Use Raspberry Pi Camera with Prusa Connect

README.md

Use Raspberry Pi and Pi Cam for Prusa Connect

I couldn't get the script from p123ad to work on my Pi Zero W 2 with Camera Module 3 (all kinds of ffmpeg errors). There are several built-in tools for working with the camera now, so I tried to figure out if I could use one of those instead.

Behold this version, which uses the built-in libcamera-still tool to actually interact with the camera and save a JPEG. That image is then uploaded to Prusa Connect, same as the original script.

Instructions

1. Go to the Cameras section at https://connect.prusa3d.com
2. Add a new camera "Add new other camera"
3. Copy the generated Token
4. Set up your Pi Zero W 2 with Raspian OS Lite (32-bit) (this may work with other combinations of Pi and OS but I haven't tested)
5. Create a shell script /usr/local/bin/prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh swapping out connect-token-here with your actual token
6. Change ownership of the script to the user you log into your pi with, for example if your user is pi then run: sudo chown pi:pi /usr/local/bin/prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh
7. Make the script executable: chmod +x /usr/local/bin/prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh.
8. Start the script with /usr/local/bin/prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh

If it works you should see no error messages, and a new image appearing in Prusa Connect every 10 seconds.

Create Autostart Service

To run the script in the background and start it automatically.

1. Create /etc/systemd/system/prusaconnect_upload_cam.service and paste the content from below.
2. Start the service: sudo systemctl start prusaconnect_upload_cam.service.
3. Check if the service is running with sudo systemctl status prusaconnect_upload_cam.service.
4. Enable the service: sudo systemctl enable prusaconnect_upload_cam.service.

prusaconnect_upload_cam.service

[Unit]
Description=Raspi Cam to Prusa Connect

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh

#!/bin/bash

# Set default values for environment variables
: "${HTTP_URL:=https://connect.prusa3d.com/c/snapshot}"
: "${DELAY_SECONDS:=10}"
: "${LONG_DELAY_SECONDS:=60}"
# FINGERPRINT can be a random string with at least 16 characters
: "${FINGERPRINT:=123456789012345678}"
# CAMERA_TOKEN generated by the Connect server
: "${CAMERA_TOKEN:=connect-token-here}"

while true; do
    # Grab a frame from libcamera-still with the highest resolution
    # that is displayed on Prusa Connect: 1704 x 1278 for a 4:3 image
    # Setting the quality to 80 saves almost 50% in file size for
    # very little decrease in quality. Set to taste!
    # If you need to rotate the image 180° add --rotate 180
    libcamera-still -v 0 --immediate --width 2274 --height 1280 -q 80 -o output.jpg

    # If no error, upload it.
    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
        # POST the image to the HTTP URL using curl
        curl -X PUT "$HTTP_URL" \
            -H "accept: */*" \
            -H "content-type: image/jpg" \
            -H "fingerprint: $FINGERPRINT" \
            -H "token: $CAMERA_TOKEN" \
            --data-binary "@output.jpg" \
            --no-progress-meter \
            --compressed

        # Reset delay to the normal value
        DELAY=$DELAY_SECONDS
    else
        echo "libcamera-still returned an error, retrying after ${LONG_DELAY_SECONDS}s..."
        
        # Set delay to the longer value
        DELAY=$LONG_DELAY_SECONDS
    fi

    sleep "$DELAY"
done

Works!!
Thank you very much!!

It also works for me, thank you! I just slightly modified it to use tmp directory for image storage to avoid unnecessary wear on the SD card.

I just slightly modified it to use tmp directory for image storage to avoid unnecessary wear on the SD card.

Ahhh, good idea! Is anything in /tmp saved to memory instead of the SD card? I should update to do the same thing...

Yes, I checked my mounts and /tmp is mounted as tmpfs which should be in memory only.

I'm getting "snapshot not available" on prusaconnect. No errors in running the script on the Pi.

Any ideas?

No idea. I'm printing right now and it just works.

Well it suddenly started working, must have been Prusa's servers.

Thanks all!

Do you have a link who explain how to create a shell script please ?

Hi @ydu57120 You should have a utility named nano installed which is a text editor that works right in the terminal. As long as you're connected to the Pi you can create and edit the file at the same time with:

sudo nano /usr/local/bin/prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh

Now you can paste in the script from above. When you're done editing, press Ctrl-X and then press y to save your changes and exit nano.

Now the file exists, but it's owned by the root user. To make it owned by the same user you're logged in as (probably pi), that's what step 6 is for:

sudo chown pi:pi /usr/local/bin/prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh

See if that works!

Hi,
Thanks for your help, I'll try this and let you know if it works.

Dude, thank you so much for this. I've been trying to do this since the MK4 came out and everything I found was so convoluted for a novice pi user. I was able to get this up and running in about 10 minutes and it's perfect. Super appreciated!

@fergymcferguson You’re welcome!

Will this interfere if picamera2 is also running a live stream?

@codemonkey2k5 I don't know how picamera2 works, sorry 😬 It might lock the stream from the camera and no one else can use it, but maybe not!

You could try running libcamera-still -v 0 --immediate -o output.jpg while picamera2 is running and see if you end up with an image (and if picamera2 gets interrupted in the process)...

Thank you, I will give that a try.

Hi @ydu57120 You should have a utility named nano installed which is a text editor that works right in the terminal. As long as you're connected to the Pi you can create and edit the file at the same time with:

sudo nano /usr/local/bin/prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh

Now you can paste in the script from above. When you're done editing, press Ctrl-X and then press y to save your changes and exit nano.

Now the file exists, but it's owned by the root user. To make it owned by the same user you're logged in as (probably pi), that's what step 6 is for:

sudo chown pi:pi /usr/local/bin/prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh

See if that works!

I done the step 5 but when i try the step 6 i have this error message. Do you have a soluce to fix that ?

@ydu57120 It sounds like the file isn't being created/saved by nano...is there any message at the bottom of the screen after you press Ctrl-X and then y? Anything about not being able to save?

after doing ctrl + x they ask me if i want to save modified buffer, then I press Y and at the bottom of the screen it is written: File Name to write: /usr/local/bin/prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh

That sure makes it sounds like the file was created...if you list the files in that directory, do you see it listed in the output?

ls -la /usr/local/bin

When I run that, I see:

$ ls -la
total 12
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 Feb 27 18:33 .
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 4096 Dec  4 18:36 ..
-rwxr-xr-x  1 pi   pi   1426 Feb 27 23:47 prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh