Timelapse from Meteobridge Camera using Raspberry Pi

[jasonmfarrow]

I've recently setup a service using my RaspberryPi to create a daily timelapse movies (.mp4) using the pictures collected and processed by the Meteobridge Weather Cam service. I thought I'd post my code to share with the group.

There's a couple of python scripts. One to capture pictures every 5-minutes (or your choice) and one to process into a timelapse move and upload to your website of choice using FTP.

Collector Python Script

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import time
from urlgrabber.grabber import urlgrab
snapfile = "/home/pi/cam/snapshot"+time.strftime("%Y%m%d")+time.strftime("%H%M%S")+".jpg"
urlgrab("https://admin.meteobridge.com/cam/<your unique code>/camplus.jpg", snapfile)

All you need to put in here is the link to your meteobridge camera from the weather services tab.

Timelapse Python Script

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import datetime
import os
import glob
import ftplib
from os import system
fileList = glob.glob("/home/pi/cam/*.mp4")
# remove old file before re-creating
for filePath in fileList:
    try:
       os.remove(filePath)
    except:
       print("Error while deleting file : ". filePath)

# create the .mp4. FPS ultimately determines the length/speed of the movie. 5min = 12 photos/hr = max 144 photos/day. 12 fps = 12 second movie.
fps = 12 # frames per second
dateraw= datetime.datetime.now()
datetimeformat = dateraw.strftime("%Y%m%d_%H:%M:00")
system('ffmpeg -r {} -f image2 -s 1706x960 -nostats -loglevel 0 -pattern_type glob -i "/home/pi/cam/snapshot*.jpg" -vcodec libx264 -crf 25 -pix_fmt yuv420p  /home/pi/cam/{}.mp4'.format(fps, datetimeformat))
# ftp the .mp4 to your website
session = ftplib.FTP('ftp.yoursite.com','<userid>','<password>')
file = open('/home/pi/cam/{}.mp4'.format(datetimeformat))
session.storbinary('STOR timelapse.mp4', file)
file.close()
session.quit()

Use crontab to run the collector every 5-minutes and the timelapse every hour. I run a final script at the start of a new day to delete all of yesterday's snapshot files.

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import os
import glob
fileList = glob.glob("/home/pi/cam/snapshot*.jpg")
for filePath in fileList:
    try:
       os.remove(filePath)
    except:
       print("Error while deleting file : ". filePath)

For those using Brian's Weather34 Aurora template you add a link in the weather34-sidemenu.php file to point to the timelapse.mp4 file using a copy of the code that displays a webcam still image.
Use this line:

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<?php //webcam option if yes
if ($webcamdevice == "yes") { echo '<a href="weather34-large-cam.php" data-lity data-title="Webcam">';echo $webcamicon2.'&nbsp;Webcam</a><br>';}?>

repeat it with these changes:

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<?php //webcam option if yes
if ($webcamdevice == "yes") { echo '<a href="weather34-timelapse.php" data-lity data-title="Timelapse Today">';echo $webcamicon2.'&nbsp;Timelapse</a><br>';}?>

Then copy weather34-large-cam.php to weather34-timelapse.php. Change the following lines:

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<?php if (!empty($videoWeatherCamURL) && $videoWeatherCamURL != ' ' && $videoWeatherCamURL != 'Null' && $videoWeatherCamURL != 'null'){?>
    <iframe class="videoWeatherCamLarge" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen src="<?php echo $videoWeatherCamURL;?>" frameborder="0"></iframe>
<?php } else {?>
    <img src="<?php echo $webcamurl;?>?v=<?php echo date('YmdGis');?>" alt="weathercam" class="webcamlarge">
<?php }?>

to

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<video controls="controls" class="webcamlarge">
<source src="timelapse.mp4" type="video/mp4">
</video>

I've additional code to copy the daily one into an archive and a page to display the archive files as well if people are interested.

Enjoy.