Home security & automation stuffs

[Tom]

Right, I have two cameras from Y-cam, because the company has decided to not supply what I paid for those two cameras will shortly be gone.

The cameras detected movement and uploaded the footage to the cloud, where I could watch it. All fine and good, but I want my own system to do it.

So I was thinking about buying some half decent motion-detecting IP cameras, connecting them to a cheapo PC in a box (or an old laptop), connecting that to the internet, and syncing any saved clips to Google Drive. With whom I have a 2TB storage limit (plenty). Once on Drive I can view them anywhere. I don't need movement notifications or anything, just recordings of any movement the cameras get.

As you can imagine this is DIY boffin territory so I'm a bit nervous. The IP camera side should be easy enough, it's the computer bit that puzzles me. Can I do this by doing something like connecting the cameras to a raspberry pi? Or do I need something a bit more complicated?

I've found some interesting software that should do it, I just don't know how small I can make the hardware. I thought about the Raspberry Pi because it's tiny and I could chuck it into a box and stuff it in a wall somewhere, away from burglars.

Blue Iris - Video Security Software

 

[caLLous]

The Axis F Series modular system does all of that with its eyes closed. It can upload footage or, if your connection is up to streaming (which, if it's uploading footage, it presumably is), you can connect directly to it and view recordings from wherever. Does all of the motion detection, can send notifications, etc etc. No need to over-complicate it imo.

(no I don't work for them, I've just done a couple of installs with their stuff and their hardware and software is excellent)

 

[Moriath]

That seems to be a wired solution. Lots of cabling.

 

[Tom]

Yeah I don't want wires, just mains. I've spent lots of time and money making the house nice and don't want to start hacking things out to get cables in.

I don't need streaming either, unless I actually connect to the camera remotely.

 

[Raven]

Plenty are wifi to a DVR - via your home router I guess, you can then link to the DVR from anywhere.

 

[smurkin]

I sent my Y-cam back too - it was crap.

I have 2x foscams that send the stream wirelessely to my synology NAS via the router. I've no idea how to do this to a PC or one drive, but its worth mentioning there are quite a few cloud web services which allow you to send and store your feeds. You have to pay, but personally I only subscribe when I am on vacation. Might be worth a look. Foscams are ok - cheap and cheerful - a bit fiddly to set up.

 

[smurkin]

As you can imagine this is DIY boffin territory so I'm a bit nervous. The IP camera side should be easy enough, it's the computer bit that puzzles me. Can I do this by doing something like connecting the cameras to a raspberry pi? Or do I need something a bit more complicated?

You might want to look into FTP.

 

[Embattle]

When it comes to the time I'll probably hook up a couple of cameras via POE switches to my Synology NAS which uses surveillance station. The other issues with the cloud based services other than price seems to be the ability of the providers to shift what is and isn't included in your service for the price point you pay.

 

[Tom]

At the moment I'm looking at these:

2-3 cameras:


View: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hikvision-DS-2CD2142FWD-External-Network-Camera/dp/B017C4CCI4


And a network video recorder:


View: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hikvision-Channel-Network-Recorder-NVR-104/dp/B0752XJRFC/ref=sr_1_cc_3?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1513095620&sr=1-3-catcorr&keywords=hikvision+nvr-104


And an SSD so it's silent:

WD 500GB Blue 2.5" Solid State Drive/SSD WDS500G1B0A

The NVR I bung somewhere in the house that isn't easily "got to", and I should be able to access it remotely using Hikvision's Android app.

 

[Moriath]

Still cabled tho no?

 

[Hawkwind]

I was looking at the Nest Cams recently. Looked pretty good for the price points. I need remote access and cloud storage so probably best solution for me.

 

[Tom]

The cameras have a wifi variant that can also use ethernet, but the company also makes a wifi nvr that only seems to be sold in the US. I've had a think though, and I reckon I know a way to get the cables around the house nice and tidily without chopping anything up. Different positions but it'll work for me.

 

[smurkin]

I was looking at the Nest Cams recently. Looked pretty good for the price points. I need remote access and cloud storage so probably best solution for me.

They do look good, but I believe that they continually use bandwidth as the detection is performed on the cloud. Probably ok if you have fibre.

 

[caLLous]

The cameras have a wifi variant that can also use ethernet, but the company also makes a wifi nvr that only seems to be sold in the US. I've had a think though, and I reckon I know a way to get the cables around the house nice and tidily without chopping anything up. Different positions but it'll work for me.

The thing with wired is you can run each camera with a single network cable, assuming they support PoE. With wireless, you'd have to get power to each camera yourself. So if you're going to be putting wire in anyway I'd go for PoE wired cameras.

 

[Tom]

Yeah I figured out that actually I can reach all the cameras through a bedroom floor, simply by running the cable beneath the skirting. Another one will be slightly trickier but I've had the floorboards up in the past and it isn't that difficult, just a bit messy.

 

[smurkin]

If you have carpets, you can use a flat cable underneath them - its relatively easy and if the underlay is reasonably thick, you won't feel the wires. A few weeks ago, I fitted surrounds sound cable under the carpet using a flattish audio cable - I started off by cutting a channel in the underlay but switched to following the carpet grippers around the outside without any cutting. My only regret not is not having done the 7.1 backs at the same time.

 

[Tom]

I have an old TPlink wifi router, a wr541g. Is it possible to use this to replace the ethernet link between the network video recorder and my virgin router? Over wifi?

How to Configure TP-Link N router as a wireless Access Point? - TP-Link

 

[MYstIC G]

Possibly but wouldn't a couple of cheap powerline adapters be much simpler?

 

[Tom]

I think it isn't possible to do what I wanted to do with this router (apparently my virgin superhub doesn't support point to point wireless stuff). So I've ordered this:


View: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01IR41A40/

Apparently all I have to do is plug it in, press a button on the device, a button on the superhub, and it'll configure itself.

 

[Moriath]

Thats why i got a netgear router and dont use the virgin one for anything other than being a modem.