I’m looking into adding a video doorbell and some security cameras and want to integrate with HA. I have some cameras that came with the house, but I don’t think they will work. The system has been discontinued and I don’t have the “base unit” that connects them. If there is a way to use them, I’d be happy to find out if they are operational and use them. Web search has not helped.
My first priority is a video doorbell. I don’t really understand much about how it works, and there is a lot of conflicting information out there. I have a wired doorbell, and I could probably manage to figure out how to run a data line if needed.
I want it to play nicely with any future system. The current camera system is wired, and I’m happy to run new wires if needed. I have plenty of storage on my home PC server, and I’d prefer to use it.
Any guides out there that really cover the overall process?
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I’m happy with my Reolink doorbell camera I just put in after my Nest doorbell gave up the ghost. Home Assistant has the integration for it. I just put a 256 gig SD card in the back of the device and set it up with the Home Assistant. Did not opt for the vendor’s cloud storage services. A few Google / YouTube search’s helped a lot.
I recently picked up a Ubiquity Dream Machine router, so I’d probably go with PoE Unifi camera if possible. Just got a find someone to run conduit, or I’ve gotta watch some home improvement videos.
I’ve got a Unifi switch and a gateway instead of a dream machine, but that’s not far from the setup I’m working on (just need the weather to cool down so that I can coexist with the sun in the attic so that I can do the run to the doorbell).
Ethernet’s not nearly as scary as mains power, I wired up our house with 10 runs though the attic and it’s super doable as a DIY project. Consult your local codes/ laws and all, but I was able to run my cable though j-hooks instead of having to put conduit up everywhere, the biggest gotcha was more in the trying to keep my lines away from existing AC power and finding the wall framing under the insulation in the attic. The company TrueCable has a YouTube channel with a bunch of helpful resources on pretty much everything Ethernet/ networking, I’d highly recommend it even if you aren’t buying cable from them (I ended up doing so because they were cheaper than everywhere else and I could get all my jacks, wall plates, and tools in the same order - this was also a year ago though, so prices may have shifted since).
I love my 3 POE reolink cameras, they are all local and just joined Home assistant officially. The integration is flawless and love that I don’t have to use frigate either. I have all my cameras recording directly to my NAS via FTP.
How do you record directly do your NAS? I like this idea. I also like frigate but never used any of these. I’m new. So any advices help. I have a dozen cameras but not installed or setup.
As long as you have cameras that have a web interface which I think all the POE reolink cameras have there is an option to record everything to an FTP server. Once you have them on your network just go to the IP of the camera and login with the username and password you set.
If you need more in depth help let me know and I can send you some screenshots of my nas ftp settings and reolink camera ftp settings
Awesome thanks. Let me tinker with it this coming Monday and see how much of a pain it is to get setup. If I have any issues I’ll surely message you back. We are definitely looking to swap out an old recorder box. I’ve got plenty of PC parts so this is a non issue.
What hardware setup do you need to implement POE?
PoE Switch. 100mbps ones are cheap and good enough for cameras
why do you want a camera doorbell? in any case I’m interested in your response.
I recommend to not have any cameras that record public areas. personally I hate doorbell cameras. who the fuck knows where will the recordings end up, but it’s almost 100 percent they won’t stay locally.
old ones that don’t involve modern tech, even a network cable, are… fine? but again, how do you tell them apart. and it’s not only about the doorbells.these are cameras that record public area, even if just those who pass by on the street. owners of these are basically letting tech companies snitch on their neighborhoods. where I live these are illegal, but of course lots of houses use either cameras disguised as doorbells, or even install their fucking cameras on the outside of the buildings and being pointed to the didewalk and the road.
The point of self hosting is that it all stays local.
Nobody but you can verify it. also others who commented implied that they control the cameras with the manufacturer’s app, and that the camera has not been blocked from the internet, so selfhosting brings almost no benefits in that cadse, but definitely not any for privacy
I have ubiquiti cameras and doorbell at home, all stored locally and i can access them through home assistant.
and did you take measures so that ubiquiti does not access them?
I chose to enable cloud access cause my home assistant died and I wanted to continue having external access, but it was not mandatory.
I agree with your point for most providers, like ring and eufy, but I don’t think it’s impossible to achieve.
the question is not whether it’s possible, but whether people subject the public near them to online surveillance systems. sorry, but other than being accessible from HA (which is something too) this is not better than how most people do it. at least to me it is more important than convenience to not leak strangers lives to whoever.
Okay, so don’t set up cameras in your house?
For everyone else: I’ve found on other forums that reolink can be set up without connecting to the manufacturer, and likely others. It’s relatively trivial for experienced users to insulate any given device from the internet while using HA.
Okay, so don’t set up cameras in your house?
don’t set up cameras that see public area. other than that you do what you want, but if a camera could see a neighbour’s yard then they have a say too.
I’ve found on other forums that reolink can be set up without connecting to the manufacturer, and likely others. It’s relatively trivial for experienced users to insulate any given device from the internet while using HA.
most IP cameras can be set up that way, yes. all you need is the camera to serve the video feed over RTSP, that’s a direct connection.
but that’s not everything. if you just connect it to your main network it’ll connect to reolink servers without issues, and reolink can do whatever they want with it, including stealing the video feed, or if they turn greedy they can remotely upgrade your camera and disable the RTSP feed.to prevent that, you should either create a separate VLAN for cameras, and configure your router (routing-wise) so that other networks (incl the internet) are not accessible from it. you need managed switches for that, or routers that allow you to configure VLANs.
alternatively get a dedicated dumb switch for cheap, and build a physically separate network for the cameras, and only connect the cameras and the server into it, without connecting it to the main network.finally, what I meant with my first sentence in the last comment is that a passerby cannot verify your setup, and they shouldn’t need to (or be able to) either. anybody can just claim “its self-hosted”, so it does not really matter with respect to your neighbors and all the people who may pass by