Hacker News Reader

Comment by dansnerd | Hacker News Reader

Was literally going to do a ShowHN later this week for a side-project I've been working on that hits roughly the same use-cases: https://chewcam.com (just finishing up some last minor bugs).

Major difference looks to be broad vs narrow feature scope (haven looks very in-depth, with lots of sensor options, etc), native app vs browser based, and long-running (security camera) vs short-lived sessions (hour or two here or there).

Not sure if its appropriate to tack on-to this thread or if I should make a separate one, but figured its closely enough related that someone interested in Haven might be interested in chewcam as well.

View on HN

> Not sure if its appropriate to tack on-to this thread

Shameless plugs are generally quite appreciated on HN, when done respectfully at least. A large percentage of people here are either entrepreneurs or wantrepreneurs, so understand the struggle.

Good luck with Chewcam!

I like the project, but have a slightly different use case. I am describing it in case you were up for adding features to your project or if you could point me towards something that would help me.

My grandmother has dementia. We would like to install two cameras in her apartment; one in the hallway and another one in the kitchen to check if she got out of bed, took her meds, make sure she doesn't let strangers in, and doesn't wander out of her apartment. Cameras such as Ring and Nest would be ideal, but we can't afford them. If your app allowed us to both stream the video continously and store it for at least 48h for up $5 a month, we would use sign up instantly.

It might be an option to connect the cameras to some computer (like an older laptop) via a USB extension cable and record the video locally, while using VNC, TeamViewer or some other remote desktop software to connect to that computer to view both the stream and the records when needed. No need for a cloud solution that way.

FWIW I've setup Raspberry Pi W cameras [0] as security and garage door opener (w/relay on GPIO) cameras for friends/family, using MotionEye [1] as the interface.

I just use a cheap VPS like Vultr [2] to terminate persistent ssh tunnels from the cameras and run a self-signed https gateway into them. It's under $5/mo for the cheapest VPS option.

It's a bit of work to get it set up, but nothing crazy hard if you know your way around something resembling a LAMP stack and ssh tunnels. There's no third parties integrated so you control the data and have a lot fewer privacy/safety concerns in general.

If there's no wifi available, at&t offers mobile hotspot prepay service for as low as $25/mo.

[0] https://www.adafruit.com/product/3414

[1] https://github.com/ccrisan/motioneye

[2] https://www.vultr.com/

I'd recommend to use tinc instead of ssh tunnels.

Second that. Tinc is great for this.

I've been relying on the command= syntax of .authorized_keys to restrict what's possible, but I'm not 100% confident in that being impervious to intrusion should someone get access to the on-camera SSH tunnel private keys.

Wireguard is somewhere on my mental todo list for possible replacement of these tunnels, but they do the job and SSH is going to be listening either way to admin the VPS.

I like Tailscale [1] for connecting instead of setting up your own VPS. Works flawlessly for things like this.

[1] https://tailscale.com

In my experience those PI Zero cases and camera are very unreliable. They over heat

I've had absolutely zero problems with them overheating, and that's even using them as security cameras in a desert cabin without AC, where outside ambient temps exceed 120F.

The only thing I did to prepare them for that abuse was adding a small adhesive-backed aluminum heat sink [0] to the CPU. It only required some filing of the fins to fit in the tight packaging of the camera enclosure.

I never attempted running them without the heat sink, knowing it was going to be a rough desert life for them. So I can't even say if it was necessary.

It's also possible my software settings which are optimized to minimize wifi bandwidth and storage consumption are helping keep things cool. The `motion` process is only using around 15% CPU continuously, and the loadavg hovers around .27, FWIW.

[0] https://www.adafruit.com/product/3084

You should talk to robert zmrzli, a google engineer and friend how also made wellnuo.com which is an active sensor system for tracking exactly this use case. If your email is in profile ill email intro you guys

Two Wyze cams for $50 - solved. No monthly fee, has some AI stuff that boxes around heads / people.. has android app notifications, remote viewing..

Have a location that uses one of these on the inside plugged into a battery backup and a blinkxt wireless cam on the outside (can put these anywhere / wireless ) that needs fresh l-ion batteries every couple months.

no monthly fees, text alerts, apps with real time and recordings of what happened earlier / yesterday..

no idea where the data is sent for these for their cloud, but the Wyze also has on board sd card for secondary backup data..

or how long they will last or the cloud will do the video for free basically.. my samsung indoor cam lasted about 3 years before it bricked and these a replacing that.. at that price if they last that long it works for me.

Thanks for the suggestion! From what I read, Wyze's cloud doesn't store continuous recordings. They only store 12 sec event-triggered videos with events being at least 5 minutes apart.

They say that continuous video can be saved to a microSD and played back in Wyze app. Do you know if this playback works remotely or would I have to be on the same WiFi?

Works whole not on the same WiFi. I just tried it by disabling WiFi on my device and accessing camera playback.

not sure about all that, I see another posted a reply that seems to allow app access remote - have not tried yet.

For continuous - I used an offline completely ,swann wired security system outside, and a secondary wired system from nightowl that has an app they say after setup never touches their servers, for remote access, also now has Human detection technology. - around $250 More expensive on the front end, and have to deal with wires, but keeps days worth of recordings, keeps it local - have not tried the app / remote access setups yet because I see a rabbit hole of getting into router settings for private network setup and all that. One of these days when it's more needed.

I would recommend Blink XT2 cameras for the home health care setting (dad had a hemorrhagic stroke and recovering with hemiplegic paralysis), they are dependable and I plugged them in so they run off lithium ion batteries as a backup.

I get real time motion clips for peace of mind to monitor his nurse caregivers and can watch latest clips in a timeline view.

No monthly cost and peace of mind you don't have up reboot a buggy Android app or raspberry pi solution.

Get an Amcrest camera, $40 and you can stream straight from the camera. It has motion detection built in with phone or email notification (with still shots or video of the motion) and a full featured app including DVR (while you are watching). For $100 or so more you can also get a network DVR that will always record and you can watch from your phone at any time

I am using this setup for my mums rental property

It would be nice to have a user flow pathway that demonstrates how your product works.

Currently your only options are "View camera" and "setup camera", but if you're a new user and you want to see how it works, you're out of luck... That could lead to bad conversion rate...

Great suggestion, I saw a week ago or so here some open-source stuff from trevor.io (I think?) for doing a simple walkthrough gif. Might work on adding something like that.

I always find it nice to see similar alternatives shared on a related post.

Can you contact me? Email is on profile. Not on the same use case, but similar niche - home surveillance.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com