Camera and joystick via the same ethernet cable

Work flow:

See camera feed on raspi
~~See camera feed on raspi using python~~
Send camera stream on a web page
Access camera feed via network (not localhost)
Create webpage on a different port for joystick COMs
Process data of joystick on raspi + live camera stream
Send data to arduino + live camera stream
Confirm arduino side response + live camera stream 30fps

1. & 3. & 4. Streaming cam on the browser [DONE]

I am currently using a motion package to stream the IP cam to port 8081. data rate: 585Kb/s max. I think this is bottle necked by:
1. Class 4 SD card running raspian
2. This package is normally used for motion detection; maybe motion is being processed and slowing down the cam stream. I am currently exploring the motion.conf file.
Changing netcam_keepalive on reduces bandwidth, improves fps and removes stuttering. Data rate reduced to 510KB/s max. I found that the data rate was capped at this level and changing the resolution did nothing.

Sometimes, the motion service stops executing after running sudo service motion start. To solve this, resave /etc/default/motion file as yes. After this run, sudo service motion status . Should get the following output:


● motion.service - LSB: Start Motion detection
Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/motion; generated; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Sat 2019-07-20 15:02:49 IST; 10s ago
 Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
Process: 3375 ExecStop=/etc/init.d/motion stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 3721 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/motion start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Tasks: 3 (limit: 4915)
CGroup: /system.slice/motion.service
       └─3738 /usr/bin/motion

Jul 20 15:02:49 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Starting LSB: Start Motion detection... Jul 20 15:02:49 raspberrypi motion[3721]: Starting motion detection daemon: motion. Jul 20 15:02:49 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started LSB: Start Motion detection. Jul 20 15:02:50 raspberrypi motion[3733]: [0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] conf_load: Processing thread 0 - config file /etc/motion/motion.conf Jul 20 15:02:50 raspberrypi motion[3733]: [0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_startup: Motion 4.0 Started Jul 20 15:02:50 raspberrypi motion[3733]: [0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_startup: Logging to file (/var/log/motion/motion.log)


+ motion.conf changes:
```bash
daemon on # enable running the process in background
v4l2_palette 8 # select mjpeg encoding
tunerdevice /dev/tuner0 # Not using this feature [REMOVED]
width 1280
height 720
framerate 100 # max frames possible
netcam_keepalive on # does not refresh connection on every http request 
stream_maxrate 100 # max framerate on browser streaming
stream_localhost off # can access stream from a remote host

# changing this improved my data rate by 53% (currently 200KB/s)
threshold 920000 # threshold above which motion is detected, kept as 1280 * 720 aprox

# changin inthis improved the performance further by 150% (currently 500KB/s). I am getting a smooth 720p video with minimal stuttering but with high latency (around 750ms)
noise_level 920000 # noise is detected is 1280 * 720 pixels change... basically never
noise_tune off

lightswitch 100 # ignore 100% pixels of light intensity changes
output_pictures off # picture are not stored after motion is detected
mask_file /etc/motion/black-mask.pgm # adds a black mask to each video frame. Frame with a black mask is not processed. I added a completely black mask

Result: The camera works fine @720p with acceptable framerates (20-25ish) Edited files: motion-config-files.zip

I think that the raspi can run one more USB camera in parallel. Are there any available for testing? @vedangasDARKNINJA @RasikaShejul

mrgk21 / ROV2019

Camera and joystick via the same ethernet cable #10

Work flow:

1. & 3. & 4. Streaming cam on the browser [DONE]