Need help installing ustreamer

gtj0

The downside of RPi cameras is the distance limit and the flat ribbon cable. You get a lot more choices if you use a USB camera.

I use this one
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HVT2XZL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
because it has LED illumination, is easy to mount, move, and use for other things if needed.

gtj0

@luckyflyer You can get RPi cameras with interchangeable lenses on Amazon. Here's one...
https://www.amazon.com/Arducam-Camera-Raspberry-Interchangeable-LS-2717CS/dp/B012ETE75I/

Dougal1957

@luckyflyer said in Need help installing ustreamer:

@Dougal1957
Nice looking cam , I would like to buy from a US vendor if possible, is it available here anywhere?

I would have thought it would be as it is an official Raspberry device https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-high-quality-camera/

and 2 meter long cables are available for cheap as well https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-camera-cable?variant=10312200583 don't know what effect they would have mind

luckyflyer

@gtj0 But don't the mipi cams offer greater programmability and flexibility than usb cams?
A picture of the back of my printer, a 30 cm cable would be perfect, up to the top and out.!

Dougal1957

@luckyflyer I don't really know as I don't have one yet but am considering one with possible a wide angle lens on it not a cheap combination mind

mdevaev

Sup. The ustreamer developer here. I am glad that you use my software, but just in case I want to warn those who want to use RPi CSI cameras: it doesn't work with ustreamer. The reason is that these cameras use their own specific non-v4l2 driver. It is possible to configure them as v4l2, but this requires research and I have not yet addressed this issue. So if you don't want any problems, use regular USB cameras.

Quick answers to old questions:

0.0.0.0 is a special address that means "listen all ipv4 interfaces". If you choose this option, you can connect to the streamer via the ip address of your network card or localhost (127.0.0.1).
You can't listen to port 80 unless you are root or have the CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE capability (blah-blah-blah the network magic). If you want to run ustreamer via systemd on port 80 under non-root user, you need to add a parameter AmbientCapabilities=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE to the Service section
Use the HW encoder: almost all cameras support it.
If you're afraid that someone will see your video, use password authorization. It's better than nothing.

PS: I was just passing by, so if you need any help, go to discord, the link is in the ustreamer repository on github.

Dougal1957

@mdevaev Thank you very much for that info just saved me a ton of cash

luckyflyer

Wow, good to know.

luckyflyer

Still having trouble getting ustreamer to auto start as a service. I have entered @gtj0 revised entries which are,

sudoedit /etc/udev/rules.d/80-ustreamer.rules:

ACTION=="add", KERNEL=="video0", SUBSYSTEM=="video4linux", TAG+="systemd", ENV{SYSTEMD_WANTS}+="ustreamer@%k.service"
ACTION=="remove", KERNEL=="video0", SUBSYSTEM=="video4linux", RUN+="/bin/systemctl --no-block stop ustreamer@%k.service"

sudoedit /etc/systemd/system/ustreamer@.service:

[Unit]
Description=UStreamer for %I
[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/ustreamer --exit-on-parent-death -r 640x480 --static /tmp/ -d /dev/%i --host=0.0.0.0 --port=8080
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then rebooted, but no image on pc which is http://192.168.0.181:8080 or on Duet pi
http://0.0.0.0:8080

I then tried to manually start the service with,

sudo systemctl start ustreamer@video0.service

and get,

pi@duet3:~ $ sudo systemctl start ustreamer@video0.service
Failed to start ustreamer@video0.service: Unit ustreamer@video0.service not found.
pi@duet3:~ $

@bearer mentioned this,
*) edit: this assumes the default EDITOR environment variable is set to nano, but if you've changed it you probably know how to use the editor:)
I wondered about this but Raspbian buster comes with nano as the default editor and since I haven't changed editors this shouldn't be an issue.

A Former User

@luckyflyer said in Need help installing ustreamer:

@bearer mentioned this,
*) edit: this assumes the default EDITOR environment variable is set to nano, but if you've changed it you probably know how to use the editor:)
I wondered about this but Raspbian buster comes with nano as the default editor and since I haven't changed editors this shouldn't be an issue.

only relevant when using sudoedit (probably other times as well, but in this context, only for sudoedit) and the instructions for getting out of nano wouldn't work for other editors - but then again, if someone have changed the default I'd wager they know how to use it.

luckyflyer

Hmm, that is what I'm using,
sudoedit /etc/udev/rules.d/80-ustreamer.rules:
sudoedit /etc/systemd/system/ustreamer@.service:
should I use something else?

A Former User

@luckyflyer said in Need help installing ustreamer:

Hmm, that is what I'm using, should I use something else?

oh dear; that is the one question you do not ask the internett and live to talk about..

jokes aside, no and yes. occasional editing of small files on debian and derivatives nano is fine. but nano isn't always available when you wander outside the comfort zone, and there are fanatics who will tell you that you won't get into (insert happy after life place) if you use anything but their favourite editor etc.

luckyflyer

Lol can I buy you a plane ticket to the desert southwest, my guess is you you would have this sorted in about 2 minutes.
So
sudoedit /etc/udev/rules.d/80-ustreamer.rules:
sudoedit /etc/systemd/system/ustreamer@.service:
should work ok for me?

A Former User

not so sure about the 2 minutes, systemd isn't my forte.

nor am I 100% sure about the usecase and proposed solution is the best match.

but yeah, the command to edit the files as root is fine, it does the same as sudo nano /etc/.... just without loopholes and it respects the EDITOR env variable for those who have customized their profile.

are you looking for a solution that will autostart when the camera is connected, or a solution that will autostart when the pi starts (with the camera always connected)?

my day is coming to an end, but i think the last bit there might clear up some misconceptions?

luckyflyer

I normally will keep the camera always connected so the autostart with camera connected would work for me. But either would work ok.

A Former User

(the template thing might do both, idk, if I fidn a camera tomorrow i'll play with it a little in the evening)

luckyflyer

Sounds good thanks.

luckyflyer

I notice that line 2 uses a upper case I and line 5 uses a lower case i Don't know if this is anything or not, thought I would mention it.

[Unit]
Description=UStreamer for %I
[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/ustreamer --exit-on-parent-death -r 640x480 --static /tmp/ -d /dev/%i --host=0.0.0.0 --port=8080
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

A Former User

thats intentional. %I gets escaped so it doesn't contain special characters, which is needed for the name (and i suspect gtj0 would have corrected it if I was mistaken:)

gtj0

@bearer said in Need help installing ustre sure the camera is plugged in.
eamer:

thats intentional. %I gets escaped so it doesn't contain special characters, which is needed for the name (and i suspect gtj0 would have corrected it if I was mistaken:)

Correct. It's just in the description anyway.

@luckyflyer start simple...

### Move the rules file out of the way
$ sudo mv /etc/udev/rules.d/80-ustreamer.rules /root/
### Reload systemd
$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
### Enable ustreamer@video0 to start on boot.
$ sudo systemctl enable ustreamer@video0
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/ustreamer@video0.service → /etc/systemd/system/ustreamer@.service.
### Make sure the camera is plugged in.
### Reboot.
$ sudo systemctl reboot
###  When the Pi is back up, check the status of the service...
$ sudo systemctl status ustreamer@video0