Looking to build a DIY camera security system

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
jkelley9

jkelley9

Distinguished
Nov 15, 2011
85
0
18,630
I'm having a difficult time searching for, and finding exactly what I'm looking for. I don't even think it's that specific, but maybe that I just don't understand the camera/security lingo?

Basically, I'm wanting to build my own security camera system. That does not mean it will be linked to anything like fire dept, police, medical, etc based on triggers. All I want to do is record video at relatively high resolution from 4 or more cameras around my residential property. Motion alerts for some of them. I'm specifically looking for cameras that are POE so I don't have to run separate power to each camera, but I don't mind wiring Cat5 to each camera on the property. I kind of enjoy that type of install. So bottom line, no wifi camera feeds for me.

What I would like to record to is my NAS, since it's got PLENTY of space and I don't use much of it, plus it's a raidz2 (FREENAS raid 6).

I'd like to also be able to somehow access the cameras from my android smartphone.

I would like to be able to see a screen that has say 4 live feeds at a time on the local machine (this might be a limitation of an IP camera?).

This machine will be on a KVM switch so I will have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse to use when I need, like to view the cameras all at once (but rarely).

I could put HDDs in the machine to save locally, but I'd rather take advantage of the raid 6 on my NAS, which this machine won't be able to support.

Also, is there a way I could setup to have the video footage of say motion events be uploaded automatically to the cloud (somewhere)?

Anyone have recommendations for a better operating system to run this and what software might be in my best interest? I wouldn't mind paying for software, but I've heard BlueIris may be okay?

Any help/insight would be appreciated :) Thanks!
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
jkelley9

jkelley9

Distinguished
Nov 15, 2011
85
0
18,630
Thank you for the recommendation. I actually already have one of those types of systems installed (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16881523073) for my house. It's fine and all, but the camera quality is pretty poor. You could probably get 720p in one camera if the other 3 are off. The issue I have is that it's a standalone box that has preloaded software that is pretty poor, and it only has support for a single HDD so if that fails, poof, everything is gone. It's not like I NEED redundancy for my video... but I have a NAS project that I built a couple years ago with 9TB of space on a raid6 that only get about 2% utilization lol. I like to do this kind of stuff as a hobby over practicality. So I figured I would try to find a way to get my security system (which IS important to me) onto that so I can utilize both better. The problem with my current system is it's extreme limitations, mostly software, but also the cameras I can't just swap with others - it wont work. Exclusive hardware pretty much.

If I go the route of a more expensive system... they're still single HDD's, and you pay thousands of dollars more for still a crappy "box" of some poor (maybe slightly better) software with still limited configuration.

So I'm just trying to build my own, for these reasons, and to kind of do it as a hobby.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
USAFRet

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Mar 16, 2013
171,630
18,009
184,590
The system I linked above...yes, the cameras are not the best. But that is a limitation of the cameras, not the system.
You can connect any other BNC compatible camera. And that is what costs...better cameras.

That system came with 4, but has inputs for 8. I might add a couple of better quality PTZ cameras in the future.

Can you build a system from scratch? Sure.
Base it around a board like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16881127001
" MJPEG, MPEG4 and H.264 Continuous, Scheduled, Motion Detection, Sensor trigger, Alarm trigger and Smart recording"
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
P

peter18

Reputable
Nov 9, 2015
4
0
4,510
Doing it yourself sounds like a fun project however I suggest you to get proffessional consultation on this. They should charge you only consultation fee and you can do the work yourself. Look for good security consultants in your area and also go through this blog http://www.exengo.se/sakerhetskonsult-jobb/
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
CountMike

CountMike

Titan
Oct 31, 2015
33,811
3,162
147,990
Best thing (although more expensive) would be to use IP camera/s, there are some with HD and very good resolution. Wary focal and movable. All of it can be used only thru network cable and is accessible over internet.
Once in the network, it's only a matter of SW what you can do with it.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/ip_camera_viewer.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/senriska.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/xeoma.html
If camera is not too far, you can use any USB web camera too:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/ispy.html
USB is limited to cable of 5M in length but if you use powered USB hub it can be stretched to 10m.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom