Several months ago I setup an iPhone controllable home security camera system to keep an eye on my home when I'm away. It had some problems due to a Wi-Fi drop out issue on one of the cameras which resulted in it failing to capture images of the burglars who robbed my house a few weeks after I had installed the cameras. Although this was extremely disappointing, I went hack to the drawing board
After much retooling, re-tweaking, and retesting I think I've now got a pretty good system going that has been capturing video for the last several months without fail.
Here is my final setup. I'm running EvoCam for Mac which serves as the camera recording software. EvoCam can connect to multiple IP-based cameras and record live video from all of them simultaneously. I've given up on using the motion detection features of the cameras. The motion detection would often trigger after the event had already taken place and did not prove reliable. I ended up setting the EvoCam software to capture video 24/7 but only keep the video for 2 weeks. I also set the video compression to "very high" so the video only takes up about 100MB per hour. This way my hard drive will not fill up and I will always have footage of anything and everything going on for at least the previous two weeks.
In case the thieves break in and steal the computer that video is being captured to, I've setup a realtime off-site backup of my video footage using a cloud storage provider (not going to mention which one for security reasons but there are plenty of good free ones out there). Additionally, I've set the EvoCam software to run on system start up and set it to begin capturing immediately after the program opens. Having it run at start up ensures that my family and I never have to remember to start the capture process after we have rebooted or after a power failure. We just "set it and forget it".
The cameras in my setup are a Foscam Indoor FI8918W (pan/tilt/controllable) and an outdoor FI8905W (fixed/weatherproof/night vision).The EvoCam software used in the setup is available from Evological for $30 US. For monitoring via iPhone I use a an app called Foscam Surveillance Pro available via iTunes.
DIY-iPhone Security Camera Resources:
DIY iPhone-controlled Home Security Camera for less than $100
Good One and Thanks for sharing your experience.
I had similar program in my mind and due to lack of Time and Money (that is a major problem in the third world), I have not been able accomplish any yet.
I have only Linux computers and they work almost 24 hours, mainly for downloading and the CRON job can be written to do your job without overloading the system (automatic deleting ) and uploading to your cloud server and automatic deleting.
I suggest now you got a hang of how your system works by using a spare Linux computer all the functions can be automated and your daily hassle will then be limited.
Sorry to here the burglary but if I set an outdoor camera in my country it won’t last a single night.
We have to locate them only on roof tops but thanks god our dogs do a wonderful job keeping away the burglars.
Great write up! Thank you. I have been searching for a while for something similar and now will give this inexpensive set up a go. I appreciate the time you have gone to to write this up.
Cheers and Beers, The_Captain
Thanks for sharing your tips on making your own DIY surveillance cameras for home protection!