rpos

Node.js based ONVIF Camera/NVT software that turns a Raspberry Pi, Windows, Linux or Mac computer into an ONVIF Camera and RTSP Server. It implements the key parts of Profile S and Profile T (http://www.onvif.org). It has special support for the Raspberry Pi Camera and Pimoroni Pan-Tilt HAT

RPOS won an award in the 2018 ONVIF Open Source Challenge competition.

History and Contributors

The initial goal (by @BreeeZe) was to provide a ONVIF Media service which is compatible with Synology Surveillance Station to allow the Raspberry Pi to be used as a surveillance camera without the need for adding any custom camera files to your Synology NAS. First demo video @ https://youtu.be/ZcZbF4XOH7E

This version uses a patched version of the "node-soap" v0.80 library (https://github.com/vpulim/node-soap/releases/tag/v0.8.0) located @ https://github.com/BreeeZe/node-soap

The next goal (by @RogerHardiman) was to implement more of the ONVIF standard so that RPOS could be used with a wide range of CCTV systems and with ONVIF Device Manager and ONVIF Device Tool. Additional ONVIF Soap commands were added including the PTZ Service with backend drivers that control the Raspberry Pi Pan-Tit HAT or emit various RS485 based PTZ protocols including Pelco D and Sony Visca.

Oliver Schwaneberg added GStreamer gst-rtsp-server support as third RTSP Server option.

Casper Meijn added Relative PTZ support

Johnny Wan added limited USB Camera support for GStreamer RTSP server.

If I've forgotten to put you in the list, please post an Issue Report and I can add you in.

Features:

• Implements the ONVIF Standard for a CCTV Camera and NVT (Network Video Transmitter)
• Streams H264 video over RTSP from the Official Raspberry Pi camera (the one that uses the ribbon cable) and some USB cameras
• Uses hardware H264 encoding using the GPU on the Pi
• Implements Camera control (resolution and framerate) through ONVIF
• Can set other camera options through a web interface.
• Discoverable (WS-Discovery) on Pi/Linux by CCTV Viewing Software
• Works with ONVIF Device Manager (Windows) and ONVIF Device Tool (Linux)
• Works with other CCTV Viewing Software that implements the ONVIF standard including Antrica Decoder, Avigilon Control Centre, Bosch BVMS, Milestone, ISpy (Opensource), BenSoft SecuritySpy (Mac), IndigoVision Control Centre and Genetec Security Centre (add camera as ONVIF-BASIC mode)
• Implements ONVIF Authentication
• Implements Absolute, Relative and Continuous PTZ and controls the Pimononi Raspberry Pi Pan-Tilt HAT
• Also converts ONVIF PTZ commands into Pelco D and Visca telemetry on a serial port (UART) for other Pan/Tilt platforms
• Implements Imaging service Brightness and Focus commands (for Profile T)
• Implements Relay (digital output) function
• Supports Unicast (UDP/TDP) and Multicast using mpromonet's RTSP server
• Supports Unicast (UDP/TCP) RTSP using GStreamer
• Also runs on Mac, Windows and other Linux machines but you need to supply your own RTSP server. An example to use ffserver on the Mac is included.
• USB cameras supported via the GStreamer RTSP server with limited parameters available. Tested with JPEG USB HD camera

Picture of RPOS running on a Pi 3 with the PiMoroni PanTiltHAT and Official Pi Camera

How to Install on a Raspberry Pi:

STEP 1 - CONFIG RASPBERRY PI

Windows/Mac/Linux users can skip this step

STEP 1.a - ENABLE RASPBERRY PI CAMERA

(For Raspberry PI camera) Pi users can run ‘raspi-config’ and enable the camera and reboot

STEP 1.b - ADJUST GPU MEMORY

(For USB camera, and need to use hardware encoding acceleration) Add ‘gpu_mem=128’ in /boot/bootconf.txt and reboot

STEP 2 - INSTALL NODEJS AND NPM

NOTE: Node.js Version 6.x and 8.x have been tested with RPOS. Only a small amount of testing has been done with Node v10.

STEP 2.1.a - INSTALL NODE USING NVM

You may choose to use Node Version Manager (NVM) to install & use a specific version of Node & NPM, such as nvm install 8 instead of the latest. Follow the instructions on NVM's github page to install & use.

STEP 2.1.b - INSTALL NODE USING APT

Pi and Linux users can install latest versions of Node and NPM together with this command:

  sudo apt-get install npm

STEP 2.1.c - OTHER METHODS

Windows and Mac users can install Node from the nodejs.org web site.

Older Raspbian users (eg those running Jessie) can install NodeJS and NPM with these commands

  curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_6.x | sudo -E bash -
  sudo apt-get install nodejs

STEP 2.2 - UPDATE NPM

If using NVM to manage your Node.js version, the following will update NPM to the latest supported on your version of Node.js:

nvm install-latest-npm

Otherwise you can use NPM to update itself with this command:

sudo npm install -g npm@latest

Note this seemed to fail first time and needed to be ran twice to get my onto NPM version 6.7.0

STEP 3 - GET RPOS SOURCE, INSTALL DEPENDENCIES

git clone https://github.com/BreeeZe/rpos.git
cd rpos
npm install

STEP 4 - COMPILE TYPESCRIPT(.ts) TO JAVASCRIPT(.js) using GULP

4.1.a

For NPM version 5.2 and up, use the npx command to run the 'gulp' script:

npx gulp

4.1.b

For older versions of NPM without npx, run the gulp script directly:

./node_modules/gulp/bin/gulp.js

STEP 5 - PICK YOUR RTSP SERVER

Select & setup an RTSP option for your platform.

RTSP Server options for Pi / Linux:

1. RPOS comes with a pre-compiled ARM binary for a simple RTSP server. The source is in the ‘cpp’ folder. (option 1)
2. mpromonet RTSP Server (option 2)
3. GStreamer RTSP Server (option 3)

RTSP Server options 2 & 3 offer more features, but require additional setup. See instructions below. Currently USB camera is only supported by GStreamer RTSP Server

Windows users will need to run their own RTSP Server. Mac users can use the ffserver script.

Note: The choice of RTSP Server is made in rposConfig.json

STEP 5.a - OPTION 1: USING PRE-COMPILED ARM BINARY (deprecated)

This option is not recommended now. Please use Option 2 or Option 3 RPOS comes with a pre-compiled ARM binary for a simple RTSP server. The source is in the ‘cpp’ folder. No action required to use, this is pre-selected in rposConfig.json

Note that this option can be unstable, recommend option 2 or 3.

STEP 5.b - OPTION 2: USING MPROMONET RTSP SERVER

Raspberry Pi and Linux users will probably prefer the mpromonet RTSP server, as it has more options and supports multicasting.

Install dependencies and run setup script:

sudo apt-get install liblivemedia-dev
sh setup_v4l2rtspserver.sh

STEP 5.c - OPTION 3: USING GSTREAMER RTSP SERVER

Install the precompiled packages using apt, or compile them yourself for latest version.
Installing the packages using apt saves a lot of time, but provides a rather old gstreamer version.

5.c.1a - INSTALL GSTREAMER USING APT:

(For Raspberry PI camera)

sudo apt install git gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-plugins-base \
 gstreamer1.0-plugins-good gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly \
 gstreamer1.0-tools libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer1.0-0-dbg \
 libgstreamer1.0-0 gstreamer1.0-omx \
 libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev gtk-doc-tools

(For USB camera, tested with Raspberry PI) The default pipeline takes MJPEG from USB camera, decode it to Raw using omxmjpegdec, then encode it to H.264 using omxh264enc

Install GStreamer pipeline

sudo apt install gstreamer1.0-tools gstreamer1.0-plugins-good gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-omx-rpi gstreamer1.0-omx

Install Python Binding and gst-rtsp-server

sudo apt-get install python-gi gir1.2-gst-plugins-base-1.0 gir1.2-gst-rtsp-server-1.0

5.c.1b - INSTALL GST-RPICAMSRC FROM SOURCE

(starting in /rpos root directory)

cd ..
git clone https://github.com/thaytan/gst-rpicamsrc.git
cd gst-rpicamsrc
./autogen.sh
make
sudo make install
cd ..

Check successful plugin installation by executing

gst-inspect-1.0 rpicamsrc

5.c.2 - INSTALL GST-RTSP-SERVER FROM SOURCE

Next, compile gst-rtsp-server v1.4.5 (newer versions require newer GStreamer libs than those installed by apt)

git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/gstreamer/gst-rtsp-server
cd gst-rtsp-server
git checkout 1.4.5
./autogen.sh
make
sudo make install

Note: You do not need to load V4L2 modules when using rpicamsrc (option 3).

STEP 6 - EDIT CONFIG

Rename or copy rposConfig.sample-*.json to rposConfig.json. (Choosing the appropriate sample to start with)

• Add a Username and Password for ONVIF access
• Change the TCP Port for the Camera configuration and the ONVIF Services
• Change the RTSP Port
• Enable PTZ support by selecting Pan-Tilt HAT or RS485 backends (Visca and Pelco D)
• Enable multicast
• Switch to the mpromonet or GStreamer RTSP servers
• Hardcode an IP address in the ONVIF SOAP messages

STEP 7 - RUN RPOS.JS

First run (Skip with USB camera)

If you're using RTSP option 1 or 2, before you run RPOS for the first time you'll need to load the Pi V4L2 Camera Driver:

sudo modprobe bcm2835-v4l2

Initial setup is now complete!

Launch RPOS

To start the application:

node rpos.js

STEP 8 - EXTRA CONFIGURATION ON PAN-TILT HAT (Pimononi)

The camera on the Pan-Tilt hat is usually installed upside down. Goto the Web Page that runs with rpos http://<CameraIP>:8081 and tick the horizontal and vertial flip boxes and apply the changes.

Camera Settings

You can set camera settings by browsing to : http://CameraIP:Port/ These settings are then saved in a file called v4l2ctl.json and are persisted on rpos restart. The default port for RPOS is 8081. (Note that a lot of camera settings are now ignored by USB camera)

Known Issues

• 1920x1080 can cause hangs and crashes with the original RTSP server. The mpromonet one may work better.
• 1920x1080 can cause encoding issue with USB camera pipeline. 1280x720 is recommended now.
• Not all of the ONVIF standard is implemented.

ToDo's (Help is Required)

• Add MJPEG (implemented in gst-rtsp-server but still needs to return the correct ONVIF XML for MJPEG)
• Support more parameters for USB cameras with GStreamer RTSP server [work underway by RogerHardiman. Help needed]
• Support USB cameras with the Pi's Hardware H264 encoder (OMX) and the mpromonet RTP server (see https://github.com/mpromonet/v4l2tools)
• Implement more ONVIF calls (Events, Analytics)
• Test with ONVIF's own test tools (need a sponsor for this as we need to be ONVIF members to access the Test Tool)
• Add GPIO digital input
• Add two way audio with ONVIF back channel. We understand GStreamer has some support for this now.
• and more...