Setting up 3dEYE gateway using your own Raspberry pi board

Step 1: Download the 3dEYE OS image

Step 2: Download USBimager

Step 3: Prepare the SD card

Step 4: Start your 3dEYE gateway

Step 5: Add cameras to the 3dEYE gateway

Step 6: Register the camera in the Admin portal

Step 1: Download the 3dEYE OS image

This image comes with a preinstalled push module and all required programs for the push module to operate properly. You can download the operating system image here

3dEYE OS image

This operating system is based on a standard Raspbian OS image and was modified to include our push module and custom web interface to simplify the camera integration process.

This OS is compatible with Raspberry Pi model 3B, Pi model 3B+, or Raspberry Pi 4 boards. 

 

Step 2: Download USBimager

Download and unpack the USBImager tool here

 

Step 3: Prepare the SD card

Start the USBimager and connect an empty SD card to your computer, we recommend using at least a class 10 SD card with 8 GB or more of storage. From the start screen press on the CHOOSE OS button:

 

Click on the three dots and select 3dEYE OS image that you downloaded in step 1. From dropdown menu select the SD card you wish to write to and click Write button, wait for the process to complete.

Step 4: Start your 3dEYE gateway

After the installation is complete remove the SD card from your computer, make sure that your 3dEYE gateway is powered OFF, and insert the SD card in your Raspberry Pi board. Next, connect the network cable and turn on your 3dEYE gateway.

If after 5 minutes you still cannot locate the local IP address of your Raspberry do a power cycle of your board and try searching for it again after 2-5 minutes.

Step 5: Add cameras to the 3dEYE gateway

To register cameras on your 3dEYE gateway use a computer or a laptop connected to the same local network as your cameras and 3dEYE gateway. Open your preferred browser and type

camera-gateway.local

sometimes the router on site won't allow the gateway to self assign the above address in this case the search for gateway's local IP address using your preferred network discovery tool. For example, you can use Advanced IP Scanner:

local IP address of your 3dEYE gateway as shown in the Advanced IP Scanner, for the above example this would be http://192.168.0.124

To login into the gateway's web interface use the following credentials:
username: admin

password: 123456

You can modify these credentials from the profile menu once you login into the gateway.

You should see the Push web interface from which you can either do an automatic camera discovery or if this method fails to find all of your cameras you can manually add your cameras using their local IP address.

For the automatic option click on the Discovery tab to open the Discovery menu and click on the Plus button for every camera you want to integrate:

Note: In order for the Discovery to work on the gateway properly, the cameras must have ONVIF enabled and the firewall should allow multicast traffic for the gateway

After you have added all cameras go back to the Cameras tab to view the Registration code of every camera or to add more cameras manually.

To add more cameras manually press the Add Camera button and enter the local IP address and ports of your camera:

Note: to access the 3dEYE gateway web interface using push tunnel you need to add the board's own registration code as a P&P camera and then use the "Generate link" button from the Troubleshooting tab to create a temporary link through which the 3dEYE gateway can be accessed from anywhere in the world.

Step 6: Register the camera in the Admin portal

Add camera in the Admin portal using the Registration code from step 4.
From the Customers table click on the customer to whom you want to add the camera then click on the Cameras menu on the customer menu level and use the Add button to integrate the camera.

In the window that will appear select the P&P Camera option.

Input the camera's Registration code (obtained in step 4) and provide the camera's ONVIF user credentials created during step 2. Next, choose the billing plan and click the Create button.

How many cameras can you push using a single Raspberry pi board

The total number of cameras you can add using a single Raspberry pi board will depend on the model you use and what other tasks/programs are running on the Raspberry pi.

In general, one camera will require between 1 and 2 MB of RAM when running so even the most basic Raspberry boards could potentially run 50 cameras.

Typically network throughput is the limiting factor in most installations and older Raspberry pi models often have quite limited network throughput, which can be as low as 60 Mbps, thus network throughput becomes the bottleneck of the system. 

To calculate the total traffic generated by camera streams add all average bitrates for every camera that you plan on pushing through Raspberry together and multiple this number by 2 to obtain the total traffic requirements. The factor of 2 is needed to account for two streams that go to and from Raspberry pi. The first stream is created when Raspberry is downloading a video stream from the camera and the second is when Raspberry is uploading video to the cloud. If the total bandwidth calculated for all cameras is more than 75% of the theoretical maximum throughput of the network then you will need to use two or more Raspberry units to spread out the load, if it is less than 75% of the network throughput then a single board will be capable to support all your cameras. Keeping network cards above 75% of their theoretical maximum throughput is not advised as it can cause unexpected errors and problems.