Use USB Camera

Use USB CameraInstall FSWebcamView USB camera devicesTake a photoTime-lapse photographyUse Cron (scheduled tasks)Web preview cameraInstall MotionModify the configuration fileStart the serviceWeb preview screen

Use a standard USB camera to take photos and videos on the Raspberry Pi.

Install FSWebcam

FSWebcam is a simple and straightforward webcam application. The software installation command is as follows:


sudo apt install fswebcam

Add user permissions: sudo usermod -a -G video

Example: Add pi user permissions to the group


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sudo usermod -a -G video pi

Check if the user has been correctly added to the group

Command: groups

View USB camera devices

Use the lsusb command to view all USB devices recognized by the system;

Use the ls /dev/video* command to list all video devices recognized by the system.


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The following two commands are to detect the information displayed by the camera. You can compare the differences by yourself:
One is image/video acquisition, and the other is metadata acquisition.

Take a photo

fswebcam <image_name>

Example: Take a photo and save it as image.jpg (the default path for saving the file is in the user directory)


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fswebcam image.jpg

fswebcam -r resolution <image_name>

Example: Take an image file with a resolution of 1280x720 and save it as image2.jpg


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fswebcam -r 1280x720 image2.jpg

fswebcam -r resolution --no-banner <image_name>

Example: Take an image file with a resolution of 1280x720, do not display time and other information on the image, and save it as image3.jpg


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fswebcam -r 1280x720 --no-banner image3.jpg

Time-lapse photography

Create a new Webcam folder and enter the file


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mkdir Webcam


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cd Webcam

Create a new webcam.sh script file and edit the content


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sudo nano webcam.sh

File content: The file save path needs to be modified by yourself. My system user name directory is yahboom


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#!/bin/bash

DATE=$(date +"%Y-%m-%d_%H%M")

fswebcam -r 1280x720 --no-banner /home/pi/Webcam/$DATE.jpg

Press Ctrl+X, enter Y, and press Enter.

Add executable permissions


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sudo chmod +x webcam.sh

Run the script


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./webcam.sh

Use Cron (scheduled tasks)

Open the cron table for editing. You will be prompted to select an editor for the first use. It is recommended to use the nano editor


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crontab -e

Add the following code to the edited document: The first 5 * signs represent a timer of 1 minute, and 2>&1 is to input the error output to the standard output


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* * * * * /home/pi/Webcam/webcam.sh 2>&1

After saving the file and exiting, the terminal will output the following:


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crontab: installing new crontab

For Cron jobs, you can learn about the format and syntax by yourself!


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If the image is not generated after one minute, you can restart the service and check whether the path is correct!
Start cron service: sudo service cron start
Stop cron service: sudo service cron stop


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If the cron service stop command cannot turn off the camera's automatic shooting, it is recommended to use the crontab -e command directly to delete the previously edited content!

Web preview camera

Use Motion to realize real-time viewing of the video shot by the USB camera on the web page.


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CSI cameras cannot use this method to preview the camera!

Install Motion


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sudo apt install motion

Modify the configuration file

motion.conf


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sudo nano /etc/motion/motion.conf

Add or modify the following content:


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daemon on
stream_localhost off
picture_output off
movie_output off
stream_maxrate 100
framerate 70
width 640
height 480

Note:

The above options that are not found in the configuration file can be added directly to the file. For example, the stream_maxrate option needs to be added by yourself, and other options are available.
Frame rate: You can modify it yourself (the above parameters are my best results)
The nano editor can use the Ctrl+W shortcut key to search for keywords and quickly locate the content that needs to be modified


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stream_maxrate: real-time streaming frame rate
framerate: frame rate
width: image width
height: image height
The above parameters can be adjusted!

motion


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sudo nano /etc/default/motion

Add the following code: motion runs in the background


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start_motion_daemon=yes

Start the service

Start the service


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sudo service motion start

Stop the service


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sudo service motion stop

Restart the service


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sudo service motion restart

Start motion


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sudo motion

Web preview screen

Enter the start motion service and start motion commands in the terminal:


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sudo service motion start
sudo motion

Preview screen

After turning on motion, enter the car IP:8081 in the browser on the same LAN to view the real-time camera screen.

Example: 192.168.2.93:8081