How: FullHD video > JPG > 4G > FTP server

[peacemaker]

Hi, All

Maybe anyone tried to make autonomous video cam system ?
Say: single-board Linux PC + 4G GSM router + video camera + JPG frames from the stream + uploading them to a FTP server.
And remote control via API from own server.

Like CN IP cameras, now there are many 4G models, with Cloud remote control, but, they seem, all are buggy, according to the reviews.
I guess, it's better to build some open-source system based on well-known modules (SBC)...

 

[Sandman]

You're not thinking 25 frames per second, or anything like that, right?

 

[peacemaker]

Sure, say 0.2 FPS would be OK

 

[peacemaker]

For ex.:
1) VPS hosting with own B4J server app: remote control API of cameras
2) Linux SBC with attached camera module
3) some 4G-module for SIM-card, or maybe ready 4G-LAN-router
4) Linux B4J app that: gets JPG-frames from camera, sends them to a FTP server, pings VPS admin API, gets commands\settings
5) All settings are to be customizable

 

[Sandman]

Ok, well this project seems easy so I'll give it a shot to get you started.

1. Get a Raspberry Pi (model probably doesn't matter too much) and a nice webcam.

2. Install Debian. (You could do this with many different Linux distros, I'm picking Debian because that's what I've used for many years and feel comfortable with it.) Here's a guide:

How to Install Debian 13 Trixie on Raspberry Pi (2025 Update)

Debian is one of four main versions of Linux and has been around since 1993. It forms the basis of Raspberry Pi OS, Ubuntu, and many others. When I first got started on Linux, I

raspberrytips.com

3. Install fswebcam to take webcam image from command line:

sudo apt-get install fswebcam

4. Install curl to send image by FTP to server:

sudo apt-get install curl

(It's probably installed by default, I can't remember.)

5. Figure out how to solve your connectivity, using an USB dongle or whatnot. I'll leave this one to you.

6. Make small bash script: (https://linuxhandbook.com/bash/)
- Take image (https://www.systutorials.com/docs/linux/man/1-fswebcam/)
- Upload image (https://everything.curl.dev/ftp/upload)
- Delete image (https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-remove-files-and-directories-using-linux-command-line/)

7. Add script as a cron-job to run every minute.

Done.

 

[Sandman]

For ex.:
1) VPS hosting with own B4J server app: remote control API of cameras
2) Linux SBC with attached camera module
3) some 4G-module for SIM-card, or maybe ready 4G-LAN-router
4) Linux B4J app that: gets JPG-frames from camera, sends them to a FTP server, pings VPS admin API, gets commands\settings
5) All settings are to be customizable

Now you're adding extra constraints and requirements, which doesn't make me overly happy after I wrote my answer above. I hope it helped a bit anyhow.

 

[Erel]

You can use mjpeg for the video streaming.

MJPEG / CCTV Server

A few days ago I've helped a developer with implementing a MJPEG client: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/73702/#content It was a good experience as while implementing it I've become familiar with the MJPEG protocol. MJPEG is quite simple. Each frames look like: --myboundary...

www.b4x.com

The advantage of mjpeg is that it is simple to implement and you don't need a special client.

 

[peacemaker]

I hope it helped a bit anyhow

Sure, thank you much, it helped ! I'm just chit-chatting for the task... how can be realized