Argos2D A100 SurveillanceApp User Manual

The Surveillance software is a ready-to-use appliance for the Argos®^2D A100 camera platform.

Customers may also extend the software according to their needs. The application source code is available under the BSD license (other licenses apply to third-party tools).

Features

Video recording	1280x1024, 5 frames per second, H.264 in MP4 container
Video splitting	1 video file per hour
Video encryption	Password-protected ZIP files
Time and date insert	into video stream
Automatic time synchronization	NTP (Network Time Protocol)
Automatic upload	to configurable Windows share
Automatic still image upload	Once a day to Windows share, JPEG format
Secure configuration interface	via SSH log-in
Video buffering on SD card	in case of temporary network disconnect
Firmware update support	via configurable TFTP server

Version Information

Release 1.1.0

Release date

2013-04-10

Targeted Hardware

Argos®^2D A100 Camera based on i.MX53 System-on-Module

ISM-MT9M025 Bayer RGB Image Sensor Module

Base board support package

Bluetechnix i.MX53 Linux BSP Release 1.7.0

License

The application source code is available under the BSD license (see LICENSE* files in source package)

Other licenses apply to third-party tools.

Download path

https://support.becom-group.com/releases/imx/argos2d-a100/surveillance/v1.1.0/

Package content

File	Content
Argos2D-A100-Surveillance-Release-Notes-1.1.0.pdf	Release notes
argos2d-a100-surveillance-1.1.0-sdsetupimage.bin.bz2	Bootable SD card image with autonomous firmware setup
argos2d-a100-surveillance-1.1.0-firmware.zip	Firmware update package
argos2d-a100-surveillance-1.1.0-src.tar.bz2	Source package

Initial Firmware Programming

See the Release Notes (PDF file) for initial setup instructions,

chapter "Initial firmware setup instructions".

Operation Manual

Initial Configuration

After the firmware setup, insert a micro-SD card with 1 partition, formatted with FAT/FAT32 or EXT3. This is required by the Surveillance application.

Connect the Ethernet cable and the power cable. The camera boots.

If a DHCP server is available on your network, the camera will get its network configuration via DHCP. Otherwise, it brings up its network interface with the default parameters:

• IP address: 10.16.0.51
• Netmask: 255.255.252.0

The default MAC address of the camera is 02:00:DE:AD:BE:EF.

If you do not know which IP address the camera got via DHCP, power-cycle it with the Ethernet cable detached until the LED on the backside starts blinking green, then connect the cable again. Now, the camera's network interface has the fallback IP address from above.

Log in to the camera's configuration interface.

ssh root@<IP address>

The default password is abcde.

Type

ecamconfig

to see current configuration parameters.

Minimum setup

• Change root password. This is the password you can access the camera's configuration interface with.

ecamrootpasswd

• Change the video password. This is the password you will need to unzip the uploaded video files.

ecamvidpasswd

• Set the camera's MAC address

ecamconfig ethaddr '<MAC address>'
e.g. ecamconfig ethaddr '02:03:04:05:06:07'

• Set the Windows share's address

ecamconfig shareunc '//<IP address>/<Share>'
e.g. ecamconfig shareunc '//10.16.1.12/videoshare'

• Set the user name for the Windows share

ecamconfig shareuser '<User name>'
e.g. ecamconfig shareuser 'harald.krapfenbauer'

• Set the password for the Windows share

ecamconfig sharepw '<Password>'
e.g. ecamconfig sharepw '4$gh2X@d'

Optional setup

• Change the fallback IP address, netmask, and gateway

ecamconfig ipaddr '<...>'
ecamconfig netmask '<...>'
ecamconfig gatewayip '<...>'

• Change the NTP server (although the default pool.ntp.org should work)

ecamconfig ntpserver '<...>'

• Camera description string (this will be part of the uploaded files' names)

ecamconfig camdesc '<...>'

• Set the camera sensor's luminance target for auto-exposure

ecamconfig aetarget '<...>'

The default value is 0x666 = 1638. Note that an upper boundary for exposure time is used independently of the luminance target. So, with bad lighting conditions, pictures will get darker in order not to get blurry.

Now reboot the camera for the changes to take effect.

reboot

Camera Positioning

To adjust the camera position and zoom and focus of the lens, the Argos®^2D A100 Surveillance software has a special mode that takes pictures (JPEG) and uploads them in intervals of 2-3 seconds to the Windows share.

To use this mode, log in to the configuration interface of the camera.

ssh root@<IP address>

Then start the special mode using the command

ecamsetuptool

After positioning is done, you must reboot the camera to return to its normal function.

reboot

Video/Image Upload

The Argos®^2D A100 Surveillance software autonomously uploads image and video data to the configured Windows share.

MP4

A zipped and password-protected MP4 video file is uploaded roughly each hour, accompanied by an MD5 checksum file. The files are named according to the following pattern:

Surveillance_<MAC-Address>__<Camera-Description>__<End-of-recording-time-and-date>.mp4.zip
Surveillance_<MAC-Address>__<Camera-Description>__<End-of-recording-time-and-date>.mp4.zip.md5

The time/date format is as follows: <Year>-<Month>-<Day>_<Hour>-<Minute>-<Second>_<Timezone>.

Example:

Surveillance_02-03-04-05-06-07__Haralds-Office__2013-08-23_09-23-14_CEST.mp4.zip

JPEG

An unencrypted JPEG image is uploaded once a day at noon (12:00). It is named according to the following pattern:

Surveillance_<MAC-Address>__<Camera-Description>.jpg

Status Indication LED

The Argos®^2D A100 camera features an RGB LED on the back panel which informs about the status of the Surveillance software.

		Green	System fully functional
		Green blinking	System fully functional; working with fall-back network configuration
		Blue	Camera is booting
		Yellow	Surveillance currently paused, no space available on SD card (→ Upload error!)
_	_	Yellow/red blinking	Same as above; working with fall-back network configuration
		Red	Boot loader failed to boot Linux or critical error occured (see log)

Reading the Log

The log files are stored onto the camera and are only accessible by logging in to the SSH configuration interface (see above).

Location:

/mnt/sd/messages*

Log messages from the Surveillance application have the identifier ECAM in it. They are grouped into three log levels: user.info, user.warn, and user.err. Here is an example how to display all error messages:

grep user\.err.*ECAM /mnt/sd/messages*

Firmware Update

As soon as you have programmed an Argos®^2D A100 camera with the Surveillance firmware, you can do firmware updates simply via the network. You need a TFTP server that is accessible by the camera. Put the new firmware image file in the TFTP server's directory.

You have to log-in to the configuration interface first, and configure the following options:

• Set the TFTP server's address.

ecamconfig fwupdateaddr <IP address>
e.g. ecamconfig fwupdateaddr 192.168.1.1

• Set the name of the firmware image file

ecamconfig fwupdatefile <Filename>
e.g. ecamconfig fwupdatefile argos2d-a100-surveillance-1.1.0-firmware.zip

To start the firmware update, type

ecamfwupdate
TFTP server IP: 192.168.1.1
Firmware update file: argos2d-a100-surveillance-1.1.0-firmware.zip

***Downloading
***Unpacking
Archive:  argos2d-a100-surveillance-1.1.0-firmware.zip
  inflating: rootfs.cramfs
  inflating: uImage
  inflating: version.txt
***Flash programming
Erasing 1024 Kibyte @ 500000 -- 100 % complete.
Writing data to block 0 at offset 0x0
...
***U-Boot env update
***Finished!

You can also check the log file for this message:

grep fwupdate /mnt/sd/messages*
Sep 28 09:05:36 eCAM user.info ECAM: Firmware update successful. Version 1.1.0. (fwupdate)

You have to reboot the camera to load the new firmware!

Firmware Version

You may show the currently running firmware version with command

ecamversion

Power consumption

Typical power consumption is 3.5W.

To save power consumption, the i.MX53 ARM core is running at 800MHz (max. 1 GHz).

Average ARM CPU utilization: 85%

Support

If you have questions, want to report a bug or request a feature, or need support: Contact our support team.

Bluetechnix offers custom development services! Feel free to contact office for an offer.