Turn any Raspberry Pi + Camera module into a web server that syncs your Philips Hue-compatible lights in real time using HarmonizeProject and RPi_Cam_Web_Interface.

A collection of shell scripts for the Raspberry Pi that turn it into a highly configurable web server with GUI that will sync your Philips Hue lights to the Pi camera's video stream in real time. This is achieved by combining together the capabilities of HarmonizeProject and RPi_Cam_Web_Interface.

• Raspberry Pi running Raspberry Pi OS (desktop or lite, tested on RPi Zero and 3B+ running Buster - 32-bit OS only, arm64 not currently supported)
• Raspberry Pi camera module (or equivalent)
• Philips Hue Bridge with compatible lights

Before starting, please make sure that the legacy camera interface has been enabled on your Raspberry Pi. You can do this by running sudo raspi-config and enabling the camera under Interface Options.

First, clone the project onto your Pi:

git clone https://github.com/lVlyke/rpi-cam-harmonize-server.git

Next, cd into the newly created directory and run the install script:

cd ./rpi-cam-harmonize-server
./install.sh

This may take a while depending on your hardware.

All settings are configured via the .syncrc file.

If you modify any of the settings in .syncrc, you must run the apply.sh script afterward in order for your changes to take effect.

Below are all settings in .syncrc along with their default values:

picam_stream_src="http://localhost/cam_pic_new.php?pDelay="
picam_stream_fps=25
picam_stream_init_delay=1.5
picam_log_file="/tmp/rpi-cam-harmonize-server.log"
picam_bridge_ip="" # (Optional) Add your Hue bridge IP here
picam_group_id="" # (Optional) Add your entertainment group ID here

picam_stream_src - The camera stream URL. This does not normally need to be changed.

picam_stream_fps - The number of frames per second the camera stream URL will update. This can be increased/decreased depending on your hardware. Defaults to 25.

picam_stream_init_delay - The camera stream init delay. This can be increased if you are receiving rgbframe errors when starting light sync. See the "Troubleshooting" section below for more info.

picam_log_file - The log file. Defaults to /tmp/rpi-cam-harmonize-server.log.

picam_bridge_ip - (Optional) The IP address of your Hue Bridge. This is only needed when multiple Hue Bridges are on a single network.

picam_group_id - (Optional) The group ID of your Hue entertainment group. This is only needed when you have multiple entertainment groups defined.

If you modify any of the settings in .syncrc, you must run the apply.sh script afterward in order for your changes to take effect.

If you changed any settings in .syncrc, make sure to run apply.sh:

./apply.sh

By default, the server will start automatically when booting your Raspberry Pi. To start or stop the server manually, you can use the included start.sh and stop.sh scripts:

./start.sh

This will launch the web server. The GUI can be accessed via your web browser at your Raspberry Pi's IP address and/or hostname:

If your camera stream is slightly off alignment or needs to be cropped, you can adjust these and many other camera settings through the GUI until the stream output matches what you expect. See the RPi-Cam-Web-Interface wiki for more information about configuring the camera.

Once you can see the server GUI and verify your camera feed is working, you can start the light sync. To do this, simply press the Start Light Sync button. This may take a while depending on your hardware.

NOTE FOR FIRST TIME SETUP: When starting the light sync for the first time, you will need to give your Raspberry Pi permission to control your lights by pressing the button on your Hue Bridge. You can use the following command to watch the server output, which will prompt you to press the button on your bridge when ready:

tail -f /tmp/rpi-cam-harmonize-server.log

If everything worked correctly, you should now see your lights being synced to the camera input.

To stop the light sync, simply press the Stop Light Sync button.

The web server can be turned off by running the stop.sh command:

./stop.sh

Make sure you have enabled the legacy camera interface on your Raspberry Pi. You can do this by running sudo raspi-config and enabling the camera under Interface Options.

The first thing you should do is check the log, which by default is saved at /tmp/rpi-cam-harmonize-server.log. This will most likely show you what the issue is.

If the log shows ERROR: Button press not detected, exiting application, you need to make sure you press the button on the Hue Bridge at the correct time during first start. The easiest way to do this is to run tail -f /tmp/rpi-cam-harmonize-server.log after clicking "Start Light Sync".

If the log shows an error about w, h, rgbframe or other variables, try increasing the picam_stream_init_delay value in .syncrc and then run apply.sh and try again.

This can be either due to lack of hardware resources or due to network connectivity issues.

First, try lowering the picam_stream_fps in .syncrc. If you are using a very low powered Pi like the Zero, try starting with 10 FPS and increase/decrease from there to see what is ideal for your hardware.

If lowering the stream FPS has no effect, it may be a network problem. If you are using Wi-Fi, try switching to a wired connection if possible.

You can also check top to make sure no other background processes are starving resources.

Special thanks to the authors and contributors to RPi_Cam_Web_Interface and HarmonizeProject. This would not exist without either of these excellent projects!