfig (just ,rotation, motiion_external and motion_startframes) and nothing shows up in scheduleLog when setting the parameter. I tried using the update script to fecth your changes. I'll try to fully reinstall it

[Yannick292]

Strange thing is that the Delay Frames to detect: parameter seems not to be recorded : when I reboot my rpi it get back to 0 (does the same when I close/re-open the web interface).

Saves OK on my system.

After you change a setting, if you check in Schedule log you should see an entry like
{2018/02/19 09:37:42} Change: motion_initframes = 50

If you look in uconfig in the /var/www/html folder (or wherever you installed to then you should see a line like
motion_initframes 50

I don't have motion_initframes in uconfig (just ,rotation, motiion_external and motion_startframes) and nothing shows up in scheduleLog when setting the parameter. I tried using the update script to fecth your changes. I'll try to fully reinstall it

Quick update : every fields in Motion Setteings triggers a log in scheduleLog.txt except Delay Frames to detect. I'll try to dig around

[btidey]

Quick update : every fields in Motion Setteings triggers a log in scheduleLog.txt except Delay Frames to detect. I'll try to dig around

Did you update /etc/raspiconfig

This should have the default

motion_initframes 0

in it.

If not then manually put that in.

[ksdehoff]

I'm having an odd problem with night time motion detection. Exposure mode is set at 'Night' and when motion detection ends there appears to be an exposure mode reset - the image goes from very bright to dark and then ramps open. The problem is that the motion detection engine sees this ramp as motion and starts recording again and this repeats over and over and over. Is there some way to work around this? I was thinking of some way to delay re-arming the motion detection trigger for 10 seconds after it completes recording?

Thanks for all suggestions

[btidey]

I'm having an odd problem with night time motion detection. Exposure mode is set at 'Night' and when motion detection ends there appears to be an exposure mode reset - the image goes from very bright to dark and then ramps open. The problem is that the motion detection engine sees this ramp as motion and starts recording again and this repeats over and over and over. Is there some way to work around this? I was thinking of some way to delay re-arming the motion detection trigger for 10 seconds after it completes recording?

Thanks for all suggestions

The motion start frames setting can be used to make the detection less sensitive to any sudden changes in exposure but maybe you want to use a lowish setting for other reasons.

I did put a change in recently to deal with a similar problem where someone had a fairly sensitive md set up which was being triggered by a daylight exposure change triggering an initial recording every time the whole motion detection mechanism was turned on (e.g. by button press). This was dealt with by a new setting (under motion settings) to delay motion detection being armed until a set number of frames after turning motion detection on.

This may not directly help your case if motion detection is staying armed and it is just the end of a video capture which is triggering the exposure change.

What I could potentially do is make this setting apply to not only turning on motion detection but apply after a capture ends. This would have the effect though that if it was used it would prevent a new capture being triggered by real motion for that period.

You might be able to try out this mechanism even with the current software by putting in ca 0; md 0;md 1 as the motion end action. This will stop and restart the motion detection and therefore invoke the delay setting.

[ksdehoff]

Thanks I will try that and get back to you

[nospam]

Is there a change log somewhere explaining what the version differences are? I've just noticed the most recent release is 6.4.17 and I'm trying to figure out if I want/need to update from 6.4.14.

GIT shows "Version increment" ... whatever than means...

[btidey]

Is there a change log somewhere explaining what the version differences are? I've just noticed the most recent release is 6.4.17 and I'm trying to figure out if I want/need to update from 6.4.14.

GIT shows "Version increment" ... whatever than means...

The way to track the changes is by looking at the comments in the commits tab on github.

Normally I try to increment the version number when any commit is applied. On the commit described as 'Check timestring is a date before applying it' this didn't happen so the following commit was just incrementing the version number but without any further changes.

[Cosmatos]

Hello, good people. Very much I ask to help you with the decision of such task. I need to insert a video stream from the picamera to another HTML page. I have a simple server on flask on port 5000. Simultaneously launched RPi Cam Web Interface. How do I get the video stream in real time in my flask html page. Thank you...

[DaveH]

This may be simple, but I'm struggling to find an answer with googling...

Is it possible to record still images using the RPi Cam Web interface on motion detect? I'm looking at using it in a birdbox and once they get busy nest building, they are going to trigger a lot of motions. If it records video each time, not only will it take a long time to view everything, it is going to fill the memory card pretty quickly.

Initially I want it to capture a jpg image on motion and probably tell it not to capture more than one image every 10 seconds. Once chicks start hatching, I will switch it to timelapse, as that will trigger motion constantly.

[quavoce]

Hi Robert,

Would it be possible to support browsing folder structures on the "Download Images and Videos" page by any chance please?

At the moment I use a custom script to put .mp4 files into days/months/years within the media folder. e.g.

/var/www/media/2017
/var/www/media/2017/Oct
/var/www/media/2017/Oct/01
/var/www/media/2017/Oct/01/vi_3509_20171001_083802.mp4
...
/var/www/media/2017/Oct/02
/var/www/media/2017/Oct/03
...
/var/www/media/2017/Nov
/var/www/media/2017/Nov/01
...
/var/www/media/2017/Dec

The downside is I can't view the videos via the web interface as it just shows an empty page.

No worries if it's easier said than done, it's just a "nice to have" request.

Thanks!

[btidey]

This may be simple, but I'm struggling to find an answer with googling...

Is it possible to record still images using the RPi Cam Web interface on motion detect? I'm looking at using it in a birdbox and once they get busy nest building, they are going to trigger a lot of motions. If it records video each time, not only will it take a long time to view everything, it is going to fill the memory card pretty quickly.

Initially I want it to capture a jpg image on motion and probably tell it not to capture more than one image every 10 seconds. Once chicks start hatching, I will switch it to timelapse, as that will trigger motion constantly.

The actions taken on motion start and motion stop are determined by the settings in the scheduler set up. For video capture one uses ca 1 to start a video recording on a motion start and ca 0 to top it when motion stop is detected.

For a still image one uses im in motion start to record 1 image when a motion start is detected, nothing is needed in motion stop.

However, if there is a sustained period of motion then you will only get one image when it starts. You might want to consider starting a time lapse sequence of still images on motion start (tl 1) and to stop the sequence (tl 0) on motion stop.

You can enter a set of commands in each box separated by ; if required.

[btidey]

Hi Robert,

Would it be possible to support browsing folder structures on the "Download Images and Videos" page by any chance please?

At the moment I use a custom script to put .mp4 files into days/months/years within the media folder. e.g.

/var/www/media/2017
/var/www/media/2017/Oct
/var/www/media/2017/Oct/01
/var/www/media/2017/Oct/01/vi_3509_20171001_083802.mp4
...
/var/www/media/2017/Oct/02
/var/www/media/2017/Oct/03
...
/var/www/media/2017/Nov
/var/www/media/2017/Nov/01
...
/var/www/media/2017/Dec

The downside is I can't view the videos via the web interface as it just shows an empty page.

No worries if it's easier said than done, it's just a "nice to have" request.

Thanks!

You don't need a script to organise the storage into folders. You can use the %Y %M and %D variables into the media paths in the config. This will cause the capture files to be placed into calculated folder. The thumbnails will still be in the root and this is what then allows the captures to be seen in the download page. Playing, deleting, downloading etc will then reference the file in its subfolder correctly.

The download page does currently have simple filters to only show captures by a simple time period (e.g. last 24 hours). It would be possible to expand this to allow selection by a date.

[quavoce]

Hi Robert,

Would it be possible to support browsing folder structures on the "Download Images and Videos" page by any chance please?

At the moment I use a custom script to put .mp4 files into days/months/years within the media folder. e.g.

/var/www/media/2017
/var/www/media/2017/Oct
/var/www/media/2017/Oct/01
/var/www/media/2017/Oct/01/vi_3509_20171001_083802.mp4
...
/var/www/media/2017/Oct/02
/var/www/media/2017/Oct/03
...
/var/www/media/2017/Nov
/var/www/media/2017/Nov/01
...
/var/www/media/2017/Dec

The downside is I can't view the videos via the web interface as it just shows an empty page.

No worries if it's easier said than done, it's just a "nice to have" request.

Thanks!

You don't need a script to organise the storage into folders. You can use the %Y %M and %D variables into the media paths in the config. This will cause the capture files to be placed into calculated folder. The thumbnails will still be in the root and this is what then allows the captures to be seen in the download page. Playing, deleting, downloading etc will then reference the file in its subfolder correctly.

The download page does currently have simple filters to only show captures by a simple time period (e.g. last 24 hours). It would be possible to expand this to allow selection by a date.

Ohhhhh! Sometimes I just don't see the obvious, simple answer, and instead try to make things more complicated! heh, thanks Robert, I'll have a play with setting that up.

So, I'm going to simplify my set up so that h264 videos are initially stored in a separate folder on the SD card and then use boxing mode to save .mp4 files in my remote media server using the folder naming method you mentioned. Do you know if the disk space purging method would still work with sub-folders within media? (I'm using an NFS mount)

If it does work, may I suggest another purging method based on number of days please? At the moment you have "Min Space %, Max Usage %, etc", but could there be a "Max Days" option as well? This is because my remote media HD is 8TB which allows me to store many days worth of 24/7 recordings, but tbh I just want to only keep the last 60 days worth.

Thanks!

[btidey]

Ohhhhh! Sometimes I just don't see the obvious, simple answer, and instead try to make things more complicated! heh, thanks Robert, I'll have a play with setting that up.

So, I'm going to simplify my set up so that h264 videos are initially stored in a separate folder on the SD card and then use boxing mode to save .mp4 files in my remote media server using the folder naming method you mentioned. Do you know if the disk space purging method would still work with sub-folders within media? (I'm using an NFS mount)

If it does work, may I suggest another purging method based on number of days please? At the moment you have "Min Space %, Max Usage %, etc", but could there be a "Max Days" option as well? This is because my remote media HD is 8TB which allows me to store many days worth of 24/7 recordings, but tbh I just want to only keep the last 60 days worth.

Thanks!

Yes. Purging works starting from thumbnails which are in the logical media folder. These point to the associated capture files even in subfolders, so a purge removes the thumbnail and its captures.

There is PurgeHours (separate numbers for video, images and timelapse). These control purging files recorded earlier than this time. This is applied first and then any purge space criterion are then applied. So for 60 days use 1440 hours.

[quavoce]

Ohhhhh! Sometimes I just don't see the obvious, simple answer, and instead try to make things more complicated! heh, thanks Robert, I'll have a play with setting that up.

So, I'm going to simplify my set up so that h264 videos are initially stored in a separate folder on the SD card and then use boxing mode to save .mp4 files in my remote media server using the folder naming method you mentioned. Do you know if the disk space purging method would still work with sub-folders within media? (I'm using an NFS mount)

If it does work, may I suggest another purging method based on number of days please? At the moment you have "Min Space %, Max Usage %, etc", but could there be a "Max Days" option as well? This is because my remote media HD is 8TB which allows me to store many days worth of 24/7 recordings, but tbh I just want to only keep the last 60 days worth.

Thanks!

Yes. Purging works starting from thumbnails which are in the logical media folder. These point to the associated capture files even in subfolders, so a purge removes the thumbnail and its captures.

There is PurgeHours (separate numbers for video, images and timelapse). These control purging files recorded earlier than this time. This is applied first and then any purge space criterion are then applied. So for 60 days use 1440 hours.

I really should open my eyes more - thanks Robert!

[DaveH]

This may be simple, but I'm struggling to find an answer with googling...

Is it possible to record still images using the RPi Cam Web interface on motion detect? I'm looking at using it in a birdbox and once they get busy nest building, they are going to trigger a lot of motions. If it records video each time, not only will it take a long time to view everything, it is going to fill the memory card pretty quickly.

Initially I want it to capture a jpg image on motion and probably tell it not to capture more than one image every 10 seconds. Once chicks start hatching, I will switch it to timelapse, as that will trigger motion constantly.

The actions taken on motion start and motion stop are determined by the settings in the scheduler set up. For video capture one uses ca 1 to start a video recording on a motion start and ca 0 to top it when motion stop is detected.

For a still image one uses im in motion start to record 1 image when a motion start is detected, nothing is needed in motion stop.

However, if there is a sustained period of motion then you will only get one image when it starts. You might want to consider starting a time lapse sequence of still images on motion start (tl 1) and to stop the sequence (tl 0) on motion stop.

You can enter a set of commands in each box separated by ; if required.

Many thanks for that, that is exactly what I wanted. You are right, the timelapse is better than the single image.

One enhancement that would be nice, is being able to view and cycle through the timelapse images from the 'download' files section.

[btidey]

Many thanks for that, that is exactly what I wanted. You are right, the timelapse is better than the single image.

One enhancement that would be nice, is being able to view and cycle through the timelapse images from the 'download' files section.

I've got that one on my wish list. I'll take another look at that.

[hwissing]

Hello,

I've a problem with annotate text. The text file referenced by the %a option is used, but not 127 characters are displayed. I changed character block size, but no change.
Has anyone a solution for the problem?

Thanks
Heimo

[hwissing]

Hello,

when I try to display text using the file annotate.txt referenced via %a I do not get 127 characters displayed. Changing character block size does not change to number of characters displayed.

How can I solve this problem?

Thanks
Heimo

[btidey]

Hello,

when I try to display text using the file annotate.txt referenced via %a I do not get 127 characters displayed. Changing character block size does not change to number of characters displayed.

How can I solve this problem?

Thanks
Heimo

There are 2 limits on the annotation text.
1) Maximum overall length is 256 characters. This is set in the MMAL libraries and I cannot change this.

2) Maximum %a text is 100 characters. This is set in the raspimjpeg code. It is not changeable by the user.

I could increase the limit in 2) if needed, but normally 100 is plenty. Note you should put fixed text directly in the annotation set up rather than in the %a text file.