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Upgrading the Robo C2 with a Pi NoIR webcam - Instructions

Discussion in 'Mods and Upgrades' started by OutsourcedGuru, Jul 5, 2017.

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  1. OutsourcedGuru

    OutsourcedGuru Active Member

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    My longer ribbon cable finally arrived from Adafruit so I've upgraded my Robo C2 with a camera. By popular demand, I wrote up a step-by-step tutorial with photos and screenshots of the process. Let me know if there are any problems.

    Instructions
     
    #1 OutsourcedGuru, Jul 5, 2017
    Last edited: Jul 7, 2017
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  2. OutsourcedGuru

    OutsourcedGuru Active Member

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    I updated the tutorial to include removing OctoPrint's watermarking within your videos. ;)
     
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  3. Stera8

    Stera8 Member

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    This is awesome! Great job!

    Why did you decide to buy the NoIR vs. the regular pi camera?
     
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  4. OutsourcedGuru

    OutsourcedGuru Active Member

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    It's what Fry's Electronics had in stock, to be honest.

    Their naming convention is a little reversed, if you ask me. It's called NoIR not because it doesn't do infrared but because it doesn't include an infrared filter like the standard version. So it actually can capture video in lower lighting situations.
     
  5. kick4h4

    kick4h4 New Member

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    This is brilliant. I have an older pi camera; Your instructions are awesome!

    Thanks!
     
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  6. Stephen LaRochelle

    Stephen LaRochelle New Member

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    Excellent detailed instructions. Thank you for taking the time to document so thoroughly. I am a Pi novice but was able to successfully install and use in less than an hour.
     

    Attached Files:

  7. OutsourcedGuru

    OutsourcedGuru Active Member

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    Glad to hear it's working.

    Don't forget that you now have lots of options for grabbing screenshots and video feeds (even embedded) from the streaming interface:

    http://my-c2.local:8080/
     
  8. Patrick Gill

    Patrick Gill New Member

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    I followed your wonderful guide, but I am getting an error when running
    "raspistill -o first-light.jpg". It gives this error:

    p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Menlo; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff} span.s1 {font-variant-ligatures: no-common-ligatures}

    mmal: mmal_vc_component_enable: failed to enable component: ENOSPC

    mmal: camera component couldn't be enabled

    mmal: main: Failed to create camera component

    mmal: Failed to run camera app. Please check for firmware updates
    i have tried updating firmware, and nothing seems to work.
     
  9. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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  10. Patrick Gill

    Patrick Gill New Member

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    I saw that page last night. Unfortunately, none of that worked.
     
  11. tkoco

    tkoco - -.- --- -.-. ---
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    Did you enable the camera? https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/camera/README.md

    I ask because it is possible that the instructions were not clear enough for you.

    The other thing to keep in mind is that Raspbian Linux changes over time. The initial instructions are almost a year old. Raspbian Linux has been upgraded 2 times since the the posting. You may need to consult the official Raspbian web site for "up to date" instructions.

    I plan on doing the same upgrade for my C2 printer, so I should be able to assist you
     
    #11 tkoco, Jun 13, 2018
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2018
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  12. tkoco

    tkoco - -.- --- -.-. ---
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    I chased down the various postings on why the camera won't work. There is a thread which basically states that the camera is a single access device (assuming the graphics memory is sufficient and the hardware connections are good). Apparently, Octoprint automatically runs a separate program for it's stop-motion recordings thereby causing the raspistill program to error out. [ https://github.com/guysoft/OctoPi/issues/31 ] (look around the 28th of August 2014 posting) Certainly worth looking into.
     
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  13. tkoco

    tkoco - -.- --- -.-. ---
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    A follow up to the pi-noir camera project instructions.

    I followed the procedure and can state that the instructions are correct as written. The sole point where I can see where a person could shoot themselves in the foot (figuratively speaking) -> When you run the 'raspi-config' command using the ssh window, the instructions tell you to not reboot the Raspberry Pi. Following the instructions, one creates a new directory, goes there and then runs the 'raspistill' command.

    I can see where one could accidentally reboot the Raspberry Pi before running the 'raspistill' command. Of course, OctoPrint would then have the time lapse program running in the background and cause the raspistill command to fail as reported in this thread.

    If one should reboot the Raspberry Pi prematurely, I would suggest to skip the 'raspistill' command sequence and move on to the next section of the instructions where one will enable the camera in OctoPrint. Then one could use the Test option to check the camera.
     
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  14. tkoco

    tkoco - -.- --- -.-. ---
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    Let me add one other caveat to using the camera. If you enable the streaming prior to sending over a model 'g-code' for printing, the OctoPrint will hang and not download the model. It is best to disable the video streaming until OctoPrint has accepted the entire g-code. Then you can enable it for the time lapse movie.
     
  15. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    @tkoco The OP hasn't been on this forum in some months now. Maybe fire up a thread showing how you got it working and we can lock this one since you are active and they are not?
     
  16. tkoco

    tkoco - -.- --- -.-. ---
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    I simply followed the instructions as posted earlier in the thread. Since the originator of the thread is not currently active, I posted some comments for new people who might not be fluent in Linux. Feel free to lock the thread.
     
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