Re: [Motion-user] Gray glitching but only one of of two identical cameras

[Barry M. <bar...@gm...>]

Hi Roger!


As long as the white tape is on the front insulation facing the sun 
should help.   Just not on the back.


The cameras are encased in a solid black case, so no vent holes. Good 
news: no buggies can get inside; bad news, potentially lousy heat 
transfer. One also should remember heat can transfer both directions: it 
can get very hot in the Storage Area. I think so far the highest has 
been in the low 90’s (Fahrenheit). (It’ll get a lot warmer.)


Yesterday morning posted had swapped the wall wart which seemed to have 
resolved most of the glitching – yeah! Worked fine all day. ...Evening 
went down to watch TV, couple hours later come back up: monitor can’t 
find the cameras. Reset motion (sudo service motion reset) – reconnects. 
(I did the reset via VNC, so the Pi was responding.)


This morning wander into the Computer Room – no video again. Do the 
reset, working again. Checked the recordings, my guess is the problem 
occurred just after 4 a.m.: both camera’s last videos were about the 
same time and recording a car going by then the time display freezes but 
the video continues for several more seconds. No idea if that is a clue 
to anything.


It’s dark out, it’s cooled down; no cronjobs at that hour.


And no, don’t have separate logging enabled – yet!


Extracted from dmesg:

[71659.041941] v3d fec00000.v3d: MMU error from client L2T (0) at 
0x26c1000, pte invalid


Huh? Googled ‘pte error’, found this 
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=277917 – mostly 
seemed to be the 64-bit version – I’m running 32-bit as last I checked 
the 64-bit wasn’t quite ready. ...The Nov 04, 2020 10:31 am 
<https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1754042&sid=3847dd7c938edf9ac23f6e0e160a4c6e#p1754042> 
post mentions video and usb and then seemed to ramble worse than I can. 
<g> ...Well that thread seemed to be mostly me too’s and no conclusion.


...I haven’t a clue what a ‘pte’ is, though scanning through other 
articles appears can cause a kernel panic and that’s what caused Motion 
to go off-line. ...Make note: there’s a Motion command to do a command 
on camera_loss (so do the reset).




My use case for the cam would be the 5-50mm lens via a window to the end 
of my driveway, about 210 ft, outside of the distance for any IR leds.  
I have IR security cams for close in but 10x security cams aren't cheap 
and still don't have that great of low light.


I know the logitech cams I put in the window worked fine in full sun, 
but I am betting logitech did a complete design.  The cams in that usage 
did seem to slowly get less sharp.


The cameras I have played with here:

SV-USBFHD06H-BL36 SVPRO, appears to be same as ELP Front yard x2

ELP-USB100W03M-BL36 Prior set – had insufficient Lux for above

ELP-USB130W01MT-BL21 Cars


A few years ago started with Creative iLive – had “in stock” so good to 
see what the utility did (MotionEyeOS back then – good utility based on 
Motion, just I seemed to have problems with MotionEye trying to do too 
much and for me going to Motion resolved the problems). Those cameras 
are lousy at low-light conditions. <g>


The SV and ELP cameras have a clear display throughout near to far: the 
grids on the window are even pretty clear and the window is probably 2 
inches from the lens. Closest to the house is probably 15 feet. One 
camera barely shows the neighbour’s house across the street, so around 125’.


Night vision will be a problem. I will eventually crawl back in and 
install an IR lamp. As you said, won’t go that distance. Could you do 
something with solar-powered IR lamps semi-hidden on a fence or pole or 
something?


I haven’t tried but according to 
https://www.activecountermeasures.com/making-a-solar-powered-raspberry-pi/

(February, 2020) recommends Anker PowerCore battery packs – several 
options and updates. Need a solar cell; I have a Vitcoco 29W charger – 
foldable, regulated USB (2 ports) and 12v. Used this to recharge some 
UPS batteries (12V, 9AH) so I could watch TV when lost power for a week 
due to the derecho (wind storm) that went through Iowa last August. 12v 
TV drawing ~25W, batteries lasted three to four hours.


Barry