Linux Dash Camera

I apologise I stand corrected. I'm assuming the size would not be an issue for you? Can you tweak the camera to your hearts content on the R-PI? As in theory R-PIs should allow a very quick and easy way to prototype Linux based dash cameras.

Yes. You're in full control of the software. If you open source your code, others can jump in and improve on it. The Raspberry Pi would be a quick and easy way to prototype Linux-based dash cameras as you'll probably stick $100 or so in hardware and the software is all free (both free in price and free for modification). The only thing I would be concerned about with the Rapsberry Pi is processing power and input/output capacity, but I think that would only come into play once you started trying to process the videos (not just merely capture them) or if you tried using multiple cameras on the same Raspberry Pi.

I guess I'll figure this out soon as I build out my own device.
 
At least you get the fun of tinkering making your own camera, and thats always good.
It might also be good, i can imagine ( have a vivid fantasy ) systems based on some of the new SOCs that have awesome encode / decode capabilities, so you could make awesome and smart systems.
But as it is now i think the current route fulfill most of that people want to make and buy, but i have no problem seeing a future where the current way of things cant keep up with what people want.

Already new we see people ask for things that cant really be done with the current stuff, so should / will people settle or keep pushing and so drive us in the hands of linux cameras.
 
Already new we see people ask for things that cant really be done with the current stuff, so should / will people settle or keep pushing and so drive us in the hands of linux cameras.

I know I've found ways to hack around the limitations of current dash cams, but it's so piecemeal and cobbled together and if the vendor changes one little thing, it can ruin your system. I've just concluded it's better in the long run to build something yourself and go from there. It may be "fun" in some cases but I also see a huge hassle. At least when it's done, it'll do everything I want and also allow other people to make modifications.
 
Liking that you're making the efforts here (y) There is potential to be unlocked, but you're not going to find this an easy venture. The toughest part of being a dashcam is giving top-quality vids under every possible circumstance, and that part alone will probably take 90% of your efforts because those conditions vary so wildly in driving a car.

Best of luck with this and I'll be following along with interest!
Phil
 
Liking that you're making the efforts here (y) There is potential to be unlocked, but you're not going to find this an easy venture. The toughest part of being a dashcam is giving top-quality vids under every possible circumstance, and that part alone will probably take 90% of your efforts because those conditions vary so wildly in driving a car.

Best of luck with this and I'll be following along with interest!
Phil

Thanks. I know it's going to be hard. Just getting Debian to work on a laptop I bought was difficult. I'm open sourcing this so hopefully as I build a base for this project, others will jump into it and progress can evolve faster as more people jump into the project. I'm sure the conditions I experience in Texas are way different than my native Wisconsin when it comes to getting quality videos. My goal is to make software do as much of the work as possible so you can get away with cheaper commodity hardware.
 
Yes. You're in full control of the software. If you open source your code, others can jump in and improve on it. The Raspberry Pi would be a quick and easy way to prototype Linux-based dash cameras as you'll probably stick $100 or so in hardware and the software is all free (both free in price and free for modification). The only thing I would be concerned about with the Rapsberry Pi is processing power and input/output capacity, but I think that would only come into play once you started trying to process the videos (not just merely capture them) or if you tried using multiple cameras on the same Raspberry Pi.

I guess I'll figure this out soon as I build out my own device.

There are alternatives to Raspberry Pi available these days that are faster have greater processing power, more memory and additional features such as Banana Pi, Hummingboard, Odroid XU4, etc. that may be worth looking into.

https://www.treehugger.com/slideshows/gadgets/8-alternatives-raspberry-pi/

https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/raspberry-pi-alternatives
 
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There are alternatives to Raspberry Pi available these days that are faster have greater processing power, more memory and additional features such as Banana Pi, Hummingboard, Odroid XU4, etc. that may be worth looking into.

https://www.treehugger.com/slideshows/gadgets/8-alternatives-raspberry-pi/

https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/raspberry-pi-alternatives

The reason I'm going with the Raspberry Pi right now is I have 2 laying around. I also attend 2 different meetups in Austin that the Raspberry Pi is the core of the projects being done. It's easier to collaborate with people in those groups. Right now it's more of a proof of concept to see if I can get something rudimentary working. Once that happens, I'll work to improve it and I have a feeling you're right about looking into alternatives. I'm definitely keeping that in mind as I build this because I have a strong feeling I will need something with a lot more power to do some of the processing I want to do.
 
The reason I'm going with the Raspberry Pi right now is I have 2 laying around. I also attend 2 different meetups in Austin that the Raspberry Pi is the core of the projects being done. It's easier to collaborate with people in those groups. Right now it's more of a proof of concept to see if I can get something rudimentary working. Once that happens, I'll work to improve it and I have a feeling you're right about looking into alternatives. I'm definitely keeping that in mind as I build this because I have a strong feeling I will need something with a lot more power to do some of the processing I want to do.

Well, that makes sense. Nevertheless, it's nice to see all the competition these days. I notice you can easily swap components between some of these boards so you can use hardware you've already got that previously worked with the Raspberry Pi.
 
Well, that makes sense. Nevertheless, it's nice to see all the competition these days. I notice you can easily swap components between some of these boards so you can use hardware you've already got that previously worked with the Raspberry Pi.

Yeah and the configuration of Linux should be able the same. I guess the nice thing about Linux is you're able to script a lot of stuff. Right now I'm trying to get QEMU to work so I can run the Raspberry Pi in a virtual machine so I can create a base image. I should be able to share this image with other people and also continue to create new images as I progress so I can rapidly build other machines.
 
Yeah and the configuration of Linux should be able the same. I guess the nice thing about Linux is you're able to script a lot of stuff. Right now I'm trying to get QEMU to work so I can run the Raspberry Pi in a virtual machine so I can create a base image. I should be able to share this image with other people and also continue to create new images as I progress so I can rapidly build other machines.

If you would like to share details of your progress on this forum (even if there aren't any people that can contribute to the code directly) I'm sure there's still lots of valuable feedback that can be had from the members here, collectively there's about as much input and ideas here than you'll find on the subject of dashcams anywhere
 
If you would like to share details of your progress on this forum (even if there aren't any people that can contribute to the code directly) I'm sure there's still lots of valuable feedback that can be had from the members here, collectively there's about as much input and ideas here than you'll find on the subject of dashcams anywhere

I definitely will! Feedback is also good and that's what attracted me to this forum in the first place. I'm dusting off my electronics bin and getting the Raspberry Pi ready. I'm also playing around with Linux a bit and getting the hang of a few things (I'm currently typing this on my Debian laptop).
 
Yeah and the configuration of Linux should be able the same. I guess the nice thing about Linux is you're able to script a lot of stuff. Right now I'm trying to get QEMU to work so I can run the Raspberry Pi in a virtual machine so I can create a base image. I should be able to share this image with other people and also continue to create new images as I progress so I can rapidly build other machines.

I wish you the best on your endeavour. I will be following this very closely - as another member: @kamkar1 stated - there are a lot of features that are requested but not achievable in the currently available SDKs - this may be the first step to changing this.

I would imagine that through a RPI the hurdles will be far fewer than on another more 'powerful' board - plus a RPI SoM is widely available for even better/quicker prototyping.

If you need any help please do just let me know.

Best,

Jozsef
 
I wish you the best on your endeavour. I will be following this very closely - as another member: @kamkar1 stated - there are a lot of features that are requested but not achievable in the currently available SDKs - this may be the first step to changing this.

I would imagine that through a RPI the hurdles will be far fewer than on another more 'powerful' board - plus a RPI SoM is widely available for even better/quicker prototyping.

If you need any help please do just let me know.

Best,

Jozsef

Thanks. I do think you're right about the Raspberry Pi. I know you can easily pick them up at many electronic stores. There's Fry's here in Austin and the have a whole row of Pi's with all the accessories. Also having Raspbian pre-built will take away a lot of the hassles with hardware. I know that's been the biggest hurdle with Linux is getting hardware to work. We'll have to see how well the USB webcams work.

Once I do get a base system working, I'll make a separate thread for it to let everyone know my progress. Right now I'm digging out my hardware out of my hardware bin and getting things organized as well as playing around with Linux and learning.
 
I wish you the best on your endeavour. I will be following this very closely - as another member: @kamkar1 stated - there are a lot of features that are requested but not achievable in the currently available SDKs - this may be the first step to changing this.

got details on what those features are?
 
F800 Pro seems to have Linux backend, which you can telnet into :)


As for a pi, it’s definitely the best prototype board hands down. But for making it into a dashcam, it does have its limitations.

-power source? With more peripherals attached, you would definitely need stable 5V 2A/3A power supply.
-would need its own supercap/battery, and some code to detect power input switch (turn off car)
-motion detection via motioneyeOS
-nice to be able to save files to USB
-picamera has nice extension flat ribbon cable
-Etc




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
F800 Pro seems to have Linux backend, which you can telnet into :)


As for a pi, it’s definitely the best prototype board hands down. But for making it into a dashcam, it does have its limitations.

-power source? With more peripherals attached, you would definitely need stable 5V 2A/3A power supply.
-would need its own supercap/battery, and some code to detect power input switch (turn off car)
-motion detection via motioneyeOS
-nice to be able to save files to USB
-picamera has nice extension flat ribbon cable
-Etc




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Definitely good things to keep in mind. I do see power being an issue, especially if I process the videos in car. That'll definitely be a challenge. One question I have is what do you mean by save files to USB? Do you mean stick in a flash drive and it saves it to that or what specifically are you looking for there?
 
Definitely good things to keep in mind. I do see power being an issue, especially if I process the videos in car. That'll definitely be a challenge. One question I have is what do you mean by save files to USB? Do you mean stick in a flash drive and it saves it to that or what specifically are you looking for there?

Graceful shutdown will be an interesting challenge in regards to power. Esp since the pi doesn’t have the fastest shutdown tbh.

As for usb, I was referring to saving files to it, since it would be better than using the memory card that the pi boots/runs off of. The USB ports are 2.0, but should be more than enough bandwidth for read/write to a large flash drive or even an external hard drive (I would use SSD in a car).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Graceful shutdown will be an interesting challenge in regards to power. Esp since the pi doesn’t have the fastest shutdown tbh.

As for usb, I was referring to saving files to it, since it would be better than using the memory card that the pi boots/runs off of. The USB ports are 2.0, but should be more than enough bandwidth for read/write to a large flash drive or even an external hard drive (I would use SSD in a car).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I wasn't thinking too much about graceful shutdown for the time being since I was going to run the initial dashcam off of the power port and it's hot if the car is off. It is something to consider down the road. I can definitely see putting a battery or something else in between and then have it detect if power is lost. Effectively like an uninterpretable power supply (UPS).

As far as USB, I was planning on using ffmpeg or some other program for recording the video. I don't think it would be too hard to redirect it to the mounted USB. That'll be something I play around with a bit more when I get things up and going.

Tonight I go to the North Austin Gadget Hackers so we'll see what I come up with there. That's one of the Meetups where we mess around with Rapsberry Pi's. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to make some good progress on working on this. My fiancee is out of town for her bachelorette party so I might just do a Little Caesars and Mountain Dew binge and work on this project to hopefully get some sort of base system going.
 
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So I was playing around with the Raspberry Pi and it seems like 720p is too much for the Pi to handle at least with a default install of Raspbian and ffmpeg. CPU spiked to 100% and it effectively stutters on the command line and captures about 1/3 of the video. I've got a USB webcam to work flawlessly on my Debian laptop so I'm assuming it has to deal with power. I'll keep playing around to see what I figure out. I also ordered a USB GPS receiver from Amazon. If anything, I should hopefully be able to get a proof of concept going with my laptop. Once I get the base system going, it can always be refined.
 
I played around a little more with it and installed Rapsbian base with just the command line. It still can't handle 720p but I was able to get 160x120 resolution to work smoothly and use 50-70% of the CPU. I guess I can do my proof of concept at least with the Raspberry Pi but it's not going to be super practical for any decent video. I'm waiting on my GPS receiver to come in. I'll throw up the proof of concept when I get that figured out. In the meantime I need to figure out what sort of resources are needed to encode HD video.
 
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