Having 2 different URLLIB cameras setup causes stills to be cross-saved in each-other's Stills directories.

[LucidEye]

Describe the problem/bug

I have 2 separate IP cameras setup on my network.
They each have unique IP addresses and unique host names as they should.
I am accessing those cameras in Mycodo using the urllib camera option.
In the urllib camera settings I have separate Stills directories setup for each camera.
I am using 2 separate Trigger: Daily Time Span Functions to grab stills from each camera at 10 second intervals to later compile into time-lapse videos.
Somehow, if both Daily Time Span Functions are active at the same time, stills captured from camera B are being saved in the Stills directory for camera A ?!?!?
Obviously this completely ruins the image sequence for any time-lapse compilation.
I don't even understand how this is possible given that there are different directories setup for each camera and the images are coming in from different IP addresses... but somehow it's happening, and I don't even know where to begin to troubleshoot this.

There are many repeating errors in the logs saying that images could not be acquired, but both cameras are functioning fine, both have at least 90% WiFI signal strength, I can access both camera's web interfaces, live-streams, and still streams with no problems directly from a web browser.
This is what the error blocks all look like, one for each camera and it's respective time span function...

FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/home/pi/Mycodo/cameras/TasmotaCam/stills/Still-2-TasmotaCam-2026-01-07_08-52-01.jpg'
2026-01-07 08:52:01,546 - ERROR - mycodo.devices.camera - No image was created. Check your settings and hardware for any issues.
2026-01-07 08:52:01,546 - ERROR - mycodo.action.camera_capture_photo_595fca5d -  Could not acquire image.
2026-01-07 09:22:51,448 - ERROR - mycodo.devices.camera - Could not convert, rotate, or invert image: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/tmp/wc.jpg' -> '/home/pi/Mycodo/cameras/TasmotaCam/stills/Still-2-TasmotaCam-2026-01-07_09-22-51.jpg'
2026-01-07 09:22:51,448 - ERROR - mycodo.devices.camera - Camera image not found
2026-01-07 09:22:51,449 - ERROR - mycodo.devices.camera - Exception raised in 'camera_record' when setting user grp: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/home/pi/Mycodo/cameras/TasmotaCam/stills/Still-2-TasmotaCam-2026-01-07_09-22-51.jpg'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/Mycodo/mycodo/devices/camera.py", line 497, in camera_record
    set_user_grp(path_file, 'mycodo', 'mycodo')
  File "/opt/Mycodo/mycodo/utils/system_pi.py", line 683, in set_user_grp
    os.chown(filepath, uid, gid)
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/home/pi/Mycodo/cameras/West-3/stills/Still-3-West-3-2026-01-07_10-46-10.jpg'
2026-01-07 10:46:11,750 - ERROR - mycodo.devices.camera - No image was created. Check your settings and hardware for any issues.
2026-01-07 10:46:11,751 - ERROR - mycodo.action.camera_capture_photo_18f8e39d -  Could not acquire image.
2026-01-07 10:55:51,716 - ERROR - mycodo.devices.camera - Could not convert, rotate, or invert image: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/tmp/wc.jpg' -> '/home/pi/Mycodo/cameras/West-3/stills/Still-3-West-3-2026-01-07_10-55-50.jpg'
2026-01-07 10:55:51,717 - ERROR - mycodo.devices.camera - Camera image not found
2026-01-07 10:55:51,717 - ERROR - mycodo.devices.camera - Exception raised in 'camera_record' when setting user grp: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/home/pi/Mycodo/cameras/West-3/stills/Still-3-West-3-2026-01-07_10-55-50.jpg'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/Mycodo/mycodo/devices/camera.py", line 497, in camera_record
    set_user_grp(path_file, 'mycodo', 'mycodo')
  File "/opt/Mycodo/mycodo/utils/system_pi.py", line 683, in set_user_grp
    os.chown(filepath, uid, gid)

Versions:

• Mycodo Version: 8.16.2 - latest release version
• Raspberry Pi Version: Pi 4 - 4GB ram
• Raspbian OS Version: Debian 12 Bookworm for Raspberry Pi 4 - Running on a USB 3 SSD (NO SD CARD)

Reproducibility

Please list specific setup details that are involved and the steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Setup urllib camera A, giving it a unique Stills directory
2. Setup urllib camera B, giving it a unique Stills directory
3. Setup Trigger: Daily Time Span Function A to capture still image from camera A every 10 seconds.
4. Setup Trigger: Daily Time Span Function B to capture still image from camera B every 10 seconds.
5. Activate Daily Time Span Function A and allow it to run for a few minutes. Observe the images being saved in camera A Stills directory and you will see only images from camera A being saved.
6. Activate Daily Time Span Function B and allow it to run for a few minutes. Now observe the images being saved in the Stills directory for camera A and you will start seeing occasional and random images from camera B being saved in the wrong directory YET SOMEHOW WITH THE CORRECT NAME AND TIMESTAMP FOR CAMERA A ?!?!?!?
7. Somehow, the images are being mixed up and I can't understand how this can even happen.
8. Expected behavior is to have the correct images being saved for each separate camera in their respective separate stills directories without getting mixed up and incorrectly renamed for the wrong camera.

Each camera has it's own unique stills directory as setup in the Camera Page settings...

Camera Page settings, each camera has a unique name, IP address, and stills directory...

"Camera A"

"Camera B"

Daily Span Function for "Camera A"

Daily Time Span Function for "Camera B"

[kizniche]

What is actually causing the photo to be taken? An Action of the Time Span Function?

[kizniche]

Have you ran the function in debug mode to show additional log lines?

[LucidEye]

What is actually causing the photo to be taken? An Action of the Time Span Function?

Yes, in the Function's Actions - Camera: Capture Photo is taking the photo.
Sorry... I forgot to post the Function settings screen shots... I've added them to the original post. You can see that everything has unique IDs, so it's really baffling how this could be happening

Running the Functions with debug logging enabled does not show any additional information that would indicate what is causing this issue.
In fact... I am not seeing the problem happening now with logging enabled... but I also moved Camera B back inside to double check that it wasn't a hardware problem, so that camera is closer to the router now... so now I'm even more uncertain of what the cause of the issue is.
I'll post more after returning Camera B to it's outdoor location and doing more testing.

[kizniche]

And your cameras have IP addresses set by your router by MAC address (DHCP) or, if not DHCP, internally set to static IP addresses by the cameras?

[LucidEye]

Actually, "Camera A" is set to a static IP by the device (device gives router it's IP address).
"Camera A" is an older ESP32-CAM (WROOM) running an older version of Tasmota v14.5.0 (webcam-release).
Newer versions of Tasmota caused major jpg acquisition problems with this device, so I rolled back versions until the problems stopped. It was working just fine with Mycodo until I setup "Camera B" and turned on the camera b time-lapse Function.

"Camera B" is using a DHCP assigned address (router gives device it's IP address).
"Camera B" is a newer ESP32-S3-CAM devkit board running the latest Tasmota v15.2.0.1 (ebe2da3-lvgl-haspmota) (ESP32-S3 webcam-release).

Hostnames and IPs for all devices are also setup in my PiHole local DNS server, but that shouldn't be in play here... only IPs and MACs should matter since I am not using hostnames in any of the URL paths.

I'll try setting "Camera B" to a static IP address and see if that helps... I usually have all my "regular devices" set to use static IPs, I just haven't set this one yet.

[LucidEye]

Well... after getting "Camera B" setup with a static IP and installing it back outside, I am not seeing the problem at the moment. I even set Camera B's capture interval to 5 seconds and it's still keeping up and not dropping frames or saving frames in the wrong directory... for now. I guess I'll just have to keep an eye on things and see what happens. Still don't understand how it could even be grabbing an image from the wrong camera, and saving it with the other camera's name and timestamp in the filename. There should be no way for that to happen.

[kizniche]

It likely was being periodically reassigned to the other camera's IP address.

[LucidEye]

I don't understand how that would even be possible. Not unless the camera was constantly rebooting and requesting a new IP (which it wasn't), or the router was somehow mixing up the packets, and that shouldn't be possible either given all the self-checking mechanisms in the TCP/IP stack that ensure data integrity. I have my static IP range and the WiFi IP range separated in the router to prevent such issues. And I've also made sure I have my router set to be as compatible as possible with Tasmota devices since 99% of my WiFi clients are Tasmota devices (all with static IPs), everything else is on wired Ethernet, also with static IPs.

[LucidEye]

It's still happening :-(
images from Camera B are being randomly saved in the stills directory for Camera A... but not vice-versa.
When this happens, there is a correlating timestamped error in the logs that Mycodo could not acquire an image from Camera A... so it somehow is then getting the image from Camera B and saving it with the name and timestamp for Camera A... still can't see how this is happening, nothing in the error logs points to anything that could be doing this.
I am also seeing random image acquisition errors for Camera B, but those timestamps do NOT correlate to any log errors , it just simply drops that frame and waits for the next interval... this seems to be "normal"... once every 10-15 minutes I get a dropped frame or 2 from these ESP-CAMs, no big deal.

Here is the log error without debug enabled...

FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/home/pi/Mycodo/cameras/TasmotaCam/stills/Still-2-TasmotaCam-2026-01-09_11-48-51.jpg'
2026-01-09 11:48:51,660 - ERROR - mycodo.devices.camera - No image was created. Check your settings and hardware for any issues.
2026-01-09 11:48:51,661 - ERROR - mycodo.action.camera_capture_photo_595fca5d -  Could not acquire image.
2026-01-09 12:04:11,799 - ERROR - mycodo.devices.camera - Could not convert, rotate, or invert image: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/tmp/wc.jpg' -> '/home/pi/Mycodo/cameras/West-3/stills/Still-3-West-3-2026-01-09_12-04-10.jpg'
2026-01-09 12:04:11,800 - ERROR - mycodo.devices.camera - Camera image not found
2026-01-09 12:04:11,801 - ERROR - mycodo.devices.camera - Exception raised in 'camera_record' when setting user grp: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/home/pi/Mycodo/cameras/West-3/stills/Still-3-West-3-2026-01-09_12-04-10.jpg'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/Mycodo/mycodo/devices/camera.py", line 497, in camera_record
    set_user_grp(path_file, 'mycodo', 'mycodo')
  File "/opt/Mycodo/mycodo/utils/system_pi.py", line 683, in set_user_grp
    os.chown(filepath, uid, gid)
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/home/pi/Mycodo/cameras/West-3/stills/Still-3-West-3-2026-01-09_12-04-10.jpg'
2026-01-09 12:04:11,840 - ERROR - mycodo.devices.camera - No image was created. Check your settings and hardware for any issues.
2026-01-09 12:04:11,841 - ERROR - mycodo.action.camera_capture_photo_18f8e39d -  Could not acquire image.
2026-01-09 12:10:41,718 - ERROR - mycodo.devices.camera - Could not convert, rotate, or invert image: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/tmp/wc.jpg' -> '/home/pi/Mycodo/cameras/West-3/stills/Still-3-West-3-2026-01-09_12-10-40.jpg'
2026-01-09 12:10:41,719 - ERROR - mycodo.devices.camera - Camera image not found
2026-01-09 12:10:41,719 - ERROR - mycodo.devices.camera - Exception raised in 'camera_record' when setting user grp: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/home/pi/Mycodo/cameras/West-3/stills/Still-3-West-3-2026-01-09_12-10-40.jpg'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/Mycodo/mycodo/devices/camera.py", line 497, in camera_record
    set_user_grp(path_file, 'mycodo', 'mycodo')
  File "/opt/Mycodo/mycodo/utils/system_pi.py", line 683, in set_user_grp
    os.chown(filepath, uid, gid)

Here is the log error with debug enabled... no additional info :-(

2026-01-09 12:45:50,211 - DEBUG - mycodo.controllers.controller_trigger_5c72de1e - Executing Trigger Actions
2026-01-09 12:45:51,547 - ERROR - mycodo.devices.camera - Could not convert, rotate, or invert image: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/tmp/wc.jpg' -> '/home/pi/Mycodo/cameras/TasmotaCam/stills/Still-2-TasmotaCam-2026-01-09_12-45-51.jpg'
2026-01-09 12:45:51,547 - ERROR - mycodo.devices.camera - Camera image not found
2026-01-09 12:45:51,547 - ERROR - mycodo.devices.camera - Exception raised in 'camera_record' when setting user grp: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/home/pi/Mycodo/cameras/TasmotaCam/stills/Still-2-TasmotaCam-2026-01-09_12-45-51.jpg'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/Mycodo/mycodo/devices/camera.py", line 497, in camera_record
    set_user_grp(path_file, 'mycodo', 'mycodo')
  File "/opt/Mycodo/mycodo/utils/system_pi.py", line 683, in set_user_grp
    os.chown(filepath, uid, gid)
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/home/pi/Mycodo/cameras/TasmotaCam/stills/Still-2-TasmotaCam-2026-01-09_12-45-51.jpg'
2026-01-09 12:45:51,587 - ERROR - mycodo.devices.camera - No image was created. Check your settings and hardware for any issues.
2026-01-09 12:45:51,587 - ERROR - mycodo.action.camera_capture_photo_595fca5d -  Could not acquire image.
2026-01-09 12:45:51,588 - DEBUG - mycodo.action.camera_capture_photo_595fca5d - Message: 2026-01-09 12:45:50
[Trigger 5c72de1e-18b8-40e3-8a1a-1cdd91eeae92 (TasmotaCam TIME-LAPSE)] Capturing photo with Camera 319ae39e-9f15-4c07-ae73-9548e8430709 (TasmotaCam). Could not acquire image.
2026-01-09 12:45:51,588 - DEBUG - mycodo.trigger_action_595fca5d - Message: 2026-01-09 12:45:50
[Trigger 5c72de1e-18b8-40e3-8a1a-1cdd91eeae92 (TasmotaCam TIME-LAPSE)] Capturing photo with Camera 319ae39e-9f15-4c07-ae73-9548e8430709 (TasmotaCam). Could not acquire image.
2026-01-09 12:45:51,588 - DEBUG - mycodo.trigger_controller_actions_5c72de1e - Message: 2026-01-09 12:45:50
[Trigger 5c72de1e-18b8-40e3-8a1a-1cdd91eeae92 (TasmotaCam TIME-LAPSE)] Capturing photo with Camera 319ae39e-9f15-4c07-ae73-9548e8430709 (TasmotaCam). Could not acquire image.

I'm going to try deleting and re-creating the camera setup for Camera A since that was created several version upgrades ago and may need to be "refreshed" for some unknown reason. But still, there is no reasonable explanation as to why or how this could be happening.

[kizniche]

Perhaps it's due to a lingering temp file in /tmp and when the camera can't acquire an image, it may find that temp file from the other camera and think it's the one. Temp files should have random filenames and should be attempted to be deleted after attempting to move. I'll take a look at the code and see if I can make some improvements and you can test if it has an affect.

[kizniche]

Just made a potential fix, if you want to upgrade to master to test.

[LucidEye]

Thank you. I'll have to test it tomorrow, the camera is already in deepsleep mode for the night.

[LucidEye]

I finally got some time to try upgrading to Master to test the cameras, but instead the upgrade has broken the PWM output....

2026-01-18 23:34:05,039 - ERROR - mycodo.outputs.pwm_gpio_c0598a74 - Could not connect to pigpiod
2026-01-18 23:34:05,039 - INFO - mycodo.outputs.pwm_gpio_c0598a74 - Initialized in 193.2 ms
2026-01-18 23:34:08,202 - DEBUG - mycodo.outputs.pwm_gpio_c0598a74 - output_on_off(on, 0, pwm, 20.0, 0.0, True)
2026-01-18 23:34:08,202 - ERROR - mycodo.outputs.pwm_gpio_c0598a74 - Cannot manipulate Output c0598a74-47aa-4141-8cc8-708de5e7fc3c: Output not set up.

I tried installing a DHT22 to force the reinstall of the pigpoid dependency, but PWM is still broken.... and this couldn't be a worse time for it to be broken since I am in the middle of a dry and cure process and I need Mycodo to control the humidity :-(

Running sudo pigpiod seems to start the service, but running sudo systemctl status pigpiod seems to cause the system to hang (no output, just dead cursor, and need to do ctrl+c to get back to cli prompt, but ps aux says it is running... Yet I have no control over my fans...

Please respond asap as this is my "production machine" and I need to get this working immeadiately.

[LucidEye]

well... after a couple of reboots, and clicking on the "off" button for the PWM output before doing anything else after rebooting (which was throwing the error before), it finally seems to be working again... no idea why it wasn't working after the upgrade.