How To Send A Captured Image Through Email Using Raspberry Pi, Pi Camera, And Python

Introduction

 

This article demonstrates how to send a captured image through email using Raspberry Pi, Pi camera, and Python.

 

 

Pi can handle Python IDE 3.0. If you can easily write the mail scripting code, a python script can be used to send a picture via email.

 

Requirement

 

I used the following equipment for this Raspberry Pi web server article.

• Raspberry Pi 3
• Minimum 8GB SD Card if you're using Raspberry Pi 3
• Ethernet or Wifi
• Putty
• Pi Camera
• VNC Viewer

Optional

• USB Keyboard
• USB Mouse

Installation

 

You can learn the Raspberry Pi installation from my previous article and then follow my instructions to connect the Pi Camera.

 

Pi Camera

 

This package provides a pure Python interface to the Raspberry Pi Camera Module for Python 2.7 (or above) or Python 3.2 (or above).

 

 

 

Step 1 

 

First, the Raspberry Pi must be connected to your desktop. Then, connect your wi-fi on your Pi or connect your ethernet. After that, open the terminal of your Operating System using the following code.

1. hostname -I 

Next, open PuTTY or VNC software and paste the Host Name (or IP Address) on this PuTTY.

 

 

After that, open the terminal box and enter your default PI name and password.

• Username (pi)
• Password (raspberry)

Step 2

 

Next, we need to update the Raspberry Pi. So, install the latest packages. You can do that using the following commands.

1. sudo apt-get update
2. sudo apt-get upgrade

or

1. sudo apt-get update && upgrade

If you want to install Python 3.0

1. sudo apt-get install python3

Install an SMTP service 

1. sudo apt-get install ssmtp

Configure the SMTP

1. sudo nano /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf

Step 3

 

Next, you need to enable the permissions and options like  SSH and Camera. So, go to the Raspberry Pi configuration.

 

 

Step 4

 

Open the Python IDE 2.7 or above 3.2, create a new file and save it as camera.py. It’s important that you do not save it as picamera.py

 

The Camera testing code is given below.

from picamera import PiCamera
from time import sleep
camera = PiCamera()
camera.start_preview()
sleep(05)
camera.stop_preview()

Save with Ctrl + S and run with F5. The camera preview should be shown for 05 seconds, and then close. 

 

or

 

Run the program.

sudo python camera.py

Note

 

The camera preview only works when a monitor is connected to the Pi, so remote access (such as SSH and VNC) will not allow you to see the camera preview.

 

 

Allowing Gmail SMTP Access for Accounts with Standard Authentication

 

To allow access to Gmail’s SMTP server from your app, you can follow these steps,

• Login to your Gmail account using your username and password.
• From the top right corner go to “My Account“.
• Under the “Sign-in & security” section locate “Connected apps & sites” and click on it.
• Locate “Allow less secure apps” setting and turn it “On“.

 

After this, change the code for file attachment format. The code is given below.

import smtplib,ssl
from picamera import PiCamera
from time import sleep
from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
from email.mime.base import MIMEBase
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from email.utils import formatdate
from email import encoders

camera = PiCamera()

camera.start_preview()
sleep(5)
camera.capture('/home/pi/image.jpg')     # image path set
sleep(5)
camera.stop_preview()
def send_an_email():
    toaddr = '[email protected]'      # To id
    me = '[email protected]'          # your id
    subject = "What's News"              # Subject

    msg = MIMEMultipart()
    msg['Subject'] = subject
    msg['From'] = me
    msg['To'] = toaddr
    msg.preamble = "test "
    #msg.attach(MIMEText(text))

    part = MIMEBase('application', "octet-stream")
    part.set_payload(open("image.jpg", "rb").read())
    encoders.encode_base64(part)
    part.add_header('Content-Disposition', 'attachment; filename="image.jpg"')   # File name and format name
    msg.attach(part)

    try:
       s = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587)  # Protocol
       s.ehlo()
       s.starttls()
       s.ehlo()
       s.login(user = '[email protected]', password = '*********')  # User id & password
       #s.send_message(msg)
       s.sendmail(me, toaddr, msg.as_string())
       s.quit()
    #except:
    #   print ("Error: unable to send email")
    except SMTPException as error:
          print ("Error")                # Exception

send_an_email()

Save with Ctrl + S and run with F5. When you check your mail, you will find that the image has been received.

 

Output 

 

 

Summary 

 

Finally, we have successfully sent the captured image through email using Raspberry Pi, Pi Camera, and Python.