NOTE
For a full understanding of application details, users should familiarize with the official document Raspberry Pi - The Picamera2 Library.
The document version, on which this raspiCamSrv release is based, is also included in this documentation: picamera2-manual.pdf
When the server on a Pi is running and the Pi is reacheable through the network (usually WiFi), you can connect with a browser using the Pi address ('raspi05' in the example below) with the Flask port number, usually 5000, e.g.:
http://raspi05:5000
The system will request an initial registration and a login and subsequently open the Live application screen.
For error handling, see raspiCamSrv Troubleshooting
On the right side, the title bar shows
- the current server connection
- the active camera as advertised by Picamera2
- the active user
On the left side, the title bar shows the application name (raspiCamSrv) and the current screen.
The main menu (black background) allows navigation to different screens:
- Live shows the Live Screen which includes functionality for image control as well as photo- and video taking
- Config gives access to camera Tuning and camera Configuration where basic camera configurations can be specified for different scenarios.
- Info opens the Camera Information page with information on installed cameras as well as Properties and Sensor Modes of the active camera.
- Photos shows the Photos where the currently available photos and videos can be browsed and inspected in detail.
- Photoseries opens the Photo Series page for control of photo series.
- Trigger Allows configuring and controlling triggered video and/or photo taking, currently based on Motion Capturing
- Web Cam opens the Web Cam page showing web cam features of raspiCamSrv
- Settings opens the Settings page where some basic server parameters can be configured and where the active camera can be switched in case the Raspberry Pi device supprts multiple cameras (such as Pi 5).
- Log Out will log the active user out and direct to the Log-In Screen
NOTE: Selecting an option on the main menue will issue a request to the server with a specific URL and, thus, refresh the screen.
Many of the raspiCamSrv pages, selected by a Main Menue option have a submenue.
Submenues are indicated by a green background.
NOTE: Selecting an option on a submenue will not issue a new request and, thus, will not refresh the screen with new information from the server.
Instead, submenue options activate different sections of the currently loaded page.
However, Submit buttons on a page section apply only to data shown on the active section and not to data on other sections of the same page.
On the right side of the menu bar there is a group of status indicators for the different background processes:
From right to left, these indicate the status of
- Live stream thread for active camera
- Video thread
- Recording audio along with video
- Photo Series thread
- Motion Capture thread
- Live stream thread for the other camera, if available (see Webcam)
Red color indicates that a process is active whereas gray indicates that it is inactive.
In the case of motion capture,
- yellow color indicates that the process is active but currently not scheduled to register events
- tuquoise color indicates that the motion capture process runs in test mode
At the bottom of the screen, there is a message line where application messages will be shown when necessary.
raspiCamSrv supports streaming MJPEG video.
The straming URL is
http://<server>:<port>/video_feed for MJPEG video
http://<server>:<port>/photo_feed for photo snapshots
Both URLs can be accessed without authentication if the checkbox Req. Auth for Streaming on the Settings screen is deactivated.
If this checkbox is activated, a user must have logged in to raspiCamSrv once in the same browser session which shall be used for streaming. A streaming request in a browser session without login will redirect to the login screen.
In the web client, an active streaming server is indicated with the process status indicators as
if only the active camera is streaming or
if both cameras are streaming or
if if only the other (not active) camera is streaming
A live stream is shown in in the Live Screen for the active camera or on the Webcam page for both cameras.
The streaming servers are automatically shut down if no client has been streaming within the last 10 seconds.
This is independently controlled for both cameras.
For example if one is working in other dialogs rather than Live Screen, straming is not used and the streaming servers are shut down, which is indicated by
Streaming is automatically reactivated, if a streaming client connects, for example if the Live Screen is activated.
Other clients, either connecting directly through the streaming URL or by using the raspiCamSrv web client, will also activate the streaming servers.
Streaming of the active camera can be deactivated, if a raspiCamSrv task is executed which requires exclusive access to the camera because of a specific Configuration which is not compliant with the configuration required for streaming (for more details, see raspiCamSrv Tasks and Background Processes).