SunFounder Smart Video Car Kit for Raspberry Pi

The Sunfounder Smart Video Car Client is a Python-based application designed to interface with the Smart Video Car Kit for Raspberry Pi. It acts as the client-side component for controlling or interacting with the car's features.

Important Operational Requirement: You must start and run the server routine on the car before attempting to run the client routine. The client will not function correctly without an active server connection.

The SunFounder Smart Video Car Kit operates on a Client/Server (C/S) architecture:

• Server (Raspberry Pi): Runs the TCP server program to directly control the car hardware. It also uses MGPJ-streamer to acquire and deliver real-time video data.
• Client (PC/Android): Runs a TCP client program to send control commands to the Raspberry Pi.

Important: You must always run the server routine on the Raspberry Pi before starting any client routine on a PC or mobile device.

Once the server is running and connected to the app, you can use the following controls:

• Driving Direction: Tilt your phone like a steering wheel to control the car's direction.
• Forward/Backward: Use the up/down arrows on the left side of the app interface.
• Camera Pan/Tilt: Use the up/down/left/right arrows on the right side of the app interface.
• Camera Reset: Tap the middle dot to return the camera to its default position.
• Motor Speed: Adjust the bar located under the camera view to change the motor speed.
• Calibration: Tap the dot in a circle at the corner to begin calibrating the car's turning and the pan-tilt mechanism. You can click multiple times or type in specific values for fine-tuning.

The Html Server API is a simple HTTP GET-based interface. It does not use JSON or data uploads. To issue a command, perform a GET request to the Raspberry Pi's IP address on port 8000 followed by the specific API endpoint.

You can control the car by typing the URL directly into a web browser's address bar or by using an HTTP client to make GET requests.

http://[Raspberry Pi IP address]:8000/[api_endpoint]

You can control the smart video car using an Android phone. This allows you to control the car and the camera using the phone's gravity sensor, view real-time video, and calibrate the car's turning and pan-tilt mechanisms.

1. Download the Android App from Google Play.
2. Refer to html_server/README.md for specific configuration and usage details.

To stream video from a USB webcam (UVC) to a web interface, use the mjpg_streamer binary with the input_uvc.so input plugin and the output_http.so output plugin. You must set LD_LIBRARY_PATH to the current directory so the executable can find the shared object (.so) plugins.

Basic command:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$(pwd)"
./mjpg_streamer -i "./input_uvc.so" -o "./output_http.so -w ./www"

#!/bin/sh
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$(pwd)"
./mjpg_streamer -i "./input_uvc.so" -o "./output_http.so -w ./www"

The input_gspcav1 plugin is designed for spca5xx based webcams with raw JPEG features. It includes an embedded JPEG decoder/encoder for a small footprint on embedded devices and uses libsdl to support the Linux framebuffer (allowing use without a running Xserver).

Prerequisites

You must have sdl installed with headers to compile spcaview.

Compilation and Installation

Run the following commands from the source directory:

• Full installation (includes spcaview, spcaserv, and spcacat):

  make
  sudo make install

• Install only the streaming server (spcaserv):

  sudo make install_spcaserv

• Install only the picture grabber (spcacat):

  sudo make install_spcacat

• Clean build files:

  make clean