DIY WiFi Cam Tutorial

[Lord of Blackwood]

Hi,

 

I decided to revisit this post for my new project : a multi view points observation and image capturing setup for surveying the amzing number of birds in my garden.

Thanks for this guide.

 

André

[Lord of Blackwood]

On 2/14/2020 at 12:59 AM, Saksham said:

I doubt it. If somebody does, people will complain that its just a kit you can make yourself. then they will also complain if somebody tries to make a profit... so no. nobody will sell you a prebuilt rasberi pi security camera setup

I have to disagree with you, nicely, though

 

I have seen more than one Kickstarter project based on Raspberry Pi. It also would be quite easy to organize

Step 0 defining the number of kits : eg. 1, 3, 5 cameras and defining the base number of each kit before quotes

Step 1 prototyping the Pi + Camera Cases using 3D printing

Step 2 prototyping a Pi 4 enclosure with a couple of lower end ssd for caching then streaming to your NAS

Step 3 getting Quotes from China with the stl for the tooling and injection molding

Step 4 getting Quotes for gross order of

• Pi Zero W
• Pi 4 1Go (Sufficient for up to 3 - 5 cams)
• 8 Gb SD Cards
• Premastering of the 8Gb SDCards with pre configured media for a set camera number (1 type per Kit + the central server + setupguide card)
• Sata Hats for Raspberry PI for 1 ssd
• Alternatively for NAS enclosure such as the "QUAD SATA KIT for Raspberry PI" (it is very expensive) to offer an integrated and dedicated NAS solution
• for packing and shipping from fullfillment firms

Step 6 using the quotes and a "reasonable" margin for risk management and cost overuns define the number of units required for breaking even

Step 7 prototyping the setup guide for each camera kits

Step 8 firm up the quotes based on the break even number of kits

Step 10 prepare the project and manufacturing planning based on the manufacturing time estimates from suppliers

Step 11 add 2 - 4 months to the estimates for manufacturing delays (you will never be the priority in case of production bottlenecks)

Step 9 define the campaign objective factoring Kickstarter's cut

Step 10 set the kickstarter campaign

Step 11 Run the campaign

Step 11.1 Use social medias to promote the campaign

Step 11.2 Send a 3D printed prototype kit to Linus in hopes that he reviews it before the end of the campaign

Step 12 get the funds and launch initial runs

Step 13 set an indiegogo campaign for pre orders (cheaper than setting up your own internet store

Step 14 get Fullfillment to package and ship

Step 15 deal with all the crap during the campaign and fullfillment on Kickstarter comments

Step 16 deal with fullfillment error and quality control PB requiring double shipments

Step 17 realize that you spent more than you got on KS

Step 18 get you reputation totalled on KS then on Indiegogo or if the campaign ends up well realize that a chinese firm is offering your product for half the price

Step 19 Swear that you will never waste your time on such a project before locking yourself up in rehab

 

All jokes aside, it is a viable project if you decided to spend the time on it.

 

[oo0oo0oo0oo7]

Fix:

Please make sure you are logged in as admin to change those settings

 

Edit:
It seems that rebooting the the pi with the camera on the motioneye UI gets rid of the wpa_supplicant.conf file.

 

I set up one pi with the server and one for the camera. I try to turn on fast network for the one with the camera, but it requires the field for the date server which i set up just like on the server. What do i fill out for the HTTP port and motion binary field? I tried to populate these just like on the server, but then I try to reboot and the pi with the camera never comes to life when it was working before I filled these out and turned on fast network. Which makes me think, did I fill the field out wrong?

[TheBean]

12 hours ago, GimmeGimmaGimmu said:

I'm new to this, and this is also my first Raspberry Pi Project. I have a single board (Pi 3) with a IR Camera (https://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-Camera-Vision-IR-Cut-Longruner/dp/B07R4JH2ZV).

 

It all worked just fine, Installation and Camera setup.

But already after 20 sec after boot, the whole board gets really hot, I can't even touch it with my finger (the backside).

 

Is this normal?!

do you have the heatsink installed? do you have a cooling fan? is the raspberi pi overclocked?

[Badgersaurus]

On 12/24/2018 at 5:49 AM, bonelifer said:

I posted this as a reply to a comment on the Youtube video, but I thought it'd probably better to also post it here. How to setup Day/Night cycle modifications so that the camera works well in both situations. I found this blog post while researching motioneyeos. Basically you setup it to know your location, so that it can calculate your Sunset/sunrise times. It will then take your customized copies and swap them out and restart the motion daemon for the setting to take effect.  https://blog.ligos.net/2016-04-18/Day-Night-Cycle-For-MotionEye.html This was something I was searching for. I haven't done this project yet, as it's a long term project that is vying for a  money that is currently going into another project. Hopefully though this helps anyone that would like to optimize their cameras for maximum day/night performance. You'll obviously need to figure out your own settings, this just helps you automates the change over.

Interesting set up, thanks. Using an IR CUT camera, so would want to change the IR filter state on sunset to allow for ‘night vision’ mode. Currently do this via the config file, where you can add a line to change the state of the camera light (used for IR filter in this application). Any ideas on adjusting this set up for that purpose?

 

Thanks for posting!

[Pokemonyt]

On 5/15/2018 at 12:39 AM, jakkuh_t said:

2+ Camera Setup

  Hide contents

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"
      Reveal hidden contents

    

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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.

this is confusing

is there a video on this

[brwainer]

6 hours ago, Pokemonyt said:

this is confusing

is there a video on this

This is the only (AFAIK) video from LTT about this project:

It isn't going to help you much since it points you to here (this forum page) on the actual details.

[AnirbanG007]

On 5/15/2018 at 11:10 AM, jakkuh_t said:

• NAS Storage
  • Under "File Storage" set it to "Network Storage", and configure according to your network shares setup.

Will it work with SMB/CIFS using OMV NAS? Or are any other types of network share needed?

[ZackEst]

Does anyone have a link for a cam that still works with the pi 0?

[brwainer]

6 hours ago, ZackEst said:

Does anyone have a link for a cam that still works with the pi 0?

All raspberry Pi cameras work with the Pi 0, even the newest HQ camera, you just need a Pi 0 camera cable.

[bandpractice]

Hi, I just set up a home camera system using a raspberry pi 4 and motioneye. I'm wondering what would be the best way to set up tablet-like devices that I intend to place next to the front door, as well as a couple of rooms in the house, that would automatically turn on when a camera detects motion? I know how to run a command on motion, which I'm currently doing for pushover notifications. But not sure how I'd tell a table, or computer, to turn its screen on.

 

I have an old android tablet that I'm hoping to use since it would be one less device to buy.

[GeorgeN4E]

if you have the RASPBERRY PI 2W make sure to use the motioneyeos-raspberrypi3