For open source and self-hosted, I've been pretty pleased with openmiko (https://github.com/openmiko/openmiko). I put this on a couple $20-ish wyze cams that are used adhoc right now, but will be combined with frigate and home assistant when I can get ahold of a Coral USB device.
Ask HN: Self-hosted open source IP security cameras?
21–30 of 45 posts
Re: Ask HN: Self-hosted open source IP security cameras?
#22Once you step up from consumer level (Nest/Ring/Wyze) cameras, you'll find that nearly every IP camera supports the standard RTSP/ONVIF format. They don't need any internet access to function. Standard practice is to secure them by using a dedicated VLAN (so they can't talk to anything else on your network) and default deny firewall rules (so they can't get to the Internet or other parts of your network). It's defini…
The issue here is that HikVision is a Chinese company, and they have been widely known to supply equipment to the government to aid in the suppression of the Uighur people. Same with Dahua.
The next problem is that both these companies operate under a very wide array of brands, hundreds if not thousands of names, some of which you might recognize and may have thought that they were separate. Lorex is one such brand. Many more can be found at https://securitycamcenter.com/hikvision-oem-list/ and https://securitycamcenter.com/dahua-oem-list/ among others.
Next, you have the other companies like Wyze that take Dahua hardware and put their own firmware on it.
So, if you want to use hardware from a company that is not compromised like HikVision or Dahua, the options get much more limited. At that point, you might want to start looking at building your own on top of the Raspberry Pi plus their camera options.
Personally, I'm still looking for someone who has decided to commercialize cameras based on the Raspberry Pi, so that I can buy a whole stack of them at once and I don't have to build them all myself.
Re: Ask HN: Self-hosted open source IP security cameras?
#23Axis cameras aren't open source, but they're just Linux running systemd and Axis (or other) software. You can ssh into them, write your own apps, etc. They're not particularly locked down. They support ONVIF and VAPIX, which are API:s that VMS's such as Milestone and Genetec target. > poorly secured IoT devices will get repurposed for. Don't let it have access to the outside net then?
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Re: Ask HN: Self-hosted open source IP security cameras?
#24Once you step up from consumer level (Nest/Ring/Wyze) cameras, you'll find that nearly every IP camera supports the standard RTSP/ONVIF format. They don't need any internet access to function. Standard practice is to secure them by using a dedicated VLAN (so they can't talk to anything else on your network) and default deny firewall rules (so they can't get to the Internet or other parts of your network). It's defini…
I've been trying for a long time to learn how to setup this "separate VLAN" stuff. Do you have a resource you could recommend? :)
It's a router/switch/firewall thing. You're building multiple virtual LANs and using them to separate the traffic.
You could implement VLANs in your core switch for the house, maybe using Mikrotik or other managed switches that are VLAN-capable. That might allow you to use a simpler router that doesn't need to understand how
You could implement VLANs in your router or gateway or firewall, depending on your hardware. In that case, you might be able to use simpler and less expensive unmanaged switches.
Exactly how those devices implement VLANs is going to differ somewhat. It might be easy to configure a switch for VLANs, where a given port or group of ports are on one VLAN, and a different port or group of ports might be on a different VLAN. Implemented at the router/gateway/firewall level, you might have to make those assignments based on MAC addresses, and/or internal IP addresses if you can tie that into your DHCP service.
VLANs can be complex to set up, depending on where and how they are configured. And they're not a panacea. But they can be very helpful, if implemented correctly.
Re: Ask HN: Self-hosted open source IP security cameras?
#25It seems everyone is resigned to crunchy/gooey 90s style networks for these. I guess an alternative could be some sort of VPN dongle to put in front of each one.
Re: Ask HN: Self-hosted open source IP security cameras?
#26There's a channel on YouTube called "The Hook Up" that has a lot of good videos about home automation. Here's his playlist of videos he's made on security cameras: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-51DG-VULPom8Ud6vdf5... Most relevant to your question might be this video: Build The BEST Security Camera NVR: Free Locally Processed AI Computer Vision with Blue Iris. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwoonl5JKgo
Blue Iris is a Windows-only program. There are others available on other platforms, and they may or may not have support for running external machine learning systems for this kind of purpose.
On the Mac, check out SecuritySpy. On Linux and Unix, check out Shinobi.
Re: Ask HN: Self-hosted open source IP security cameras?
#27Axis cameras aren't open source, but they're just Linux running systemd and Axis (or other) software. You can ssh into them, write your own apps, etc. They're not particularly locked down. They support ONVIF and VAPIX, which are API:s that VMS's such as Milestone and Genetec target. > poorly secured IoT devices will get repurposed for. Don't let it have access to the outside net then?
Axis cameras are the old-school corporate gold standard for doing a network video camera. Sadly, they're priced like it.
I can buy a half dozen to a dozen cheaper ONVIF-capable cameras from a well-known brand, for the same price I'd pay to get one Axis camera.
But then you run into the issue noted above, where virtually all Chinese cameras are made by a small number of companies, most of whom are implicated in the suppression of the Uighur people, and who frequently sell their core hardware to other companies to install their own firmware.
Sad, but true.
Re: Ask HN: Self-hosted open source IP security cameras?
#28I setup a WYZE/Dafang camera with dafang-hacks firmware. Then run a MQTT server to pass messages on motion activity. A basic script runs ffmpeg and records the RTSP stream on a separate server.
I was just tracking rodents temporarily though. Not that well suited for security applications.
Re: Ask HN: Self-hosted open source IP security cameras?
#29AgentDVR in docker is a great alternative to blueIris if you don't want to run Windows. You can plug any onvif camera into it easily enough. Works with home assistant too.
Agent is not FOSS though. Only iSpy is.
Re: Ask HN: Self-hosted open source IP security cameras?
#30I tried pretty much all of them, now I'm working on my own NVR(https://eternityforest.com/doku/doku.php?id=tech:nvr).
For the cameras themselves, Amcrest is good enough for me, but the PineCube looks like it has potential.