webcam

Capture picam image every 5 minutes. Cleanup "redundant images". Organize captures by date. Present them as mjpg or jpg via a web interface.

intro

cleanup redundant images

• currently we use a raspi3 build of perceptualdiff.

this requires that you install libfreeimage-dev

sudo apt-get install libfreeimage-dev

convert jpg to mp4

• need to install ffmpeg for timelapse support sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

(tried to use the opencv video capability, didn't work with frc image).

control camera servo

• install pigpio and node binding, pigpio

% sudo apt-get install pigpio
% npm install pigpio

read docs for api details

thumbdir config issues

• need to statically mount a larger disk drive. We currently employ a exfat usb stick. Auto-mounting instructions :

  % sudo apt-get install exfat-fuse
  % sudo apt-get install exfat-utils
  % sudo blkid (to obtain the UUID)
  % sudo mkdir /mnt/thumb1
  % sudo vi /etc/fstab (might want to back it up first)
    > UUID=64A5-F009 /mnt/thumb1 exfat defaults,nofail 0 0

  ugly colors.

%  dircolors -p > ~/.dircolors
STICKY_OTHER_WRITABLE 40;31;01 
OTHER_WRITABLE 40;31;01
% eval $(dircolors ~/.dircolors0

servo control for camera positioning

• we use pigpio library since it's "more real time" which is important for pwm.
  • downside is that it must run as root, but it does support a daemon mode
  • daemon listen on port 8888 for commands
  • daemon installation:

    sudo systemctl enable|disable pigpiod
    sudo systemctl start|stop pigpiod

    • parameter/ctl file is here: /lib/systemd/system/pigpiod.service
• pinouts here
• to prevent low-power warnings, power the servos via separate usb brick.
  • tie server-usb ground to raspi ground on GPIO GND pin (3rd pin down from top-right)
  • Each servo gets a signal AND ground from PI
    • PAN: GPIO-13 (4th pin from bottom left) and GND (4th from bottom right)
    • TILT: GPIO-5 and GND (6th pin from bottom left and right) (pan and tilt are assumed by pantilt.cpp)