DIY WiFi Cam Tutorial

[Epictek300]

9 hours ago, Sakai 121 said:

Can I use pi zero instead of pi zero w ?

Yes, It has the same specs as the W but without the WiFi.

[Egg-Roll]

1 hour ago, Epictek300 said:

Not sure where you are looking for IR cameras but they are pretty much the same price as regular PI cameras as it's essentially the same thing with the IR filter removed.

Total price, Pi case camera etc, aka the total price per unit.

 

1 hour ago, Epictek300 said:

Not sure what you mean by this.

If you follow the guide it would require you to buy the enclosure from a 3rd party source(or print them yourself), also by buying multiple pieces of Pi there is a chance to be buying from multiple amazon warehouses. In canada It could be coming from BC or the few warehouses here in Ontario. So all in all all the pieces could be coming from 3 or more different sources, you could make your own enclosure using store bought materials or as linus said via fake cams.

 

1 hour ago, Epictek300 said:

2 hours maybe? Slightly longer but not really that much of a chore, some people may even find it "fun xD". 

Yea, I'm not doubting that but based on the title of the video I would have expected something other than just Pi, esp when other options are available. I would like to try it but to me time is not worth the hassle (esp since I own a old computer), but I do love Pi however

 

My example like Linus's gave a cheaper than Nest setup(everything seems to be cheaper than Nest). A little more power hungry sure, but almost 0 hassle

[Osokthedevil]

On 5/14/2018 at 11:39 PM, jakkuh_t said:

2+ Camera Setup

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1. Order the parts you need from the links above - I'd recommend shopping around a bit as you can probably get parts even cheaper on a site like Adafruit or something.
2. Once you have everything, take the Micro SD cards and plug them into a windows PC (do one at a time).
3. Download Etcher USB ISO flash tool, and the MotionEyeOS package for your respective Raspis (use the one labeled "Latest Release"). MAKE SURE YOU FLASH THE RIGHT IMAGE, OTHERWISE THE RASPI WILL NOT BOOT. (ie. "motioneyeos-raspberrypi3*.img.gz" for a Raspi 3 or "motioneyeos-raspberrypi*.img.gz" for a Raspi zero (w))
4. For each SD card: Select the MotionEyeOS .img file in Etcher, followed by your micro SD card and then click Flash!
5. Once done, download or create a file called "wpa_supplicant.conf" (make sure you set the extension to .conf not .conf.txt) with the following text and then place it into the root of each Micro USB. Enter your WiFi networks name and password, and change the country code to match your country. 
   • If you plan on running your hub server over ethernet (recommended), ignore this step for that Pi's SD card
   • Text to place into file: https://pastebin.com/raw/WCedfA6s
   • Both the WiFi network name and password are case sensitive.
6. Now, install the MicroSD card and camera module ("How-To" here) into each Raspi (skip for the hub server Pi). Then plug in power and ethernet into your hub server Raspi.
   • You will probably also want to plug in a monitor via the Mini HDMI adapter you bought so you can see what is going on.
7. If you did everything correctly, the IP of the hub server will print out on screen, or you can find it via a network scanner like "Fing".
8. Type in the IP of the hub server into your browser of choice
   • Default login info is admin for the username, with no password. (For the love of all that is glorious, please set a password for your admin account)
   • much settings, very config, such customizable.
9. Then power up each camera Pi - it will show a red LED on the camera module if it worked correctly
   • Or just plug it in so you can see what is going on.
10. After you're done tinkering with your hub server Pi, log into the control panel for each Camera Pi, Enable "Advanced settings", expand the "Expert Settings" tab, and enable the "Fast Network Camera" toggle. Wait for the Pi to reboot.
    • For more info: https://github.com/ccrisan/motioneyeos/wiki/Fast-Network-Camera
11. Once rebooted, set your desired framerate, resolution and image customization options on each camera. (recommended: 1280x720, 10FPS)
12. Back on the hub server, go to the drop down box in the top left, click "add a camera", select network camera and the type in the IP of the camera you want to add followed by ':8081'  - example: "http://192.168.0.69:8081"
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13. Click the cog wheel in the top right corner of the camera preview that appears, and then set the cameras FPS to match what you set for that camera in step 10, then click Apply.
14. Repeat steps 9-12 for all the cameras you intend to setup.

 

Now you're free to tinker with the control panel and find the best settings for your needs. Read the MotionEyeOS wiki for configuration help (there is a ton of info over there: https://github.com/ccrisan/motioneyeos/wiki/Configuration). I've personally found that 720p w/ 5-10 FPS works best. For more info on storing footage to a NAS, refer to the "Option Stuffs" section below.

If it doesn't work, please refer to the troubleshooting section below.

PS. IF YOU DON'T GET IT WORKING THE FIRST TIME, YOU MUST REFLASH THE IMG ONTO THE SD CARD AS THE WIFI SETTINGS ARE COPIED TO A LINUX PARTITION ON FIRST BOOT THAT REGULAR WINDOWS CANNOT READ.

 

PS #2. it's also a good idea to set static IPs for your camera(s) via your router.

the one thing i found that isn't clear on the multi camera Hub is. etch the image to the sd card. boot up the Pi without a camera connected. motioneye will notice one isn't connected to the pi and click on add camera, from there you can add you ip addresses for you other camera's. Also Fast Network Camera doesn't work with the Hub so leave it off. Under Advance settings there is also a wireless network setup so the suggested file to create isn't required. I used the settings in motioneye and connected with ease,

 

[TheLostElectron]

On 5/15/2018 at 4:07 AM, mlow said:

kernel panic

Lol. Raspberry Pis run a modified version of linux. It basically never crashes unless you mess up.

[Epictek300]

4 hours ago, TheLostElectron said:

Lol. Raspberry Pis run a modified version of linux. It basically never crashes unless you mess up.

[Citation Needed]
Raspberry Pi's basically run the mainline kernel with a few patches and proprietary blobs. Yes a Pi is very unlikely to kernel panic but so is a a regular linux machine but sometimes shit happens.

[FloXer]

I think it would be a nice addon when you use a powerbank as a emergency power. What do you think about this idea?

[Epictek300]

1 hour ago, FloXer said:

I think it would be a nice addon when you use a powerbank as a emergency power. What do you think about this idea?

Or a UPS https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Pi+UPS

[I Like Cake]

Could someone tell me how to set a USB HDD as the storage location? I was expecting my device to appear in this list but it's not there. Does it need to be formatted a certain way?

[Epictek300]

2 hours ago, I Like Cake said:

Could someone tell me how to set a USB HDD as the storage location? I was expecting my device to appear in this list but it's not there. Does it need to be formatted a certain way?

Is the drive recieving enough power?

 

Can you use an ssh client such as putty to connect to the Pi and run

fdisk -l

 

If you need a written guide on how to do this I can do that.

[I Like Cake]

5 hours ago, Epictek300 said:

Is the drive recieving enough power?

 

Can you use an ssh client such as putty to connect to the Pi and run

fdisk -l

 

 

If you need a written guide on how to do this I can do that.

Yes please. I took a guess using connectbot android app but everytime I connect I get "Connection Lost
Malformed line sent by the server, the line does not end correctly".

 

Thanks for the help.

[Izapertron]

Did it! Current setup: Server and 1 camera.

[Epictek300]

8 hours ago, I Like Cake said:

Yes please. I took a guess using connectbot android app but everytime I connect I get "Connection Lost
Malformed line sent by the server, the line does not end correctly".

 

Thanks for the help.

The instructions for windows.

• Download PuTTy
• Run PuTTy
• In Host Name/Ip Address type the IP of the Pi you wish to connect to.

• Click Open
• A terminal should open asking for a username type "root" or "admin"
• For the password type the password you set in the web ui.
• If all goes well you should be greeted with a terminal in which you can type commands.

For Linux/OS X open a Terminal and type. ssh root@[Pi Address]

 

Once you connected you can type the command

fdisk -l

you should then see the Pi's SD card and in theory, your hard drive if you can't see it'll you want to type

dmesg | less

and look for any output relating to a USB drive not have enough power.

 

 

(I wish the formatting on this forum was better )

[nore]

Can anyone link that fake cam used in the video?

[MineCraftDance]

If you have unraid there a motioneye docker you can get from the Community Applications by Andrew Zawadzki plugin that you can use for your server for you cameras

[TheCliff]

Is it possible to view the footage in real time? I want to be able to look at the camera randomly throughout the day. I would be in the same Network as I work from home. 

[Epictek300]

1 hour ago, TheCliff said:

Is it possible to view the footage in real time? I want to be able to look at the camera randomly throughout the day. I would be in the same Network as I work from home. 

If you go to the url of the Pi it will show you a live feed

 

9 hours ago, nore said:

Can anyone link that fake cam used in the video?

Search on Amazon "dummy cctv cameras"

[Guest]

On 02/06/2018 at 3:59 PM, Izapertron said:

I would use a white cable for that camera, and also route it along the doorframe, secure it with some tape or something. Then it would look way bettter imo.

[nore]

12 hours ago, Epictek300 said:

If you go to the url of the Pi it will show you a live feed

 

Search on Amazon "dummy cctv cameras"

There are many with various sizes, I don't want to get one that ends up small. That's why I'm asking about the one used as it clearly fits everything.

[TheCliff]

If I want to make the camera record with let's say 25 fps. Do I need a better camera board or a better hub server?

[xoma262]

Stupid question but I cannot find OC settings under "Expert Settings" tab. Any ideas why? Advanced settings on, ofc. 

I have RPi 3B 

motionEye Version0.39

Motion Version4.1.1

OS VersionmotionEyeOS 20180401

 

Thanks.

[jakkuh_t]

3 hours ago, TheCliff said:

If I want to make the camera record with let's say 25 fps. Do I need a better camera board or a better hub server?

Better Pi for the camera.

[I Like Cake]

Is anyone having problems accessing the hub over the internet? I can't get mine to work and i don't know why. I've set a static IP for my hub and camera and set up port forwarding on my router. All you do is enter your IP followed by whatever port you set with a colon in between right?

 

Example: xx.xx.xx.xxx:8000

 

When I use https://portchecker.co the port shows as open but everytime i go to the address i just get 'took to long to respond' Am I doing something wrong?

[Sleeepy2]

I need some help with saving videos on the Hub.

On my Pi I didn't use motionEyeOS I just used Raspbain as I want it to run other things also. It's up and running

I created the HUB with a Debian VM with a mount to my Windows Share and added my Pi camera to it no problem.

The issue is the path to save the videos is on the Pi and not the Hub. The storage device options are SC16G 0x1c62ce00 (/dev/mmcblk...) which I am guessing is a partition of the 16GB SD card and Custom Path. So I chose Custom Path and entered in a folder on my HUB, but it just created that folder on the Pi.

 

Any suggestions?

[Epictek300]

17 hours ago, Sleeepy2 said:

I need some help with saving videos on the Hub.

On my Pi I didn't use motionEyeOS I just used Raspbain as I want it to run other things also. It's up and running

I created the HUB with a Debian VM with a mount to my Windows Share and added my Pi camera to it no problem.

The issue is the path to save the videos is on the Pi and not the Hub. The storage device options are SC16G 0x1c62ce00 (/dev/mmcblk...) which I am guessing is a partition of the 16GB SD card and Custom Path. So I chose Custom Path and entered in a folder on my HUB, but it just created that folder on the Pi.

 

Any suggestions?

The Pi should be set as fast network cam and recording should be done on the hub itself.

[Epictek300]

23 hours ago, I Like Cake said:

Is anyone having problems accessing the hub over the internet? I can't get mine to work and i don't know why. I've set a static IP for my hub and camera and set up port forwarding on my router. All you do is enter your IP followed by whatever port you set with a colon in between right?

 

Example: xx.xx.xx.xxx:8000

 

When I use https://portchecker.co the port shows as open but everytime i go to the address i just get 'took to long to respond' Am I doing something wrong?

Are you using the Pi as a hub? Have you tried portforwarding port 80?

https://github.com/ccrisan/motioneyeos/blob/master/board/common/overlay/etc/motioneye.conf shows the default port as port 80