Edit: ideally wifi cameras that I can solar power.
Looking to replace my Arlo cameras with something self-hostable. Arlo lets you store on a USB stick, but there’s no way to get out from under their cloud, which gets more expensive all the time.
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I’m running a trio of Reolink RLC-820A cameras, over PoE. I’m recording with Frigate on a Raspberry Pi with a Google TPU USB.
Inferencing of detected objects is lightning fast, and reasonably accurate. I’m storing ~45 days of footage (motion detected - not 24x7 recording) on less than 2TB.
I use Reolink cams with BlueIris software. None of it has access to the internet. Works fine.
I also use this exact setup, works great!
Reolink looks like a solid answer, thanks.
Do additional research on the models you’re interested in. Unfortunately they don’t all play nice with 3rd party software but the ones that use open standards are good bang for the buck.
Can vouch for this. Been using a bunch of Reolink cameras with BI for years. Be careful with Reolink, though. Some cameras work fine and some don’t at all, unless you use some middleman software, which is still hit or miss. Ran into this recently with a camera I got for my garage.
Edit: The Reolink Lumus line is NOT compatible. They don’t broadcast rtsp.
The wireless wifi Reolink cameras won’t work the way OP wants, only the poe ones have rtsp
I have a mix of wifi and POE cameras and they all work for me.
2 of my Reolinks are on Wi-Fi and work fine. It depends on the model.
There’s tons of articles out there on how to use old cell phones for this. Here’s one of zillions:
https://www.airdroid.com/remote-control/best-free-app-to-turn-old-phone-into-security-camera/
Would not recommend this. It’s fun to tinker with but a poor substitute for real cameras.
Agreed, just sell the old phone and use the money to buy a proper camera.
You can use Zoneminder with pretty much any cameras that work with Linux.
This might not be 100% what you’re looking for but I am running Reolink cameras and a Qnap NAS with QVR PRO. The reolink cameras are accessible through IP and some protocol I can’t remember right now. So you might be able to get them to work with your setup
Using zone minder with reolink cameras. I’ve been happy with it so far.
Does Ubiquiti qualify?
They do but are a poor value next to most other options.
They are an excellent value next to most other otpions if youve ever actually implemented more than one solution.
I have and I have done unifi. I don’t like being restricted to their NVR or software solutions because it means I to toss the cameras if I want to extend solution with things like ptz or verifocal cameras. Want to add ai/ml detection sorry can’t do…
Unifi is good for some people but it’s not the solution for everyone. Reolink can also offer similar ecosystem experiences but also while letting you expand your system if wanted.
Most cameras are self hosted but they are not marketed to consumers because they require running cables to them either for power and/or data.
Reolink camera with onvif so support can be connected to Frigate or Shinobi.
Hikvison and Dahua are common Chinese brands that have lots of options across lots of prices points but are treated as insecure or hostile iot devices required closed networks.
Costco often has camera and NVR packages that are passable.
Whenever possible make sure any camera you get is onvif so you can use it with any NVR or software.
HIkvision is great. Good value for money. Just do not use the app to configure them, use web gui. And yes, they need to be isolated from rest of network and the internet ( as pretty much any cameras).
Frigate + reolink is a great combo.
Not sure about wifi cameras, I have a mix of Trendnet and Hikivision POE, sitting on a Vlan with no internet access. For the software I use Blue Iris. Where I have a need for cameras I have only a Windows server and I have found this software to be the best for me.
What do you mean “self-hosted security camera” exactly? Open source camera? DIY camera?
Or are you looking for self-hosted NVR software? If so, many people already gave you suggestions. My recommendation - don’t focus on ZoneMinder. It’s ugly software. Instead, use Shinobi for more classic software or Frigate with Google TPU accelerator. Both lightweight enough.
Myself I have a mix of HikVision and Dahua, recorded/analyzed by Frugate. Everything works like a charm.
And also, I’ve disabled internet access for all the cameras, so they couldn’t call home. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I had no real idea how to phrase it, but all these posts have helped. What I was actually focused on when I posted was mainly hardware that can do what the Arlo cameras do:
- Wifi + battery/solar my house is old and hardwires are a pain in the ass.
- High def, preferably 4k, but 1080 is ok.
- Night vision, color or not doesn’t matter
- Motion-activated, and preferably some way to filter out and not trigger on things like passing traffic cars.
- As small a form-factor as possible.
The Reolink hardware mentioned below seems to fit the bill hardware-wise.
I hadn’t even really considered the software, as I don’t need a lot of features. All I need is to use motion-activated capture to stream to some local storage, and an ability to view a live-stream when I want one. But it looks like there’s a lot of options I need to consider.
For NVR - it looks like you are after Frigate with object detection.
For cameras - as long as it has RTSP support, then you should be fine. Doesn’t really matter of what kind of brand it is. You can always block internet access for a camera in your router.
You’re looking for a self-hosted NVR (Network Video Recorder). The best I’ve found and use in a number of customer’s is Blue Iris, and it’ll work with any ONVIF-enabled cameras, but it costs 100/yr and only runs on a windows machine. I have desperately tried open-source NVRs that will work on Linux but none of them are even in the same universe as Blue Iris for functionality and ease of use.
Wireless cameras are generally terrible so if you can hardwire them in any way, I would go with that. People have had fairly good luck with Wyse cameras for wireless, I can’t speak to it. See the Selfhosted Podcast for various discussions on cameras to use with NVRs, with a focus on Blue Iris.
I have desperately tried open-source NVRs that will work on Linux but none of them are even in the same universe as Blue Iris for functionality and ease of use.
Have you tried Shinobi? I’ve used it for quite some time until I switched to Frigate. It isn’t broken tho.
Also, anything special with Blue Iris? Note that it can be ran on Linux because there is Docker image that uses wine.
I did have it working under Wine myself, not with docker. The docker image is news to me, I might have to give it a try. What I did notice about running under Wine was that the web interface wouldn’t load the good quality version, just the basic HTML version with the sad camera controls and interface. It worked, but wasn’t great.
I did try Shinobi, it had a really odd interface. While it worked, I did not find it enjoyable to use and it was pretty rudimentary compared to BI.
I have the reolink doorbell which I really like. You can pay for cloud storage, use an SD card or store it on a local server. I believe they also have WiFi Solar cameras for outside as well
I would review https://docs.frigate.video/frigate/hardware
Frigate is amazing, that’s what I’d recommend. I’m using a 5MP Amcrest camera, works very well. The dev doesn’t recommend Reolink.
Hikvision are also just rebranded amcrest sold cheaper for consumers. You have to isolate them from the internet, but that goes for pretty much every IP camera.
If you’re looking for something more or less in the same footprint, I understand those cheap Wyze cameras can be used. There are alternative firmwares available that can be flashed to them to open up the rtsp stream to whatever self-hosted recorder you’d like. Haven’t tried it, but have heard it mentioned on the Self Hosted podcast.
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