Installation and first usage

Installation

The install uses nginx as the web server because for it there is no special setup required for a web site outside of /var/www.

PiKrellCam is installed from a github git repository using the command line. The install is cloning the repository in the /home/pi directory and running the install script (an install for a user other than pi is possible): cd /home/pi git clone https://github.com/billw2/pikrellcam.git cd pikrellcam ./install-pikrellcam.sh

The install-pikrellcam.sh script installs needed packages and prompts for three things to configure:

• Port number for the nginx web server to listen on. The default is 80, but an alternate non standard port number can be used in which case the PiKrellCam web page would be accessed with the URL: http://your_pi:port_number
• Auto start: if enabled a line will be added to /etc/rc.local so that pikrellcam will be auto started at boot. If this is not enabled, pikrellcam will need to be started from the web page or from a terminal after each boot.
• Password protection: if set a login will be required to access the PiKrellCam web pages.

Any time you want to change how you configured these three configurations, just rerun the install script.

First Usage

Go to the PiKrellCam web page in your browser (omit the port number if it was left at default 80):
http://your_pi:port_number

• Expand the System panel and start the PiKrellCam prgram by clicking the button Start
  After 2 - 4 seconds, the preview image from the camera should appear. If it does not you should get in its place an error image indicating that the camera could not be started. This can happen if the camera is busy (another program is using it) or if there is a problem with the ribbon cable camera connection. If this happens, you should fix the issue with the camera and restart PiKrellCam.

• After the preview image appears, turn on motion detection by clicking the button Enable: Motion

• The OSD then shows that motion detection is ON and PiKrellCam is now operating with its default settings.

• Wait for motion to be detected and watch the OSD for the video record progress.
  After the video ends, view it by going to the Videos page by clicking: Media: Videos

• Back on the main web page you can click the buttons
  Show
  Preset
  Timelapse
  Vectors
  to toggle showing information PiKrellCam can display on the OSD. This information shows real time motion detection information and gives a feel for motion magnitudes and counts which can be configured to tune motion detection.

• A basic first configuration to consider is enabling motion detection to be turned on each time PiKrellCam is started. To do this, use the OSD menu system:
  Expand the Setup panel by clicking on it.
  In the Config group, click the button Motion
  The OSD will show a horizontal menu with Startup_Motion highlighted (underlined). Click the button: Sel
  Turn the option ON by clicking Finalize the startup motion new option setting by clicking: Sel
  Back out of the menu by clicking Back
  In the System panel click the Help button for a description of how pikrellcam works and much more information on how to configure it.