To Learn How to Setup your own Home Security System you first have to establish your main
goals.
In my opinion the main goal should be to GET THE LICENSE PLATE number of any intruder with
a time stamp, and have it upload to a cloud, without a monthly bill for monitoring.
In my opinion facial recognition is only second to getting the license plate.
When my home was robbed the female thief wore a hat to avoid facial recognition.
So getting a license plate number is my main goal.
Since there are 100's of factors into selecting a home security camera system I will only
go over why I selected what I selected.
Let's Start with Placement
The Best place I found to get a license plate number of a car in my driveway or in the street
was right around where my driveway porch light was.
This only works with a strong security camera.
Therefore I had to find a camera and a porch light that I fit to each other that looked
discrete and not too ghetto.
I will link to the Porch light and the camera I bought in the description below.
Surveillance Camera Setup Selection
The biggest factors in selecting an outdoor camera is that it is strong enough to pick
up the license number.
Once again I can't stress that enough.
I chose a camera that is varifocal in other words it doesn't have a fixed size or zoom.
This is because you'll have to adjust the lens size so it is close enough to pick up
detailed license plate number yet zoomed out enough to pick up the entire landscape or
enough landscape.
Note: Zooming in on a computer is blurry and doesnt gain more detail.
Alone, it will not pick up the license like they do in the movies.
You need a manual Zoom on the IP Camera.
The Second biggest factor is the Megapixels of the camera.
This is also important but not as important as the lens size.
The higher this number of megapixels the less you have to be zoomed in to read a license
plate number and still get a lot of the landscape.
Other important features I like are IP camera's, which mean they plug directly into your computers
network.
This isn't too complicated to do these days and it enables me store all the video on a
cloud instead of a dvr, or a hard drive, or an NVR, which can easily be stolen by an intruder.
If you cant run ethernet wires another important feature will be a wireless camera.
But be aware that wireless cameras are very glitchy, and bog down your wifi, and are way
more expensive.
So if you can running ethernet cables is better than having a wireless camera.
Lastly make sure it is an outdoor camera if you don't want it to die the first time it
rains.
That's why I chose the camera I have linked to in the icon in this video and in the description
below.
And It is the most affordable one of its kind as well.
You will also need to purchase this cheap power adapter for this camera to work.
Camera Installation.
To connect the camera to the light I drilled holes in the porch light frame and connected
the light and camera with zip ties.
Then I ran the wires through the back of the light.
Because I cut an insert in the top of the light for the camera wires.
Then drilled a hole in the wall and ran the wires to my ethernet so I can control the
camera through my computer network.
Software Selection.
I will link to my ideal software selection in the description below.
This software is great for 6 reasons.
First.
It works with most IP Cameras and you can always add new cameras that suit your needs.
Two, it records with motion detection and does it really well.
Three, they make set up straitforward which is could be complicated.
Four, It includes a times stamp that makes it useable in a court of law.
Five, very importantly it stores "immediately" to cloud if you uncheck this box here.
Six, it has a great phone app so you can view your cameras anywhere you get internet.
It is a one time purchase for the Desktop and another for the Phone app.
If you buy it from my link I listed below they will email the activation code and you
can wait for the product in the mail or you can download the program right away as well.
Storage:
Cloud storage is the best way in my opinion because all footage cannot be physically stolen
like I said before from external hard drives and computers.
You can see here it takes about a minute for my software to pick up the footage and store
it to my cloud with a check.
So should a thief steal my computer or camera I still have the information stored on my
cloud drive.
If it didn't like most other systems the whole system would be worth nothing.
Any free cloud drive app should work just fine.
I like Amazon because it has unlimited storage with a cheap yearly fee.
Its worth it since I back up all my devices to the cloud including camera footage.
However Amazon does not upload immediately on its own.
To do this you will have to download O-drive which is a free auto upload application for
amazon cloud.
Set the storage folders within the software to the new o drive folder and o-drive will
remain as the free version.
I will link to Amazon Cloud, and O-drive in the description below but I might change them
in the future if better products come out.
Logging in to your Router
For some this all may be a little daunting.
I promise it isn't.
I had no idea what I was doing when I started.
The hardest part for people that aren't techy will probably be logging in to your router.
You can log in to your router by obtaining its default ip address, username, and password
in the information that came with it or by google searching its defaults if you haven't
changed them.
Note: This is different than your wifi password.
Now what you do is plug the IP address in to your browser.
Next give the Username and password.
From ther you just need to find the IP addresses of your connected devices.
This is where your ip camera's will show up when they are connected.
It might also be helpful to know where your ports are if you plan to view your cameras
on a handheld devices as well.
Making It All Come Together.
Your house has a main IP address.
Your router, each computer, each device, and each camera all have different IP addresses
and passwords within and below that home IP address.
Write each down and the rest of the process will be fairly straightforward.
Also note that the router has different ports.
Ports are where your IP addresses exchange information.
Write your ports down as well.
Sometimes you need to assign the ports called Port Forwarding.
You can assign a port for the the software to be shared on your devices in your router's
port forwarding section.
Finally you take all the IP addresses, passwords, and ports and plug them in to the software
and the phone app and everything becomes alive & you're connected and you are in control
of your cameras.
If this seems like a lot, remember: most people have useless security systems and cameras
like I did.
In my opinion you are going to have one that actually works and you won't pay their high
monthly fee's.
Learn from my mistakes.
You might have a few challenges but all the information is out there to help you get through
it.
I have a link to a list of all products you will need for this projectt in the icons in
this video & in the description.
I'm also here if you need help so leave those comments in the section below.
Think of the savings, catching thieves, and an added sense of security in your life.
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