The Raspberry Pi Thread [4]

My enthusiasm for Motion Eye OS is starting to wain. The camera I wanted to adjust wouldn't connect to my WIFI when I booted it up? Rebooted it a couple of times. Reflashed the SD card and did my setup again. It connected fine to my 2G, would not connect to my 5G though? I was using the 2.5G network before. My other 3B+ running Raspbian works on my 5G. Its back up and running anyway now. Tweaked the focus a little bit and I'm happy with it now. The focus thingy is actually square so it was pretty easy to adjust with my forceps.
That SD card was originally setup on a Pi 3B and moved to the 3B+, that might have had something to do with it not working today? Will see how it goes from here.

Are you recording your videos?

badrobot said:

Are you recording your videos?

I can if I want to. I haven't done it other than some quick test runs. All deleted at the moment.

I have 2 other cameras at home. This project is just like an extension of my eyes so the software on raspian OS works great for me. It starts automatically on every boot.
I also have an option to record the video thru an app on my phone.

I can set continuous recording or record by motion detection on each camera and it will record to a file on that Pi. I think I can point it to an external location for the file too. I also installed OBS studio on my PC. I can point that to the Pi's IP address and record the feed, all three cameras at once if I want.

Eventually one of them is going to be a bird camera aimed at my bird feeders. Right now I'm just messing a round trying to get the kinks out etc.

Next step I think is to try the Pi Video from Raspbian, what your using for a comparison. I "should" be able to do that on my AIY Pi, as AIY runs in Raspbian. That Pi is one of the ones with a camera attached. I'll just swap out my Motion Eye SD card for the AIY one and have a go. Probably won't happen today, tomorrow or the next day I think. If I end up liking that better I'll redo my other Pi's and switch them over to a headless Raspbian install.

I initially went with Motion Eye because of the motion detection stuff. Thats not working out like I planned, really finicky to setup, and doesn't work very well, IMHO anyway. I can't get it to work the way I want. And Motion Eye is a PITA to setup. You have to have a working ethernet connection on first boot or it will just endlessly reboot. Then go in and setup your WIFI. Make a typo and your back to endless reboots. I like the GUI / Interface, and it has some nice options, just wish it was easier to setup and use.

I just discovered an amazing app for my android phone. Since my camera project is running on Raspian, I can also do a lot of things with it via cmd like playing music on VLC (via bluetooth), taking photos, recording videos, transfering files, reboot the pi, etc. Without actually typing those command lines. This app will let you create a button for any command line. Very convenient. You can control as many Pi as you have as long as you know its IP address. The app is $3.50 but you can ask for refund if it doesn't work for you.

Below are the sample buttons I've already created with the app. And it works flawlessly.







The resulting GUI is very simple and straightforward but I have no complaints.

Nice, very I don't own a smart phone.

alphanumeric said:

Nice, very I don't own a smart phone.

Haha... any tablet should work too if you have any. :)

badrobot said:

Haha... any tablet should work too if you have any. :)

Nothing Android here, that I know of. If I was still working I'd have a smart phone. Just no real must have need for one with our life stiles.

@badrobot just want to confirm what your using to stream your video from your Pi Camera, and get a link to the guide you followed. I'm just setting up my AIY Pi and doing the update / upgrade. Going togo grabe a cup of coffee while it does its thing.