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If you consider alternatives beyond out-of-the-shelf, I'd recommend your own DIY IP camera. A Raspberry Pi (or something similar, such as Orange Pi), an IR camera module, an UPS and a protective shell case are the minimal hardware requirements for a cheap camera built by yourself. You'll have total control over the software, you'll be allowed to choose the OS, the software, every aspect of the camera, something that's not possible with out-of-the-shelf IP cameras.
I've had four cameras running for a few years, streaming over RTSP and powered over ethernet. Works well!
Is this something a complete novice could do, with reasonable effort and cost? If so would you be able to eli5, or point me in the direction of somewhere that does?
Ideally, for my current situation anyway, I'd like to set up a camera indoors by a window (with IR switched off and a proper mount) and be able to see what it sees from a device (phone pc or even dedicated pad if it helps with security) in the other room, and if it can also record and save the video locally for me to be able to access from the remote device, that'd be good too. Privacy and security of the data are top priority.
Every time I start looking in to it my brain gets completely overwhelmed by options and information and scrambles, and I have to back away 😑 I'd love for there to be a way to set this up that was near as straightforward as the privacy abusing options..
I self-host and dabble with this stuff. Im an engineer for more than a decade.
But I really struggled to find a solution that has a really high uptime with minimal maintenance. Ive set up some raspberry pi projects, including cams. Why would I want video to transfer to some company?
But the trade offs were significant. Every few weeks, there was a new problem. Maybe my router. Maybe my internet. Maybe the Pi. Maybe something else. Maybe it's my VPN when I'm trying to dial into the network. Maybe it's my phone app no longer seeing the device. Maybe a update broke it. Maybe God hated me that day.
After six months and spending 2-3 hours a month maintaining it, I burned out and just bought an off-the-shelf solution with a mobile app.
Of course, I only use it for security and it doesn't exist in the house. It grosses me out, but it's been two years of plug-and-play and just working without setup.
Argh, this is exactly the scenario that I've anticipated and has kept me away from similar (home automation as well).
That's what I want, high reliability, local only storage, remote view of some kind, and minimal (ongoing) fuss. Sounds like you did not quite land on that if the thing you bought grosses you out? Or do you mean something different?
You nailed it!
What grosses me out is that to get all those features, I have to be okay with my video data potentially landing in the hands of some company using it train AI or something.
Eufy was caught recently doing that. (And it's my current solution for remote home camera system)
Argh, okay gotcha. Someone needs to start a Framework, but for IoT devices. This is bullshit lol
It's not too difficult, I figured it out and I eat crayons.
Here's the software I use but there are other options: https://github.com/BreeeZe/rpos - That runs on the camera Pi and provides the video stream.
I use a Pi, a camera module like this https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-high-quality-camera/ and a suitable lens. You can get cheaper camera modules, IR modules, etc.
Also, something like this to power it: https://www.tp-link.com/us/business-networking/omada-switch-unmanaged/ds105gp/ You could just use a regular switch and power the Pi with a power adapter if that works better. My cameras are all ceiling mounted so having one cable for data and power made sense for me.
I use this to split the ethernet into power and data when it reaches the Pi: https://www.amazon.com/UCTRONICS-PoE-Splitter-USB-C-Compliant/dp/B087F4QCTR/130-2310467-3870744
Then I have this running on a Linux VM to collect the camera feeds and display them in a web browser: https://github.com/motioneye-project/motioneye
You'll also need a case, my solution was to buy a metal Pi case and mount the module onto that, feeding the ribbon cable back into the case.
If you decide to go ahead and need help, just ask.
Oh wow, thanks so much for all the info, I really appreciate it! I'm bookmarking you reply and all the links, but it's a bit much for me to process right now lol (I saw your comment about pretty much what I want to set up and just had to ask, fully meaning to get in to it, but it's been a long morning and my brain is now mush)
Just to give you an idea, I've never set up or even used a Pi or used Linux, I've done very basic pc building and troubleshooting, but have no programming knowledge, so when I said novice I meant it 😂 I'm mostly good at following directions as long as they're clear. Are there any manuals that would tell me how to put all the different parts you mentioned together?
Just throwing this out there, but the problem you're describing sounds like a good fit for an LLM I've been using for similar purposes, Claude.
I've found it to be really good at helping me slog through what would be a burdensome and wasteful amount of reading, in order to answer specific questions OR to get a baseline understanding of a thing.
It's a bit hard to know how much value comes from my engineering background and my tendency to "know what I don't know" and thereby ask focused questions, but it's definitely worth a shot. I have found it to be surprisingly sophisticated and much better than slogging through the wasteland of bad search results + too much unrelated but real info.
A topic like this where there's a tremendous amount of legit docs, articles, and forum activity - it's really the exact use case where it's very difficult for a human, and very easy for an LLM to effectively digest that info.
Some caveats I've noticed:
If you're really curious but the volume of reading and documentation to get started is presenting a big barrier, try using Claude to see how quickly you might be able to clear that obstacle. It's been removing those exact barriers for me very effectively lately.
Edit to add: a particularly useful way I can imagine folks in your shoes using this - as a "companion" while you try to follow a guide in an article somewhere. It can answer questions about terms you don't understand, even reasoning behind doing certain steps or what to do if it goes wrong. In fact, you could almost certainly just feed it the written procedure itself (telling it that you're doing so) and really get it to reason about the process with you. Just help get you through whatever implementation.
I genuinely appreciate you taking the time to make this comment, thanks.
I do see how this can be helpful for a lot of things, but I think in my situation (namely a bunch of neurodiversity and brain fog, and no existing interest in or experience with LLMs), having to learn how to deal with an LLM to a point where I get results I'd be confident enough in to trust without having to double or triple check, is probably a bigger hurdle than just diving in to figuring out security camera set ups. It's putting one more thing in the way of the information I actually need, which means my brain is much much less motivated than it already is to get the information, if you see what I mean..
I do understand what you mean, but I think you're probably significantly overestimating the difficulty of using the tool. One of its major strengths is its ability to just understand you, like you'd talk to anyone human, with the benefit that you can even instruct it to use a style you prefer. Just say "I'd like your answer to be terse, let's see if we're on the right track before getting into details". Just as an example.
With all that said you know what you want and need better than anyone else, that's all I've got to say on it, cheers!
Thanks again 👍
There are plenty of guides but I just took it step by step. The links I provided have instructions for each bit of software needed. You'll need to be able to do things like flash the OS to a SD or USB drive and then be able to ssh into the Pi to install the camera software. Start here: https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/
There's no programming skill needed but you should be comfortable with using the terminal, or at least be willing to learn. You don't need to install a OS with a desktop, everything is done via the terminal.
After that's done you can use VLC to view the feed and check it's working before installing motioneye on a server. You just get the IP address of the camera and give the URL to VLC like this: rtsp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:8554/h264
If you look at the whole thing in one go, it's overwhelming, but if you break it into chunks it's not too bad and it's a good learning opportunity, if that's your thing.
This is very encouraging and helpful, I will try to keep it in mind! Do I just go in the order of the links you posted in the previous reply?
Also just to make sure I understand correctly - at the end of it I should have a camera setup that I can access, via VLC, from the device of my choosing over ethernet/intranet?
Thanks again for taking the time to talk me through this.
Yes. Get a working camera feed and go from there. For that, tackle the hardware side first - Pi, camera, power/ethernet, case, storage for the OS. Then install the OS and the camera software and test it. Mine are all indoors so you'll have to see what kind of cases are weatherproof if you're using it outside.
Exactly. VLC will be fine if you only want to view one camera. If you want to add more, do recording/motion detection, view them in a browser, etc. then MotionEye on a server works but there are other options. I know that the Synology NAS' DSM OS has its own solution for managing all that stuff.
Great, thank you so much! I'm going to do my best to actually get it done this time, I'm already much closer to figuring it out than I've been before.