Motion Detection with RaspiCam, Non-Module version

[jasonarends]

@dam4
Does your camera work outside of motion? Can you do

raspistill -o cam.jpg

and get a picture?

If so, try launching motion with:

/usr/local/bin/motion -c /etc/motion/motion.conf

just to be sure that it’s reading the correct file, and then if you can watch the output and paste it here (or pastebin if it’s large) it might help us troubleshoot.

Here’s what the first part of mine looks like with some of the config stuff cut out:

[27690520:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_startup: Motion 4.0.1+gitb103dc0 Started
[27690520:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_startup: Logging to syslog
[27690520:motion] [NTC] [ALL] motion_startup: Using log type (ALL) log level (INF)
[27690520:motion] [INF] [ALL] conf_output_parms: Writing configuration parameters from all files (1):
[27690520:motion] [INF] [ALL] Thread 0 - Config file: /etc/motion/motion.conf
---snip---
[0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] main: Camera ID: 0 is from /etc/motion/motion.conf
[0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] main: Camera ID: 0 Camera Name: (null) Device: /dev/video0
[0:motion] [NTC] [ALL] main: Waiting for threads to finish, pid: 30877
[1:ml1] [NTC] [ALL] motion_init: Camera 0 started: motion detection Enabled
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] vid_start: Opening MMAL cam
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] mmalcam_start: MMAL Camera thread starting... for camera (vc.ril.camera) of 640 x 480 at 4 fps
[1:ml1] [NTC] [VID] create_camera_component: MMAL camera component created
[1:ml1] [NTC] [ALL] image_ring_resize: Resizing pre_capture buffer to 1 items
[1:ml1] [NTC] [ALL] image_ring_resize: Resizing pre_capture buffer to 2 items
[1:ml1] [INF] [ALL] mlp_detection: Lightswitch detected
[1:ml1] [INF] [EVT] event_new_video: Source FPS 4
[1:ml1] [NTC] [ALL] motion_detected: Motion detected - starting event 1

[dam4]

@jasonarends
I did get a picture when I typed that in so I know my camera is working.

Here is the link to my config stuff.

config stuff

it sits there and my screen never blanked out, but I did notice that when I moved the block in front of the camera it did do something and when I put it back it did shut off the monitor.

[jasonarends]

@dam4 sounds like it might be working - especially based on these lines:

[1:ml1] [NTC] [ALL] motion_detected: Motion detected - starting event 1
display_power=1
...
[1:ml1] [NTC] [ALL] mlp_actions: End of event 1
display_power=0

I found a couple other config options and I think I was able to disable all the “event_newfile: File of type 2 saved to: /run/shm/lastsnap.jpg” stuff. I wonder if that’s what was causing memory leaks for @bhepler I set the pre_capture and post_capture to 0

You might need to play with some of the settings for threshold and event_gap to get it to behave like you want but it sounds like you’re almost there. I set mine up in pm2 like mentioned earlier in the thread and it’s been working fine for the last day for me.

[dam4]

@jasonarends
How would I set it up in pm2? I’d like to try it.

[dam4]

@jasonarends
I feel I am so close I followed the instructions exactly and I have motion started in pm2. it still doesn’t work. As I checked the motion-error-2.log I am seeing the following;

Error: Cannot find module '/home/pi/motion'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:469:15)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:417:25)
    at Object. (/usr/lib/node_modules/pm2/lib/ProcessContainerFork.js:73:21)
    at Module._compile (module.js:570:32)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:579:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:487:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:446:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:438:3)
    at Module.runMain (module.js:604:10)
    at run (bootstrap_node.js:383:7)

This is displayed over and over. I have checked for the directory /home/pi/motion and it is there. What am I missing?

[bhepler]

This post is deleted!

[bhepler]

@dam4 Hmm. It sounds like a permissions issue. IIRC, you installed motion with sudo. It’s possible that the pm2 process doesn’t have rights to the motion folder.

If you enter ls -ah /home/pi/motion, what does that return?

[dam4]

@bhepler
This is what I get when I type that in.
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ls -ah /home/pi/motion
. CONTRIBUTING.md mask1.png netcam_ftp.h rotate.o
… COPYING md5.c netcam_ftp.o stream.c
aclocal.m4 copyright md5.h netcam.h stream.h
alg.c CREDITS md5.o netcam_http.c stream.o
alg.h .depend mmalcam.c netcam_http.h test_builds.sh
alg.o draw.c mmalcam.h netcam_http.o track.c
autom4te.cache draw.o mmalcam.o netcam_jpeg.c track.h
camera1-dist.conf event.c mmx.h netcam_jpeg.o track.o
camera1-dist.conf.in event.h motion netcam.o .travis.yml
camera2-dist.conf event.o motion.1 netcam_rtsp.c version.sh
camera2-dist.conf.in FAQ motion.c netcam_rtsp.h video_bktr.c
camera3-dist.conf ffmpeg.c motion-dist.conf netcam_rtsp.o video_bktr.h
camera3-dist.conf.in ffmpeg.h motion-dist.conf.in netcam_wget.c video_bktr.o
camera4-dist.conf ffmpeg.o motion_guide.html netcam_wget.h video_common.c
camera4-dist.conf.in .git motion.h netcam_wget.o video_common.h
CHANGELOG .gitignore motion.init-Debian normal.jpg video_common.o
CODE_STANDARD INSTALL motion.init-Debian.in outputmotion1.jpg video_loopback.c
conf.c ISSUE_TEMPLATE.md motion.init-FreeBSD.sh outputnormal1.jpg video_loopback.h
conf.h jpegutils.c motion.init-FreeBSD.sh.in picture.c video_loopback.o
config.h jpegutils.h motion.o picture.h video_v4l2.c
config.h.in jpegutils.o motion.service picture.o video_v4l2.h
config.log logger.c motion.service.in pwc-ioctl.h video_v4l2.o
config.status logger.h motion.spec raspicam webhttpd.c
configure logger.o motion.spec.in README.md webhttpd.h
configure.ac Makefile netcam.c rotate.c webhttpd.o
conf.o Makefile.in netcam_ftp.c rotate.h
pi@raspberrypi:~ $

[dam4]

@bhepler The motion works only when MagicMirror isn’t running. I have it starting with pm2. When MagicMirror is running the motion doesn’t work. Any suggestions?

[bhepler]

@dam4 What the hell… ls is the “list” command. It should only show you the listing for the file, including dates and permissions. But it’s… executing.

Just to be sure: pm2 shows two separate processes when you type pm2 status, correct?