/balena-cam

Network Camera with Raspberry Pi and WebRTC. Tutorial:

Primary LanguageJavaScriptMIT LicenseMIT

Live stream your balena device's camera feed.

Getting started

Running this project is as simple as deploying it to a fleet.

One-click deploy to balenaCloud:

or

  • Sign up on balena.io and follow our Getting Started Guide.

  • Clone this repository to your local workspace.

  • Unset (delete) the environment variable BALENA_HOST_CONFIG_gpu_mem or RESIN_HOST_CONFIG_gpu_mem if exists, from the Configuration side tab under "fleets".

  • Set these variables in the Configuration side tab under "fleets".

    • BALENA_HOST_CONFIG_start_x = 1

    • Set all the following gpu_mem variables so your Pi can autoselect how much memory to allocate for hardware accelerated graphics, based on how much RAM it has available

      Key Value
      BALENA_HOST_CONFIG_gpu_mem_256 192
      BALENA_HOST_CONFIG_gpu_mem_512 256
      BALENA_HOST_CONFIG_gpu_mem_1024 448

  • Using Balena CLI, push the code with balena push <fleet-name>.

  • See the magic happening, your device is getting updated 🌟Over-The-Air🌟!

  • In order for your device to be accessible over the internet, toggle the switch called PUBLIC DEVICE URL.

  • Once your device finishes updating, you can watch the live feed by visiting your device's public URL.

Password Protect your balenaCam device

To protect your balenaCam devices using a username and a password set the following environment variables.

Key Value
username yourUserNameGoesHere
password yourPasswordGoesHere

💡 Tips: 💡

Optional Settings

  • To rotate the camera feed by 180 degrees, add a device variable: rotation = 1 (More information about this on the docs).
  • To suppress any warnings, add a device variable: PYTHONWARNINGS = ignore

TURN server configuration

If you have access to a TURN server and you want your balenaCam devices to use it. You can easily configure it using the following environment variables. When you set them all the app will use that TURN server as a fallback mechanism when a direct WebRTC connection is not possible.

Key Value
STUN_SERVER stun:stun.l.google.com:19302
TURN_SERVER turn:<yourTURNserverIP>:<yourTURNserverPORT>
TURN_USERNAME <yourTURNserverUsername>
TURN_PASSWORD yourTURNserverPassword

Additional Information

  • This project uses WebRTC (a Real-Time Communication protocol).
  • A direct WebRTC connection fails in some cases.
  • This current version uses mjpeg streaming when the webRTC connection fails.
  • Chrome browsers will hide the local IP address from WebRTC, making the page appear but no camera view. To resolve this try the following
    • Navigate to chrome://flags/#enable-webrtc-hide-local-ips-with-mdns and set it to Disabled
    • You will need to relaunch Chrome after altering the setting
  • Firefox may also hide local IP address from WebRTC, confirm following in 'config:about'
    • media.peerconnection.enabled: true
    • media.peerconnection.ice.obfuscate_host_addresses: false

Supported Browsers

  • Chrome (but see note above)
  • Firefox (but see note above)
  • Safari
  • Edge (only mjpeg stream)

Become a balena poweruser

Want to learn more about what makes balena work? Try one of our masterclasses. Each lesson is a self-contained, deeply detailed walkthrough on core skills to be successful with your next edge project.

Check them out at our docs. Also, reach out to us on the Forums if you need help.