RySpy

RySpy is a demo project controlling a Pan-Tilt MIPI Camera module on a headless NanoPi M4.

Parts

• NanoPi M4: Small board computer
  • USB-C power cable
  • SD Card
• Pan-Tilt HAT: 2-DOF Servo Kit
• 13.2MP MIPI Camera: 4224 x 3136 photographing and 13.2MP@30fps video recording.recording

Setup

These instructions we made using my exact steps and will and may differ if you are using other equipment.

NanoPi M4 FriendlyDesktop

1. Download Image
   • rk3399-sd-friendlydesktop-bionic-4.4-arm64-YYYYMMDD.img.zip
2. Unzip and follow the Raspberry Pi Installation Intructions
3. Plugin SD Card to NanoPi and power up
   • ssh pi@NanoPi-M4
     • Username: Pi
     • Password: Pi
     • You may need to look at your router to see what IP address it was assigned.
   • Alternatively you can us an HDMI monitory and it should auto login
4. Update and install any normal Linux packages you like

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

5. Disable LightDM if going Headless

sudo systemctl stop lightdm
sudo systemctl mask lightdm

6. Disable the stupid green status LED. Add this to /etc/rc.local

echo none > /sys/class/leds/status_led/trigger"

See NanoPi M4 Wiki for more information

VNC Headless Setup

1. Install TigerVNC

sudo apt install tigervnc-common tigervnc-viewer tigervnc-standalone-server tigervnc-xorg-extension

2. Setup Password

vncserver

3. Stop vncserver to setup the Desktop Environment

vncserver -kill :*

4. Edit the VNC statup script to initialize LXDE

cat > ~/.vnc/xstartup << EOF 
#!/bin/sh 
/usr/bin/terminator &
/usr/bin/startlxde &

# Used display 0 for headless
vncserver :0 -localhost no
EOF

chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstarxtup

• Still does not autstart at boot up for me. I need to ssh in and execute vncserver first. If you have a better way please let me know

5. Instal VNC Client Viewer
   • Download RealVNC

Pan-Tilt Setup

1. Install smbus to talk to the servo board over I2C

sudo apt -y install python-smbus

Contribute

Please feel free to contribute pull requests or create issues for bugs and feature requests.

Author

• Ryan (https://github.com/ryans-git)

Credits

• SunFounder PCA9685: PWM Servo Board Controlller