Basic Trouble Shooting

Some basic trouble shooting steps to confirm correct operation

• Raspbian Stretch kernel panic and camera freeze
• Verify pi-timolo.py Runs Without Issues
• Some Trouble Shooting Suggestions
• python-dateutil pip install fails on Raspbian Wheezy
• Fixing symlink Problems with Recent Folders

Raspbian Stretch kernel panic and camera freeze

Raspbian Stretch and pi-timolo.py ver 11.11 and earlier has long exposure low light camera freezing issue due to kernel panic that requires a reboot to gain control of camera back per https://github.com/waveform80/picamera/issues/528 Operation under Raspbian Jessie works fine. pi-timolo.py ver 11.12 has an adhoc fix to resolve issue but requires the latest firmware. If you encounter camera freeze with latest Stretch image then you will need to run command below to update Stretch to latest firmware. Normal backup precautions are advised before doing the firmware update.

sudo rpi-update 

Note: Raspbian Jessie works fine and does Not encounter freezing issue with long exposure low light operation.

Verify pi-timolo.py Runs Without Issues

Check if pi-timolo.py will Run from command prompt with config.py variable

VERBOSE_ON = True    

From a logged in Putty SSH (secure shell) or desktop terminal session run the following commands

cd ~/pi-timolo
./pi-timolo.py

Trigger motion or wait for timelapse and monitor screen messages. If it fails please note console error message(s). Also note version of Raspbian you are running and RPI model. Note: pi-timolo.py has been tested and will run under all recent versions of Raspbian as long as the pi-camera firmware is current. Also note you cannot run pi-timolo.py from both /etc/rc.local and crontab although you can run pi-timolo.sh from both since it checks if process is already running and will not try to rerun.

Trouble Shooting Suggestions

• Does raspberry pi camera run OK from raspistill when pi-timolo is Not running. Make sure no other program is accessing the pi-camera since it can Not be shared. Also verify that the pi-camera has been enabled from sudo raspi-config. For More Detail See pihut.com Tutorial - How to Install and Use the Raspberry Pi Camera
• If pi-timolo fails with a python syntax error check recent changes to config.py. Verify closing brackets around string variables and Boolean variables are spelled True or False (first letter Must be capitalized)
• If error message indicates variable not found after an upgrade then copy the config.py.new over config.py since you may have an older version of config.py.
• Rerun github curl script to ensure it completed successfully. Note any error messages.
• Update firmware per wiki https://github.com/pageauc/pi-timolo/wiki/How-to-Install-or-Upgrade#update-firmware-optional
• Also I have had users who had to reburn raspbian image so that is something you could try.
• Make sure you are doing initial testing with good lighting conditions so you can test motion tracking. Low light conditions will take longer for timelapse and will not work very well for motion tracking depending on lighting conditions.
• Check raspberry pi power supply to ensure it can handle power requirements.

Raise a new github issue with specific error messages or problem description and conditions if you still have problems https://github.com/pageauc/pi-timolo/issues

Problems with python pip install on wheezy

The version of pip on wheezy does not have ssl support that is required for the latest pip install per https://github.com/pypa/pip/issues/4817

You can manually update pip on wheezy per https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installing/#installing-with-get-pip-py

cd ~
curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py -o get-pip.py
sudo python get-pip.py
rm get-pip.py
sudo apt-get install python-dateutil

In order to install python-dateutil using pip on wheezy without it failing due to ssl problem. I was able to update pip to the latest version on my Raspberry Pi running Raspbian Wheezy per commands above. Now pip does the installs OK without ssl failure. If you Rerun pi-timolo install curl script or menubox UPGRADE option the dateutil scheduled start feature will run.

Fixing Problems with Recent Folders

If file locations for the symlinks are no longer there due to files being moved or deleted, then the pi-timolo web server will have problems displaying the images. This can also happen if you rename a folder. The Easiest way to correct the problem is to delete all the symlinks in the problem folder. Deleting symlinks will not delete the actual media image files, just the symlink. New symlinks will be created in the appropriate recent folder (if enabled) whenever new image files is saved.

Example To clear the media/recent/motion folder symlinks

cd ~/pi-timolo/media/recent/motion
rm *

Then restart pi-timolo.py You should see new symlinks getting created. Image files will still be in media/motion sub folders

Note you may need to clear media/recent/motion or timelapse symlink files whenever you are deleting destination files that symlinks point to. This is a check on the web browser since it cannot display a symlink that does not have a destination file to display.

How to Run menubox.sh