keenanjohnson/open-pet-cam

This project attempts to create an open-source petcam using a Raspberry Pi and balena.

Technical Overview

The project currently commbines two excellent balena efforts:

• balena Cam
• The balena Starter Interface
• Python Wifi Connect

Hardware

The project currently uses the following hardware:

• Raspberry Pi 4
• Raspberry Pi Camera Module 2
• Pan-Tilt HAT by Pimoroni

Current status

Definitely in work. PRs welcome :)

Getting started

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

• 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: 💡

• You can set them as fleet environment variables and every new balenaCam device you add will be password protected.
• You can set them as device environment variables and the username and password will be different on each device.

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)