Webcam repeatedly fails every 3 minutes

tng-ryan · April 25, 2023, 1:22am

Camera model
Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 Wide

What is the problem?
Consistently in the Octopi UI the Control Tab shows that the webcam feed is not loaded. Upon checking in the settings and the direct stream URL the behavior is the same. Upon checking the logs (sudo journalctl -u webcamd) I see that the libcamera application starting regularly every 3 minutes or so.

What did you already try to solve it?

I've tried updating the Octopi application, reseating all cables, and validated configuration settings.
To set up the webcam I used the instructions in this post which also utilized instructions here. The camera section of my OctoPi configuration is below:

camera="libcamera"
camera_libcamera_options="-r 1280x720 -f 10"
camera_http_webroot="./www"
camera_http_options="-n"

Logs (/var/log/webcamd.log, syslog, dmesg, ... no logs, no support)

Apr 25 02:03:21 octopi root[6153]: Starting Libcamera camera
Apr 25 02:03:21 octopi mjpg_streamer[6154]: MJPG-streamer [6154]: starting application
Apr 25 02:03:21 octopi mjpg_streamer[6154]: MJPG-streamer [6154]: MJPG Streamer Version: git rev: 290776e2d59ecf4589ffe15800e1ccfe17dc07e7
Apr 25 02:03:21 octopi mjpg_streamer[6154]: MJPG-streamer [6154]: Desired Resolution: 1280 x 720
Apr 25 02:03:21 octopi mjpg_streamer[6154]: MJPG-streamer [6154]: www-folder-path......: ./www-octopi/
Apr 25 02:03:21 octopi mjpg_streamer[6154]: MJPG-streamer [6154]: HTTP TCP port........: 8080
Apr 25 02:03:21 octopi mjpg_streamer[6154]: MJPG-streamer [6154]: HTTP Listen Address..: (null)
Apr 25 02:03:21 octopi mjpg_streamer[6154]: MJPG-streamer [6154]: username:password....: disabled
Apr 25 02:03:21 octopi mjpg_streamer[6154]: MJPG-streamer [6154]: commands.............: disabled
Apr 25 02:03:21 octopi mjpg_streamer[6154]: MJPG-streamer [6154]: starting input plugin input_libcamera.so
Apr 25 02:03:21 octopi mjpg_streamer[6154]: MJPG-streamer [6154]: starting output plugin: output_http.so (ID: 00)
Apr 25 02:06:00 octopi root[6204]: Starting Libcamera camera
Apr 25 02:06:00 octopi mjpg_streamer[6205]: MJPG-streamer [6205]: starting application
Apr 25 02:06:00 octopi mjpg_streamer[6205]: MJPG-streamer [6205]: MJPG Streamer Version: git rev: 290776e2d59ecf4589ffe15800e1ccfe17dc07e7
Apr 25 02:06:00 octopi mjpg_streamer[6205]: MJPG-streamer [6205]: Desired Resolution: 1280 x 720
Apr 25 02:06:00 octopi mjpg_streamer[6205]: MJPG-streamer [6205]: www-folder-path......: ./www-octopi/
Apr 25 02:06:00 octopi mjpg_streamer[6205]: MJPG-streamer [6205]: HTTP TCP port........: 8080
Apr 25 02:06:00 octopi mjpg_streamer[6205]: MJPG-streamer [6205]: HTTP Listen Address..: (null)
Apr 25 02:06:00 octopi mjpg_streamer[6205]: MJPG-streamer [6205]: username:password....: disabled
Apr 25 02:06:00 octopi mjpg_streamer[6205]: MJPG-streamer [6205]: commands.............: disabled
Apr 25 02:06:00 octopi mjpg_streamer[6205]: MJPG-streamer [6205]: starting input plugin input_libcamera.so
Apr 25 02:06:00 octopi mjpg_streamer[6205]: MJPG-streamer [6205]: starting output plugin: output_http.so (ID: 00)
Apr 25 02:09:09 octopi root[6293]: Starting Libcamera camera
Apr 25 02:09:09 octopi mjpg_streamer[6294]: MJPG-streamer [6294]: starting application
Apr 25 02:09:09 octopi mjpg_streamer[6294]: MJPG-streamer [6294]: MJPG Streamer Version: git rev: 290776e2d59ecf4589ffe15800e1ccfe17dc07e7
Apr 25 02:09:09 octopi mjpg_streamer[6294]: MJPG-streamer [6294]: Desired Resolution: 1280 x 720
Apr 25 02:09:09 octopi mjpg_streamer[6294]: MJPG-streamer [6294]: www-folder-path......: ./www-octopi/
Apr 25 02:09:09 octopi mjpg_streamer[6294]: MJPG-streamer [6294]: HTTP TCP port........: 8080
Apr 25 02:09:09 octopi mjpg_streamer[6294]: MJPG-streamer [6294]: HTTP Listen Address..: (null)
Apr 25 02:09:09 octopi mjpg_streamer[6294]: MJPG-streamer [6294]: username:password....: disabled
Apr 25 02:09:09 octopi mjpg_streamer[6294]: MJPG-streamer [6294]: commands.............: disabled
Apr 25 02:09:09 octopi mjpg_streamer[6294]: MJPG-streamer [6294]: starting input plugin input_libcamera.so
Apr 25 02:09:09 octopi mjpg_streamer[6294]: MJPG-streamer [6294]: starting output plugin: output_http.so (ID: 00)

Additional information about your setup (OctoPrint version, OctoPi version, ...)

OctoPrint 1.8.7
OctoPi Version 1.0.0, running on Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Plus Rev 1.3

Any help is appreciated!

Ewald_Ikemann · April 25, 2023, 6:11am

Is the power supply sufficient for the Pi plus the cam?

Charlie_Powell · April 25, 2023, 7:44am

The 'libcamera' fork of mjpg streamer that Arducam created (& I think you must have installed) does have some issues. I would recommend using camera-streamer instead, and if you want to use an OctoPi image with this preinstalled please see below:

github.com/OctoPrint/OctoPi-UpToDate

Feedback for the latest camera-streamer based webcam stack build (20230328122604)

opened 01:11PM - 28 Mar 23 UTC

foosel

This is a ticket to collect feedback on the latest build of the new camera stack… (some background on that [here](https://github.com/OctoPrint/OctoPi-UpToDate/issues/2)) for OctoPi-UpToDate, **20230328122604**. Find the image here: https://github.com/OctoPrint/OctoPi-UpToDate/releases/tag/1.0.0-1.8.7-20230328122604 Changes compared to the previous version: - camera-streamer is now built in [another repository](https://github.com/OctoPrint/camera-streamer-archive/), packaged as a `deb` and then published on https://apt.octoprint.org. The image build now installs from that apt repo and thus makes it possible to update `camera-streamer` to a later version as necessary, e.g. for bug fixes or if new backwards incompatible libcamera versions are being released. - latest version of camera-streamer, arguments switched from `-` to `--` accordingly - workaround for a kernel bug in the latest `raspberrypi-kernel` package ([Compare view](https://github.com/OctoPrint/OctoPi-UpToDate/compare/e6f79fefe5c04193f9a000b11b9f035a6dd5065d...16d04a1ca78c0b232a19d516d6b19dc9193c4b7d)) Some first config docs are available here: https://faq.octoprint.org/camera-streamer-config The source tree used for the build is here: https://github.com/OctoPrint/OctoPi-UpToDate/tree/camera-streamer > ❗ **Please note** > > This image needs to be flashed to your SD card, wiping it in the process. So if you want to keep anything on there, make a backup first! You can also create an [OctoPrint backup](https://docs.octoprint.org/en/master/bundledplugins/backup.html), download that, flash, restore from backup. There's no way to update to the contents of this image without a full reflash. Please provide feedback on your experience with this image in this ticket, whether things work for you or not. Make sure to *at least* include the following: - Everything working? - Pi model - used cameras - in case of issues: related logs (`journalctl -u camera-streamer\* | pb` and share the generated paste.octoprint.org URL) ## Known issues: - `--camera-{v,h}flip` are currently broken in `camera-streamer` v0.1-16-gcdb62ef (cdb62ef), see ayufan/camera-streamer#51 ## Common pitfalls: - RPiV3 camera not auto-focusing? Make sure any kind of case you've added to it is not interfering with the lens & sensor

The image is in testing to replace the existing webcam stack.

tng-ryan · April 25, 2023, 11:20am

Yes, and I am not getting any low power warnings from OctoPi or the system itself.

tng-ryan · April 25, 2023, 11:24am

I will give this a try, thank you!