This is a fun combination project. Part hardware, part 3d-printing, part software. The idea is to build a babymonitor that is local only. For this I thought I would create a local network and stream the video via some web interface. The goals are simple, portable, local only, works in the dark, streams wirelessly to tablet or phone.
PICTURE OF TABLET
PICTURE OF CAMERA
Here’s the BOM:
- Raspberry Pi
- IR Camera
- Flex cable (came with the camera)
- SD-card
- Tablet (or phone)
- USB-cable
- Powerbank or wallplug
- Some holder, I 3D-printed mine but you could make it out of wood mr aluminium. Arm and stand
- 4x16mm m2 screws (the camera came with shorter ones)
- 2x8mm m5 screws
- 2xm5 bolts
If you choose a Raspberry that does not have wifi:
- External network card (that can handle hotspot mode)
From the beginning my plan was to build this on a Raspberry pi Zero W. However, the camera I bought came with a cable that didn’t fit (and I forgot to check). Thus I brought a Raspbberry Pi 2 instead. I however forgott to bring the Wifi dongle needed. I hade to buy a dongle and this could not be used as a hotspot, thus a temporary solution is needed. This is to use my phone as a router instead. This partly means one the main goal of the project won’t technically be solved as the phone has internet access. However, this will be changed when I’m back from the holidays together with changing to the raspberry Pi and the flex cable. I will also redesign the stand to something less temporary.
The setup is prettly simple.
- Screw together the camera on the stand with the IR-lights, mount the camera on the mount and connect it to the Raspberry Pi.
- Install the operating system on the SD-card. SSH into the PI and test the camera. If this works move on
- Install the webUI, for this don’t forgett to install picamera2 with
sudo apt install -y python3-picamera2. - Lastly you need to create a hotspot. Given you have a WiFi-card that can handle it this should work:
sudo nmcli device wifi hotspot ssid <name> password <password> ifname wlan0.
You can now connect the tablet or phone to whatever WiFi the Raspberry broadcasts and go to <IP>:8080. If you go to “control camera” and right click on the feed you can open it in a new tab and thus get a (mostly) full screen mode. In the web interface you can also tweek settings. Up until now this is a quick and dirty project, beacasue I need it. I will probably redesign the holder, change the PI, add headsinks to the LED:s and so on. But it works, It’s local (isch), and I’ve spent about €13. I’ll write a part two if I get to spend more time on it.
Isn’t it cheaper to just buy a monitor? Well maybe. Probably. It depends. If I were to through away the hardware once I’m done this project would probably cost as much as a commercial babymonitor, which seems to start at about €70. However, I built mine on a raspberry pi I already hade and will reuse once I’m done with this, a tablet I had laying around, printed parts with the printer I have, used bolts I had, USB-cables I had and so on. The only thing I bought for this was the camera, which cost about €10.