Thank you. I will charge the jessie-lite.

But how to have no-x ?

These are NOT stable tested yet! Official releases are from  https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/

Clem

wich raspbian do I choose : Index of /nightlyimages-v2/20160209-raspbian-wheezy-1/

?

Answer above:

• Image the SDCard for your Raspberry Pi A+/B+/2 Model B with Raspbian

Hello,

I'm new in programmation and with raspberry.

I have a raspberry pi A+, a 4Dpi-24-HAT and a raspicam.

I use Noob. I would like to use your program which seems to be exactly what i want.

But i followed all indications and i can't use the python script for buttons. I have errors.

What is the distribution i need to use ? Raspbian ? an other ?

Thank you.

Not a bad screen!

I purchased one to try on other SBCs, but have plugged it into a RPI and works fine. Nice, clean design and screw-holes for permanently attaching it.

I might make it display some basic stats, e.g. IP address, connectivity, CPU usage just to get familiar with the display.

Nice blog,

I do worry about the size of the display.

I could see it used for simple touch screen user interface, but I think it is too small for my old eyes to see much else.

DAB

Hello again, I managed to get rpi camera board to work, with preview on display, with buttons.

First I made fresh sd card with raspbian wheezy with no x (http://nightly.raspberrypi.org/nightlyimages-v2/), rasci-config to expanded sd card, changed pass, hostname and enabled camera board.

reboot

I updated it.

reboot

Than I downloaded kernel and extracted it, and set kernel to rpi 1 (/boot/config.txt). Other stuff (calibration and direct log in) in not necessary, since I do not have X.

shutdown -h now

I mounted camera board, display, keyboard and internet cable, than powered it up - tadaaa!

Now, camera records, but with no preview, for camera preview there is link Christopher Stanton posted (https://github.com/tasanakorn/rpi-fbcp), but for that to compile I needed sudo apt-get install cmake, than compiled it, it produced a file named fbcp, which I sudo cp fbcp /usr/local/bin and added fbcp & just before exit 0 line in /etc.rc.local, so it starts just before login. This renders display useless, but I plan to have this rpi just for hd recording, and display is really to small for anything else, but it enables camera preview.

The next thing I did is disable display to go blank after 30 minutes, so I can still see what I am recording. In /etc/kbd/config I set BLANK_TIME=0. This way display is always on.

EDIT:

Now, for buttons to work I used python script that Christopher provided and modify it for my needs:

#!/usr/bin/python
# /usr/local/bin/buttons.py
import array, fcntl, subprocess, os, picamera, random
from time import sleep
from subprocess import call
_IOC_NRBITS= 8
_IOC_TYPEBITS = 8
_IOC_SIZEBITS = 14
_IOC_DIRBITS = 2
_IOC_DIRMASK= (1 << _IOC_DIRBITS) - 1
_IOC_NRMASK= (1 << _IOC_NRBITS) - 1
_IOC_TYPEMASK= (1 << _IOC_TYPEBITS ) - 1
_IOC_NRSHIFT = 0
_IOC_TYPESHIFT = _IOC_NRSHIFT+_IOC_NRBITS
_IOC_SIZESHIFT = _IOC_TYPESHIFT+_IOC_TYPEBITS
_IOC_DIRSHIFT = _IOC_SIZESHIFT+_IOC_SIZEBITS
_IOC_NONE = 0
_IOC_WRITE = 1
_IOC_READ = 2

camera = picamera.PiCamera()
# is camera recording?
bussy = False

def _IOC(dir, type, nr, size):
  ioc = (dir << _IOC_DIRSHIFT ) | (type << _IOC_TYPESHIFT ) | (nr << _IOC_NRSHIFT ) | (size << _IOC_SIZESHIFT)
  if ioc > 2147483647: ioc -= 4294967296
  return ioc
def _IOR(type,nr,size):
  return _IOC(_IOC_READ, type, nr, size)
# move to directory where you want your recordings to be saved
os.chdir("/home/pi/videos")
# print button commands, incremantal from left to right
print "1-record video\n2-stop recording\n3-commands\n4-reboot\n5-shut down"

LCD4DPI_GET_KEYS = _IOR(ord('K'), 1, 4)
buf = array.array('h',[0])
# probably is a good idea to move 'stop recording' to it's own function
# since it is repeated 3 times: in shutdown, reboot and stop recording
with open('/dev/fb1', 'rw') as fd:
  while True:
    fcntl.ioctl(fd, LCD4DPI_GET_KEYS, buf, 1)
    keys = buf[0]
    if not keys & 0b00001:
      if bussy == True:
        camera.stop_recording()
        sleep(0.5)
        camera.stop_preview()
        sleep(0.5)
        camera.close()
        sleep(0.5)
        print "--------\nSHUTDOWN\n--------"
      else:
        print "--------\nSHUTDOWN\n--------"
      call(["sudo shutdown -h now"], shell=True)
    if not keys & 0b00010:
      if bussy == True:
        camera.stop_recording()
        sleep(0.5)
        camera.stop_preview()
        sleep(0.5)
        camera.close()
        sleep(0.5)
        print "------\nREBOOT\n------"
      else:
        print "------\nREBOOT\n------"
      call(["sudo reboot"], shell=True)
    if not keys & 0b00100:
      if bussy == False:
        call (["clear"],shell=True)
        print "-------------\nCommands:\n-------------"
        print "1-record video\n2-stop recording\n3-commands\n4-reboot\n5-shut down"
    if not keys & 0b01000:
      if bussy == True:
        camera.stop_recording()
        sleep(0.5)
        camera.stop_preview()
        sleep(0.5)
        call(["pkill fbcp"], shell=True)
        sleep(0.5)
        call (["clear"],shell=True)
        print "-------------\nRecording Stopped\n-------------"
        print "1-record video\n2-stop recording\n3-commands\n4-reboot\n5-shut down"
        bussy = False
      else:
        bussy = False
    if not keys & 0b10000:
      if bussy == False:
        bussy = True
        call (["fbcp &"], shell=True)
        # for file name I could go with date, but it is not likely I'll have wi-fi dongle
        # since wi-fi also drains battery, and I will not have rpi connected to cable internet,
        # so again, no way for rpi to tell date and time correctly.
        # Therefore I use 4 random numbers to ensure no filenames get repeated:
        sleep(0.5)
        a = random.randrange(1, 1000000)
        sleep(0.2)
        b = random.randrange(1, 1000000)
        sleep(0.2)
        c = random.randrange(1, 1000000)
        sleep(0.2)
        d = random.randrange(1, 1000000)
        sleep(0.2)
        video_file_name = str(a) + "." + str(b) + "." + str(c) + "." + str(d) + ".h264"
        # some camera parameters
        camera.awb_mode = 'auto'
        camera.image_effect = 'none'
        camera.rotation = 180
        camera.exposure_mode = 'auto'
        camera.resolution = (1296,972)
        camera.framerate = 42
        camera.start_preview()
        sleep(0.5)
        camera.start_recording(video_file_name, format='h264',  bitrate=5000000,)
      else:
        bussy = True
    if keys != 0b11111:
      print
    if keys == 0b01110: # exit if top and bottom pressed
      break
    sleep(0.1)

                                               

I chmod the file to be executable and added /usr/bin/python /usr/local/bin/buttons.py & just before exit 0 line in /etc.rc.local, so it starts just before login. This way as rpi boots there is no need for login, I can use buttons to record videos.

To reach buttons I use stylus, but I might chop that bit off of a case to reach buttons with my finger.

Since I still do not have buttons working (yet), I need to ssh into rpi from desktop pc and isue the command:

raspistill -t 0 -f -o myHDvideo.h264

Than I disconnect internet cable and I have a camera which is recording, but I still leave ssh terminal open on desktop pc.

When I am done recording, I need to connect internet cable back on, and ctrl-c to stop recording, and have a valid, uncorrupted video file.

I plan to have a script for buttons, that starts also at boot time, so that there is no log in necessary, and recording could be done by push buttons.

So I tried scripts Christopher Stanton left in his post's appendix. And they work nicely.

The problem with it (both, C and Python scripts) is that preview is ~1 fps, and lagging behind. On top of it, file ends up corrupted: there is error message that camera board is not detected and searching the net I guess it is gpio clash.

With this part, getting buttons to work with camera board preview I would like some help.

Thank you, and here are some pictures of my pri camera with display pictures:

Hey Christopher, hello, and thank you for your prompt answer,

English is not mu native language, therefore I go about it long and slow; so you said:

"The kernel is somewhat irrelevant,... "

also, mind you, I am noob, but is this not a kernel setting?

wget http://www.4dsystems.com.au/downloads/4DPi/4DPi-24-HAT/4DPi-24-HAT_kernel_R_1_0.tar.gz
sudo tar -xzvf 4DPi-24-HAT/4DPi-24-HAT_kernel_R_1_0.tar.gz -C /

that is why I said 'this display's kernel'...

I was going to make a fresh no-X install and do those two commands, is this right way of understanding?

my next question is how to go about tricky part:

"...however your challenge is then setting up the terminal or whatever you have running to then output to the screen's framebuffer.

So this framebuffer thingy, could you point out some useful tips for yours noob?

Thank you.

Kind regards, Goran

Hello seiduna,

My plan to use the camera with it is in a queue behind using the screen with my geocaching project.

However, your question about using Raspbian without X is straightforward. For the most-part you can run 'raspi-config' and set it to go straight to the terminal. Further more you can run 'sudo apt-get autoremove <package name>' to uninstall any package, so for example, you can remove 'xorg' or any other packages you've identified as being related to X / the Gui and it won't be able to run.

The kernel is somewhat irrelevant, however your challenge is then setting up the terminal or whatever you have running to then output to the screen's framebuffer.