DIY video surveillance system

Unfortunately, even living in a small village, you have to deal with a lot of marginal personalities, who are trying to steal something and get a shit somewhere. Some do not even be afraid of the apiary located in the neighborhood for a hundred hives.

For this reason, there was an urgent need for video surveillance. The minimum task is to take pictures from the camera after a certain time interval, the maximum task is to watch real-time video, motion sensor and archive of periodic pictures. It is desirable that the solution be scalable, because in the future it is planned to cover a similar system of about 100 acres. And, of course, the primary factor is cost.

Weigh all the pros and cons. I decided to assemble a system from old faulty Android smartphones. This solution has several advantages:

1.About almost any used device

2. The price is $ 20 for a used device, which is cheaper than any Chinese camera with wifi support or 3g

3. Availability of the finished software

4.No need a router, modem, etc.

Of the minuses I can note only one - the lack of night vision mode (solved by modifying the phone or installing ir projector).

Of the 2 old smartphones and one card from the tablet, I collected 2 nest boxes and 1 more camera disguised as a tree.

As additional components that enable the inclusion of smartphones in the full discharge of batteries, I used Arduino Uno and its Chinese clone RobotDyn resistor 300 Ohm and optocoupler (cosmo 1010 from the old power supply), also used stabilizers for 5 volts and a battery from the Nokia phone.

As the software was installed the application IP Webcam (paid version). By the way, this is the best program for video surveillance under android, which turns a smartphone into a DVR. Additionally put Airdroid, which allowed to remotely download recorded IP Webcam files.

My Internet provider does not provide white IP addresses, so I used the Ivideon service to broadcast the video (ip webcam supports it perfectly)

The general scheme of the work is as follows:

• The camera is always available online.
• Every 3 minutes, a script run on vds takes a snapshot from the camera and saves it on the server.
• Next, the same script checks the correspondence of the old and new pictures (motiontrack) and, in the presence of discrepancies, sends a picture to the email (heilroom-mailx).
• Additionally, when motion is detected, the camera records the video in the memory of the smartphone. If something happens, I download the recorded video via Airdroid.

That's all. This system was installed in 2015 and proved to be very successful, having discovered the invasion of a herd of sheep into my site, the wild boar in the garden and the night robber with a flashlight.