Modes

The LCD is divided up into four segments: the number of taken images, the number of remaining images, the mode and the mode option. Occasionally a status symbol will also be shown in the center of the top line. Everything is located as follows:

                [5]
              [6] [7]
  +----------------+
  |Taken     Remain|
  |Mode    Mode Op.|
  +----------------+
[0] [1] [2] [3]   [4]

The button layout is:

Button	Function
0	Change mode
1	Mode option button 1
2	Mode option button 2
3	Mode option button 3
4	Unused (exit in testing)
5	Take picture/video
6	Mode option previous
7	Mode option next

The status symbols are:

Symbol	Meaning
Egg timer	Busy
!	Attention
E	Error

While you can use button 0 to change the mode of the camera, it is sometimes useful to be able to start the camera in a certain mode. You can do this with the mode flag:

$ snap-camera --mode effects

Camera

Camera mode is the default mode. Press the navigation switch in to take a picture. Move the navigation switch left or right to change the delay period. This is the amount of time the camera will wait before taking the picture.

Button	Function
0	Change mode
5	Take picture
6	Decrease delay
7	Increase delay

Effects

Effects mode allows you to select an effect that will be applied to your image. Move the navigation switch left or right to select an effect.

Button	Function
0	Change mode
5	Take picture
6	Previous effect
7	Next effect

Overlay

Overlay mode allows you to overlay an image stored at /home/pi/snap-camera/overlays on top of your image.

Button	Function
0	Change mode
5	Take picture
6	Previous overlay
7	Next overlay

Timelapse

Timelapse mode will continually take images for a certain period at set intervals. The period and interval can be seen in the mode options section. The number and letter on the left is the total period. The number and letter on the right is the interval length.

The currently selected mode option (period/interval) is denoted with a capital letter. You can change which mode option you have selected with option 1 (button 1). You can change the units (second/minute/hour/day) of the period with option 2 (button 2) and of the interval with option 3 (button 3). You can change the values of the period/interval by using the navigation switch.

Button	Function
0	Change mode
1	Change selected mode option (period/interval)
2	Change units of period
3	Change units of interval
5	Take picture
6	Decrease selected mode option (period/interval)
7	Increase selected mode option (period/interval)

Note

Period / Interval = Number of pictures taken. Confirm this with the remaining pictures above. If too many pictures are to be taken the camera will flash the attention symbol before continuing with taking the images.

Video

Record a video. Change the length of time with the navigation switch.

Button	Function
0	Change mode
5	Start recording
6	Decrease video length
7	Increase video length

IR

Take a picture triggered by an IR remote. Press 1 on the remote to take the image.

Button	Function
0	Change mode
5	Take picture

Note

You must have LIRC correctly configured with a remote for this mode to work.

Network

You can control Snap Camera from the network. Use the navigation switch to change the ID number of this camera (useful for when you have more that one Snap Camera). Press option 1 to view the IP address of this camera. Press it again to go back to viewing the camera number.

Button	Function
0	Change mode
1	Toggle Camera Number/IP
5	Take picture
6	Increase camera number
7	Decrease camera number

Note

Network mode will error if not connected to a network.

While in network mode the camera can be controlled using the snap-camera-network program.

snap-camera-network

Snap Camera Network can control the camera in several different ways. To take an image with snap-camera-network run the following:

$ snap-camera-network image

snap-camera-network sends the command to all Snap Camera’s on the network.

Here is a list some more commands and what they do:

Command	Function
image	Takes a picture
getimages	Gets the last image from all cameras. You must specify how many cameras there are with the -c option becasue snap-camera-network needs to know how many images to wait for.
video	Starts recording a video. You must specify a length in milliseconds with the --video-length (-vl) option.
getvideos	Gets the last video from all cameras. You must specify how many cameras there are with the -c option becasue snap-camera-network needs to know how many videos to wait for.
backlight-on	Turns the backlight on.
backlight-off	Turns the backlight off.
halt	Halts the Snap Camera (Raspberry Pi) .
reboot	Reboots the Snap Camera (Raspberry Pi).
stream	Streams video from Snap Camera. See below.

Except for getimages and getvideos you can limit which Snap Cameras accept commands by listing the camera numberss you want to respond using the -c option. For example, if I only wanted cameras 1, 6 and 18 to take an image, I would run:

$ snap-camera-network image -c 1 6 18

For a help summary run:

$ snap-camera-network --help

Streaming video

Snap Camera uses netcat to send a video stream over the network. It sends the video on port 13000 + Camera ID (Snap Camera ID 3 will send it on port 13003). Before requesting that Snap Camera begin streaming video you must first prepare to accept the video stream and pipe it into something that will play it. For this we will use netcat and mplayer like so:

$ nc -l -p 13001 | mplayer -fps 31 -cache 1024 -

Notice how this is accepting a video stream from a Snap Camera with network ID 1 becasue the port is 13001.

After running this, mplayer will wait for a video stream to be recevied. Now, in another terminal, tell Snap Camera to stream the video:

$ snap-camera-network stream

In a few seconds you should see the video stream.

Viewer

Viewer mode allows you to view your images on a connected monitor. Move the navigation switch left and right to change image.

Button	Function
0	Change mode
5	Take picture
6	Previous image
7	Next image