Boat monitoring ip camera question

PEJ

PEJ

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I have a samsung tablet that is not getting used much so I thought I might set it up as an IP camera on the boat.

It has a 4G sim card in it and I can get a PAYG data only sim. My question is - can you get software that can be set such that it only streams video when you want it too. By which I mean I don't want it eating up data streaming video all the time, day and night. I just want to "dial it up" and ask it to come on and show me what there is to see and then go off and stop using data.

Can you do this?
 
Forget that and get one of these they are only £20 https://neos.co.uk/shop/
Have two on the boat and two on the house free cloud recording for 14 days with intruder notification on your phones app, no firewall port forwarding just setup leave and it works.
Auto disarms when you are on board if you want it to by geo locationg your phone. Picture quality is stunning day and night.
You can get unlimited SIMs now from £20 per month.

You can disarm the camera on your phone app, so it does not record use data, then rearm when you want or just live preview

Best

Stewart
 
swatkins said:
Forget that and get one of these they are only £20 https://neos.co.uk/shop/
Have two on the boat and two on the house free cloud recording for 14 days with intruder notification on your phones app, no firewall port forwarding just setup leave and it works.
Auto disarms when you are on board if you want it to by geo locationg your phone. Picture quality is stunning day and night.
You can get unlimited SIMs now from £20 per month.

You can disarm the camera on your phone app, so it does not record use data, then rearm when you want or just live preview

Best

Stewart
Click to expand...
That looks good but how do you connect it to the 4G network?
 
swatkins said:
Forget that and get one of these they are only £20 https://neos.co.uk/shop/
Have two on the boat and two on the house free cloud recording for 14 days with intruder notification on your phones app, no firewall port forwarding just setup leave and it works.
Auto disarms when you are on board if you want it to by geo locationg your phone. Picture quality is stunning day and night.
You can get unlimited SIMs now from £20 per month.

You can disarm the camera on your phone app, so it does not record use data, then rearm when you want or just live preview

Best

Stewart
Click to expand...

Hikvision and Ezviz, ( Hikvision's consumer brand) offer the same service,
I have a sim data card at 10 euro /month in Italy-Sardegna
all year long I can see 4 camera's on a I-phone app
At my home berth, one camera is fixed on the electric distribution box on the quay.
 
PEJ said:
Can you do this?
Click to expand...
Yes. It seems to me that the app I mentioned in this post does exactly what you are looking for.
There might be others, mind - possibly even better.
But I never bothered searching/comparing, since it's free, does what it says on the tin, and is good enough for me. :encouragement:
 
MapisM said:
Yes. It seems to me that the app I mentioned in this post does exactly what you are looking for.
There might be others, mind - possibly even better.
But I never bothered searching/comparing, since it's free, does what it says on the tin, and is good enough for me. :encouragement:
Click to expand...

Thanks for this MapisM. From the link...

MapisM said:
Bottom line, I grabbed an old mobile phone, sticked a data-enabled SIM card into it, and I positioned it right in front of the boat electrical panel.
This way, I can see its status exactly as if I were onboard, which is already more than I was looking for.

But the app is much more sophisticated than that, because it can:
1) send a notification whenever the device is not being charged anymore. And since its charger is connected to an AC socket, this pretty much works as a automatic notification that the AC went off;
2) be self-activated upon motion detection, configurable to record and/or send a notification;
3) switch between the front and rear camera, which means that you can place the remote smartphone for instance on the saloon door and monitor both the cockpit and the interior;
4) switch on/off a "night mode" which, even if it doesn't give visibility in complete darkness, is as close to a proper night camera as you can get;
5) turn on/off the integrated flash;
6) zoom in/out;
7) work as both a microphone and a loudspeaker, i.e. allowing you not only to hear anything that the remote device can hear, but also to speak and have the remote device acting as a speakerphone. TBH, in the application which is being debated I can't think of any meaningful use for the latter, but the former is a nice feature - you would be surprised by how sensible a smartphone microphone can be!
8) allow as many users as you want to access the onboard device, and also receive notifications. We just shared that between myself and S so far, but you might wish to authorize for instance also your boat keeper, the marina, or anyone else - it's just a matter of adding them to your "group".
Click to expand...
What I had in mind was to position it to look at the electrical panel through one camera and the saloon though the other camera, so perfect.

So does it only use up data when you access the camera feed remotely?
 
I'm with swatkins on this subject.
Don't muck about - get the right kit for the job.
I use these:-
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ESCAM-G0...=3526849632422fff21481f944856940e56c76b547663

OK - I know that they are from China but they are cheap.
They can be remotely controlled - Pan and Tilt etc and connect to mobile devices and desktop computers.
I've had them working on the boat whilst away for over a year now - no problems.

IMO, don't muck about with an old tablet - you are wasting your time - this Chinese stuff is so cheap.

With all these IoT devices, there is a security risk.
These devices can tunnel through your NAT firewall.
By installing them, you have given them all the information that they need.
So I have created a separate "unsecure" network for all my IoT devices - both at home and on the boat.
To do this, I simply use two routers at each location.
The first one connects to the internet and provides WiFi/LAN connections for all these IoT devices.
Then I have a second router that hides all my private computers behind another NAT firewall.
The second stage routers run DD-WRT software and connect to each other thus providing a VPN tunnel between the boat and home.
Complicated but secure.
 
Hurricane said:
I'm with swatkins on this subject.
Don't muck about - get the right kit for the job.
I use these:-
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ESCAM-G0...=3526849632422fff21481f944856940e56c76b547663

.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your input Mike, but my starting point question is about being able to keep data usage to a minimum by just using data when you view with the camera and then stop it using data when you are not. Will I be able to do that with the system you suggest?

I assume I could use the sim in the old tablet for a 4G hotspot and connect the kit via wifi to the tablet?
 
Last edited:
I downloaded the Alfred Camera app and tried it out.

It seems to do everything I want, including minimum data usage, but it was running down the battery faster than the charger could replace it. That doesn't seem right so I will check what is going on.
 
PEJ said:
Thanks for your input Mike, but my starting point question is about being able to keep data usage to a minimum by just using data when you view with the camera and then stop it using data when you are not. Will I be able to do that with the system you suggest?

I assume I could use the sim in the old tablet for a 4G hotspot and connect the kit via wifi to the tablet?
Click to expand...

The camera hardly uses any data.
Typically 0.3Gb per month and thats with me logging into it regularly.
Also, I have a VPN running all the time (two DD-WRT routers - one at home - one on the boat) which must use some data to keep the connection open.
So, to recap - the cameras use very little data.

Yes, the cameras in my link above would connect to a 4G hotspot - that's essentially what I do (my "hotspot" is a 4G router).
I leave shore supply on so the camera is connected to shore power.
If no shore power - no camera feed so this indicates a possible shore power failure.
It is good to know that when you are viewing the camera from home, shore power is connected.

I set mine up temporarily on the top of box in the galley.
The fridge door is usually open for ventilation.
I have been known to wizz the camera round and have a look in the fridge to see if there was any marmalade.
A couple of weeks ago before coming out, we wanted to know if we had any Angostura Bitters for out Gins.
So, I logged into the camera and I could see the bottle in the drinks cabinet!!

The other features that the cameras offer is security.
They continually monitor "video frame" to "video frame".
If there is a change between the frames, they send an email with the video frame as an attachment.
They then (optionally) record video onto their internal microSD card.
There is also sound transmitted.
If you have an internet route to them (as in my case) you can access the video camera using a browser.
The camera's internal webserver has controls to Pan and Tilt the camera.
Alternatively there is an app for iPhones and Androids to control all these features and more.
Great value for less that 25 quid.
 
Hurricane said:
If no shore power - no camera feed so this indicates a possible shore power failure.
It is good to know that when you are viewing the camera from home, shore power is connected.
Click to expand...
In this respect, actually the Alfred app is even better, M.
If you leave the mobile device plugged in to its AC charger, when AC goes off the app remains alive for as long as the battery lasts, offering two features:
1) send you automatically a notification that power went off (as I understand, with your system you are unaware of it unless you try to connect);
2) allow you to still connect and use the camera normally, till battery lasts - which normally is more than enough for AC power to be restored.

Far from pretending that this very basic solution is better than yours of course, but if you don't use/need all the bells and whistles (I don't, for instance) it's hard to find anything better/simpler - let alone cheaper, considering that it costs nothing! :cool:
 
PEJ said:
it was running down the battery faster than the charger could replace it
Click to expand...
I also experienced a shorter battery life in my mobile device (an old and very basic Android smartphone), but that was only perceivable when I tested it without the charger connected.
When the AC/USB charger is on, it doesn't take longer than usually to fully recharge the battery (not that I noticed, anyway), and the battery is constantly kept at 100%, regardless of whether the camera is active or not.
The problem you describe sounds like charger-specific. Are you using the original one that came with the device?
 
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