Picam2ctrl

Overview | Features | Installation | Running the MQTT client | Configuration | Pan-Hardware | Home Assistant Integration

Overview

Picam2ctrl is a MQTT client based on new Picamera2 API with Home Assistant discovery support.

General Restriction

Since Picamera2 is currently only available as a beta release picam2ctrl can break with newer Picamera2 releases.

More details about the new libcamera-based Python-API for Raspberry Pi camera you can find here.

Features

MQTT client to control your Raspberry Pi Camera with Home Assistant

• actual 10 different MQTT client entities
• taking snapshot pictures
• capturing MP4 videos incl. audio
• simple HTTP MJPEG streaming server
• UDP video streaming
• motion/occupancy detection by camera
• timestamp support
• time elapse video support
• PAN / TILT camera support with 5V Stepper Motor (28BYJ-48) and ULN2003 driver board (optinal)
• PAN-TILT Hat by Waveshare integrated incl. lighsensor
• support of secure copy latest picture- / video-files to SSH server

Installation

Raspberry Pi OS bullseye version is required and camera legacy mode must be disabled in raspi-config. On headless Raspberry Pi OS lite you have to update from libcamera-apps-lite to full version libcamera-apps. No gui but OpenCV python bindings and paho-mqtt package are required:

sudo apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends libcamera-apps python3-picamera2 python3-opencv python3-paho-mqtt python3-smbus ffmpeg git

finally clone the picam2ctrl repository:

git clone https://github.com/irimitenkan/picam2ctrl.git

Installation & Calibration of Waveshare's Pan-Tilt Hat (optional)

For 1st setup the calibration of the servos is required to avoid a damage when the servos are assembled, i.e. that must be done BEFORE the Pan-Tilt Hat is assembled completly. After that the servomotors are set to 0° degrees. Keep in mind you still have to consider the angles for assignment of the CAM direction when you assemble the hat.

According to Waweshare's documentation there is a test program for servo adjustment but it requires WiringPi which has been removed from Bullseye's repro. WiringPi package is still available at github but we can use here a python script instead. It is available at this picam2ctrl repro.

Hence:

• enable I2C in raspi-config (Interface options -> I2C -> enable)

• python smbus is required:

  sudo apt install python3-smbus
  

• only connect Pan & Tilt servos to hat

• connect hat with Raspberry Pi

• execute servoTest

  python pantilt/waveshare/servoTest.py
  

• proceed with Pan-Tilt Hat assembling see Waveshare's guideline

• finally enable Pan-Tilt Hat in config.json if not already done

  "PanTilt":{
     "active":"WAVESHARE_HAT",
  
  

Picamera2 options

For Picamera2 with GUI support , for non-headless Raspberry see Picamera2 installation

Configuration

Example config.json

{
  "LogLevel":"INFO",
  "storepath": "/home/pi/picam2",

  "camera": {
  "index":0,
  "hflip":1,
  "vflip":1,
  "sensitivity": 10,
  "tuning":"/usr/share/libcamera/ipa/raspberrypi/imx708.json"
  },

  "timestamp": {
  "enabled":true,
  "format": "%A %d.%b %Y - %X",
  "color" : "[255, 255, 0]",
  "origin" : "[0, 45]",
  "font" : "FONT_HERSHEY_TRIPLEX",
  "fscale" : 2,
  "thickness" : 2
  },

  "image": {
    "prefix":"snap",
    "fmt": "jpg",
    "size": "[4056, 3040]"
  },

  "video": {
    "prefix": "videosnap",
    "bitrate": 1000000,
    "size" : "[ 1920, 1080]",
    "quality" : "HIGH",
    "audio":true,

    "streaming": {
      "udp_addr": "<DESTINATION-IP-ADDRESS>",
      "udp_port": 10001,
      "http_port": 8010,
      "http_index":"www/index.html"
    }
  },

    "MQTTBroker":{
    "host":"<ADDRESS OF BROKER>",
    "port": 8883,
    "username":"<USERNAME>",
    "password":"<SECRET>",
    "servercafile":"",
    "clientkeyfile":"",
    "clientcertfile":""
  },

  "SSHClient":{
    "enabled":true,
    "server": "<SSH SERVER ADDRESS>",
    "user" : "<SSH USERNAME>",
    "dest_path" : "/opt/homeassistant/config/tmp"
  },

"PanTilt":{
   "active":"WAVESHARE_HAT",
   "speed":"SLOW",
    "Pan":{
        "angle_max":80,
        "angle_min":-80,
        "flip":true
    },
    "Tilt":{
        "angle_low":-26,
        "angle_high":60,
        "flip":true
    },


   "None":{
          "//":"PanTilt is disabled"
          },

   "ULN2003":{
          "Pan_enabled":true,
          "Tilt_enabled":true,
          "check":true,
          "Pan_GPIO_PinA": 27,
          "Pan_GPIO_PinB": 22,
          "Pan_GPIO_PinC": 23,
          "Pan_GPIO_PinD": 24,

          "Tilt_GPIO_PinA": 13,
          "Tilt_GPIO_PinB": 15,
          "Tilt_GPIO_PinC": 16,
          "Tilt_GPIO_PinD": 18
  },

  "WAVESHARE_HAT":{
      "sensorRefresh":60
          }

}


}

camera options

• "index":0 - the camera idx of connected camera
• "hflip", vflip: 0/1 - to rotate camera output
• "sensitivity": 10 - used for motion detection,for manual calibration, set LogLevel to "DEBUG" and check output during detection.
• "tuning": "path to file" - special tuning e.g. for noir camera

timestamp options

• "format" = "code string", see documention of strftime options
• "font" : allowed 'HERSHEY' string values see module picam2.FONTS resp. here

video options

• "quality" : "HIGH" - allowed values: VERY_LOW, LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH or VERY_HIGH
• "audio":true - enable/disable audio for mp4 file resp UDP streaming (http actually not supported).

SSHClient options

resp. SCP support to be used to copy latest snapshot picture / mp4 video to a SSH server (e.g. your Home Assistant host) but setup up public key authentication is required:

1. generate SSH Key with ssh-keygen e.g. ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096

2. copy the public key to your desired server with

3. ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub user@host

4. verify passwordless login: ssh user@host

5. finally check user@host has write access to configured destination path e.g.: "dest_path" : "/opt/homeassistant/config/tmp"

PanTilt options

• "check" : when 'true' the LEDs on ULN2003 driver board will flash during startup (A->B->C->D, if GPIO PINS are connected correctly), disabled with 'false'
• 'speed' : PAN speed, allowed values: VERY_SLOW, SLOW, MEDIUM, FAST, VERY_FAST
• 'angle_max : maxium absolute angle to pan camera to left resp. right side
• 'GPIO_PinA (B, C, D)' : GPIO Pin A (B, C, D) of ULN2003 driver board wiring assigment, see check option for verification. More details see PAN-HW chapter

WAVESHARE options

• 'sensorRefresh': refresh rate in [t] to update the most recent illuminance state of light sensor

Running

• to start from terminal

  cd picam2ctrl
  python3 picam2ctrl.py
  

with option: -c FILE, --cfg=FILE set config file default: ./config.json

• to stop it & started from terminal

  enter CTRL-C
  

• to enable at startup and start service:

  loginctl enable-linger
  systemctl --user enable --now ~/picam2ctrl/picam2ctrl.service
  

• to disable running service at startup and stop it:

  systemctl --user disable --now picam2ctrl
  

• to stop the service again

  systemctl --user stop picam2ctrl
  

• to start the service

  systemctl --user start picam2ctrl
  

• check the status of the service

  systemctl --user status picam2ctrl
  

• check the picam2ctrl specific service logs

  journalctl --user-unit picam2ctrl
  

PAN-Tilt-Hardware

ULN2003 with 5V step motor(s) 28BYJ-48

The PAN camera can be realized with a step-motor which can be controlled with 4 GPIO ports of your Raspberry Pi.

You need to buy a 5V step motor 28BYJ-48 with ULN2003 driver board.

Howto setup the hardware wiring you can find e.g.here or here.

Finally we need a construction to pan the connected Raspberry Pi Camera with above mentioned step-motor. As solution a Raspberry Pi housing with camera integration support is recommended: we pan the complete Raspberry Pi case.

My 1st prototype is using the Raspberry Pi 3 case with a wide angle camera. Here is an image of the PAN camera prototype and some construction details Mounting_Prototype_1.jpg & Mounting_Prototype_2.jpg

Waveshare's Pan-Tilt Hat

Full support of Waveshare's Pan-Tilt Hat, see some more details at Installation

HASS-Integration

All picam2ctrl entities will be detected by Home Assistant automatically by HASS discovery function via configured MQTT broker.

available Home Assistant entities

• picam2ctrl.< HOSTNAME >.Record:

  represents a state

  • state runing when Image Snapshot / (Timelapse) Video or streaming is active
  • state not running when no picam2 record function is active

• picam2ctrl.< HOSTNAME >.Snapshot:

  this is a switch to enable/disable the picture snapshot function.

  • when [image.snapshots](# Configuration) is set to 0, picam2ctrl takes picture every [image.snapshots_t](# Configuration) seconds in an endless loop, since there is no switch off request
  • when count is set to x>0, picam2ctrl takes x pictures every .. s and stops.
  • when Motion is disabled picture(s) will be taken immediately
  • when Motion is enabled, picture(s) will be taken only after motion detection
  • when timestamp is enabled each picture has a time stamp as configured in json configuration
  • when [SSHClient] is enabled the latest taken picture(s) will be copied via secure shell to configured path @SSH server

• picam2ctrl.< HOSTNAME >.SnapshotCounter

  this is a number box field:

  • setup how many images will taken when Snapshot function was triggered

• picam2ctrl.< HOSTNAME >.SnapshotTimer

  this is a number box field:

  • setup the time between two image snapshots when SnapshotCounter > 1

• picam2ctrl.< HOSTNAME >.TimeLapse:

  This is a switch to activate / deactive TimeLapse function for Video resp. Snapshotfunction

  • when active and 'Video' is triggered: a mp4 video with "VidLapsSpeed" factor is created
  • when active and 'Snapshot' is triggered and SnapshotCounter > 1 a mp4 video is created by concatenating the snapshot images Attention: ffmmeg and mkvmerge must be installed

• picam2ctrl.< HOSTNAME >.VidLapseSpeed

  This is a slider to to setup the timeeplased video speed:

  • the time speed factor to create an mp4 video when 'TimeLapse' is active

• picam2ctrl.< HOSTNAME >.Video:

  This is a switch to enable/disable the video snapshot function.

  • when count is set to x>0, picam2ctrl takes x pictures every .. s and stops.
  • when Motion is disabled picture(s) will be taken immediately
  • when Motion is enabled, picture(s) will be taken only after motion detection
  • when timestamp is enabled each picture has a time stamp as configured in json configuration
  • when audio is enabled & available mp4 video file incl. audio stream is created
  • when SSHClient is enabled the latest taken video will be copied via secure shell to configured path @SSH server

• picam2ctrl.< HOSTNAME >.HttpStream:

  This is a switch to enable/disable a simple HTTP Server with MJPEG stream.

  • when Motion is disabled the MJPEG stream starts immediately
  • when Motion is enabled, the MJEP stream starts after motion detection
  • when timestamp is enabled the MJPEG stream has a time stamp as configured in json configuration

• picam2ctrl.< HOSTNAME >.UdpStream:

  This is a switch to enable/disable an UDP video stream.

  • when Motion is disabled the UDP stream starts immediately
  • when Motion is enabled, the UDP stream starts after motion detection
  • when timestamp is enabled the video stream has a time stamp as configured in json configuration
  • when audio is enabled & available the video+audio stream is created

PAN-TILT

• picam2ctrl.< HOSTNAME >.Pan-Automation:

  This is a switch to enable/disable to pan the camera in range from -angle_max to +angle_max automatically.

• picam2ctrl.< HOSTNAME >.Pan:

  This is a slider to pan the camera in range -angle_max to +angle_max manually.

• picam2ctrl.< HOSTNAME >.Tilt:

  This is a slider to tilt the camera in range -angle_max to +angle_max manually. It is only available with WAVESHARE_HAT or ULN2003 & tilt enabled.

Motion

• picam2ctrl.< HOSTNAME >.MotionEnabled:

  This is a switch to enable/disable the motion detection.

  • a switch off request deactivates a running function, too
  • when disabled the Motion binary switch is not available in HASS

• picam2ctrl.< HOSTNAME >.Motion:

  This is a binary switch . It becomes active for ~0.5s if

  • MotionEnabled switch is active
  • and one of the above mentioned functions (streaming, picture/video snapshot) is enabled
  • and a motion has been detected by camera

  Restrictions Only one switch resp. camera application (HTTPStream, UDPStream, video capturing to file or image snapshots ) can be enabled. Since one application is active, switching on requests for other applications are ignored.

Lightsensor

• picam2ctrl.< HOSTNAME >.Lightsensor:

  This is a illumance sensor , which is only avaliable with Waveshare Pan-Tilt Hat

Home Assistant Configuration

configuration.yaml examples for showing camera output in Home Assistant:

UDP Stream

camera:
  - platform: ffmpeg
    name: picamera2
    input: 'udp://@:10001'

picture snapshots

camera:
  - platform: local_file
    name: picamera2
    file_path: /config/tmp/latest/latest1.jpg

HTTPServer / MJPEG Stream

• In Home Assistant go to

  • add integration
  • from the list, search and select “MJPEG IP Camera”
  • in MJPEG-URL field enter

  http://< YOUR_RASPI_ADDRESS >:< CONFIGURED_HTTP_PORT>/stream.mjpg