My partner and I have a trip planned in about 1.5 weeks, bur cat is unfortunately sickly right now. I’m tasked with setting up a couple of webcams in her favorite spots so we can check on her while we’re away.
Currently we have 1 basic webcam, two functioning Linux desktops, a couple old hard drives i don’t need, a domain name I have grand plans for but have never used, and enough experience with docker and self hosting to be dangerous.
If you were to set up a quick and dirty pet cam with a minimal budget and about a week to buy everything and get it all set up, how would you go about it? I really want a solution requires as little fiddling and config as possible.
I know I’ll need at least one more webcam, and I’ve been researching NVR software all night only to arrive back at idk-what-I’m-doing after hours of reading. I could potentially stretch my budget up to something like a Qnap TS-216G (which is as close to a good solution as I’ve found) since I’ve been wanting to buy a NAS anyways. The QVR software suite seems like a nice solution for easy setup, but I really dont need any advanced AI features. Even basic stuff like motion detection and video storage I could do without, although they would be nice to have.
I’ve never made any services available from outside of my LAN either. From what I’ve read in the past, Tailscale may be the simplest solution for that, but idk if it’s suitable for this type of application.
Edit: I guess I never should have brought up that our cat is sick. Most of y’all seem to think that I’m neglecting my animal or something because I didnt go into detail about all of the care plans that we have in place for her. Her illness is long term and managed by medications. She doesnt have flare-ups or any acute symptoms that are likely to cause an emergency. We have friends that she likes that will be visiting daily to feed and water her, spend time with her, and give her medicine. This camera solution is really just a little something extra to make my partner and I feel better about being away from her.
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Reolink cameras seem to be cheap and privacy friendly. You can access them through the app and when you have time you can also use them without any proprietary stuff, as far as I know.
Quick, cheap and easy and with potential for more fiddling down the road.
This actually sounds like it fits my priorities pretty solidly. I’ll look into Reolink, thanks.
Sorry about your cat. We typically have a Rover stop in to check on our cats when we’re gone for a bit; it’s nice to get them some human interaction and they always send pictures and give updates.
I personally have a camera setup inside that just streams to HomeAssistant so we can check on them ourselves when we’re out just for the weekend. I disconnect it when Rovers are stopping by though because I don’t want them to feel spied on. No need for anything fancy really, but if you really want NVR I just use Frigate (for other things, the cat camera really is just a stream). It’s free and open source and really easy to set up.
WireGuard is a very easy way to set up the access. My router has just the single WireGuard UDP port forwarded
I’ve never messed with home assistant. Is it very simple to set up for a live stream like this? I agree that that the NVR solutions seem like overkill for my needs.
I’ve done some reading on setting up wiregaurd in the past, but havent actually deployed it before either. For a short term solution, opening up a port for it seems like a good compromise.
I recently left for a month with three cats. I have four amcrest cameras which I blocked in adguard and run them through frigate. Thinking of going back to agentdvr though. I do have one cloud camera, a xiaomi, that I only use on the days when I’m not home to have a backup. It’s not worth going selfhosted and FOSS then having an issue you can fix while away and worrying yourself to death.
I was honestly leaning more and more toward an off the shelf solution like this. I kindof agree with you about it not being worth it to use a fiddly roll-your-own setup like this, especially with such short notice. Plug and play sounds really attractive.
How do you like the Amcrest cameras and remote monitoring solution? Do they have a good reputation for security I hope? I’m afraid I’m completely in the dark about these types of security camera companies.
Edit: just reread this and saw that you’re running the Amcrest cameras through Frigate. Was that setup something that you think could be done in an afternoon? Or have you had to mess with things often? Simplicity and ease of setup are probably my highest priorities for this.
Summarized TL;DR:
Trip > Cat
Sometimes you gotta cancel to be a good human. I’ve done it before.
We have a care plan for the cat. This is just for our peace of mind.
I missed that your cat is sick. What sort of sick? Do you have a pet sitter? Do you have someone with a key? How far away are you going? Can you react if they’re in trouble?
If you can’t take care of them beyond looking at them via a camera this selfhosting question is pointless coping without solving the problem.
We have a pet sitter that lives down the road and our neighbors are also aware of the issues in case of an emergency. This isnt really for the cat’s wellbeing so much as a bandaid for how much we’ll miss her.
What’s her issue? Will they visit daily? I would plan daily visits. I did when I left for a month.
Respectfully, I really dont want this thread to be about my cat so much as the question at hand.
Got it, just concerned :) I love cats
Im gonna shit on your self hosting journey here for a bit. I’m sorry.
There is a reason sick people are in a location where people are close by to be able to react fast if shit hits the fan. What are you gonna do when you see your cat not moving at her favorite spot for too long? When are you gonna be sure she needs help? Then you call someone close by that needs 20 min to get there? And then another 30 to get to a vet? Does someone have a key to you apartment? Are they authorized to spend whatever at the vet?
Keep your ass at home and save the money until your cat is healthy again. Or give her into care so she is safe and not alone like any social animal like cats should not be for extended periods of time.
Respectfully, this.
Respectfully, I already have separate plans for keeping the cat taken care of. This is just so that my partner, who will miss her very much while we’re away for a few days, can see her occasionally while we’re away.
This is not really a technology question. I would pull a favor and see who can check in on your car/live in/take it in. I have a ton of animals and it’s hard to get people that don’t bail out so I resort to questionable people that are pretty much homeless and we’re 100bucks goes a long ways. Or pull a favor from family
It is actually a technology question. My cat’s care is being taken care of separately from this solution. This is just a supplementary setup that we’d like to have to be able to see her sometimes while we’re away.
How are you feeding this cat, while you are gone?
Get someone to take care of the cat while you are away. Either relatives, friends or some kennel/petcamp. You will feel better knowing the cat is in good hands if it’s condition should worsen and the cat will feel safe.
I’m not expecting an ad-hoc camera system to care for our cat while we’re away. We have friends who will be visiting and spending time with her every day while we’re gone. This is just so that we can check on her occasionally while we’re away. Her illness is long term and managed with medications, but that doesnt stop my partner and I from worrying.
You could install ZoneMinder and set it up with your webcam. It will do recording and basic motion detection. You don’t have to mess with any docker stuff, it just needs a recent version of Debian or Ubuntu. If you want to access it from a phone, I would suggest using the zmNinja app since the web UI sucks on mobile.
Some actual CCTV IP cameras would be better than a webcam if you can still find any that provide an RTSP stream and don’t require any of that cloud crap.
Does zoneminder handle secure remote connections on it’s own somehow? Or will I need a separate solution to access my LAN while away?
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