Camera as a sensor
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I have one (soon two) RPi with camera modules that take pictures and store / send to Pushbullet when a certain MySensors PIR is triggered. Has worked pretty well for the past year. and a Pi + Camera is still reasonably cheap plus it's a "real" computer so it can do anything with the camera and images. And the Pi camera is still pretty good, unless you happen to get a real bad clone from Ebay or something. Hardly worth it. I don't know how good these cameras in the store are, but I doubt they come anywhere near the simplicity and guaranteed quality of the Pi camera module.
If you like, you can also use the "motion" package on the Pi, but that will be a real hassle with false triggers and all. The cheap PIR motion sensors have worked surprisingly well. It's more a question of positioning them right so you don't have problems with sunlight, fireworks, curious magpies etc.
I have my RPi inside camera housings I got from AliExpress. There are a couple there that are pretty good. I think finding a bracket can be more of a challenge. I have J-brackets that fit under the eaves.
I have the raspimjpeg script running on the Pi btw. You could just use raspistill I suppose but it's nice to be able to manually view the camera feed from the browser and have remote control at your fingertips. Hell, you could even get one of those motorized RPi things that are able to turn the camera.
I have a sort of Power Over Ethernet going for my cameras btw.
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@Moshe-Livne said:
@Mickey this device is a gsm hotspot generator. it connects to a USB GSM dongle and allows you to connect to it either wired or wirelessly. I have never seen devices like the ones you mention. they could be a good solution
do not stick to it's original application
the idea is that open-wrt can run on this small things. Open-wrt is a linux type system, you can program it very similar to RPI
it is very cool if any camera working example exists for open-wrt@axillent Oh, still not used to thinking this way. This is beyond the (very limited) limits of my knowledge.... can be great.... total setup fee of ~15$
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@Moshe-Livne said:
@axillent Oh, still not used to thinking this way. This is beyond the (very limited) limits of my knowledge.... can be great.... total setup fee of ~15$
I have an example of this just with tl-wr703n but the one I posted from aliexpress is just the same:
openwrt webcam -
@Moshe-Livne said:
@axillent Oh, still not used to thinking this way. This is beyond the (very limited) limits of my knowledge.... can be great.... total setup fee of ~15$
I have an example of this just with tl-wr703n but the one I posted from aliexpress is just the same:
openwrt webcam@Mickey very good and detailed article. I have several of the GSM modems (that I now understand are not GSM modems at all) somewhere so i'll see if they can be flashed with openwrt. should be fuuuunnnn.
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@Mickey very good and detailed article. I have several of the GSM modems (that I now understand are not GSM modems at all) somewhere so i'll see if they can be flashed with openwrt. should be fuuuunnnn.
@Moshe-Livne said:
@Mickey very good and detailed article. I have several of the GSM modems (that I now understand are not GSM modems at all) somewhere so i'll see if they can be flashed with openwrt. should be fuuuunnnn.
Notice that the one I posted from aliexpress have its own procedure to flash openwrt on. Be careful not to brick your module...
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@bjornhallberg very nice setup! my congratulations!
for DIY you did it pretty well
but cost vise I do not see how this can be more efficient comparing to foscamYeah, it is perhaps not the most economical solution. Probably closer to $100 per unit. Foscams have probably become better and cheaper since last I looked. Personally I'd rather have more control over my setup. Like how the housing is ventilated. Plus all the fun of building and figuring things out. Of course I don't get night vision, but I figured it is better to trigger a relay to turn on some floodlights or whatnot that will give intruders some warning. No use being sneaky about it.
But yes, it would be really interesting if someone could come up with a really cheap battery powered solution.
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Yeah, it is perhaps not the most economical solution. Probably closer to $100 per unit. Foscams have probably become better and cheaper since last I looked. Personally I'd rather have more control over my setup. Like how the housing is ventilated. Plus all the fun of building and figuring things out. Of course I don't get night vision, but I figured it is better to trigger a relay to turn on some floodlights or whatnot that will give intruders some warning. No use being sneaky about it.
But yes, it would be really interesting if someone could come up with a really cheap battery powered solution.
@bjornhallberg said:
Yeah, it is perhaps not the most economical solution. Probably closer to $100 per unit. Foscams have probably become better and cheaper since last I looked. Personally I'd rather have more control over my setup. Like how the housing is ventilated. Plus all the fun of building and figuring things out. Of course I don't get night vision, but I figured it is better to trigger a relay to turn on some floodlights or whatnot that will give intruders some warning. No use being sneaky about it.
But yes, it would be really interesting if someone could come up with a really cheap battery powered solution.
openwrt as battery powered solution wont last much but they can be attach to cheap 5v solar pannel by day and run on lipo by night so no need for external power source. also
Its possible to install Motion on thoes modules and have state of the art motion sensors. -
@bjornhallberg said:
Yeah, it is perhaps not the most economical solution. Probably closer to $100 per unit. Foscams have probably become better and cheaper since last I looked. Personally I'd rather have more control over my setup. Like how the housing is ventilated. Plus all the fun of building and figuring things out. Of course I don't get night vision, but I figured it is better to trigger a relay to turn on some floodlights or whatnot that will give intruders some warning. No use being sneaky about it.
But yes, it would be really interesting if someone could come up with a really cheap battery powered solution.
openwrt as battery powered solution wont last much but they can be attach to cheap 5v solar pannel by day and run on lipo by night so no need for external power source. also
Its possible to install Motion on thoes modules and have state of the art motion sensors.@Mickey how quickly do they boot up? might boot it when pir is triggered.
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@Mickey how quickly do they boot up? might boot it when pir is triggered.
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Speaking of battery powered cameras, there already are commercial products such as Arlo and Homeboy:
http://www.cnet.com/products/netgear-arlo-smart-home-security-kit/
http://www.cnet.com/products/homeboy/
Not cheap enough, and battery times will surely vary depending on use, but they are a nice proof of concept. -
@Moshe-Livne said:
@Mickey how quickly do they boot up? might boot it when pir is triggered.
I thought about it but openwrt is a full linux and it takes 15-20 seconds to boot up so it will be half a minute delay between trigger and response
@Mickey they are so small!!!!
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@Mickey they are so small!!!!
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the tiny 3g routers from aliexpress. just got one. do you happen to have the openwrt firmware pre-compiled?
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Been there.... just wasn't keen on compiling it. Oh well.
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Been there.... just wasn't keen on compiling it. Oh well.
@Moshe-Livne said:
Been there.... just wasn't keen on compiling it. Oh well.
https://github.com/sternlabs/RT5350F-cheap-router/tree/master/openwrt
https://www.digitalinferno.com/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Mini3G4GUSBRouterOpenWrtExternalUSB
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@Moshe-Livne said:
Been there.... just wasn't keen on compiling it. Oh well.
https://github.com/sternlabs/RT5350F-cheap-router/tree/master/openwrt
https://www.digitalinferno.com/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Mini3G4GUSBRouterOpenWrtExternalUSB
@Mickey Thanks. will give it a try!
