PiCam Network Streamer

A lightweight MJPEG streaming server for Raspberry Pi. It serves a webpage you can open on any device on your local network to view the live camera feed.

Pi 5 OS Image Setup

For a fully automated first-boot setup on a Raspberry Pi 5 with an IMX219 camera, see the image-setup/ directory. It includes:

• SETUP_GUIDE.md — Step-by-step SD card imaging instructions.
• autosetup.sh — One-command setup script (installs drivers, dependencies, and auto-starts the streamer as a systemd service).
• config_camera.txt — config.txt snippet to force-enable the IMX219 overlay.

Quick Start

1. Install dependencies

   pip install -r requirements.txt
   

2. Run the streamer

   Auto-detect (recommended):

   python stream.py
   

   For the official Raspberry Pi Camera Module (CSI):

   python stream_picamera2.py
   

   For a USB webcam:

   python stream_usb.py
   

3. View the stream Open a browser on any device on the same network and go to:

   http://<raspberry-pi-ip>:5000
   

   Replace <raspberry-pi-ip> with your Pi's IP address.

Options

Both scripts accept the same command-line arguments:

Argument	Description	Default
--host	Network interface to bind to	0.0.0.0
--port	Port to serve on	5000
--width	Video width in pixels	640
--height	Video height in pixels	480
--fps	Target framerate	30

USB streamer only: | --device | Video device index (e.g., 0 for /dev/video0) | 0 |

Examples

Run at 720p on port 8080:

python stream_picamera2.py --width 1280 --height 720 --port 8080

Use a second USB camera:

python stream_usb.py --device 1

Files

• stream_picamera2.py — Optimized streamer for Raspberry Pi Camera Module v2/v3 using picamera2.
• stream_usb.py — Generic streamer for USB cameras using OpenCV.
• stream.py — Auto-detects camera type and launches the correct streamer.
• requirements.txt — Python dependencies.
• image-setup/ — Scripts and guides for preparing a headless Pi 5 OS image with IMX219 support.
  • SETUP_GUIDE.md — Full imaging and setup instructions.
  • setup-pi.sh — Run this on a live Pi to install everything and auto-start the streamer.
  • autosetup.sh — For embedding into a custom SD card image (runs on first boot).
  • firstrun.sh — Raspberry Pi first-boot trigger script.
  • config_camera.txt — Snippet to enable the IMX219 overlay.