Current Raspberry Pi FPV Scripts

This page contains the current bash scripts I have developed for streaming video from the Raspberry Pi camera to a Linux Laptop.  I will update this page as I make improvement and additions to the scripts.

These scripts assume you have generated a ssh public key on your laptop and uploaded it onto the Pi.  This will allow ssh to contact the Pi without you having to type a password every time.  I’ve outlined how to do this in one of the comments below.

Script Usage

1. Configure the network.conf and video.conf files
2. Boot the Raspberry Pi
3. Connect the laptop WiFi to the Raspberry Pi’s Wifi Access Point
4. Open a terminal on the Laptop
5. run the ./go script on the laptop to update the configuration files on the Pi and set the time and date.
6. The go script will leave you in a ssh session on the Pi
7. run the ./ustream or ./utee scripts on the Pi.
8. Open a second terminal on the laptop.
9. run the ./tsplay or ./uts scripts on the Laptop
10. The video will start streaming.

Laptop Scripts

1.  Network Configuration File

Filename: network.conf
Command line options: none

#!/bin/bash

# TX_IP should contain the IP address of the Raspberry Pi.
export TX_IP=192.168.42.1
export RX_IP=$(ip -o addr show wlan0 | sed -n 's/.*inet \([0-9.]*\)\/.. .*/\1/p')
export TCPPORT=5000
export UDPPORT=5001

export USER=pi

 

2. Video Configuration File

Filename: video.conf
Command line options: none

#!/bin/sh

###### Video Settings ######
# Zero duration is continuous
export DURATION=0
export WIDTH=1280
export HEIGHT=720
export FRAMERATE=48
export BITRATE=6000000

 

3. Upload Configuration and start a remote shell on the Pi

Filename : go
Command line options : Frame rate in frames per second.  Must be suitable for the selected video resolution.

#!/bin/bash

source network.conf

rm remote.conf

if [ "$1" != "" ] 
then
  sed "s/FRAMERATE=25/FRAMERATE=$1/" video.conf > remote.conf
else
  cp video.conf remote.conf
fi

date
echo "###### Network Settings ######" >> remote.conf
echo export TCPPORT=$TCPPORT >> remote.conf
echo export UDPPORT=$UDPPORT >> remote.conf
echo export RX_IP=$RX_IP >> remote.conf
echo export NOW=\"`date +%F" "%T`\" >> remote.conf

#echo exit >> remote.conf

chmod +x remote.conf

echo Copy script to $TX_IP
scp remote.conf $USER@$TX_IP:/home/pi

echo Run Script
ssh $USER@$TX_IP ./remote.sh
ssh $USER@$TX_IP

 

4. Capture and play a UDP stream – Does not record the stream

Filename : tsplay
Command line options : none

#!/bin/bash
source ./video.conf
source ./network.conf

gst-launch-1.0 -v udpsrc port=$UDPPORT \
  caps='application/x-rtp, media=(string)video, clock-rate=(int)90000, encoding-name=(string)H264' ! \
  rtph264depay ! h264parse config-interval=96 ! \
  avdec_h264 ! videoconvert ! autovideosink sync=false

 

5. Capture, play and record a UDP stream – saved file is muxed to a transmission stream (.ts) container

Filename : uts
Command line options : none

#!/bin/bash
source ./video.conf
source ./network.conf

NOW=`date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S`
FILENAME=$NOW-Rx-$FRAMERATE-$BITRATE.ts

gst-launch-1.0 -v udpsrc port=$UDPPORT \
  caps='application/x-rtp, media=(string)video, clock-rate=(int)90000, encoding-name=(string)H264' ! \
  rtph264depay ! h264parse config-interval=96 ! \
  tee name=t ! queue ! \
  video/x-h264, framerate=$FRAMERATE/1 ! avdec_h264 ! videoconvert ! autovideosink sync=false t. ! \
  queue ! mpegtsmux ! filesink location=$FILENAME

 

Raspberry Pi Scripts

6. Stream the Camera over UDP without recording locally.

Filename : ustream
Command line options : Frame rate in frames per second.  Must be suitable for the selected video resolution.

#!/bin/bash

source remote.conf

if [ "$1" != "" ]
then
  export FRAMERATE=$1
fi

NOW=`date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S`
FILENAME=$NOW-Tx.h264


/opt/vc/bin/raspivid -t $DURATION -w $WIDTH -h $HEIGHT -fps $FRAMERATE -b $BITRATE -n -pf baseline -o - | gst-launch-1.0 -v fdsrc ! h264parse ! rtph264pay config-interval=1 pt=96 ! udpsink host=$RX_IP port=$UDPPORT

 

7. Stream the Camera over UDP and save local copies of the video (.h264) and the GPS trace (.gpx).

Filename : ustream
Command line options : none.

#!/bin/bash
source ./remote.conf

NOW=`date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S`
FILENAME=$NOW-Tx-$FRAMERATE-$BITRATE.h264
gpxlogger -i 2 -f $NOW.gpx &

/opt/vc/bin/raspivid -t $DURATION -w $WIDTH -h $HEIGHT -fps $FRAMERATE -b $BITRATE -n -pf baseline -o - | tee $FILENAME | gst-launch-1.0 -v fdsrc ! h264parse ! rtph264pay config-interval=1 pt=96 ! udpsink host=$RX_IP port=$UDPPORT