Using Raspberry Pi B+ / Raspbian to view Blue Iris UI3!

TL1096r

IPCT Contributor
Jan 28, 2017
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I want to thank @Ssayer for helping me with my setup.

Shout out to @bp2008 for creating UI3 - Check out more info on ui3 if you are not familiar:
Blue Iris UI3

Pi 4 came out now too:
https://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-Model-2019-Quad-Bluetooth/dp/B07TD42S27

Case for Pi 4:
https://www.amazon.com/GeeekPi-Acrylic-Raspberry-Cooling-Heatsinks/dp/B07TXSQ47L

The Raspbery Pi 3:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BC6WH7V

I went with B+ as it is a bit faster.
This kit also has the adapter that comes with an on/off button

Micro SD Card to load the Raspbian OS:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WR4IJBE

I went with this case that had 3 heatsinks included and a very quiet fan that helped with heat:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C6CFL2B

You can use any HDMI. You can go with this Pi kit that has the HDMI/Power Adapter/Case/Pi/Micro SD card all in one - (this kit doesn't have bottom heatsink or fan but are cheaply found on amazon):
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BCC8PK7

Steps to install:
Download the OS:

I went with "Raspbian Stretch with desktop and recommended software"
Download Raspbian for Raspberry Pi

Download balenaEtcher Portable (or full version) to flash Raspbian Software onto Micro SD Card:
balenaEtcher - Home

There are many DIYs on how to do this online but it is very easy.

--No need to install xscreensaver - only leaving this up as an option--
I suggest installing xscreensaver to remove the Pi screensaver.
Simply go into the Raspberrypi command line and type:
Code:
sudo apt-get install xscreensaver
xscreensaver will be installed in Menu -> Preferences -> Screensaver
On drop down menu select disable screen saver:
Z9FJEZn.png

--

-Raspberry has an audio port so you can use to plug in speakers to get alerts from your UI3. Just make sure you click the Speaker Icon and choose analog:
4JiszOA.png

-If your monitor has speakers you can use those too just keep speaker setting on HDMI

I hope this helps. This is just a newbie basic setup to help save some people time when first looking at this option.
 
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You're welcome.

A couple of things to add though. So long as UI3 is active, your screen shouldn't go to screensaver (provided that you have timeout set to 0 in settings for UI3). For my PI in the garage, when I'm going to leave for a while, I simply click on a second tab in Chromium (which allows the screen to get blanked after whatever time you have set for PI's blank screensaver) and turn off the monitor. CPU drops to 1%...

As to the audio (just as a clarification), if your monitor has speakers that you wish to use then you leave the audio set to HDMI. External speakers require the audio jack and the change to Analog.
 
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Your welcome.

A couple of things to add though. So long as UI3 is active, your screen shouldn't go to screensaver (provided that you have timeout set to 0 in settings for UI3). For my PI in the garage, when I'm going to leave for a while, I simply click on a second tab in Chromium (which allows the screen to get blanked after whatever time you have set for PI's blank screensaver) and turn off the monitor. CPU drops to 1%...

As to the audio (just as a clarification), if your monitor has speakers that you wish to use then you leave the audio set to HDMI. External speakers require the audio jack and the change to Analog.

Thanks. I am slowly learning so I appreciate the additional information.

I am looking into setting up 'unattended-upgrades' (automatic updates) too... To try to make it more secure. But updating manually is not so bad either.
 
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A couple of things to add though. So long as UI3 is active, your screen shouldn't go to screensaver (provided that you have timeout set to 0 in settings for UI3).

I respectively disagree with this. I have seven (7) dedicated RPis mounted on walls and for every one I had to install the xscreensaver (and then disable it, odd I know) to stop the screens from going blank. This is across Pi Zero, RPi3 and RPi3+. For the record though, I don't remember if this was before UI3 so you may be correct after all. Last six months?
 
I respectively disagree with this. I have seven (7) dedicated RPis mounted on walls and for every one I had to install the xscreensaver (and then disable it, odd I know) to stop the screens from going blank. This is across Pi Zero, RPi3 and RPi3+. For the record though, I don't remember if this was before UI3 so you may be correct after all. Last six months?

If you don't have something going "live", it's going to blank. That's why you set UI3 auto disable to 0. I have mine going most of the day and most every day. It hasn't blanked on me yet, so....
 
Do you use a fan or is the heatsinks sufficient while running UI3 24/7 on Pi?
 
If you are using H.264 / HTML5 video, the browser is probably telling the operating system "I'm playing a video, don't go to sleep."
 
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Great info @bp2008. I was unable to get it to work without xscreensaver.

I don't feel I was able to get auto-upgrades to work.

I went with manually installing each update and seemed to work ok.

What I used...
Type each one then enter:
Code:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install -y rpi-chromium-mods
sudo apt-get install -y python-sense-emu python3-sense-emu
sudo apt-get install -y python-sense-emu-doc realvnc-vnc-viewer
 
Do you use a fan or is the heatsinks sufficient while running UI3 24/7 on Pi?

Just the heatsinks. Haven't run it in the summer yet. The garage can get in to the upper 90°s F occasionally. We'll see then.
 
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@pov2 nice case. I wonder why they didn't design it to contact other points of significant heat generation besides the CPU? Maybe the other points don't really matter in the end?
 
Yes nice looking case but I think a fan would keep things cooler and I like the look of the plexiglass.

Is there a enough room in the case to leave the heatsinks on the Pi? I put the thinner heatsink on the bottom so it fits a different case I have:
https://www.amazon.com/CJRSLRB-Raspberry-Copper-Cooling-Heatsinks/dp/B07MZVJ9VV

Someone in the reviews did a test. I always thought pulling air out would be better but all fans suggest pushing air in through top.

Case + Fujipoly CPU Burn Stress Test
* Starts at 34.3C
* Finished 15mins at 63.4C

Case + Fujipoly + Fan (Pushing Air Into Case) CPU Burn Stress Test
* Starts at 34.3C
* Finished 15mins at 59.1C

Case + Fujipoly + Fan (Pulling Air Out) CPU Burn Stress Test
* Starts at 33.6C
* Finished 15mins at 56.9
 
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Well if you control where the air comes in, you can filter it and keep the interior from getting as dusty. So if you pull air out of the case with the only fan, then air is going to come in all the gaps around I/O ports and whatnot, and it won't be filtered air.
 
@pov2 nice case. I wonder why they didn't design it to contact other points of significant heat generation besides the CPU? Maybe the other points don't really matter in the end?
My guess would be because the CPU throttles when hot. Other components don't throttle. I think memory and other hot components will never get so hot so they fail or degrade. Otherwise, the specs would require heatsinks or they will be built-in. The CPU benefits from a heatsink sometimes but can protect itself by throttling.
 
Just an edit. You do not need screensaverx as the screen saver won't kick in while ui3 is running.

Has anyone tried this setup with the new PI 4 and Raspbian Buster? I might try it later this week and see how it goes.
 
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I highly advice using a read only FS together with overlayfs. This will prevent your SD card fron going corrupt in case of power failure or excessive writes
 
I highly advice using a read only FS together with overlayfs. This will prevent your SD card fron going corrupt in case of power failure or excessive writes

If you can explain more on how to do this it would be great.

I had a few power failure where I did not have Pi hooked up to a battery and so far no issues. A SD card is a few $ and not a big deal to just reupload the OS on it but it is extra time that would be good to avoid.
 
You can do this on a Fire tv stick and use the UI3 android app.
The fire sticks will go on sale for $29 every other month.