Hi there,
Would like to use my USB camera with Home Assistant. First I had Home Assistant as OS on my SD card but found that the add-on ‘Camera’ (via menu Hassio) didn’t support local USB cams, only IP cams.
I found an article stating that I could use a USB camera with Home Assistant using ‘motion’. I know this program, used it before so know it’ll be working. This is the article:
Use USB Camera with HomeAssistant: https://blog.kalavala.net/camera/diy/webcam/usbcam/homeassistant/motion/jpeg/binary_sensor/mqtt/raspberrypi/2018/01/11/diy-camera.html
In order to install ‘motion’, I think I had to install Home Assistant in a virtual environment according to this article:
Manual installation on a raspberry pi:
This install was successful and I can activate the virtual environment and start hass / Home Assistant from there. However, what I want to is:
- Have Home Assistant with ‘Hassio’ in the menu navigation so I can easily install add-ons
- Keep Home Assistant in a virtual environment so that I can install additional programs, like ‘motion’ where needed
- Autostart Home Assistant on booting the pi3
- Ability to use SSH to install programs that may not be available in Home Assistant
My questions are:
- Do you recommend this setup or do you have a better alternative? I have a hard time achieving point 1 above.
- What do you think of the article I found to install a USB camera, and is this the best way to go?
Thanks,
Hans