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.
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…
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:
it sometimes is overly agreeable / “friendly” when it should be more direct
it does sometimes hallucinate or say BS with casual confidence, which sucks because the more you need the info the less well you can spot that. It hasn’t hampered usefulness too much for me, but then again I’m usually able to spot the mistakes even in ~unfamiliar subjects
they’ve moved the free tier back to a less capable model at the moment…most of my good experiences are with Claude 3.5 Sonnet, but Claude 3 Haiku (present free tier) is still good
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 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.
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.
Yes, this.
And prob not what op is looking for but I also have a bunch of esp32 cams, different PCBs and with different sensors/lenses.
They ain’t much but also cost like 3 monies with shipping (and is enough to eg normally recognise people etc).
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…
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/ref=pd_lpo_d_sccl_2/130-2310467-3870744?pd_rd_w=l0O0u&content-id=amzn1.sym.4c8c52db-06f8-4e42-8e56-912796f2ea6c&pf_rd_p=4c8c52db-06f8-4e42-8e56-912796f2ea6c&pf_rd_r=TNA6SF008RVJ5A1Y5V97&pd_rd_wg=4ITEg&pd_rd_r=e6c424de-42a7-4d27-974f-3f129d2bdd02&pd_rd_i=B087F4QCTR&th=1
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 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.