Intro
The Experimenting With Extreme Environments Challenge blog guideline suggests to include an educational blog. While my other blogs include some pointers, I thought I would do a mini tutorial on how to install MotioEyeOS on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W.
MotioEyeOS is a pretty neat application that allows monitoring several cameras and capturing images or video based on flexible criteria.
MotionEyeOS Tutorial
Images from MotionEyeOS
Raspberry Pi 3B + Raspberry Pi HQ camera - indoors and outdoors
Raspberry Pi Zero 2W + Raspberry Pi Camera Module 2
The config file needed for Wi-Fi access:
WebUI Lite
The streaming software I am running on the Pi 4B with Pi Camera Module V3 is WebUI Lite..
Here is how to install it on a Raspberry Pi:
Boot your Raspberry Pi and open a terminal
Type this command:
wget https://github.com/monkeymademe/picamera2-WebUI-Lite/archive/refs/heads/main.zip
Unzip the mian file using this command:
unzip main.zip
That is all there is to installing WebUI-Lite, but we want to control this Raspberry Pi over Wi-Fi via SSH
To set up SSH on a Pi:
Click on the Raspberry Pi icon on the desktop
Navigate to Preferences, then click on Raspberry Pi Configuration
Click on the Interfaces tab and select Enable in the options for SSH
Click OK
Next You need to get the IP address asigned to t=your Raspberry Pi
In a terminal window you can type:
hostname -I
(that is a capital i) and the IP address will be returned
To rune remotely, set up the Pi to use SSH.
Log in and change directory to the app directory:
cd picamera2-WebUI-Lite
then run the app:
python app.py
Once it is running, you can see the stream by typing in the url into a browser, in my case it is 192.168.2.66:8080
Here is what the result looks like on a remote browser:
Pi NoIR Camera
One last thing I wanted to try is to use an IR illuminator with the Pi NoIR camera.
The illuminator consists of 36 IR LEDs - they run off 12 volts DC and consume about 250 mA. The light sensor (seen at the bottom of the image) keeps them off when visible light is present.:
Here is a picture taken from the NoIR camera running MotionEyeOS - it is pitch black except for the IR LEDs:
Discussion
MotionEyeOS is a great application for monitoring several cameras. There are so many options, it takes a little experimentation to get everything set up the way you want. It would be nice if MotioEyeOS supported the Pi camera module 3 because the autofocus feature could very useful.
WebUI is a great little python program that provides full control over the Pi Camera Module V3.
The NoIR camera does indeed capture IR illuminated scenes.
Next Step
The only step left is to write the final blog.
Links:
- Garden Secrets System
- ComputeCam and PicoPorch - Early Muddling
- PicoPorch and ComputeCam - The Motor System
- PicoPorch - LCD PCB & Bezel
- PicoPorch power wiring
- PicoPorch Motor Controller Demo
- PicoPorch System Demo
- PicoPorch Final Touches
- Deep Dive On Kit Components
- Backyard Secrets 1
- MotionEyeOS Tutorial
- Garden Secrets Project Summary