I am using 3 low light HD USB cameras (details on the link below) for my application. https://bluerobotics.com/store/sensors-sonars-cameras/cameras/cam-usb-low-light-r1/
The application requires me to have all 3 cameras live streaming simultaneously on 3 different local host ports of a PC. For the controller, I am using a Nanopi M4 (it is connected to my laptop by a 20m long, CAT-6 ethernet cable)
I am using the motion package to work the cameras
I have been facing the following issues-
- When all 3 cameras are connected to controller and stream is checked, at any given time I am able to see the livestream of only 2 of the streams. On restarting motion, any one of the hosts shows a grey screen while the other two give me the proper stream. I have tested this multiple times and would appreciate if help on how to go about this issue
We also tried connecting the cameras to my laptop directly using threads in my motion package and all the 3 streams were visible to me simultaneously - A few of the times the port number (seen on dev in the form - video0) have changed while the cameras have been plugged in and left as it is. If anyone has come across this problem, please tell me how you went about this
- The Tcptrack app when all three cameras were connected at 100% stream quality (set in the motion.conf file) shows each camera and the rates being unequal for all of them which is not expected.
8081 - 4MB/s 8082 - 5 MB/s 8083 - 1 MB/s
Can anyone help me with a possible explanation to this?
Also when that screenshot was taken, the camera streaming to localhost 8083, was showing up as a grey screen on my laptop, so what is the rate signifying?
Also, to make sure there were no problems with the Nanopi M4 USB ports sourcing the current drawn by the cameras, we gave an external 5V power supply to them – We could only see any 2 out of 3 streams
I have also attached a screenshot from my Nanopi M4 Top showing the CPU usage when all three cameras were connected to stream at 100% quality
- As a last resort, if we are only able to work 2 cameras at a time, please advise if anyone has used switching between the three cameras to choose which ones stay on at any given time
Thanks for your time