start acquisition

[saritma]

Hi,
I'm trying to use your code.
At first, I'm using only one arduino with one raspberry pi.
The raspberry is connected to the arduino only. I'm not using all the rest of the components yet.
I'm running the startAcquisition.py but an error appears:
'PiCamera object has no attribute 'dateTime'- refering to line 109 in the code.
Couldn't find a solution.

Thanks

[rajatsaxena]

How did you install the Picamera library? Did you use the sudo apt-get install picamera or downloaded the picamera library source code from the repository and compiled it?

Just for clarification, we have modified the picamera python library to get the datetime attribute so you will have to download the source code and compile it. Alternatively, you can remove the datetime attribute from the entire acquisition script.

[saritma]

I downloaded both your files and the files from the link you posted. The three files are created, but are empty. The same error keeps popping.
the problem is with 2 lines: 109-110, that are not recognized

[saritma]

Can you please help me? lines 109 and 110 in the script are not working. If I delete them, no TTL file is created. The other file is also empty always.

[rajatsaxena]

Try the script below. This works on my system perfectly.

#import the necessary modules
import io
import time
import datetime as dt
from picamera import PiCamera
from threading import Thread, Event
from queue import Queue, Empty
import sys, getopt
import argparse
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import os

#set high thread priority
os.nice(20)

#camera parameter setting
WIDTH  = 640
HEIGHT = 480
FRAMERATE = 30
VIDEO_STABILIZATION = True
EXPOSURE_MODE = 'night'
BRIGHTNESS = 55
CONTRAST = 50
SHARPNESS = 50
SATURATION = 30
AWB_MODE = 'off'
AWB_GAINS = 1.4
#TTL Pulse BounceTme in milliseconds
BOUNCETIME=800
camId = str(4)

#video, timestamps and ttl file name
VIDEO_FILE_NAME = "cam" + camId + "_output_" + str(dt.datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S")) + ".h264"
TIMESTAMP_FILE_NAME = "cam" + camId + "_timestamp_" + str(dt.datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S")) + ".csv"
TTL_FILE_NAME = "cam"+ camId + "_ttl_" + str(dt.datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S")) + ".csv"

#running time variable intialization
runningTimeHours, runningTimeMinutes, runningTimeSeconds = 0,0,0
            
#set raspberry pi board layout to BCM
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
#pin number to receive TTL input
pinTTL = 17
#set the pin as input pin
GPIO.setup(pinTTL, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down = GPIO.PUD_DOWN)
#add event detection (both falling edge and rising edge) script to GPIO pin
GPIO.add_event_detect(pinTTL, GPIO.BOTH, bouncetime=BOUNCETIME)
       
#video output thread to save video file
class VideoOutput(Thread):
    def __init__(self, filename):
        super(VideoOutput, self).__init__()
        self._output = io.open(filename, 'wb', buffering=0)
        self._event = Event()
        self._queue = Queue()
        self.start()

    def write(self, buf):
        self._queue.put(buf)
        return len(buf)

    def run(self):
        while not self._event.wait(0):
            try:
                buf = self._queue.get(timeout=0.1)
            except Empty:
                pass
            else:
                self._output.write(buf)
                self._queue.task_done()

    def flush(self):
        self._queue.join()
        self._output.flush()

    def close(self):
        self._event.set()
        self.join()
        self._output.close()

    @property
    def name(self):
        return self._output.name

#timestamp output object to save timestamps according to pi and TTL inputs received and write to file
class TimestampOutput(object):
    def __init__(self, camera, video_filename, timestamp_filename, ttl_filename):
        self.camera = camera
        self._video = VideoOutput(video_filename)
        self._timestampFile = timestamp_filename
        self._ttlFile = ttl_filename
        self._timestamps = []
        self._ttlTimestamps = []
    
    def ttlTimestampsWrite(self, input_pin):
        inputState = GPIO.input(input_pin)
        if self.camera.frame.timestamp is not None:
            self._ttlTimestamps.append((inputState, self.camera.timestamp, self.camera.frame.timestamp, time.time(), time.clock_gettime(time.CLOCK_REALTIME)))
        else:
            self._ttlTimestamps.append((inputState, self.camera.timestamp, -1, time.time(), time.clock_gettime(time.CLOCK_REALTIME)))
        #print(inputStatem, self.camera.timestamp, self.camera.frame.timestamp)

    def write(self, buf):
        if self.camera.frame.complete and self.camera.frame.timestamp is not None:
            self._timestamps.append(self.camera.frame.timestamp, self.camera.timestamp, time.time())
        return self._video.write(buf)

    def flush(self):
        with io.open(self._timestampFile, 'w') as f:
            f.write('GPUTime, CameraGPUTime, time_time\n')
            for entry in self._timestamps:
                f.write('%d,%f,%f\n' % entry)
        with io.open(self._ttlFile, 'w') as f:
            f.write('InputState, Timestamp, GPUTime, time_time, clock_realtime\n')
            for entry in self._ttlTimestamps:
                f.write('%f,%f,%f,%f,%f\n' % entry)
             
    def close(self):
        self._video.close()

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument("-hr", "--hours", type=int, help="number of hours to record")
parser.add_argument("-m", "--minutes", type=int, help="number of minutes to record")
parser.add_argument("-s", "--seconds", type=int, help="number of seconds to record")
args = parser.parse_args()

runningTimeHours = float(args.hours)
runningTimeMinutes = float(args.minutes)
runningTimeSeconds = float(args.seconds)
        
totalRunningTime = runningTimeHours*60*60 + runningTimeMinutes*60 + runningTimeSeconds

with PiCamera(resolution=(WIDTH, HEIGHT), framerate=FRAMERATE) as camera:
    camera.brightness = BRIGHTNESS
    camera.contrast = CONTRAST
    camera.sharpness = SHARPNESS
    camera.video_stabilization = VIDEO_STABILIZATION
    camera.hflip = False
    camera.vflip = False

    #warm-up time to camera to set its initial settings
    time.sleep(2)
    
    camera.exposure_mode = EXPOSURE_MODE
    camera.awb_mode = AWB_MODE
    camera.awb_gains = AWB_GAINS

    #time to let camera change parameters according to exposure and AWB
    time.sleep(2)

    #switch off the exposure since the camera has been set now 
    camera.exposure_mode = 'off'

    output = TimestampOutput(camera, VIDEO_FILE_NAME, TIMESTAMP_FILE_NAME, TTL_FILE_NAME)
    GPIO.add_event_callback(pinTTL, output.ttlTimestampsWrite)
    try:
        camera.start_preview()
        # Construct an instance of our custom output splitter with a filename  and a connected socket
        print('Starting Recording')
        camera.start_recording(output, format='h264')
        print('Started Recording')
        camera.wait_recording(totalRunningTime)
        camera.stop_recording()
        camera.stop_preview()
        print('Recording Stopped')
    except KeyboardInterrupt:
        output.close()
        print('Closing Output File')
    except:
        output.close()
        print('exception! output file closed')
    finally:
        output.close()
        print('Output File Closed')
        GPIO.cleanup()

[saritma]

I tried this new script, but the TTL file is empty.
Maybe I'm connecting the arduino in the wrong way?
the ground from arduino is connected to ground in raspberry, and one output pin from arduino is connected to pin number 17 as indicated in the script.
On the arduino I wrote the script described in "TTL and Zmodo" file.

[rajatsaxena]

I have changed the script a bit. changed the pin number to 27. Try it out.

How about timestamps file? Is it getting generated correctly?
Remember the pin number = 27 in BCM mode. So double check your wiring according to it. Did you test using an oscilloscope that Arduino is actually generating 3.3V square pulses?