- @david
Hello,
Just did an install of the tinypilot using rpi4 and the specified hdmi dongle, Got everything up and running quickly, but when I try to access video I get the rainbow screen, while the keyboard does function. I tried to reboot replug, and tried to check the console screen locally which works.
I'm really not sure what exactly is wrong, is the USB dongle bad ? I tried different ports and when I unplug webserver shows that device is lost.
What am I doing wrong ?
David @david2024-03-18 12:24:32.772ZHi @yozh, I'm sorry you're running into this display issue with your TinyPilot.
Could you share a log with me to review? On your TinyPilot web interface, go to System > Logs and click Get Shareable URL. Then paste the link in your reply.
Could you also share a screenshot showing the issue and the model of USB to HDMI dongle you're using (i.e., MacroSilicon MS2109)?
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Hello,
Thank you for the reply. The device I bought is what was listed on the blog page this https://smile.amazon.com/Capture-Streaming-Broadcasting-Conference-Teaching/dp/B09FLN63B3/
and in RPI4 it shows up as this
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 534d:2109 MacroSilicon USB VideoThe log URL is: https://logs.tinypilotkvm.com/kbbHnepv
Here is the screenshot on dropbox(I couldnt figure out how to attach images here) https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/o2xfqxfiatqzoruygdcro/Screenshot-2024-03-18-at-11.58.19-AM.png?rlkey=yo91w04h491qim5nufpncxfmw&dl=0
David @david2024-03-18 18:49:13.137ZThanks for all of that, @yozh!
Your TinyPilot logs suggest everything is working as expected.
I've never seen that rainbow screen before. As far as I know, some displays may show multi-colored vertical bars like this for testing. TinyPilot doesn't do this. So, I suspect this could be an issue with the USB dongle.
Can I ask for more details about your target machine? For example, is it a typical desktop computer, or is it something else?
Are you able to test the dongle with a different input (i.e., a different target machine)? That would help rule out some kind of incompatibility issue. If you get the same vertical bars with a different target machine, it would definitely point towards an issue with the dongle.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Hey, thank you so much for the reply. I`m connecting to a regular machine using HDMI to DVI cable. I also tested same machine with local monitor and it works, I also tried a different PC with same cable and got the same thing.
What I did notice is that if I plugin cable and unplug it nothing happens on the screen still vertical rainbow lines, but if I unplug the dongle I get no signal.
So you think that dongle might be bad ? I can easily replace via amazon.
I do have one more question, I wanted to try like the mjpg-streamer or ffmpeg to get raw stream, but tinypilot is using the device, what is the easiest way to stop all services so that tinypilot will let go of /dev/video0.Once again, thank you so much for your help!
- David @david2024-03-19 12:15:52.199Z
You're welcome!
If changing the input (removing the cable/using a different target machine) doesn't affect the vertical bars at all, that definitely points towards an issue with the dongle. If possible, I'd recommend finding a replacement dongle.
I wanted to try like the mjpg-streamer or ffmpeg to get raw stream, but tinypilot is using the device, what is the easiest way to stop all services so that tinypilot will let go of /dev/video0.
Stopping TinyPilot's
ustreamerservice should free/dev/video0:sudo service ustreamer stopThen to capture the input with
ffmpeg, you can do something like this:ffmpeg -f v4l2 -video_size 1920x1080 -input_format mjpeg -i /dev/video0 output.mp4To restart TinyPilot's
ustreamerservice (to restart capture & display on TinyPilot's web interface):sudo service ustreamer startI hope that helps!
very interesting. I just tried with sudo mjpg_streamer and http plugin and I do see the console stream. So I dont think its the dongle... I did ask amz to replace it, maybe I`ll cancel that now.
Here is the command I used.sudo mjpg_streamer -i "/usr/local/lib/mjpg-streamer/input_uvc.so -d /dev/video0 -r 1280x720" -o "/usr/local/lib/mjpg-streamer/output_http.so -p 8081 -w /var/www/ -n"
this has to be the strangest thing.... I just restarted the ustreamer and now I do get the normal screen... and I rebooted the rpi and its still working... So Im really confused on what happened here.
- David @david2024-03-19 15:07:47.758Z
Interesting! That's odd.
I'm unsure what the underlying issue was here. I was fairly confident it was the dongle based on the system's behavior and the tests we performed.
If everything is now working, we can close this issue for now. Let me know if you encounter this issue again, and we can look further into it.
Please feel free to reach out again in the future.
