Timelapse captures first image then no more
I'm running Repetier Server Pro 0.93.1 on a RPi4 with 2 webcams.
As the title states, regardless of how I set up my timelapse (webcam 1 or webcam 2 or both, image at layer, height, time, etc), it shows as "capturing" during my print, but at the end, it only captured a single frame before the print started. If I force position for the frame, the printer moves to that position as planned on every layer, but still the final output is just a single image from before the print started.
Any assistance would be much appreciated.
As the title states, regardless of how I set up my timelapse (webcam 1 or webcam 2 or both, image at layer, height, time, etc), it shows as "capturing" during my print, but at the end, it only captured a single frame before the print started. If I force position for the frame, the printer moves to that position as planned on every layer, but still the final output is just a single image from before the print started.
Any assistance would be much appreciated.
Comments
Run
df
and you should get something like this:
pi@Felix:~ $ df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root 30564532 5400028 23900256 19% /
devtmpfs 1966332 0 1966332 0% /dev
tmpfs 2000124 15236 1984888 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 2000124 25084 1975040 2% /run
tmpfs 5120 4 5116 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 2000124 0 2000124 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mmcblk0p1 92742 53198 39545 58% /boot
tmpfs 400024 0 400024 0% /run/user/1000
Important is here / folder. On windows you only see the /boot drive and that has 90mb free so that is ok. Ir only contains the boot kernel. Also in server home screen you see the free capacity of your main drive.
If you make many timelapses it is easy to fill the sd card. The new version 0.94.1 has an option now to delete the images once the video was created. This reduces the memory usage on disk a lot. Just in case you need to clear some disk space. Of course deleting complete timelapses reduces even more.
Here's my current disk usage.
I neglected to mention, I have successfully done timelapses in Repetier Server, but then it suddenly stopped working.
Do you have for static images the url
http://127.0.0.1:8000/?action=snapshot
port may vary. If you have the mjpg url in static that would never stop capturing, but would also give a big file.
Last thing to check is server.log - if anything goes wrong while taking a snapshot it should contain a message:
error taking snapshot: ....
With Repetier-Server Monitor you can see then contents of syslog directly otherwise in web gui of 0.94.1 you can also download it.
Here's log for that print:
And here are what my webcam settings look like.
Settings were correct in that tab and if you see it moving to capture position the settings there should also be ok.
When you delete one webcam does it still not work? Maybe it is a problem with you having 2 webcams.
When you manually add
@make_snapshot
in console during print it should also add an image.
Will also now run a test with 2 webcams.
A corrupt sd card can also cause such strange effects but it not very likely that on every try the folder will only store the first image. The only other thing that would make sense is that fetching new images fails after the first one. But I never had this and you would then also not see the webcam while printing.
I have 1 usb webcam and 1 PiCam connected directly to the board. I removed both and unplugged them. Then, I added each one back in one at a time and tested the timelapse. It worked on both. What messed it up was trying to record a timelapse on both cameras at the same time. The usb camera captured 3 frames then stopped, the PiCam didn't capture anything, and all of my following attempts afterwards led to a single frame and nothing else (my original problem). Removing them both and adding them back in one at a time worked.
The lesson: I can't record on both at the same time.
Which resolution do you use?
Could it be that the webcam software crashes if both are queried the same time? Also check the bolt icon in gui - if it gets orange or red you have a power problem which can cause any kind of problems. And having 2 webcams requires more power then one alone. So what I want to say 2 webcams work but only if both mjpg_streamer instances stay working and it might be that one of them crashes when you use both and knowing the pi power is a likely reason which is why we added the bolt menu so you can see if you have problems with it.
I have some other usb webcams...maybe I'll also try doing dual timelapse with 2 usb's and see if the same thing happens.
ps aux | grep mjpg
to see if you still have 2 streamers running or if they did quit. As long as they are there capturing should work. But if they stop for some reason then you need to find the reason. mjpg_streamer logs data to /var/log/syslog (also downloadable in server logs). So maybe it gives you a hint when it is the steeamer being stopped.
At least your last success show that in general it works and the question is just what is preventing it sometimes.