RPi Camera Colony: Central control for video acquisition with (many) Raspberry Pi cameras
Project description
RPi Camera Colony
Central control for video acquisition with (many) Raspberry Pi cameras
Record videos in parallel with one or more remote-controlled Raspberry Pi (RPi) cameras. :movie_camera:
A single configuration file and a few lines of code allow specific and reproducible acquisition settings for groups of cameras.
Example use with Python:
from rpi_camera_colony.control.conductor import Conductor
conductor = Conductor(settings_file="configuration_file") # Manages remote RPi
conductor.start_acquisition() # Starts recording on all remotes
...
conductor.stop_acquisition() # Stops recording on all remotes
or on the commandline:
rcc_conductor --config-data-file CONFIG_DATA_FILE --acquisition-name ACQUISITION_NAME
Features
A centralised control object
One central object handles all communication with the remote cameras and transmits the configuration settings to each.
A single configuration file to define reproducible multi-camera acquisition
Configuration parameters are centrally defined in an easy-to-read file format and then handed down to the cameras.
Flexible entrypoints
Multiple entrypoints for use in python scripts as well as in a single line on the commandline Additionally, all levels are directly accessible: central Conductor, remote control handlers, and on the RPi the acquisition control (see below for details).
Installation
Python dependencies
- python
>= 3.6
- pyzmq
- configobj
- tqdm
On RPi only:
- picamera
- RPi.GPIO
Other useful packages
For video conversion:
- gpac # contains MP4Box
Example hardware architecture
[outside world / internet]
|
|
[central machine]
|
|
[network switch]
/ | | \
| | | | <- network connection
[rpi #1] | | | e.g. ethernet cables
| | |
[rpi #2] | |
| |
[...] |
|
[rpi #n]
Minimal hardware requirements
- Central machine, can be RPi itself (as it only holds the control object, but does no computation)
- Raspberry Pi
- Main RPi board + fast SD card (+ card reader if not available on another machine)
- RPi Camera (+lens?) (depends on your specific acquisition requirements)
- RPi power supply (RPi4 requires USB-C connector)
- Display cable (RPi4 requires mico-HDMI connector)
- Ethernet cables
- Network switch (if more than one RPi), e.g. any 1GB or faster
Mapping between this package & hardware
One Conductor to instruct all RPi cameras via network communication between the RemoteAcquisitionControl and PiAcquisitionControl.
Hardware <--> Software
[central machine] <--> Conductor
| |
| RemoteAcquisitionControl
| |
... ...
| |
[rpi #n] <--> PiAcquisitionControl
|
Camera
Raspberry Pi setup
-
Set up RPi hardware
- Install Raspbian
- Enable camera, GPIO interfaces, and ssh in
sudo raspi-config
options - Connect hardware:
-
Camera
-
Network cable
-
GPIO pin connection for TTL in/out (See pinout.xyz for board mode pins to use)
Note: adjust pin numbers used in configuration file. Default are pin #8 for frame TTL outputs and #16 for inputs. Choose any free ground pins!
-
-
Install this package
- Set up python, e.g. with miniconda
- Clone this repository or use
distribute_code.sh
script (Replace hostnames for your RPi) - Install with
pip install -e rpi_camera_colony[rpi] # <- [rpi] argument install specific requirements!
Central control machine setup
-
DHCP server on central computer. (Description only for Ubuntu)
- Set up static IP address on network interface that serves RPi colony via network switch, with e.g.
/etc/network/interfaces
ornetplan
- Set up DHCP server with isc-dhcp-server
- Set up static IP address on network interface that serves RPi colony via network switch, with e.g.
-
Set up python environment, e.g. with miniconda
-
Install this package
- Clone this repository
- Install with
pip install rpi_camera_colony
Entrypoints & levels
Easy access to central Conductor
rcc_conductor --help
Use acquisition directly on RPi
from rpi_camera_colony.acquisition.acquisition_control import PiAcquisitionControl
or
python rpi_camera_colony/acquisition --help
# or
python -m rpi_camera_colony.acquisition --help
# or
rcc_acquisition --help
One-to-one mapping of local control to remote acquisition
from rpi_camera_colony.acquisition.remote_control import RemoteAcquisitionControl
or
python rpi_camera_colony/acquisition --help
# or
python -m rpi_camera_colony.acquisition.remote_control --help
Sandbox Conductor object in separate process (python multiprocessing)
See rpi_camera_colony.control.process_sandbox
for example use of:
from rpi_camera_colony.control.process_sandbox import ControlProcess
Citation
Rollik, L. B. (2021) RPi Camera Colony: Central control for video acquisition with (many) Raspberry Pi cameras https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4916007
BibTeX
@misc{rollik2021rpi,
author = {Lars B. Rollik},
title = {{RPi Camera Colony: Central control for video acquisition with (many) Raspberry Pi cameras}},
year = {2021},
month = jun,
publisher = {Zenodo},
url = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4916007},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.4916007},
}
License
This software is released under the BSD 3-Clause License
Related projects with similar architectures
-
Arne Meyer's RPiCameraPlugin for the OpenEphys GUI
Specific API for one-to-one control mappings between OpenEphys GUI plugin instances and remote RPi cameras. Inspiration for use of ØMQ communication and camera TTL integration in encoder class.
-
Video acquisition with multiple RPi synchronised by a central TTL that is recorded with the camera timestamps.
-
General package for different types of video acquisition and streaming.
Configuration file specification
! Note: additional picamera attributes can be used, but type has to be confirmed in config loading !
[general]
acquisition_name = string(default="default_acq_name_config") # base name for recording
remote_data_path = string(default="/home/pi/data/") # where to store all recordings on RPi
rpi_username = string(default="pi")
remote_python_interpreter = string(default="/home/pi/miniconda3/envs/py36/bin/python") # path to python
remote_python_entrypoint = string(default="rpi_camera_colony.acquisition") # path to __main__ entrypoint
max_acquisition_time = integer(0, 7200, default=7200) # seconds, shut down acquisition after expiration
[log]
address = string(max=15, default="192.168.100.10")
port = integer(default=55555)
level = string(default="DEBUG")
log_to_console = boolean(default=True)
log_to_file = boolean(default=True)
log_file = string(default="/tmp/rpi_camera_colony__logging")
[control]
address = string(default="192.168.100.10")
port = integer(default=54545)
[controllers]
[[__many__]]
description = string(default="")
address = string(max=15, default="")
ttl_channel_external = integer(default=-1) # metadata info if recording output TTL on specific channel of other acquisition system
ttl_in_pin = integer(default=16)
ttl_out_pin = integer(default=8)
ttl_out_duration = float(default=.001)
# See for list of ALL parameters https://picamera.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api_camera.html
framerate = integer(min=1, max=90, default=90)
resolution = 640x480
vflip = boolean(default=False)
hflip = boolean(default=False)
zoom = (0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 1.0) # (x, y, w, h)
Specific install hints
Ip forwarding and routing on central machine
# IP forward
sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
# check with
cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
# Package routing
# - outside interface (dhcp): enp7s0
# - inside interface (static): enp8s0
iptables -A FORWARD -i enp8s0 -o enp7s0 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FORWARD -i enp7s0 -o enp8s0 -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o enp7s0 -j MASQUERADE
Update time for ssl certificates
# Check with
timedatectl status
# force update with NTP
sudo service ntp stop
sudo ntpd -gq
sudo service ntp start
# enable permanent updates
sudo systemctl restart systemd-timesyncd
Install miniconda on RPi
# Installing miniconda on RPi
wget http://repo.continuum.io/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-armv7l.sh
sudo md5sum Miniconda3-latest-Linux-armv7l.sh # (optional) check md5
sudo /bin/bash Miniconda3-latest-Linux-armv7l.sh # -> change default directory to /home/pi/miniconda3
sudo nano /home/pi/.bashrc # -> add: export PATH="/home/pi/miniconda3/bin:$PATH"
sudo reboot -h now
# Add RPi package channel
conda config --add channels rpi
sudo chown -R pi:pi /home/pi/miniconda3
conda install python=3.6
conda create -n py36 python=3.6 numpy
# next install this package
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