Connecting webcam

I have a Logitech Webcam C920 plugged into a Raspberry Pi B+ running AstroBox software. The Astrobox shows up on astroprint.com, but the webcam does not. Is my webcam supported? Is it supposed to work automatically or do I need to install some driver or configure something?

I visited their website and they don’t list Linux as a supported OS. We designed the system to work with any USB camera that uses the V4L2 (Video for Linux v2) driver. This is most cameras that list Linux in the supported OS list.

Thanks for the response! It looks like there there is some more fundamental problem with my setup. I’m getting the following error: “Unable to communicate with the printer” even though my printer is on and plugged into my raspberry pi. I probably need to debug that first, but I am currently away from my home. I will look at that later tonight. Let me know if you have any tips for debugging or if there is troubleshooting documentation somewhere.

According to the following webpage, on raspberry pi the logitech C920 camera was detected out of box as Video0 V4L device:
http://elinux.org/RPi_USB_Webcams

If the camera is detected then it should be supported. Let me know if you run into problems with the serial connection to your printer.

Seems to be working now. Not sure exactly why, but both the printer and webcam are working. I clicked on the re-scan button under settings->printer->connection->usb device. Maybe that’s what caused it to start working, but I’m not certain. It looks like a bunch of stuff is only accessible when you are on the same network at the printer including the ability to print. I this true? I was hoping to use astroprint to remotely kick off a print from work.

It is true for now. However as soon as we implement queuing, you’re going to be able to start a print from anywhere in the internet (provided you indicated that your bed is clear)

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Any chance of the c920 working with the PCduino?

I tried plugging one into a USB hub but AstroBox doesn’t seem to load the webcam. I don’t see a rescan button in the settings printer page.

Is there a way to check webcam status in the terminal?

The “Re-Scan” button should only show when there’s no USB port detected. If your printer is already successfully connected, you might not see it. This is not related to camera.

For camera, you need to be printing in order to use it. A Camera button would appear in the printing screen when the camera has been detected. Do you see it?

You also need to be running at least version 0.4(0) of the AstroBox software.

Sure, I just updated to 0.4 version and tried out a test print. The camera time lapse icon still showing ‘off’ status and switching between time intervals fires off an error. Clicking the picture button doesn’t be working.

We haven’t really tested with that camera however @Nathan_Peterson did have some luck with it. Read above as for what he did.

I had intermittent results, although I was using raspberry pi instead of pcduino. I got it to work once, and then next time it wasn’t working again. Not sure why. I ended up connecting the webcam to my computer instead. That way I can stream video instead of just pictures. @Noe_Ruiz, I’m curious if your syslog has any debug information. Have you checked that? The one time that I checked my syslog on my raspberry pi, my webcam was actually working so it just gave some info that it was detecting the camera.

@Daniel @Nathan_Peterson Just an update, I got the c920 working with fscam and motion apps on the raspberry pi. It required an apt update and a short song and dance but I still can’t get it to work in the astrobox printing screen. Maybe it’s because motion runs a daemon script that takes over the camera. I can however view the live camera feed in browser via IP with the motion apt running.

Another update.

c920 now works with astrobox on both PCduino and Raspberry Pi B+. I simply pressed the photo button and it started working. No need to install anything else. Tested it with stock astrobox V4. I have two web cameras, one is hooked up to a usb hub on the astrobox pcduino and the other is connected straight to the usb ports on the Pi B+. Love it when things just work!

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