Arch Linux

Lukario45

Member

Registered: 2020-01-09

Posts: 4

System to Stream my Reptile Vivarium

I hope this was the correct place to post this.

Recently I bought a few cheap small wired cameras off of amazon. I want to wire these into my one rat snake's enclosure. I can hook them to a(n) USB capture card I have, and I would like to configure arch linux to utilize them.

I would like to be able to stream the enclosure at any point, but I would not like it to constantly be actively streaming. As in, I only want the camera hardware running when I, or someone else, logs in to watch. I don't want unnecessary wear on my hardware. I'm also not going to go through any streaming services. I want to embed the stream directly onto a webpage on the systems own webserver. Not many people are going to use it. Me, my cousin, maybe my mother though she doesn't really like the snakes lol.

I know, to start I need to install arch on my host, and then set up the web server. That's not too difficult. I've done it in the past, but apart from that I really don't know where to go. Has anyone done anything similar to this?

I understand that there are super easy ways to do this, but I am also trying to use this as a self teaching tool for myself. I am comfortable using arch, and linux in general, but I still have a lot to learn in it. Being in Computer Science and a very hands on learner, I feel that setting up this system would teach and improve on some skills that will be useful to me in a professional setting. In the past when I would use arch I wouldn't have much of a goal with it. I would have it installed and then be like "Okay, now how do I advance in this??? I need a damn goal." Now I have a goal.

If anyone can point me in the right direction that would be wonderful. Any bit of information is useful.

Awebb

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 6,688

Re: System to Stream my Reptile Vivarium

This is not exactly Arch specific. You'll end up with an HTML file with some Javascript. You're basically setting up a bunch of webcams. I googled "put webcam stream on html page" and got a number of simple results.

https://www.npmjs.com/package/livecam ??

Last edited by Awebb (2021-03-06 01:27:05)

Aeredren

Member

Registered: 2019-04-10

Posts: 4

Re: System to Stream my Reptile Vivarium

Not really a web page but I would do it this way :
First just run a succesfull stream (without the 'on demand' feature) using ffmpeg or vlc for streaming.
Viewing this stream with VLC.

Second : Implement an on-demand feature with some kind of hooks to triger up the streaming script when a connection is done.
Maybe with a script listening on the socket or some kind of iptables/nftable rules.

The advantage is you do not have to manage stream with some kind of web bloat. But maybe it is just because I hate web technologies, or maybe I'm just too into *minimalism / bare metal* mentality

(edit : it remove the pain of setting up a web server and npm modules, and struggling with html and css and browser compatibility and responsive design. Wanna watch a stream ? Use a software design to watch video / send video like vlc)

Last edited by Aeredren (2021-03-09 10:02:11)

Awebb

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 6,688

Re: System to Stream my Reptile Vivarium

Have a look at the community/motion package.

Zom

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2007-10-27

Posts: 430

Re: System to Stream my Reptile Vivarium

Second : Implement an on-demand feature with some kind of hooks to triger up the streaming script when a connection is done.
Maybe with a script listening on the socket or some kind of iptables/nftable rules.

I think this functionality might be built into systemd. I know that by enabling sshd.socket it won't actually start the sshd-service until a connection is received. Might be the same with httpd.

Basically the httpd doesn't run unless until someone attempts to connect, and I think it should stop when there are no more active connections.