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Octopi not showing webcam stream

Posted: April 2nd, 2019, 10:16 pm
by PNWMaker
As the title states, I'm using Octopi/Octoprint and I've attached a webcam to one of the Raspberry Pi's USB ports.

The problem I'm seeing is that the webcam stream doesn't appear in the Octoprint 'Controls' screen. All I see is the text "Webcam stream loading..." fading in and out over and over.

When I use the Test button next to the Stream URL setting, nothing ever appears in the dialogue box that it brings up.

1) So far I've tested the webcam on another PC to make sure that it's working correctly (it is).

2) I also verified that the URL in the Stream URL setting is set to the default: "/webcam/?action=stream"

3) I also tried a Stream URL setting of "http://octopi.local:8080/?action=stream" but that didn't seem to make any difference.

I'm using OctoPrint version 1.3.10 and OctoPi version 0.14.0

I can provide the output of dmesg or lsusb or other commands if that would help.

Re: Octopi not showing webcam stream

Posted: April 2nd, 2019, 10:30 pm
by Roberts_Clif
Newbies Guide to Installing and Configuring Octoprint on a Raspberry Pi for 3D Printing.

Download Putty


In the Newbies Guide to Installing and Configuring Octoprint
Step 3: Installation and Connecting to Your RaspBerry Using Putty

Step 4: Configuring Octopi on RaspBerry Pi
2nd image step 5 Enable Cameras

If you have problems with this I will help you get your camera enabled.

Re: Octopi not showing webcam stream

Posted: April 3rd, 2019, 10:22 am
by GrueMaster
I thought I saw you post in the Hictop thread that you use Linux for your desktop as well? If so, COOL!

Ok, having said that, I can help a bit (but it may need to wait until this weekend when I have free time - currently in the middle of an office move). IIRC, I had to do some tweaks to the underlying RPI OS to get my logitech C270 to work. Just logging in and poking around, it looks like I did a fresh build of mjpg-streamer from git. Will have to poke a lot more (it has been over a year since I built my pi's up for my printers).

Re: Octopi not showing webcam stream

Posted: April 6th, 2019, 4:34 pm
by PNWMaker
Well dang....

I went over allllllllllll the stuff in the configuration page, double-checked everything, rebooted a number of time in the process, edited stuff, reverted stuff, etc etc etc....and no matter what I did I could *not* get the stream to show.

Now I know the camera works because it works perfectly on another PC. But after all that horsing around I decided it might be time for a good old fashioned Sanity Check.

I plugged the webcam back into my other PC to make sure it's still working. And it is. It works great, the picture is sharp and clear and colorful.

Then I stole, err, I mean borrowed my son's webcam and plugged it into the Octopi box....and the #%@!*% stream appeared.

So the original camera does work, just not on an Octopi box. I can't tell you how much hair I lost over wrestling with this stupid webcam.

Next stop- time to update the nice review I wrote for the webcam on Amazon. I think one star would be a generous rating, no?

And a big thank you to Roberts_Clif for giving me some stuff to try- if nothing else I verified that my Octopi setup is as it should be.

Re: Octopi not showing webcam stream

Posted: April 6th, 2019, 5:02 pm
by PNWMaker
GrueMaster wrote: April 3rd, 2019, 10:22 am I thought I saw you post in the Hictop thread that you use Linux for your desktop as well? If so, COOL!
Yep, I switched from a well-worn but perfectly functional Win7 install to Linux Mint on Jan 1st of this year.

I just couldn't trust the Win7 updates any more- sometimes they'd knock me off the air or cripple the machine. And Win7 is officially nearing EOL so it was time to switch.

Switch to Win10? Nooooooooooooooo. Way too intrusive, way too much monitoring and way too much telemetry going back to Redmond. Plus, that whole "flat UI" thing is super annoying.

Switch to Mac? Nooooooooooooooo. Too much $$$ and I didn't want to have to become part of the Apple ecosystem. I have to use a Mac at work and it's okay, but it's not great. And honestly, some of the retarded UI behaviors of the Mac system drives me bonkers.

I use Linux on my servers (several states away) so I decided to drop anchor and go that route. I looked at a *lot* of distros and Mint seemed like a pretty good choice overall. Installation was painless. Just a couple of clicks, and it found all my devices- printers, scanners, cameras, etc.

There were some bumps along the way (like finding apps that could import my data into) but aside from that it's been mostly smooth sailing.

Re: Octopi not showing webcam stream

Posted: April 6th, 2019, 5:13 pm
by Roberts_Clif
Do you have Putty so you can SSH into the Raspberry
Login ID: pi
password: raspberry

sudo raspi-config

Select 5 Enable Camera


Re: Octopi not showing webcam stream

Posted: April 6th, 2019, 9:03 pm
by PNWMaker
Roberts_Clif wrote: April 6th, 2019, 5:13 pm Do you have Putty so you can SSH into the Raspberry
Thank you, Roberts_Clif.

I'm on linux so I remote in through the gnome terminal. I don't know if you saw my post above, but I did get it working- it turns out the new camera I got just won't work on a raspberry pi. I used another camera and *poof* it started working just as soon as I plugged it in.

I'm not having "one of those days", I'm having "one of those lives."

Re: Octopi not showing webcam stream

Posted: April 6th, 2019, 10:44 pm
by Roberts_Clif
PNWMaker wrote: April 6th, 2019, 4:34 pm
Then I stole, err, I mean borrowed my son's webcam and plugged it into the Octopi box....and the #%@!*% stream appeared.
PNWMaker wrote: April 6th, 2019, 9:03 pm
Thank you, Roberts_Clif.
I don't know if you saw my post above, but I used another camera and *poof* it started working just as soon as I plugged it in.
Guess I got to the point where " and the #%@!*% " and my eyes skipped the rest of the line.

Re: Octopi not showing webcam stream

Posted: April 8th, 2019, 9:51 am
by GrueMaster
Before you get too upset with the webcam, I'd check the model with the mjpg-streamer project upstream. They may have added support after the release you have on your pi. That was the problem I had.

Re: Octopi not showing webcam stream

Posted: April 9th, 2019, 12:33 pm
by LePaul
Have you tried a sudo apt-get update via terminal?

Re: Octopi not showing webcam stream

Posted: April 11th, 2019, 12:02 am
by PNWMaker
LePaul wrote: April 9th, 2019, 12:33 pm Have you tried a sudo apt-get update via terminal?
It was the camera itself. For whatever reason it works on PCs but not on the Raspberry. I got another camera and it's all working now (see my post above).

I did do an apt-get update/upgrade not long after I got everything running a while ago.

Oddly, after booting it still says it's version 0.14.0, but the Octopi site says they're up to version 0.16.0. (??) Do I need to download that and flash the SD card to get to 0.16.0 on the Raspberry?

Re: Octopi not showing webcam stream

Posted: April 11th, 2019, 10:23 am
by LePaul
Good question for the Octoprint forum...I read a lot over there on their discussion board!

Re: Octopi not showing webcam stream

Posted: April 11th, 2019, 11:36 pm
by PNWMaker
I posted there and got zero replies after 4 or 5 days. :(


LePaul wrote: April 11th, 2019, 10:23 am Good question for the Octoprint forum...I read a lot over there on their discussion board!

Re: Octopi not showing webcam stream

Posted: April 12th, 2019, 10:28 am
by Roberts_Clif
It does not mater upgrade on not... the benefits were miNUTE...

I chose to Upgrade because of the benefits.
What are the benefits, bug fixes the programs have a few bugs that have been fixed.
Enhancements were made to make it easier to configure.
Added Support of newer and faster Raspberry Pi's, wanted to use these newer Raspberry Pi's for better video streaming.

Re: Octopi not showing webcam stream

Posted: April 15th, 2019, 12:19 am
by GrueMaster
Actually, if you do an apt-get dist-upgrade, you are already getting the essential core Linux packages. And Octoprint uses the web interface for updates, so the only thing missing is likely a metadata file saying what Octoprint image you are on.

As to the camera not working, as I said I had to upgrade mjpg-streamer from source as the camera I have wasn't supported in a mainstream release package yet. Sometimes there is a delay for HW support getting into mainstream distros.