TraveLogger is a Raspberry Pi (Zero) based configurable timelapse recorder written in Python.
It is compatible with RPi camera modules as well as USB cameras.
Just set the input-time, the output-time, and the output frame-rate, and travelogger will do everything else on its own.
For RPi camera modules, the frames are captured using raspistill, and that for USB cameras using streamer.
Install them using sudo apt-get install raspistill streamer
Next, a few more packages need to be installed for stitching the frames together. This article by phamthanhnam on Raspberry Pi Forums advised that the OpenMAX plugin in gstreamer supports the Raspberry Pi GPU and can stitch the images much faster with far less CPU utilisation.
sudo sh -c 'echo deb http://vontaene.de/raspbian-updates/ . main >> /etc/apt/sources.list'
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libgstreamer1.0-0 liborc-0.4-0 gir1.2-gst-plugins-base-1.0 gir1.2-gstreamer-1.0 gstreamer1.0-alsa gstreamer1.0-omx gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-plugins-base gstreamer1.0-plugins-base-apps gstreamer1.0-plugins-good gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio gstreamer1.0-tools gstreamer1.0-x libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0 libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0
The script uses
argparse for conventional argument parsing, and
psutil for getting available disk space
Install these using
pip3 install -u argparse psutil
For a quick test, run:
python3 recorder.py
On headless installations (with no GUI or X-session), run:
python3 recorder.py -fu
A new folder with the script's runtime-stamp will be created and all frames and the stitched video will be stored in it.
| Argument | Short | Default Value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| --image-prefix | -ip | timelapse | prefix for image name |
| --image-extension | -ie | jpeg | image extension |
| --folder-prefix | -fp | timelapse | prefix for folder name |
| --frame-size | -fs | 1280x720 | resolution of captured frame |
| --input-time | -it | 1800 | recording input time |
| --output-time | -ot | 60 | recording output time |
| --total-frames | -tf | 1440 | total frames |
| --out-frame-rate | -ofps | 24 | output fps |
| --force-input | -fi | False | force input from a video device |
| --forced-device | -fd | video0 | custom input for video device |
python3 recorder.py -fp ../timelapse -ip sunset -fs 640x480 -it 3600 -ot 30
sets and displays the following configuration:
In: 0.200 FPS Out: 24.000 FPS
Total recording time = 1 hr 00 min 0.00 sec
Total timelapse time = 0 hr 00 min 30.00 sec
Factor (In : Out) = 120.00
Estimated disk usage = 70.3125 MB (720 frames)
Avaliable disk space = 6745.21875 MB
and stores all files with the prefix sunset in a folder named timelapse outside the parent directory.
All examples can be repeated on headless installations by adding -fi flag.
A custom input video device can be selected by using the -fd flag.
python3 recorder.py -fp ../timelapse -ip sunset -fs 640x480 -it 3600 -ot 30 -fi -fd video2
python3 recorder.py -fp timelapse -ip sunset -fs 640x480 -tf 500 -ofps 30
sets and displays the following configuration:
In: 0.278 FPS Out: 8.333 FPS
Total recording time = 0 hr 30 min 0.00 sec
Total timelapse time = 0 hr 00 min 60.00 sec
Factor (In : Out) = 30.00
Estimated disk usage = 48.828125 MB (500 frames)
Avaliable disk space = 6743.77734375 MB
Notice that the set output frame-rate value was over-ridden with the set number of frames.
* failed to open vchiq instance
is a known error prompt which is encountered while trying to use the GPU for stitching the images.
It is probable that the user running travelogger is not in the video group.
Add the user to the video group using:
sudo usermod -aG video $(whoami)
It is probably better from a perspective of security to make a separate user with video permissions and run travelogger through that user.
On headless installations with new users, reading the video device requires root privileges, which is difficult for setting up cron-jobs, essentially defeating the very utility of travelogger.
The solution, again, is adding the user to the video group as mentioned above.