Linux - Frigate video camera setup

 I'll put this down for history.  It's took all my 2-hour morning brain power for weeks.  At the end, it can recognize the dog.

You need a mini-pc from ammie.  I just got a commodity amd box.  I use them all over the house now.  Comes with a 250gb ssd, and a hunk of memory.  I install standard Debian Sid on it.

Then, a huge effort to install Docker and Portainer.

Eventually, my reading list was dozens of articles.  All showing their recipes, all wrong to some degree.  You have to combine them in your brain.

 

version: "3.9"

services:

  frigate:

    container_name: frigate

    privileged: true # this may not be necessary for all setups

    restart: unless-stopped

    image: ghcr.io/blakeblackshear/frigate:stable

    shm_size: "64mb" # update for your cameras based on calculation above

    devices:

      - /dev/bus/usb:/dev/bus/usb # passes the USB Coral, needs to be modified for other versions

      #- /dev/apex_0:/dev/apex_0 # passes a PCIe Coral, follow driver instructions here https://coral.ai/docs/m2/get-started/#2a-on-linux

      #- /dev/dri/renderD128 # for intel hwaccel, needs to be updated for your hardware

    volumes:

      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro

      - /mnt/hubfiles/frigate/frigate.yml:/config/config.yml

      - /mnt/hubfiles/frigate:/media/frigate

      - /frigdb:/db

      - type: tmpfs # Optional: 1GB of memory, reduces SSD/SD Card wear

        target: /tmp/cache

        tmpfs:

          size: 1000000000

    ports:

      - "5000:5000"

      - "8554:8554" # RTSP feeds

      - "8555:8555/tcp" # WebRTC over tcp

      - "8555:8555/udp" # WebRTC over udp

    environment:

      FRIGATE_RTSP_PASSWORD: "password"

That's just the first part.  Then you need a Frigate configuration file.

mqtt:

  enabled: false

detectors:

  coral:

    type: edgetpu

    device: usb

cameras:

  driveway:

    ffmpeg:

      hwaccel_args: preset-vaapi

      inputs:

        - path: rtsp://192.168.0.43:554/user=admin_password=tlJwpbo6_channel=1_stream=0.sdp?real_stream

          roles:

            - detect

            - record

    detect:

      width: 1280

      height: 720

    snapshots:

      enabled: True

    record:

      enabled: True

      retain:

        days: 5

      events:

        retain:

          default: 10

    objects:

      track:

      - person

      - dog

      - bicycle

#      - car

#        - motorcycle

database:

  path: /db/frigate.db

Because the mini-pc doesn't have much storage, you have to mount an smb file to your main disks for storage.  The database stays on the mini pc.

The last few days are spent debugging the config file.  It is written in yaml, which is like python, in that every space is important.

In the end, it works great.  You get to fool around with an AI card, and it's all private.  

ps.  you also need that Coral USB which you can also get at ammie.  I am using an old no-name Chinese starlight camera, powered by usb.  It's been there for 6 years, and I still can't find anything better.

pps.  it's absolutely in love with the fire hydrant as a person.  I may have to go to zones next.