Proper syntax for configuration parameters

[bamoore01]

This is actually a question for motionplus but the discussion page for motionplus is closed so I'll ask it here

I am using motionplus on a RPi4 with an Arducam IMX327 camera. Everything works as I want it to (almost) but I'm still having trouble controlling the exposure. It appears that the long exposures are controlled by the framerate. To get a good picture of the streetlight lit area in in front of the house I set the frame rate to 2 or 3 and I get a good picture from that and the camera will self adjust for shorter exposures during the day to a certain extent.. But I'm having problems on the bright daylight side of the pictures. I can set the shutter with the "libcam_params ExposureTime=100" in full sun and get a good picture but it seems that allowing the exposure to set itself limits the speed to around 30000 micsec which is too long for full sun pictures . I've tried using the "libcam_params FrameDurationLimits=100|500000" but it doesn't seem to do anything. I can put any number I want in and they seem to be ignored. I'm not sure if I am not understanding the use of the parameter or if my syntax is wrong.

Also, whats up with the discussions for motionplus being closed?

[Mr-Dave]

Motionplus has been merged into the master branch of Motion and will be released as version 5.0 when ready.

The syntax looks OK but I will admit that I've not messed around with the libcamera parameters to see the effect of them. In the Motion log it should show the parameters being parsed as well as whether the parameters were accepted by libcamera or not.

[bamoore01]

After reading my first post I'm not sure I was clear. The MAX value of "500000" in the FrameDurationLimit parameter works fine. Only the MIN value is being ignored. Without the MAX value of "500000" in the FrameDurationLimits parameter, the exposure is limited to something much less than the "500000". To get the extended exposures I need I have to use both the FrameDurationLimits value of "500000" and a framerate of "2".

It is only the MIN value that seems to be ignored. I'm not sure what the MP log is telling me. The result of "cat mp.log | grep Duration" gives me;

Apr 19 07:54:23 [INF][ALL][mp00] libcam_params FrameDurationLimits 500|500000
Apr 19 07:54:24 [DBG][VID][cl101:default] FrameDuration(int)
Apr 19 07:54:24 [DBG][VID][cl101:default] FrameDurationLimits(Pipe delimited)

EDIT:

The above listing of the MP log was using the FrameDurationLimits parameter without the "=" sign before the numbers. I think that is the wrong syntaz ans added the "=" sign. I also lowered the bottom to "1" from "500". With that I got the following when I listed the MP log file same as above;

Apr 20 10:27:05 [INF][ALL][mp00] libcam_params FrameDurationLimits=1|500000
Apr 20 10:27:05 [DBG][ALL][cl101:default] util_parms_add: libcam_params:>FrameDurationLimits< >1|500000<
Apr 20 10:27:05 [NTC][VID][cl101:default] start_params: FrameDurationLimits : 1|500000
Apr 20 10:27:05 [DBG][VID][cl101:default] FrameDuration(int)
Apr 20 10:27:05 [DBG][VID][cl101:default] FrameDurationLimits(Pipe delimited)

[Mr-Dave]

I would suggest to not grep the log. Instead read the entries and look after what you've shown above to see whether they were accepted by the libcamera library.

[bamoore01]

I looked more closely at the log file. This is all there is. After all of the lines listed above, there is no more info relating to the FrameDurationLimit. The next lines in each case refer to another parameter.