MotionEyeOS
Build your own motion-triggered home security camera.
YOU’LL NEED
RaspberryPi3B+,
4orPiZeroW 8GB(orlarger)microSDcard
RaspberryPiCam, HQCamera,Infrared
Cameraorwebcam Monitor/powersupply
/HDMIcable
HOME SECURITY CAMERA SYSTEMS have exploded in popularity and decreased in price over the past few years. Yet there are some drawbacks: vendors often charge a monthly fee to store your data; and you might not want to share video and photos from inside your home with a third party.
MotionEyeOS is a distro that enables you to turn a Raspberry Pi with a camera into a home videomonitoring system, where the photos and videos can either stay on your device (and home network) or, if you choose, be uploaded automatically to a cloudstorage service such as Google Drive or Dropbox.
Here, we’ll show you how to set up a Raspberry Pi security camera with MotionEyeOS. This software works with almost any Raspberry Pi (connected to the internet) and most webcams or Pi cameras too. There’s no fancy coding in this project; it just works.
Download the latest version of MotionEyeOS corresponding to the model of Pi you’re using from https://github.com/ccrisan/motioneyeos/releases and write it to the SD card. When the process completes, physically remove and then reinsert your microSD card. We do this because the software automatically ejects the microSD card when the process completes, but we need to add one file before the next step.
Create a file named wpa_supplicant.conf with the this text, replacing “YOUR_NETWORK_NAME” and “YOUR_NETWORK_PASSWORD” with your details: country=gb update_config=1 ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant network={ scan_ssid=1 ssid=”YOUR_NETWORK_NAME” psk=”YOUR_NETWORK_PASSWORD”
}
Save the file, eject the SD card and insert it into your Pi. Connect your camera, monitor and power supply to your Raspberry Pi and power up. If you have a monitor connected your Pi’s internal IP address will be displayed on the Pi screen. Alternatively, you can find this out from Nmap or your router’s configuration page.
Enter your internal IP address into a browser window and MotionEye should start streaming.
CONFIGURING MOTIONEYE
Click the Profile icon within your browser menu to pull up the Login screen. Log in using the default credentials (username is admin, the password field should be blank). Select your Time Zone from the menu in Time Zone. Click Apply. MotionEye will reboot which will take a few minutes. This is important as each photo and video is timestamped.
The Frame Change Threshold setting determines the proportion of pixels that change before recording starts. Set your percentage low enough to pick up the movement you’re tracking, but high enough to avoid recording a passing cloud. Start with the default 4 percent Frame Change Threshold and then move up until you reach your optimal setting. Click the down arrow to the right of Still Images to reveal extra settings. Do the same for Movies. Set Capture Mode and Recording Mode to Motion Triggered and choose a period to preserve both. A week is reasonable if you’re working with an 8GB card. Click Apply to save changes.
Set your Camera Name, Video Resolution, and other options in the Video Device section. Click Apply to save changes. On the live feed view, you’ll see buttons for viewing saved images and video.
In the current setup, this media won’t leave your local network. But if you’re okay having your media in the cloud, it’s easy to set MotionEyeOS to upload to Google Drive or DropBox. If you want to enable remote access to your Pi security cam, you’ll need to configure port forwarding on your router. If you do this, there are official iOS and Android apps so you can check your home when you’re out.