pi_stream

WORK IN PROGRESS FOREVER! I take no responsability for anything working or breaking anything software or hardware.

The idea behind this application is to set up on a raspberry pi with a pi camera attached and have it stream video to youtube or twitch.

TODO: * real logging instead of prints

prerequisites

• a Raspberry PI with wifi/internet connection.
• the PI to have a Raspberry PI camera attached.
• basic knowlage of raspberry pi/linux/git

Install

(assumes a clean install of Raspian OS with internet connection) if not already done:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install git

Clone this repo

git clone git@github.com:MazrimT/pi_stream.git

Install Picamera2

sudo apt install -y python3-picamera2 --no-install-recommends

install FFmpeg

The streaming requires ffmpeg

sudo apt install ffmpeg

install Pulseaudio

PulseAudio is needed for the application, even if no audio is used.

sudo apt install -y pulseaudio

An environment variable is needed: PULSE_RUNTIME_PATH="/run/user/$(id -u)/pulse/" There are different ways to acomplish this but for example add to the end of ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile: export PULSE_RUNTIME_PATH="/run/user/$(id -u)/pulse/"

Setup things for Python

Connect streaming software to start preview Viewers will be able to find your stream once you go live Title Ras Make sure you are using a virtual environment! Certain parts of the code requires this to be set up!

python -m venv --system-site-packages venv  # create a virtual environment, --system-site-packages is important! otherwise picamera wont work
source venv/bin/activate                    # switches to the virtual environments python enterpreter
python -m pip install --upgrade pip         # upgrades pip in virtual environment to latest version
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt   # installs required python packages

VERY IMPORTANT! do not forget the "--system-site-packages" when creating the virtual environment because some things are installed with python3-picamera2 that are not accessible from virutal environment otherwise

.flaskenv

Remove the -template from the .flaskenv-template file and fill in your settings. The username and password is for the flask admin page and the secret key can be generated however you want, or run the create_secret.py

config.toml

Remove the -template from app/config/config.toml-template and if you want add your stream key (can also be added through UI)

if you want set up so the Flask server starts automagically when the PI reboots: Add the following to crontab so the Flask server starts every on reboot

@reboot sleep 30 && /[path to git repos]/pi_stream/venv/bin/python3 /[path to git repos]/pi_stream/run.py

(the sleep is because I noticed PI's sometimes don't like doing this in the first few seconds after boot and can fail to start things like Flask unless you give it an extra few seconds)

Run

in virtual environment:

python run_debug.py             # to test stuff
python run.py                   # for "production"

Browse to http://127.0.0.1:5000/ or IP on what-ever PI it is set up on. Username and password were configured in the .flaskenv file