OpenWRT based Video Recording System - Part 2 - Software setup for OpenWRT

Fromatting SD card with EXT2

In order to use the SD card with OpenWRT it must be formatted with the EXT2 filesystem. For flash based storage devices EXT2 is preferred as it reduces the amount of writes performed, as it is not a journaled filesystem. Flash devices have a limited number of write cycles, and while this is limit is very high (millions or more) reducing the number of writes will increase the lifespan of the device. A non journaled filesystem essentially means that it does not track changes to files, which results in less writes performed.

These are the steps to format an SD card using Ubuntu:

1. Check to see where SD card is mounted.
   
   root@ubuntu:~# mount
   ...
   /dev/sdb1 on /media/sean/9016-4EF8 type vfat
    
2. Unmount the SD card.
   
   root@ubuntu:~# umount /dev/sdb1
    
3. Run fdisk to remove existing partition and create new partition for EXT2.
   
   root@ubuntu:~# fdisk /dev/sdb
   
   Command (m for help): d
   Selected partition 1
   
   Command (m for help): n
   
   Partition type:
      p   primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
      e   extended
   Select (default p): p
   Partition number (1-4, default 1): 1
   First sector (2048-15407103, default 2048):
   Using default value 2048
   Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (2048-15407103, default 15407103):
   Using default value 15407103
   
   Command (m for help): p
   
   Disk /dev/sdb: 7888 MB, 7888437248 bytes
   13 heads, 13 sectors/track, 91166 cylinders, total 15407104 sectors
   Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
   Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
   I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
   Disk identifier: 0x00000000
   
      Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
   /dev/sdb1            2048    15407103     7702528   83  Linux
   
   Command (m for help): w
   The partition table has been altered!
   
   Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
   Syncing disks.
    
4. Finally create the EXT2 file-system on the new partition.
   
   root@ubuntu:~# mkfs.ext2 /dev/sdb1
   ...
   Allocating group tables: done                          
   Writing inode tables: done                          
   Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done
    

The SD Card is now ready for use in OpenWRT. The next steps are to install OpenWRT on the router, and then transfer the OpenWRT filesystem from the internal flash memory to the SD card. Finally we can install the packages needed to capture video from the USB webcam.

OpenWRT configuration on MR3020

The firmware used on the MR3020 can be obtained from:

MR3020 OpenWRT 12.09 r36088 for sysupgrade
MR3020 OpenWRT 12.09 r36088 for factory upgrade

The first link is the firmware image for a sysupgrade using OpenWRT, and the second link is the firmware image that can be used with the factory firmware update.

The following steps will configure OpenWRT to use the SD card as the overlay. The overlay is where any changes to the file system are stored, as the original file system is read only.

1. Update opkg repositories.
    
   opkg update
    
2. Install the kmod-usb-storage, kmod-fs-ext4 and block-mount packages to enabled usb flash drive support.
    
   opkg install kmod-usb-storage kmod-fs-ext4 block-mount
    
3. Create a directory to mount the USB drive on, and mount it.yes
   mkdir /mnt/sda1
   mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1
    
4. Copy the contents of the existing overlay to the flash drive. 
        
   tar -C /overlay -cvf - . | tar -C /mnt/sda1 -xf -
    
5. Edit the file /etc/config/fstab and add the following.
   
   config mount
           option target   /overlay
           option device   /dev/sda1
           option fstype   ext2
           option options  rw,sync
           option enabled  1
           option enabled_fsck 0
    
6. Reboot.
7. Check to see if it has mounted correctly by looking at the free space on the root.
    
   OpenWrt:~# df -h
   Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
   rootfs                    7.2G      3.3M      6.8G   0% /
   /dev/root                 2.0M      2.0M         0 100% /rom
   tmpfs                    14.3M     72.0K     14.2M   0% /tmp
   tmpfs                   512.0K         0    512.0K   0% /dev
   /dev/sda1                 7.2G      3.3M      6.8G   0% /overlay
   overlayfs:/overlay        7.2G      3.3M      6.8G   0% /
    

Creating a swap file increases the stability of the system as capturing video is memory intensive and may exhaust the limited RAM. Also log files may become large if the system isn't rebooted for long periods, they are stored in a temporary directory which is in RAM. The following steps setup a swap file.

1. Create the swap file using dd, the count is the number of kilobyes as the blocksize (bs) is a kilobyte (1024 bytes). For a count of 65536 a 64 MB swap will be created. Note this will take some time.
   
   dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1024 count=65536
    
2. The file needs to be formatted as a swap file using mkswap.
   
   mkswap /swapfile
    
3. The swapfile needs to be mounted by the fstab, so edit /etc/config/fstab and add the following.
   
   config swap
           option device   /swapfile
           option enabled  1
    
4. Restart fstab to mount and enable the swap file.
   
   /etc/init.d/fstab restart
    
5. Check the swap is working using free. You should see 65532 under the total column for the Swap row.
   
   # free
                total         used         free       shared      buffers
   Mem:         29212        27856         1356            0         1216
   -/+ buffers:              26640         2572
   Swap:        65532            0        65532
    

The USB flash drive has now been configured as the overlay and with a swapfile.

Logitech C170 Webcam configuration for OpenWRT

The next stage is installing packages and configuring the Webcam, which is as following.

1. Install the packages ffmpeg, and kmod-video-uvc, the Logitech C170 webcam uses the usb video class (uvc) drivers and ffmpeg is used to encode videos.
        
   opkg update
   opkg install ffmpeg kmod-video-uvc
    
2. Plug the C170 in and check that the drivers work by looking at the dev directory, it should contain video0.
3. "Motion" is a software package that will capture videos or images when motion has been detected from a video source (the webcam in our case). The standard motion package that was compiled for OpenWRT does not have ffmpeg support, so I compiled a custom version. This version can be obtained here. To install it on the MR3020 do the following.
        
   wget http://228899seankelly.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ar71xx/motion/motion_20120605-224837-2_ar71xx.ipk
   opkg install motion_20120605-224837-2_ar71xx.ipk
    
4. Motion has a configuration file in /etc/motion.conf, to capture video from the C170 webcam the following options were set.
   
   The pixel format of the C170 webcam is MJPEG which corresponds to a value of 8 for the v4l2_palette option:
   
   v4l2_palette 8
   
   The size of the image to be captured is 320x240 so this is given by width and height. 320x240 lowers the strain of motion detection.
   
   width 320
   height 240
   
   Decreasing the frame rate to less than 5 fps will also reduce the processing required. For my setup I found 3 fps was adequate to detect and record motion, I set it using the following.
   
   framerate 3
   
   To detect motion a threshold is required, this is the number of pixels that must change in the picture for motion to be present. For the 320x240 image size and a wide angle camera about 500 to 1000 pixels should be adequate. To set the number of pixels the threshold is set as following.
   
   threshold 1000
   
   De-speckling of the motion to produce better defined bounds for the motion can be turned off to further reduce the processing required. To turn of the filters that do this comment out the line below using ";"
   
   ;despeckle_filter EedDl
   
   In order to filter out some noise the minimum number of consecutive frames with motion can be set. This stops random noise from cause a motion event. The minimum number of frames is set as following, I used 2 frames as at 3 fps this is 0.6 of second of motion is required to start a motion event.
   
   minimum_motion_frames 2
   
   In order to create better video captures a number of frames after and before the motion event can be saved as well to create a more fluid video. The pre_capture and post_capture variables specify the number of frames to capture before and after and event. I set both to 2 frames, as following.
   
   pre_capture 2
   post_capture 2
   
   The goal is to use ffmpeg to encode videos so we need to disable image output by setting the following.
   
   output_pictures off
   
   The default bitrate for ffmpeg is high for lower resolutions so lowering it to between 200000 bps to 300000 bps should be ok, to do this change the following.
   
   ffmpeg_bps 200000
   
   To enable playback in a browser, ffmpeg must encode videos in a compatible format such as a flash swf. To use the swf format set the following.
   
   ffmpeg_video_codec swf
   
   The last setting is the directory to store the videos in, to give access to the videos from the inbuilt http server they can be stored in the /www folder using the variable as following.
   
   target_dir /www/cam

This completes the setup for motion to capture video from the C170 webcam. The files will be output to to the cam directory in the uhttp deamons www directory, which gives access to them from the web. 

OpenWRT based Video Recording System - Part 1 - Hardware

An OpenWRT router can be used to capture video with a usb webcam in order to record movements in a room. The internal flash storage for the MR3020 is only 4 Mb which isn't sufficient for storing video. So additional storage is required, which can be provided by a USB flash device. However the MR3020 Router only has a single USB port, so it needs to be expanded with a usb hub. The usb hub in the images below is small enough to fit inside the MR3020, and has a built in micro SD card reader. The SD card reader is essentially a usb SD card reader connected to the 4th USB port of the hub. Removing the casing and de-soldering the usb jacks are the first steps.

The USB port on the MR3020 needs to be removed to connect the USB hub. Short small gauge wires are suitable for connecting the hub. The ground wire needs to have a short amount of wire exposed above the board, the reason for this will become clear later. The USB port can be put back onto the MR3020 board but first the power and data lines must be connected to the pins. This will restore the functionality of the USB port however it will be internal connected to the USB hub so it adds the benefit of an internal SD carder reader.

The USB port can be reattached using only the mounting tabs, and the pins that go into the board can be bent outwards. This allows the wires attached to them to be routed along the board and attached to a free port on the USB hub. The ground pin of the USB port can be directly attached the short length of ground wire that was exposed from earlier. This saves having to run an additional line. The power wire should be run back to the hub in case the hub has the capability to shut off power to the ports.

This completes the required modifications to the interal hardware of the MR3020 router. An SD card can now be used to store videos, but OpenWRT needs packages to be installed and configuration to use the SD card reader and webcam, details will be given in part 2.

The logitech C170 webcam has a very narrow field of view, probably around 45 degrees. This is problematic when trying to monitor a room as some of the room is outside the field of view of the webcam. To increase the viewing angle of the camera lenses designed for smart phones can be used. These come with a metallic ring that a magnet on the lense sticks to in order to hold the lense in place. This can be used on the logitech webcam to hold these types of lenses in place. The two vertical bezels above and below the sensor need to be cut so that the lenses sit flush.

There are two types of lenses available, a wide angle lense and a fish eye lense. The wide angle lense gives about 120 degrees of viewing angle, while the fish eye gives 180 degrees. The downside of these lenses is that they distort the image.

The fish eye lense is to the right, and the wide angle is to the left.

I installed the two cameras in the lounge and kitchen, which you can see below.

Configuring the MR3020 routers to capture video is here.