MISC_DOCKER_COMPOSE_FILES/Frigate/README.md

Frigate on Raspberry Pi 5 with a USB Google Coral

A ready-to-use Frigate NVR deployment for a Raspberry Pi 5 using a USB Google Coral EdgeTPU for hardware-accelerated object detection.

Based on the official Frigate documentation: https://docs.frigate.video/

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What's in this folder

frigate/
├── docker-compose.yml     # Container definition (USB Coral passthrough, ports, volumes)
├── config/
│   └── config.yml         # Frigate configuration (detector, cameras, recording)
├── storage/               # Recordings, snapshots, and exports live here
└── README.md              # This file

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Before you start — hardware notes

• Power the Pi properly. Use the official 27W USB-C supply for the Pi 5.
• The USB Coral is power-hungry. If you also attach a USB SSD or other USB devices, the Pi may not supply enough power and you'll get instability. Use a powered external USB hub in that case.
• Plug the Coral into a USB 3.0 (blue) port, ideally through the powered hub.
• No hardware video decode on the Pi 5. Unlike the Pi 4, the Pi 5 does not expose a /dev/video11 decoder for Frigate, so camera decoding runs on the CPU. Keep camera count and detect resolution modest, and use camera substreams for the detect role (the included config already does this).

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Step 1 — Prepare the OS

Use a 64-bit Debian-based OS (Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit, Bookworm or Trixie). Flash it, boot, then update:

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y
sudo reboot

Step 2 — Install Docker and Docker Compose

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh

Add your user to the docker group so you don't need sudo each time:

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Log out and back in (or reboot) for the group change to apply, then verify:

docker --version
docker compose version

Step 3 — Connect and verify the USB Coral

Plug the Coral in (USB 3.0 port, powered hub if you have other USB devices). The Frigate container ships with the EdgeTPU libraries built in, so you do not need to install any Coral runtime on the host — passing /dev/bus/usb into the container (already configured in docker-compose.yml) is enough.

Confirm the host sees it:

lsusb

A freshly plugged Coral appears as Global Unichip Corp.; after it runs inference once it re-enumerates as Google Inc.. Either is fine.

Step 4 — Put these files on the Pi

Copy this entire frigate/ folder to the Pi (e.g. to your home directory so it lives at ~/frigate). You can use scp, a USB stick, or git.

cd ~/frigate

Step 5 — Set your shm-size (shared memory)

Frigate stores decoded frames in shared memory. Calculate the minimum per camera using your detect resolution (this example is 720p, including logs):

python3 -c 'print("{:.2f}MB".format((1280 * 720 * 1.5 * 20 + 270480) / 1048576 + 40))'
# ~66.63MB for one 720p camera

Multiply the per-camera portion by your number of cameras and add ~40MB for logs. The provided docker-compose.yml uses 512mb, which comfortably covers several cameras. Adjust the shm_size value if needed.

Step 6 — Edit the config for your cameras

Open config/config.yml and update:

• Camera RTSP URLs — replace user, password, IP, and stream paths with your camera's real values. The RTSP path format varies by manufacturer.
• detect width/height — must match the resolution of the stream assigned the detect role.
• MQTT — set enabled: true and fill in the host if you use Home Assistant.

Also change FRIGATE_RTSP_PASSWORD in docker-compose.yml from password to something of your own.

Step 7 — Start Frigate

cd ~/frigate
docker compose up -d

Follow the logs to confirm a clean startup and that the Coral was found:

docker logs -f frigate

Look for the EdgeTPU being detected and an inference speed (typically ~8–15ms on a USB Coral). Press Ctrl+C to stop following the logs.

Step 8 — Open the web UI

https://<your-pi-ip>:8971

On first launch Frigate creates an admin account. Check the container logs for the initial password, log in, and change it.

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Verifying the Coral is actually being used

In the web UI, open the System / Metrics page. Your coral detector should be listed with an inference speed and a detection FPS. If the inference speed is very high (hundreds of ms), detection is running on CPU and the Coral is not being used properly — see troubleshooting below.

Troubleshooting: Coral not detected

Try these in order:

1. Restart the container: docker compose restart
2. Unplug/replug the Coral, then restart.
3. Use a powered USB hub if other USB devices are attached — power starvation is the most common cause of instability on the Pi.
4. Try a different USB port; prefer USB 3.0 (blue).
5. Confirm lsusb shows the Global Unichip or Google device.

Official EdgeTPU troubleshooting: https://docs.frigate.video/troubleshooting/edgetpu

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Updating Frigate later

cd ~/frigate
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Useful commands

docker compose up -d        # start (detached)
docker compose down         # stop and remove the container
docker compose restart      # restart
docker logs -f frigate      # follow logs

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Ports reference

Port	Purpose
8971	Authenticated web UI + API (use this)
5000	Internal unauthenticated UI/API (expose carefully)
8554	RTSP restreaming
8555	WebRTC (two-way talk), TCP + UDP

Documentation

• Installation: https://docs.frigate.video/frigate/installation
• Object detectors (Coral): https://docs.frigate.video/configuration/object_detectors
• Full config reference: https://docs.frigate.video/configuration/reference
• Camera setup: https://docs.frigate.video/frigate/camera_setup