Suggestion for lowest cost DIY home monitoring solution

[ssg10]

Hi All.

I need about 3 or 4 cameras, outdoor and indoor, and I want to have the lowest cost available.
Perhaps by buying some IP cams from Amazon. The feature I want to have is that it can be monitor from PC or app without subscription to cloud or app itself.
I am not sure just having a sd card in the cams is good enough.
Can this cam store videos in the google drive or similar free cloud so that i can access the videos from anywhere?
Notification if there is motion also good to have and some night vision. I tend to travel and it is good to get notification and if i can see from app or laptop.

I am a novice in this, but I am an engineer by day, so I am ok with technical stuff that you recommend.

 

[ssg10]

I have an idle windows and linux PCs at home with big drives as well, if it can be used for some purposes.

 

[Swampledge]

If you already have a capable PC that is unused, hard to see how you can do better than Blue Iris. The software price is a bargain. Your cameras will need power anyway, so POE provides that. Store the videos on your PC, and access remotely by OpenVPN or similar running on your router.

As a retired engineer, let me encourage you that, if you have “the knack” (Dilbert reference), you can do this. Just remember, you will have to spend more than a couple hours getting things set up.

 

[mat200]

Hi All.

I need about 3 or 4 cameras, outdoor and indoor, and I want to have the lowest cost available.
Perhaps by buying some IP cams from Amazon. The feature I want to have is that it can be monitor from PC or app without subscription to cloud or app itself.
I am not sure just having a sd card in the cams is good enough.
Can this cam store videos in the google drive or similar free cloud so that i can access the videos from anywhere?
Notification if there is motion also good to have and some night vision. I tend to travel and it is good to get notification and if i can see from app or laptop.

I am a novice in this, but I am an engineer by day, so I am ok with technical stuff that you recommend.

Welcome @ssg10

Cheapest .. normally not a good recommendation starting point ..

What do you want to monitor ?

 

[looney2ns]

The go to camera is this one: EmpireTech IPC-T54IR-ZE-S3 1/1.8" CMOS 4MP IR Starlight Vari-focal Tur

Blue Iris - Video Security Software

Cheap doesn't cut it with Surveillance cams. You get what you pay for.

More info here:
The Importance of Focal Length over MP in camera selection | IP Cam Talk

 

[wittaj]

And the link to the thread showing what happens with the cheap stuff...and some not so cheap stuff that cost more than the cameras we recommend because the consumer cams are developed to create a nice static image but are poor with motion.

The Typical picture of a Perp on Nextdoor-type Apps with Consumer Grade Cameras like Ring, Nest, Arlo, Canary, Wyze, etc.

Love these posts on Nextdoor type apps LOL. This thread will be used for members to post the poor quality consumer grade type camera images that we see people post to the Nextdoor type apps. Can anyone make out this person that went thru their cars LOL.... And this thread is where members...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[ssg10]

Thanks for the reply.

I think I don't really mean cheapest. But, let's say up to $50 a camera or even under $100 if better.

I want to monitor front side of the house and back side. 2 cams could be in living room and kitchen.
Want to be able to be notified if there is a motion and perhaps the cams should not record all the time, unless there is a motion.
Want to be able to view the cams when notification is sent from laptop or phone any where in the world.

That's pretty much basic things I want to get.

Welcome @ssg10

Cheapest .. normally not a good recommendation starting point ..

What do you want to monitor ?

 

[mat200]

Thanks for the reply.

I think I don't really mean cheapest. But, let's say up to $50 a camera or even under $100 if better.

I want to monitor front side of the house and back side. 2 cams could be in living room and kitchen.
Want to be able to be notified if there is a motion and perhaps the cams should not record all the time, unless there is a motion.
Want to be able to view the cams when notification is sent from laptop or phone any where in the world.

That's pretty much basic things I want to get.

Check out the DORI section of the cliff notes ..

effective pixels can matter ..

Do you want to ID a suspect ?
Recognize someone you know ?
Observe ?
Detect something ?

Once you narrow down what you want, you can then work back to determine the pixels you need .. and thus the FOV and resolution of the cameras ...

also, if you want better image capture in low light you need to increase the quality of the camera ...

 

[samplenhold]

everything the others have said. Plus:

Since you have an idle Win box, consider BlueIris to record video and monitor the cams. It has an iPhone app that you can use to view from anywhere.

For the inside cams you could use the Amcrest IP2M-841B. See below. It is compatible with BI. Currently $48 on Amazon.

Amazon.com : Amcrest ProHD 1080P WiFi 2MP (1920TVL) Indoor Pan/Tilt Security Wireless IP Camera IP2M-841B (Black) : Electronics

For outside cams consider paying more than your $100 since that is where you will probably need the better cams. Looney gave a good link to the T54IR-ZE for $180.49. It is also available on Amazon for $190.

Record 24/7 so that you do not miss anything. Recording on motion/triggers only can miss things, especially info on where the perp came from and other info. See Below.

Why I like Continuous Recording (aka 24/7)

So a guy came to the door yesterday, and while my wife did not open the door, it kind of spooked her out. She said he seem suspicious saying he found a driver's license on the lawn and wanted to know if it belonged to her. So when I got back from the range, I checked out the cams. This is one...

ipcamtalk.com

With IP cams you will need an POE switch to power them and get the signals to your PC. The Amcrest cams can use WIFI or be hardwired. But we usually do not recommend using WIFI for IP cams as the connetions are not reliable.

 

[ozcamzrme]

I am going to throw a bone for zoneminder since you say you have a linux machine
I am fairly new to setting up a home security system like you.
I bought a single 8 mp dahua cam with a 2.8mm lense not really sure what I wanted but It was just an experiment to play around with. I selected zonealarm because its free and it runs on linux, Windows is always full of lag and its regular reboots and updates linux solves all of these issues.
I have no experience with blue iris yet but I do plan on checking it out.

Zonealarm would require alot more configuration and many more hours learning how it all works however you have a much better understanding how it all works. This forum is very pro blue iris thats why I joined and this is my first post.