View source for Beaglebone Black - Devuan Jessie

{{AllSBCAreHereLink}}

'''Materials:'''

* Beaglebone Black Industrial
* Logitech C525 webcam
* RTC1307 real time clock (optional) 

'''Steps:'''

Installed Debian Jessie via a netinstall from [http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardDebian Elinux.org BeagleBoardDebian]. Used serial port. This was actually a slow idea, much better is to use the prebuilt images (see lower on that page) but either way works. Migrated to Devuan via dev1fanboy guide. Installed Zoneminder using jessie-backports according to [http://zoneminder.readthedocs.io/en/stable/installationguide/index.html official install guide].

Industrial BBB was chosen, to use as a dashcam under cold winter conditions. 

Camera works plugged into USB. No external power needed. The camera was obtained by looking at the [https://h-node.org/ H-node] hardware compatibility list for webcams. Another good resource is [http://elinux.org/RPi_USB_Webcams Elinux RPi USB Webcams] There is no guarantee that all webcams will support the framebuffer grab that ZM requires, but in this case, it did. The webcam is 960x720p and cost about $12. See [[Logitech Webcam Pro 9000]] or other webcam setup docs for hints on setup.

Logitech camera works under the following settings

'''Zoneminder settings:'''
* Source: Local
* Maximum FPS: 3
* Device Path: /dev/video0
* Capture Method: Video for Linux 2
* Device Format: PAL
* Capture Palette: *MJPEG
* Capture Width (pixels): 960
* Capture Height (pixels): 720

Though I run it at 640x480px.

Total load with camera, gets about 960x720 3FPS, with roughly .7 load on the server in record mode. I can see using this as an external ZM server or standalone.

YUYV works with resolution of 320x240, but no higher. MJPG is able to get 320x240, 640x480, and 960x720. I put the wrong resolution in during MJPEG mode, but the ZM logs told me that the 'correct' resolution available was 960x720, so I used that.

This being an SBC, there is a additional interfaces, expansions (I2C, GPIO) to use in addition to the camera itself. Sensors can be added easily. Possibilities are many. No longer just a camera, an SBC with a cam is a swiss army camera.


'''Notes:'''
* I ran into problems using this BBB with a long (>25 ft) ethernet cable. Network functions were slow, or failing. This could be a problem if you were to use these as substitutes for cameras over long drops. It may have been my particular model (BBB Element14 industrial) or the cable. A shorter cable resolved all issues.

* In using this as a dashcam (albeit, a slow, expensive, but DIY dashcam) it was required to add a real time clock to the expansion header to keep time. It should be possible to use EEPROM or the flash to keep chronological time, without the need for an RTC...


== See Also ==

*[[Dedicated SBC Camera Monitor]]