mjpg-streamer running on roboRIO

[cbf]

It's worse than I thought. My earlier comparison was with the MJPG streamer at 10 fsp and my robot program at 24fps. The MJPG streamer uses about 3 times the bandwidth as the WPILib streamer running on the robot.

It looks like I'm getting an MJPEG stream from my Logitech P930e (similar to the Logitech P920 but with a wider field of view), rather than an H.264 stream.

Do you know if there's any way I can persuade input_uvc.so to get an H.264 or MPEG-4 stream from the camera?

[virtuald]

Originally Posted by cbf

It's worse than I thought. My earlier comparison was with the MJPG streamer at 10 fsp and my robot program at 24fps. The MJPG streamer uses about 3 times the bandwidth as the WPILib streamer running on the robot.

It looks like I'm getting an MJPEG stream from my Logitech P930e (similar to the Logitech P920 but with a wider field of view), rather than an H.264 stream.

Do you know if there's any way I can persuade input_uvc.so to get an H.264 or MPEG-4 stream from the camera?

What quality setting are you using? That could affect it. (-q option). Also, I'm curious, what are you using to measure the bandwidth usage?

[virtuald]

For anyone who wants to read data from mjpg-streamer, I've posted python code that can read from the stream using urllib + opencv.

http://www.virtualroadside.com/blog/...-using-opencv/

We ended up not using any image processing at our competition, but because our dashboard was created using HTML/js, it was trivially easy to connect to the camera and display its output. Highly recommend mjpg-streamer as a solution if you're only needing to display output on the Driver Station.

[cbf]

Originally Posted by virtuald

What quality setting are you using? That could affect it. (-q option). Also, I'm curious, what are you using to measure the bandwidth usage?

I believe I tried a few -q choices, but it was a while ago now.

I measured the bandwidth using the Windows task manager. Since there was nothing else on the WiFi between the laptop and the robot router (usual DLink 1522B), I believe the bandwidth measurements are reliable.

[virtuald]

FYI, I packaged mjpg-streamer into an IPK file that can be installed by opkg. It includes an init script that automatically starts mjpg-streamer when the RoboRIO starts.

Installation: https://github.com/robotpy/roborio-packages
Notes: https://github.com/robotpy/roborio-p.../mjpg-streamer

[taichichuan]

Originally Posted by virtuald

FYI, I packaged mjpg-streamer into an IPK file that can be installed by opkg. It includes an init script that automatically starts mjpg-streamer when the RoboRIO starts.

Installation: https://github.com/robotpy/roborio-packages
Notes: https://github.com/robotpy/roborio-p.../mjpg-streamer

Thanks! This is a big help.

MikeA
FRC #116

[team-4480]

Originally Posted by virtuald

FYI, I packaged mjpg-streamer into an IPK file that can be installed by opkg. It includes an init script that automatically starts mjpg-streamer when the RoboRIO starts.

Installation: https://github.com/robotpy/roborio-packages
Notes: https://github.com/robotpy/roborio-p.../mjpg-streamer

I am trying to install it on our RIO, but I get this message: http://imgur.com/wzr8bJj

I did update to the latest version of RobotPy on the robot.

Thanks!

[virtuald]

The opkg architecture has changed from 2015 to 2016, so if you don't have the 2016 image installed, then you will get that error.

[team-4480]

Originally Posted by virtuald

The opkg architecture has changed from 2015 to 2016, so if you don't have the 2016 image installed, then you will get that error.

Oh yea, I still have to update. So once I get it installed, do I just plug in the webcam and I will see it on the driver station? Or is there some other setup I have to do yet?

[virtuald]

I haven't tried to integrate mjpg-streamer with the LabVIEW dashboard (and it's not really something I'm planning to do).

To see the camera feed, point a web browser at http://roborio-4480-frc.local:5800/ and it should show up there. If it doesn't, then reboot your roboRIO with the camera plugged in.

[team-4480]

Originally Posted by virtuald

I haven't tried to integrate mjpg-streamer with the LabVIEW dashboard (and it's not really something I'm planning to do).

To see the camera feed, point a web browser at http://roborio-4480-frc.local:5800/ and it should show up there. If it doesn't, then reboot your roboRIO with the camera plugged in.

Awesome! Is it possible to connect two cameras with this or would that eat up too much bandwidth?

[virtuald]

Originally Posted by team-4480

Awesome! Is it possible to connect two cameras with this or would that eat up too much bandwidth?

This package supports launching up to 4 instances of mjpg streamer (the second would be at :5801 instead of :5800). You'll need to edit /etc/default/mjpg-streamer on the roborio, followed by '/etc/init.d/mjpg-streamer restart' or a robot reboot to enable this.

Refer to the FMS Whitepaper for bandwidth approximations. Last year we were able to run two 120x160 streams at 10fps with no complaints from the FTAA (we doubled the display size of the image on our HTML dashboard).

[team-4480]

Originally Posted by virtuald

This package supports launching up to 4 instances of mjpg streamer (the second would be at :5801 instead of :5800). You'll need to edit /etc/default/mjpg-streamer on the roborio, followed by '/etc/init.d/mjpg-streamer restart' or a robot reboot to enable this.

Refer to the FMS Whitepaper for bandwidth approximations. Last year we were able to run two 120x160 streams at 10fps with no complaints from the FTAA (we doubled the display size of the image on our HTML dashboard).

I am not able to see the page, firefox just says unable to connect when I try "roborio-4480-frc.local:5800". I did reboot so I am wondering if the config file is off because I set it up over USB using 172.... instead of Wifi. I imagine there is a setting in the config file, but I don't know how to get into it since my favorite editor is not installed(nano).

[virtuald]

Originally Posted by team-4480

I am not able to see the page, firefox just says unable to connect when I try "roborio-4480-frc.local:5800". I did reboot so I am wondering if the config file is off because I set it up over USB using 172.... instead of Wifi. I imagine there is a setting in the config file, but I don't know how to get into it since my favorite editor is not installed(nano).

To diagnose you'll need to SSH into the roborio (user: admin, password: just hit enter).

• Does /dev/video0 exist? If not, then your camera isn't recognized by the roboRIO and mjpg-streamer won't be running. You can use 'dmesg' to look at the kernel messages and try to divine what happened. Not all cameras will be supported -- but I'm not 100% sure what ones are supported, or how to get the list (probably some linux magic)
• Is mjpg-streamer running or did it die? "ps -Af | grep mjpg" will show you
• If it's running, is it listening on the right port? "netstat -ln" can show you what ports are being listened on, 5800 should be in the list.
• If /dev/video0 exists and mjpg-streamer dies, then there's something else wrong and you'll need to run mjpg-streamer on the command line. Unfortunately, I haven't put anything in the package to do this using the settings, so it's a bit verbose...

[team-4480]

Originally Posted by virtuald

To diagnose you'll need to SSH into the roborio (user: admin, password: just hit enter).

• Does /dev/video0 exist? If not, then your camera isn't recognized by the roboRIO and mjpg-streamer won't be running. You can use 'dmesg' to look at the kernel messages and try to divine what happened. Not all cameras will be supported -- but I'm not 100% sure what ones are supported, or how to get the list (probably some linux magic)
• Is mjpg-streamer running or did it die? "ps -Af | grep mjpg" will show you
• If it's running, is it listening on the right port? "netstat -ln" can show you what ports are being listened on, 5800 should be in the list.
• If /dev/video0 exists and mjpg-streamer dies, then there's something else wrong and you'll need to run mjpg-streamer on the command line. Unfortunately, I haven't put anything in the package to do this using the settings, so it's a bit verbose...

Alright, so there is video zero

With the "ps -Af | grep mjpg", I get

1602 admin {grep} /bin/busybox.nosuid /bin/grep mjpg

There is not 5800 on the port list

Thanks for all the support!