A Raspberry Pi dashboard camera
Project description
A python package to deliver dashcam functionality using a Raspberry Pi.
Prerequisites
various standard libraries
python-camera
python-gps
python-rpi.gpio
Hardware
Raspberry Pi (I used a Model B+)
Raspberry Pi Camera Module V2
Adafruit Ultimate GPS breakout board connected using the UART on GPIO 14 and 15
UPS PIco with 450mAh battery from ModMyPi. PICo uses GPIO 22 and 27
Pi Camera HDMI extender from Tindie
Two momentary push buttons
Button A uses GPIO 23
Button B uses GPIO 24
One LED
LED1 uses GPIO 16
Functional Overview
On startup, the camera starts recording to an in-memory buffer of configurable size (default 60s). The video stream is overlaid with current date-time, speed, location and direction of travel.
LED1 flashes slowly whenever the camera is recording.
If button A is pressed, the current contents of the buffer are flushed to a file, together with the following few seconds of video. (This can be used to capture the before and after of some event). The camera then goes back to recording into the buffer. LED1 flashes faster whilst the buffer is being saved.
If button B is pressed, the current contents of the buffer are flushed to a file and recording stopped. LED1 is switched off.
If button B is pressed again, recording is re-started from new and LED1 flashes slowly again.
The UPS PIco ensures that recording can continue even if power has been lost (e.g. in a crash)
Syncing videos files from PiDashCam to some other PC/Mac
In the background, Resilio Sync monitors the folder containing the h264 format video files. If the Pi is connected to my home Wi-Fi, Resilio syncs the contents of the folder to a Mac in the house.
If the power if switched off (e.g. ignition is turned off) and the Pi is connected to Wi-Fi, the attached UPS keeps the Pi powered for long enough to allow the video files to be synced to my Mac. It then shuts the Pi down gracefully.
On the Mac, Hazel is monitoring the sync folder. When it sees h264 format files appear, it moves them to another non-syncing folder and converts them to mpeg4 using ffmpeg. By moving the videos to another folder, the limited disk space on the Pi is preserved.
PiDashCam Code Overview
The code comprises an installed system daemon with four threads: 1. Main thread 2. Timer thread that is kicked off as needed 3. Camera thread 4. GPS thread
There are interrupt routines to handle the two buttons.
There are also Events to manage communications to and from the threads
Pseudo Code
Button A interrupt handler (notable event) Start Timer thread set flushBuffer flag on timeout Button B interrupt handler (toggle recording) If we are recording flush the buffer immediately clear the recording flag Else set the recording flag EndIf Camera thread While shutdown flag is not set While recording flag is set Initialise Camera start recording into buffer While recording flag is set - inner recording loop update annotation with current date-time, position and speed If flushBuffer is set flush buffer to new file EndIf EndWhile wait for 1 second EndWhile Exit GPS Thread Initialise connection to gpsd While shutdown flag is not set add current GPS fix to inter-thread queue Exit Power failure Start Timer thread set shutdown Event on timeout Main thread Set the record flag Kick off Camera thread Kick off GPS thread While shutdown flag is not set wait for 1 second While LAN is connected and there are videos in the sync folder wait for 1 second Kill threads Initiate system shutdown Exit
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