Use Raspberry Pi Camera with Prusa Connect

README.md

Use Raspberry Pi and Pi Cam for Prusa Connect

I couldn't get the script from p123ad to work on my Pi Zero W 2 with Camera Module 3 (all kinds of ffmpeg errors). There are several built-in tools for working with the camera now, so I tried to figure out if I could use one of those instead.

Behold this version, which uses the built-in libcamera-still tool to actually interact with the camera and save a JPEG. That image is then uploaded to Prusa Connect, same as the original script.

Instructions

1. Go to the Cameras section at https://connect.prusa3d.com
2. Add a new camera by clicking "Add new other camera"
3. Copy the generated Token
4. Set up your Pi Zero W 2 with Raspian OS Lite (32-bit) (this may work with other combinations of Pi and OS but I haven't tested)
5. Log into your Pi and create a shell script with sudo nano /usr/local/bin/prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh and swap out connect-token-here in the script example with the Token you copied in step 3
6. Change ownership of the script to the user you log into your pi with, for example if your user is pi then run: sudo chown pi:pi /usr/local/bin/prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh
7. Make the script executable: chmod +x /usr/local/bin/prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh
8. Start the script with /usr/local/bin/prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh

If it works you should see no error messages, and a new image appearing in Prusa Connect every 10 seconds.

Create Autostart Service

To run the script in the background and have it start automatically when your Pi starts:

1. Create the service file with sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/prusaconnect_upload_cam.service, paste the content from below and save.
2. Start the service: sudo systemctl start prusaconnect_upload_cam.service.
3. Check if the service is running with sudo systemctl status prusaconnect_upload_cam.service.
4. Enable the service to run at startup: sudo systemctl enable prusaconnect_upload_cam.service.

prusaconnect_upload_cam.service

[Unit]
Description=Raspi Cam to Prusa Connect

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh

#!/bin/bash

# Set default values for environment variables
: "${HTTP_URL:=https://connect.prusa3d.com/c/snapshot}"
: "${DELAY_SECONDS:=10}"
: "${LONG_DELAY_SECONDS:=60}"
# FINGERPRINT can be a random string with at least 16 characters
: "${FINGERPRINT:=123456789012345678}"
# CAMERA_TOKEN generated by the Connect server
: "${CAMERA_TOKEN:=connect-token-here}"

while true; do
    # Grab a frame from libcamera-still with the highest resolution
    # that is displayed on Prusa Connect: 1704 x 1278 for a 4:3 image
    # Setting the quality to 80 saves almost 50% in file size for
    # very little decrease in quality. Set to taste!
    # If you need to rotate the image 180° add `--rotate 180`
    # (One user reported needing to make this `--camera.rotate 180` instead!)
    libcamera-still -v 0 --immediate --width 2274 --height 1280 -q 80 -o /tmp/output.jpg

    # If no error, upload it.
    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
        # POST the image to the HTTP URL using curl
        curl -k -X PUT "$HTTP_URL" \
            -H "accept: */*" \
            -H "content-type: image/jpg" \
            -H "fingerprint: $FINGERPRINT" \
            -H "token: $CAMERA_TOKEN" \
            --data-binary "@/tmp/output.jpg" \
            --no-progress-meter \
            --compressed

        # Reset delay to the normal value
        DELAY=$DELAY_SECONDS
    else
        echo "libcamera-still returned an error, retrying after ${LONG_DELAY_SECONDS}s..."
        
        # Set delay to the longer value
        DELAY=$LONG_DELAY_SECONDS
    fi

    sleep "$DELAY"
done

Hi,
Thanks for your help, I'll try this and let you know if it works.

Dude, thank you so much for this. I've been trying to do this since the MK4 came out and everything I found was so convoluted for a novice pi user. I was able to get this up and running in about 10 minutes and it's perfect. Super appreciated!

@fergymcferguson You’re welcome!

Will this interfere if picamera2 is also running a live stream?

@codemonkey2k5 I don't know how picamera2 works, sorry 😬 It might lock the stream from the camera and no one else can use it, but maybe not!

You could try running libcamera-still -v 0 --immediate -o output.jpg while picamera2 is running and see if you end up with an image (and if picamera2 gets interrupted in the process)...

Thank you, I will give that a try.

Hi @ydu57120 You should have a utility named nano installed which is a text editor that works right in the terminal. As long as you're connected to the Pi you can create and edit the file at the same time with:

sudo nano /usr/local/bin/prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh

Now you can paste in the script from above. When you're done editing, press Ctrl-X and then press y to save your changes and exit nano.

Now the file exists, but it's owned by the root user. To make it owned by the same user you're logged in as (probably pi), that's what step 6 is for:

sudo chown pi:pi /usr/local/bin/prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh

See if that works!

I done the step 5 but when i try the step 6 i have this error message. Do you have a soluce to fix that ?

@ydu57120 It sounds like the file isn't being created/saved by nano...is there any message at the bottom of the screen after you press Ctrl-X and then y? Anything about not being able to save?

after doing ctrl + x they ask me if i want to save modified buffer, then I press Y and at the bottom of the screen it is written: File Name to write: /usr/local/bin/prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh

That sure makes it sounds like the file was created...if you list the files in that directory, do you see it listed in the output?

ls -la /usr/local/bin

When I run that, I see:

$ ls -la
total 12
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 Feb 27 18:33 .
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 4096 Dec  4 18:36 ..
-rwxr-xr-x  1 pi   pi   1426 Feb 27 23:47 prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh

Hi,
Thank you very much for the script. Works as it should. I took the liberty of making small corrections, because from what I read and checked, if the printer is turned off and marked as OFFLINE in PrusaConnect, you cannot send screenshots from the camera. Additionally, the image size is probably also checked.

Sorry, I'm not very active on github and I don't know how to format the text to make it visible as code :/

#!/bin/bash

Set default values for environment variables

: "${HTTP_URL:=https://connect.prusa3d.com/c/snapshot}"
: "${DELAY_SECONDS:=10}"
: "${LONG_DELAY_SECONDS:=60}"

FINGERPRINT can be a random string with at least 16 characters

: "${FINGERPRINT:=123456789012345678}"

CAMERA_TOKEN generated by the Connect server

: "${CAMERA_TOKEN:=connect-token-here}"

Device IP for ping check

DEVICE_IP="x.x.x.x" # Replace x.x.x.x with the actual IP address of the Prusa3D

while true; do

Check if the device is reachable

if ping -c 1 -W 1 "$DEVICE_IP" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
# Device is reachable, proceed with capturing image

   # Grab a frame from libcamera-still with the highest resolution
   # that is displayed on Prusa Connect: 1704 x 1278 for a 4:3 image
   # Setting the quality to 80 saves almost 50% in file size for
   # very little decrease in quality. Set to taste!
   # If you need to rotate the image 180° add --rotate 180
   libcamera-still -v 0 --immediate --width 2274 --height 1280 -q 80 -o /dev/shm/output.jpg

   IMAGE_SIZE=$(stat -c %s /dev/shm/output.jpg)

   # If no error, upload it.
   if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
       # POST the image to the HTTP URL using curl
       curl -X PUT "$HTTP_URL" \
           -H "accept: */*" \
           -H "content-type: image/jpg" \
           -H "content-length: $IMAGE_SIZE" \
           -H "fingerprint: $FINGERPRINT" \
           -H "token: $CAMERA_TOKEN" \
           --data-binary "@/dev/shm/output.jpg" \
           --no-progress-meter \
           --compressed

       # Reset delay to the normal value
       DELAY=$DELAY_SECONDS
   else
       echo "libcamera-still returned an error, retrying after ${LONG_DELAY_SECONDS}s..."

       # Set delay to the longer value
       DELAY=$LONG_DELAY_SECONDS
   fi

else
echo "Device is not reachable. Retrying after $LONG_DELAY_SECONDS seconds..."
DELAY=$LONG_DELAY_SECONDS
fi

sleep "$DELAY"
done

For anyone curious, this works with Raspbian Lite on a Raspberry Pi Model 3 B+.

Additionally, I ended up installing fswebcam with:

sudo apt-get install fswebcam

and replacing the libcamera-still line within prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh:

libcamera-still -v 0 --immediate --width 2274 --height 1280 -q 80 -o output.jpg

with the following line:

fswebcam -r 2274x1280 --no-banner output.jpg

I haven't combed through the fswebcam documentation enough to see if I could mimic the 80% quality adjustment, but I'm sure that if someone gets curious they can find it.

thank you so much i was trying to get some sort of ip cam running an my pi zero 2 and was on the verge of quitting.
than i found this guide and that exexly what i want to do for my printer.

it might be more beginner frindly to include the sudo nano part in the guide to create the script in the shell :)

it might be more beginner frindly to include the sudo nano part in the guide to create the script in the shell :)

Good call, updated!

Hello! Sorry, I am fairly new to Raspberry Pi. Will this script also run the Prusa Connect in the background? Or is this an interaction where you have one Pi for Prusa Connect and another for this script plus the camera? Thanks in advance.

@DillyDilly1266 So Prusa Connect is always running on Prusa's own servers, you don't have to do anything to get that working, you just go to https://connect.prusa3d.com/ in any browser. Where the Raspberry Pi comes in is to power the camera and send the images up to Prusa Connect. This script runs on that Pi telling it how often to take the picture and where to upload it. Hope that helps! :)

Hello! I just wanted to ask a quick question. I followed your steps and everything went pretty well, until I ran into two different problems.

Firstly, piece of code "--rotate 180" wasn't recognized and gave me an error. I typed it in, just like you mentioned I should've. When I removed that text, it gave me the next error.

"*** no cameras available ***" So currently I am at a loss for words and I've got no clue how to continue now. So I was hoping you could help.

I am using a raspberry pi 4B with a raspberry pi camera V2, maybe this code isn't compatible to my devices?

I'd love to hear your answer come by and hope that it might help me, cheers!

@ToastCinnamon I haven't had any of those issues, sorry! It could be a Camera 2 vs Camera 3 issue?

Are you able to do a fresh install of Raspian? I would try that and make sure that libcamera-still itself is installed and works before trying to get the script to work. For example, if you log in and run this:

libcamera-still -v 0 --immediate --width 2274 --height 1280 -q 80 -o output.jpg

And then you have output.jpg in the same directory, you should be good to go. Try with the --rotate flag as well, if you need that.

@ToastCinnamon I haven't had any of those issues, sorry! It could be a Camera 2 vs Camera 3 issue?

Are you able to do a fresh install of Raspian? I would try that and make sure that libcamera-still itself is installed and works before trying to get the script to work. For example, if you log in and run this:

libcamera-still -v 0 --immediate --width 2274 --height 1280 -q 80 -o output.jpg

And then you have output.jpg in the same directory, you should be good to go. Try with the --rotate flag as well, if you need that.

So either I am doing something terribly wrong, or it's just not working. Since now I am getting the next message(s?).

`

<title>405 Not Allowed</title>

405 Not Allowed

---

nginx `

And I tried this:
libcamera-still -v 0 --immediate --width 2274 --height 1280 -q 80 -o output.jpg
like you said, but nothing happened. So currently I am at a loss for words. Hoping you can help!

@ToastCinnamon Did you try rebuilding your SD card from scratch with a fresh install of Raspian? That'll give you a baseline to know that at least the OS is setup properly. Then it's a matter of determining if it's the camera, or just the Pi itself. I only know that it works on a Pi Zero W 2 + Camera 3 for sure!

@ToastCinnamon Did you try rebuilding your SD card from scratch with a fresh install of Raspian? That'll give you a baseline to know that at least the OS is setup properly. Then it's a matter of determining if it's the camera, or just the Pi itself. I only know that it works on a Pi Zero W 2 + Camera 3 for sure!

I've been able to make it work, I figured out why I got some errors. Firstly, I messed up with my token. I spend way to much time figuring out why it didn't work, only to realize it had a ":" to much. It looked like this:

: "${CAMERA_TOKEN:=:connect-token-here}"

So after correcting it and seeing that it worked, I cried about it for some time, and I continued to the next problem.

Since now it was broadcasting to my prusaconnect account, it was still upside down. So after some research I came across the solution. Instead of:

--rotate 180

I used:

--camera.rotate 180

Which now seems to work flawlessly.

I will post your script, but modified to my needs. Once I get home and I'm able to connect to my PI to copy everything and paste it here.

I want to thank you dearly for your help and posting the script, now I can happily watch what my printer is doing when I am away and need a quick print done before I get home!

@ToastCinnamon Glad you got it working! Feels good to solve a mystery. :) I'll make a note about camera.rotate in the script above to maybe help someone else in the future!

I have configured this for my Logitech, Inc. HD Pro Webcam C920:

BTW, on a fresh Pi Zero 2 I had to use --rotation 180 to make rotation work. Using --rotate or --camera.rotate gives me errors.

ERROR: *** unrecognised option '--rotate' ***
libcamera-still returned an error, retrying after 60s...

ERROR: *** unrecognised option '--camera.rotate' ***
libcamera-still returned an error, retrying after 60s...

Have a great day!

Updated the script to send the -k flag to curl: I was getting an error that the server's certificate couldn't be verified:

curl failed to verify the legitimacy of the server and therefore could not
establish a secure connection to it. To learn more about this situation and
how to fix it, please visit the web page mentioned above.

-k tells curl to skip this step.

You can use the script above to make Prusaconnect work with any camera with an RTSP feed. The easiest way I found to do this is with FFmpeg.

ffmpeg -y -rtsp_transport tcp -i rtsp://user:password@IP_ADDRESS_OF_RTSP -update -frames:v 1 -update 1 /tmp/output.jpg

Thanks for this guide

I got a Pi camera that died on arival so switched to a Webcam

Now you can use webcams with the above scritps but tweeked with different setups

Please see what I did

Setting Up a USB Webcam for Prusa Connect
Use a Raspberry Pi & Logitech C270 (or any USB webcam) to upload snapshots to Prusa Connect.

🔹 Features
✅ Automatically captures images every 10 seconds
✅ Uploads snapshots to Prusa Connect using API
✅ Runs continuously and restarts on boot

📌 Step 1: Install Required Software

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y fswebcam curl

fswebcam → Captures images from the Logitech C270
curl → Uploads images to Prusa Connect

Step 2: Test the Camera

fswebcam -r 1280x720 --no-banner /home/pi/snapshot.jpg
ls -l /home/pi/snapshot.jpg

If the file exists, the camera is working!

Step 3: Create the Upload Script

nano ~/prusa-camera-upload.sh
Paste this:

#!/bin/bash

# Set default values for environment variables
: "${HTTP_URL:=https://connect.prusa3d.com/c/snapshot}"
: "${DELAY_SECONDS:=10}"
: "${LONG_DELAY_SECONDS:=60}"
# A unique string to identify your camera
: "${FINGERPRINT:=123456789012345678}"
# Prusa Connect Camera Token (Replace this with your actual token)
: "${CAMERA_TOKEN:=your_prusa_camera_token}"

while true; do
    # Capture an image using fswebcam
    fswebcam -r 1280x720 --no-banner /home/pi/snapshot.jpg

    # If capture was successful, upload it
    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
        curl -k -X PUT "$HTTP_URL" \
            -H "accept: */*" \
            -H "content-type: image/jpg" \
            -H "fingerprint: $FINGERPRINT" \
            -H "token: $CAMERA_TOKEN" \
            --data-binary "@/home/pi/snapshot.jpg" \
            --no-progress-meter \
            --compressed

        # Reset delay to normal value
        DELAY=$DELAY_SECONDS
    else
        echo "fswebcam failed, retrying in $LONG_DELAY_SECONDS seconds..."
        DELAY=$LONG_DELAY_SECONDS
    fi

    sleep "$DELAY"
done

Replace your_prusa_camera_token with your actual Prusa Connect camera token.

If you don’t have a token yet, generate one in Prusa Connect.

Example:
CAMERA_TOKEN="apJ3t1lz2d3Zqm5RI2E9"

Save and exit:

Press CTRL + X, then Y, then Enter.

Make the script executable:

chmod +x ~/prusa-camera-upload.sh

Step 4: Run the Script

~/prusa-camera-upload.sh

✅ If successful, check Prusa Connect Web Cameras for updates.
❌ If it fails, check for errors

Step 5: Automate the Script on Boot

crontab -e

Add This at the buttom:
@reboot /home/pi/prusa-camera-upload.sh >/dev/null 2>&1

Save and exit.

Restart cron:
sudo systemctl restart cron

I also reboot the Pi:
sudo reboot now

The script will automatically start on boot.

And here is my result

Am I the only one who gets regurarly status_code:204 error messages? It's totally random, usually I have to restart the service every day. Sometimes it works for 10 hours, sometimes for 40 hours. Do you have any idea how can I fix this?

sudo systemctl status prusaconnect_upload_cam.service
● prusaconnect_upload_cam.service - Raspi Cam to Prusa Connect
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/prusaconnect_upload_cam.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2025-02-07 19:03:31 CET; 2 days ago
Main PID: 27648 (prusaconnect_up)
Tasks: 2 (limit: 1568)
CPU: 2h 3min 53.964s
CGroup: /system.slice/prusaconnect_upload_cam.service
├─27648 /bin/bash /usr/local/bin/prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh
└─29610 curl -k -X PUT https://connect.prusa3d.com/c/snapshot -H "accept: /" -H "content-type: image/jpg>

Feb 09 18:53:19 raspberrypi prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh[29485]: {"status_code":204}
Feb 09 18:53:42 raspberrypi prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh[29496]: {"status_code":204}
Feb 09 18:54:20 raspberrypi prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh[29507]: {"status_code":204}
Feb 09 18:55:11 raspberrypi prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh[29518]: {"status_code":204}
Feb 09 18:55:44 raspberrypi prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh[29531]: {"status_code":204}
Feb 09 18:56:52 raspberrypi prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh[29542]: {"status_code":204}
Feb 09 18:57:28 raspberrypi prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh[29553]: {"status_code":204}
Feb 09 18:58:23 raspberrypi prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh[29564]: {"status_code":204}
Feb 09 18:58:50 raspberrypi prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh[29576]: {"status_code":204}
Feb 09 18:59:19 raspberrypi prusaconnect_upload_cam.sh[29587]: {"status_code":204}

@domosgabor So a 204 isn't an error in the HTTP world: it's a success and just the server saying "I have nothing to return": https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Status/204 Do you find that once the 204s start showing up that your webcam images don't update on the Prusa site?

@domosgabor So a 204 isn't an error in the HTTP world: it's a success and just the server saying "I have nothing to return": https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Status/204 Do you find that once the 204s start showing up that your webcam images don't update on the Prusa site?

Thanks for the clarification. Exactly as you said, the camera stops updating after getting 204 status code.

So it's not an error, but how can I investigate why the image is not updating?