Skip to content

Setup of Raspberry Pi Zero as Standalone System

Up

This section describes how to set up a Raspberry Pi Zero W or Zero 2 W as standalone system.

This will allow you placing the Raspi camera anywhere, independently from an accessible Wi-Fi.

It will act as hotspot to which you can connect from a mobile client to gain access to raspiCamSrv.

The subsequent descriptions can, in principle, also be applied for other Raspberry Pi models.

Headless Setup

During the setup of such a system, the Raspberry Pi requires a cabled network connection because the Wi-Fi adapter will be configured as hotspot and is, therefore, not available for access by the configuration client.

Connections to a display, keyboard and mouse are not required.

Standalone Setup

Required cables and adapters:

  • USB A to Ethernet adapter
  • Micro USB/Male to USB A/Female cable
  • Power supply with Micro USB plug

1. Install OS on microSD Card

Follow the instructions for Install using Imager.

  • Model
    Make sure to select the correct model
  • Bullseye, Bookworm or Trixie?
    raspiCamSrv can be used with all of these systems.
    Unless other reasons force taking one of the older OS, it is recommended to use the officially recommended, which is currently Trixie.
  • Full or lite system?
    It is recommended to install the full system although the desktop environment will not be required.
  • OS Customisation
    Make sure to Configure wireless LAN, although the Wi-Fi Adapter will later not be run in client mode,
    however this will assure that the Wireless LAN Country will be set.

2. Power Up

  1. If camera applications are intended, connect the camera (the small CSI-2 port of Pi Zero and Pi 5 require a special cable)
  2. Insert the microSD card into the card slot
  3. If available, encapsulate the Pi into a case
  4. Connect the network USB cable through an ethernet adapter to a switch of your local network
  5. Connect the power supply

3. Connect and upgrade

The system may take some time until it is visible within the network.

From a client device connect via SSH

ssh <user>@<hostname>

...

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

4. Configure Hotspot

The process of configuration is slightly different, depending on the cosen OS:

5. Install raspiCamSrv

For installation, you will need to connect through ethernet.

Then, follow the raspiCamSrv Installation Procedure, which will also do the Service configuration.

6. Test

After rebooting, first test using the client connected with ethernet cable.

If this is successfull, you can shutdown and unplug the ethernet cable.

After restart, connect from a mobile client to the hotspot and connect to raspiCamSrv from a browser window.
NOTE, that for the Trixie setup, you need to use <hostname>.local instead of hostname.

Updating a Stanalone RaspiCamSrv System

Since the standalone system has no internet connection, you will not be notified on new raspiCamSrv versions (see Update notification through coloured version number).

When you are aware of an update, you need to connect the standalone Raspberry Pi to a network with internet access using an ethernet cable.

Then, you can use the Update function to check for updates and for updating raspiCamSrv.