guriben / gwencam

Files and code related to the Pi Zero W Camera Trap for Gwen

gwencam

Version 0.2 - "Birdie Hop"

Feel free to edit this document. I will explain git and repo's another time, click on README.md link and then on the little pencil icon to edit....scroll down to the bottom of the page to save/commit the file....you can't break anything that itsn't fixable. :)

Hardware

Kit List

• Pi Zero W (starter kit)
• Zero2Go (make sure you get a ferrite ring!) !DEPRECATED - UNTIL SOFTWARE BUG FIXED!
• Zero4U USB Hub

TODO: *assembling

• put the camera cable in the right way round!...it is fiddly.

Software

Bare minimum:

• detect motion
• image capture
• video capture
• remote access
• local network access
• basic admin
• FOSS

The quickest solution is therefore basic "Motion". We start there, building on the work of others where possible...But with a view to either provide improvements to this software or to create something more custom, while adhering to the principles of being decent human beings and sharing cool stuff.

Basic First Attempt

On your phone:

• install Fing (optional, but handy)
• install JuiceSSH (really kind of mandatory for admin)
• create an access point

On your PC:

• format microSD to full capacity (I use "SDFormatter" on Windows. Make sure you check the options to ensure you are expanding the whole capacity of the card)

• download Raspbian Jessie image from here: https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/ (don't bother with the "lite" version)

• unzip that to get the image

• Download and install Etcher from http://etcher.io

• Using Etcher, select the unzipped image, and the drive you just formatted and burn it (it wil verify afterwards...so it takes a while)

• After burning you should be able to see a drive called "boot"

• Copy this file to the "boot" volume: https://github.com/guriben/gwencam/blob/master/ssh

• Copy this file to the "boot" volume (it can also be placed in /etc/wpa_supplicant/ if you have that path on the sd card: https://github.com/guriben/gwencam/blob/master/wpa_supplicant.conf

• Now you can unmount the SD card and put it in your Pi Zero W

• Power on the Pi - use the "usual" USB power connector on the Pi itself, we will not configure the Zero2Go yet.

• On a PC on the same Wifi Network you configured in "wpa_supplicant.conf", find out the IP address of the pi (it is called 'raspberrypi' or 'raspberrypi-N' where N is a number if you have more than one Pi connected) use something like "Fing" or connect to the router and have a look for it there, note the IP:

• ssh [email protected] - where x is the IP, duh :) the default password is "raspberry" (without quotes)

Now you are connected to your Pi we need to do some initial configuration.

• Change default password, we used gwencam1 for simplicity, to do that just type "passwd" and follow the 2 prompts.
• Make sure the system is up to date....
• Type or copy paste.....[Shift]+[Insert] is paste on Linux terminal...the following:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y

• when that has finished, if not prompted to do so, do a restart:

sudo reboot now

• When the system reboots, check for the new IP (it might be the same, but check) and this time after "ssh [email protected]" use the new password you just set.
• Just a few more things...now run:

sudo raspi-config

...and arrow down to Interfaces, press enter and enable all of them (there a couple of prompts for each one, use arrow keys, and tab or enter to move around and select, escape key takes you back one menu).

• Exit saving changes and then (you will probably be prompted to do so anyway...but):

sudo reboot now

• Repeat the connection steps before we move onto Zero2Go....

wget http://www.uugear.com/repo/Zero2Go/installZero2Go.sh

• If your Raspberry Pi has internet connection, it will immediately download the script. Now run it with sudo:

Now we need to install Motion properly and not quite how I tried to do it.

• You should be logged back into your pi over ssh
• Use the following command:

wget github.com/Motion-Project/motion/releases/download/release-4.0

• When that completes, type this (answer "y" if prompted):

sudo apt-get install gdebi-core

• When that completes, type this:

sudo gdebi pi_jessie_motion_4.0.1-1_armhf.deb

• Now we backup config file just in case:

mkdir ~/.motion

cp /etc/motion/motion.conf ~/.motion/motion.conf

(if you get a permission denied error try: sudo cp /etc/motion/motion.conf ~/.motion/motion.conf)

• Edit the motion configuration [TODO: Ben to provide a drop in replacement file] sudo nano ~/.motion/motion.conf

• Make the following changes:

• • Uncomment the mmalcam_name vc.ril.camera parameter.
• • Uncomment target_dir and change it's associated value to ’/home/pi/Documents/motion’
• • Ensure that ffmpeg_output_movies is set to 'off'
• • Set stream_localhost to ‘off’
• • Set webcontrol_localhost to 'off’
• • Set width to ‘640’ and height to ‘480’
• • Set locate_motion_mode to ‘preview’
• • Set locate_motion_style to ‘redbox’
• • Set event_gap to '10'
• • Set output_pictures to 'center'
• • Set quality to '80'
• • Set text_changes to 'on'

• Save the file

• Start motion for the first time (keep an eye open for error messages):

motion -c ~/.motion/motion.conf

• Now on a phone, or PC connected to the same Wifi access point as your Pi you should be able to go to:

http://ip.address.of.pi:8180

• ...and should see some video...motion is indicated by a having a red box drawn around it.

• Finally, for now, we want it to start at boot time....

• Back in the SSH window to your Pi, press Ctrl+C to stop motion

• Edit the following file:

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

• to the end of the file add the line:

motion -c ~/.motion/motion.conf &

• Over time your SD card will fill up with images, so we will need some clean up scripts....Ben TODO

• Next step will be to add some fancier detection and triggers for action when motion is detected.

:)

to be continued...