videograbber: reinitialize USB device if there were no videos connected for e.g. 24 h

[yarikoptic]

In relation to #121

notes:

• should not reset if there is ongoing video collection

[yarikoptic]

I think we are again in the same situation

• our code does nohow react to me connecting display.
• touching the config restarts our thing but nohow effects the situation
• usb dongle pulsates with blue light, likely like if it is in a sleep mode?
• https://www.magewell.com/blog/110/detail talks about sleep mode in "fusion" cards, and that it should wake up whenever someone starts recording
• I have ran ffmpeg -f alsa -ac 2 -thread_queue_size 4096 -i hw:2,1 -f v4l2 -input_format yuyv422 -framerate 60 -video_size 1920x1080 -thread_queue_size 4096 -i /dev/video2 -c:v libx264 -flush_packets 1 -preset ultrafast -crf 18 -tune zerolatency -b:v 8M -maxrate 8M -bufsize 16M -vf setpts=PTS-STARTPTS -threads 4 -acodec aac -af asetpts=PTS-STARTPTS wakeywakey2.avi where /dev/video2 and overall execution options picked up from grep over 2024-10-20T14:22-04:00.log ( I think)
  • that video has "no signal" and otherwise there is no effect on our grabbing.
• I have interrupted running process and restarted reprostim-videocapture -d /data/reprostim -f /data/reprostim/logs/$(date --iso=minutes).log . It remains not reacting to connect/disconnect of cable.
• I disconnected/reconnected usb to the dongle on reproiner! Logs said

 reprostim@reproiner:/data/reprostim/logs$ tail -f 2025-01-14T16:26-05:00.log
2025-01-14 16:27:51.899 [INFO] [3054665] Disconnected USB device: 10549#8#4#4#63
2025-01-14 16:27:52.191 [INFO] [3054665] Connected USB device: 10549#8#4#4#65
2025-01-14 16:27:54.277 [INFO] [3054665] Disconnected USB device: 10549#8#4#4#65
2025-01-14 16:27:55.886 [INFO] [3054665] Connected USB device: 10549#8#4#4#66
2025-01-14 16:28:02.585 [INFO] [3054665] Disconnected USB device: 10549#8#4#4#66
2025-01-14 16:28:03.290 [INFO] [3054665] Connected USB device: 10549#8#4#4#67
2025-01-14 16:28:04.668 [INFO] [3054665] Disconnected USB device: 10549#8#4#4#67
2025-01-14 16:28:07.033 [INFO] [3054665] Connected USB device: 10549#8#4#4#68
2025-01-14 16:28:09.642 [INFO] [3054665] Disconnected USB device: 10549#8#4#4#68
2025-01-14 16:28:11.356 [INFO] [3054665] Connected USB device: 10549#8#4#4#69

but surprise -- still no recording! note that project is off ATM but external "control" display does show my display as I connect... uff shutting down the whole reproiner and restarting again...

[yarikoptic]

FWIW, I just stopped by and

• it didn't work through HDMI -> HDMI2VGA -> VGA F2F adapter
• worked just fine when I connected via USB...

so mystery remains somewhat on why it did not work 2 days ago for me

[vmdocua]

Status of the Blue Indicator Light in Magewell USB Capture+ device:

• On: The indicator light will be on steadily when a signal source is connected.
• Breathing: The indicator light is pulsing slowly when there is no signal, the signal cannot be locked or supported.
• Flashing: The indicator light flashes when there is a problem with the device.

Most likely device was in sleep/breathing mode based on our discussion. There is no direct API in SDK to keep device always up, but videocapture code permanently in cycle 1 time /sec invokes device API like MWOpenChannelByPath/MWGetVideoSignalStatus, theoretically it should keep it up. In addition to device sleep mode we should investigate provided power and USB power management settings on host computer, to make sure that box doesn't switch device into a low-power state when idle.

To trace/monitor reprostim-videocapture issues we can use it with --verbose command-line option, but it produces large logs. Looked at it, but didn't find something unusual.

When stopping reprostim-videocapture it also good to make sure that no capture or ffmpeg processes accidentally up, like:

ps aux | grep videocapture
ps aux | grep ffmpeg

May be we also need to install USB Capture Utility at this box, so we can start it manually for debug/monitor purposes (https://www.magewell.com/downloads/usb-capture#/tools/linux-ubuntu).

Other option there is to run UI and see how VLC can capture video signal visually.

P.S.: After box was restarted somehow repromon containers were down. It has been restarted, so now it should work fine.

[vmdocua]

Some notes based on device behaviour and reprostim-videocapture process automatic restart (via config reload) or manuall direct process restart and fact it didn't help in this situation.

Proposal in this area: As we have repromon and capture utility connected to it. We can detect inactivity for some long period of time (like 24h+-) and send ERROR status message to repromon system in this case. Just my 2c.

[yarikoptic]

Proposal in this area: As we have repromon and capture utility connected to it. We can detect inactivity for some long period of time (like 24h+-) and send ERROR status message to repromon system in this case. Just my 2c.

Good idea, but ideally/eventually it should be even more precise as it should be ERRORed if there were MRI acquisitions in the day but no videos recorded. Ideally if there is MRI with func prefix and not task-rest -- then definitely there should have been a video! ;) May be I should first adjust my cron job (the tools/cron-check-reproiner-videos) to perform that to see how well that rule applies! But with that in mind -- unlikely it should be the job of reprostim-videocapture to send ERROR.

[yarikoptic]

re the last comment, pushed that tune up to cron script in http://github.com/ReproNim/reprostim/commit/baf076dcfd57f9b157b2a358f928f8f6e67baadd

[vmdocua]

Good idea, but ideally/eventually it should be even more precise as it should be ERRORed if there were MRI acquisitions in the day but no videos recorded. Ideally if there is MRI with func prefix and not task-rest -- then definitely there should have been a video! ;) May be I should first adjust my cron job (the tools/cron-check-reproiner-videos) to perform that to see how well that rule applies! But with that in mind -- unlikely it should be the job of reprostim-videocapture to send ERROR.

This is true that should exist some external monitor or watchdog to control video capture status. ATM reprostim-videocapture sends to repromon system some high level messages under ReproStim category for informational purposes (like utility started/terminated or capture session started/finished or USB device connected/disconnected etc) .