PhenoCam Installation Tool (PIT) is a set of scripts for Linux/Mac OSX and Windows taking care of the settings as needed by cameras installed by or associated with the PhenoCam network.
Custom changes can be made to the code to suite your own needs. However, remember to save any changes twice. First by altering the configuration files you want to see changed, second by writing these changes from volatile to persistent (flash) memory using the following command:
config saveclone the project to your home computer using the following command (with git installed)
git clone https://github.com/khufkens/phenocam-installation-tool.git -b icosalternatively, download the project using download button.
Unzip the downloaded files or use the files cloned by git as is.
The installation script runs within a terminal on all platforms. To open a terminal search for “Terminal” in OSX spotlight or “cmd” in the program search field (under the Start button) in Windows. For linux users I assume a familiarity with opening a terminal.
The installation requires you to have a working internet connection on the camera! Connect to the camera when it is hooked up to either an open network or a router / hub. If you do not have an internet connection on the camera the PIT tool will not work.
On the command prompt of a terminal the scripts have the same syntax, for Windows script this would be:
PIT.bat IP USER PASSWORD CAMERA TIME_OFFSET TZ CRON_START CRON_END CRON_INT FTP_MODEYou will need the telnet.exe program to be installed on your computer. As of Windows 7 this isn't installed by default anymore but can still be downloaded from the Microsoft website. Full instructions can be found here.
On Linux / Mac OSX systems this would read:
sh PIT.sh IP USER PASSWORD CAMERA TIME_OFFSET TZ CRON_START CRON_END CRON_INT FTP_MODEor
./PIT.sh IP USER PASSWORD CAMERA TIME_OFFSET TZ CRON_START CRON_END CRON_INT FTP_MODEwith:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| IP | ip address of the camera |
| USER | user name (admin - if not set) |
| PASSWORD | user password (on a new Stardot NetCam this is admin) |
| CAMERA | the name of the camera / site |
| TIME_OFFSET | difference in hours from UTC of the timezone in which the camera resides (always use + or - signs to denote differences from UTC) |
| TZ | a text string corresponding to the local time zone (e.g. EST) |
| CRON_START | first hour of the scheduled image acquisitions (e.g. 4 in the morning) |
| CRON_END | last hour of the scheduled image acquisitions (e.g. ten at night, so 22 in 24-h notation) |
| CRON_INT | interval at which to take pictures (e.g. 15, every 15 minutes - default phenocam setting is 30) |
| FTP_MODE | active or passive (default = passive) |
| [all parameters are required!] |
An example of our in lab test camera configuration:
./PIT.sh 140.247.89.xx admin admin testcam3 -5 EST 4 22 30 passiveor
./PIT.sh 140.247.89.xx admin admin testcam3 -5 EST 4 22 30 activefor an active FTP connection (necessary for some cameras)
This configures the camera 'testcam3', located in the EST time zone (UTC -5) to take images every half hour between 4 and 23h.
The PIT configures the cameras to randomly upload images within every time window. This reduces traffic on systems with multiple cameras and the server. However, on systems on timers with only a limited window for acquisition this random factor might cause the camera to not fire within the alloted time. To mediate this manually edit the system's crontab to correspond to the settings on your system.
You can edit the crontab file by using the vi editor if you login to the home directory using telnet:
vi crontabafter editting the file make sure to save the settings by issueing the save command:
config saveAlternatively, edit the file through the advanced settings tab of the web interface of the camera. Hit the save button on the interface twice to guarantee that your settings will remain stored after reboot.
A crontab file is formated as such:
minute hour day month day-of-week command-line-to-executeTo set camera to run on the hour you would use the following line (minute zero of every hour from 4 - 22 inclusive):
0 4-22 * * * admin sh /etc/config/phenocam_upload.shThere are several good cron references out there. Here is one.
The script will take care of any differences in model types, and will enable the upload of infrared (IR) images by default (if available). After the install be sure to check the results by browsing to the camera's IP address. You can see that the above commands have taken effect as the name and time zone offset are mentioned in the overlay on top of the image. If you are not sure about your time zone offset a visual time zone map can be found here.
Throughout the installation procedure the command prompt gives you feedback on the process. To test a succesful install it will try to upload a set of images to the PhenoCam server. If you request a site name beforehand (the data directory has to be created on the server), we can validate if the setup is pushing data correctly right after your install.
Critical in the operation is that you check and double check the input parameters (no true checks are in place). Although the script will never 'brick' a camera it can push settings which make the camera not behave properly and hard to reconfigure. In such a case the configuration of the camera can be reset to factory defaults by pushing the reset button on the back of the camera using a small rod. However, if access to the site is difficult you might want to make sure you push the right settings to the camera. Furthermore, as the configuration files are pulled from the PhenoCam server, internet access is vital to configure the camera correctly, if you have only intermitted internet access on your site make sure to run the install script during this time.
If a backup upload is required to a different server please edit the server.txt file. Here each line represents a server address. The server layout should adhere to the PhenoCam structure, where in the ftp root directory the data is stored in ~/data/your_camera_name directory.