Raspberry Pi Limitations?

[samuel235]

I'm planning on using a Raspberry Pi (More than likely a 2 model B) as a dedicated Zoneminder server saving its data to a NAS drive on the network. However, i'm sure there would be limitations to how many active streams there could be handled in a RPi server compared to say a rack mounted dedicated dual core server lets say. If someone could possibly inform me of any limitations so i can make my decisions based upon this factor, i would really appreciate it.

I am aware of the limitations and requirements when it comes to saving to a NAS drive, so i hope that my network will be up to the task of that too.

[knight-of-ni]

Sorry for the late response.

We get a lot of posts in our forums reporting issues with running ZoneMinder on the Raspberry Pi. What many of them have in common is that they are simply trying to do too much with the Raspberry Pi.

The simple answer to the "are there any limitations" question is "yes, there are a lot". There is no way to give a detailed answer since that requires knowing, in great detail, all the components of the system and how they are configured.

What I can say is that, if you do what the average user does, who purchases a typical off-the-shelf Megapixel IP camera, which are very affordable these days, then you can reasonably expect to get 2 cameras to work, at low a frame rate, without having to make additional compromises to the system to keep it running reliably.

[samuel235]

That is the answer I would expect from someone like you. Thank you for being honest and straight to the point. I have since gone with a dedicated server running ESXi and made a virtual machine for zoneminder, I probably will need to upgrade the memory at some point in the near future as i start to add cameras.

For the cameras, i'm going to be trying out Raspberry Pis running something like MotionPie software to turn it into a standalone IP Camera, very little overhead on the pi itself that way and i can then manage all the recording inside of zoneminder itself. I'm possibly even thinking about making some sort of motorized mount and then linking the controls for that into zoneminder some how, we will see for that part.

I have some pretty cool IR filters that i can turn on and off so this will make this project pretty cool to use 24/7 unlike normal IR cameras looking pretty bad during day light hours IMO.

Do you have any input on my ideas or anything you would like to warn me of or put me off from doing?

Thanks,
Sam.

[knight-of-ni]

Yeah, the MotionPie project is slick, and so is the MotionPieOS project, if you want to simply dd an image to your sd card and be done.
However, the cpu overhead did seem a little heavy on my Raspberry Pi Zero so I went looking for a more efficient solution.

Your question has good timing. See this thread here:
viewtopic.php?f=9&p=97037

The solution described in that thread does not have the slick UI of MotionPie. It configures via the traditional Linux command line so you will have some work to do. What I did was configure a service file to start the tool(s) up at boot, thus starting the camera stream. I've also configured the Pi to start up an access point, since my application involves a camera mounted in a model RC boat. If I recall correctly, configuring the pi for an access point was one thing the MotionPie project would not allow you to do from the UI.

I don't have any experience messing with IR filters, other than just using the one internal to the camera.

Note that you can probably still buy mechanical Pan/Tilt units to turn the camera into a PT camera, but it might be more fun to build one yourself. I think there was an article in the MagPi describing this.

[mborgesmartins]

Hi all,

I have been testing Zoneminder 1.29 on Rasp Pi 3. I could run it in record mode with 4 cameras. I have also a script running to convert 10 minutes images folder and using ffmpeg tools, into mp4 video, along with the recording processes. I am capturing in 7 fps with one IP Camera and 3 usb cameras.

I would say that we are close to have it running stable with Rpi 3. It would help me a lot if I could save it in mp4 format instead of set of frame images, directly.

Best,
Marcelo

[knight-of-ni]

Note that I have since done the same thing and have created a blog with my results:
http://zoneminder.blogspot.com/p/raspberry-pi-3.html

tldr:
works great with vga resolution cameras, will work with a couple, maybe 3, 720p cameras, and won't run reliably over extended periods with 1080p cameras. All cameras were set to 5 fps.

[johanliam]

Been having problems with Raspberry PI too. Good to have read this thread.
______________________________________________
Pest Control DC

[BurchSung]

Hi...as per my knowledge what many of them have in common is that they are simply trying to do too much with the Raspberry Pi.There is no way to give a detailed answer since that requires knowing, in great detail, all the components of the system and how they are configured. If you do what the average user does, who purchases a typical off-the-shelf Megapixel IP camera, which are very affordable these days, then you can reasonably expect to get 2 cameras to work, at low a frame rate.

https://www.7pcb.com/