Cheap webcam remote boat monitoring

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paulrogers

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I'm a couple of hours from my boat, so have set up a remote camera. Details for anyone looking for similar:

Total upfront cost £87

Camera: Baseus S1 lite £49.95 on amazon
4g Mifi: yosoo mifi £9.79 amazon
Micro sim for camera: 128gb £10 amazon
Clamp: £15.79 for 2 amazon
Data Sim: £2.50 amazon

Ongoing cost £2.50 a month

The camera is solar powered. There's another model that turns the solar panel to track the sun, but so far this one drops around 3% a day and recharges fully in about 2 hrs direct sun. So even in the winter I'd expect it to last at least a couple of weeks with constant cloud cover.

For the mifi, I tried using a powerbank plugged into a 10w portable solar panel. But all powerbanks I tried needed to have the button pressed to start charging. So when the mifi was fully charged, the powerbank switched off, and wouldn't resume without a button press.

Mifi lasts around 12 hours on its own battery.

So I ended up plugging it into the 12v house battery which has a 10w solar panel trickle charging it. Its been running for 3 weeks with no drop in voltage.

The mifi has a Lebara sim, £2.50 for 5gb data a month - supposed to be for 3 months then up to £5, but can just buy another sim and start the 3 months again if needed.

In 3 weeks I've used 1gb, but depends on how often you want to check the boat, and how the motion detection is setup.

Obviously easy for anyone to nick the camera unless you mount it high up, and you'd loose any stored video unless you download onto your phone beforehand.

One issue so far - mifi lost mobile signal and didn't resume until I was on the boat and reset it. That was in Newhaven, its on Vodafone, so may have just been poor reception.


Camera - Amazon.co.uk
4g mifi - Amazon.co.uk
Micro sim - Amazon.co.uk
Clamp - Amazon.co.uk
Data only Sim - Amazon.co.uk
 

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My boat is three hours away, but after many years, I just accept the situation. If you see something happening to your boat, and it's a couple of hours away, by the time you get there, it will have happened. But, if it helps you, then fair enough.
 
I find Lebara sims cheaper through Martin Lewis' Moneysavingexpert site.

Currently have two running, one for the boat 4G router, the other in my Android tablet. £1 a month for 50gb for 9 months, monthly contract so just replace when the deal is up. I just checked, they currently don't have an offer this cheap but do keep an eye out.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-finder/sim-only/

lebara.jpg
 
Interesting. Thanks for the detailed set up.

And you can put in a ‘ Please could you have a look’ phonecall if something doesn’t look right if it’s a marina berth or moored near a pal.


On the mk 2 version I might think to change the cross sawn wood mount to a piece of plywood and maybe add a safety lanyard direct between camera and pushpit rail, as I think I can see the wood grain already splitting open in line with the screws.
 
wonkywinch said:
I find Lebara sims cheaper through Martin Lewis' Moneysavingexpert site.

Currently have two running, one for the boat 4G router, the other in my Android tablet. £1 a month for 50gb for 9 months, monthly contract so just replace when the deal is up. I just checked, they currently don't have an offer this cheap but do keep an eye out.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-finder/sim-only/

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Wow, great deal, will look out and probably get one for my tablet as well.
 
Blueboatman said:
Interesting. Thanks for the detailed set up.

And you can put in a ‘ Please could you have a look’ phonecall if something doesn’t look right if it’s a marina berth or moored near a pal.


On the mk 2 version I might think to change the cross sawn wood mount to a piece of plywood and maybe add a safety lanyard direct between camera and pushpit rail, as I think I can see the wood grain already splitting open in line with the screws.
Click to expand...
Good idea, will do, thanks.
 
On our boat we went for a 4G router, this is good as it's the boat WiFi network when onboard and has better range. Cost was £100, but that was in 2021 so is well paid for itself now. We use SMARTY unlimited data sim at £20/month but they do come cheaper as you say.
For cameras we went with Tapo as we use those at home and it's all on the same app. We also have the temp & humidity sensor and door sensor on the hatch. All power off the boat house battery, which has solar for charge.
A very similar setup to the OP, it's not expensive to do and works great as peace of mind.
 
Cheeky Girl said:
looks a good option.
how do you access your camera from home ? Do you have to dial into the mifi router?
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You either use one that connects via an app (usually a via a Chinese hosted server) or an app that needs the IP address of your router on board.

Since most domestic internet providers use dynamic IP addressing, you'll need to run a function in the router that reports the current IP address back to a server so you can look it up. Or refer to it with a fixed name but dynamic address lookup in the background, eg myboat.ddns.net as you get with services like www.noip.com

Look in your router manual under "dynamic DNS service" on how to set this up.

Some mobile networks share IP addresses so the latter may not even work.
 
Yes, I use the Baseus app to log into the camera and view live or any triggered events.

I don't log into the router remotely, but can when at the boat and on it's wifi. The only reason I need to do this is to reboot it if it looses either network signal or it's wifi output. Obviously if it's lost it's network signal I wouldn't be able to log into it via something like noip anyway.

I replaced the cheap mifi with the TP link one, as it was dropping wifi and the network signal quite frequently. The TP link one seems to be much more reliable, it's this one here.
 
On my setup, the cameras are accessed via the TAPO app. As a reputable brand I don't have any concerns over having to give away access or unreliable server hosting.

I deliberately avoided a camera brand that required me to have a monthly subscription to use their services. My SIM card at £20 per month does it all and adds the benefit of WiFi on board. Right now, from my home, I can monitor my solar, batteries, see my water tank level, check the temperature and humidity and see the camera if I want. By next month I will be able to turn on my fridge remotely if I want.

The cameras I use have local recording on a loop. I can playback anything from about the last 20 days with the size of SD card I use.

Overall, i'm really happy with the setup. It's not the cheapest, but I would certainly regard it as inexpensive.
 
I use an Eufy ptz camera linked to a TP Link 4G wireless router, on going costs are just the electricity to feed it, the data sim card is included in my overall package from Telenet, we have unlimited data on that sim also on my wife's and my own sim with unlimited calls and txt.
The router I put in to link the various WiFi enabled devices onboard and to allow our laptops/tablets to surf the web, the camera came later and it works well, alerts me if it see's movement in it's detection area.
For the basic install there is no fee charged by Eufy only when you want to use their advanced AI detection and cloud storage do you have to pay, I had another brand and the costs of using it was mounting up £70 per year so I disconnected them and went with Eufy as their cameras were/are much better than the likes of what Tapo offers, I use Tapo automation in my house in Scotland and it works well, however all the cameras are Eufy and I have Eufy cameras on multiple sites across different countries.
Camera cost €48
128GB SD €19.99
Just put a new eufy Security Indoor Cam S350 4k camera onto my property in Scotland, well impressed with it, Amazon.co.uk £74
 
Alicatt said:
I use an Eufy ptz camera linked to a TP Link 4G wireless router, on going costs are just the electricity to feed it, the data sim card is included in my overall package from Telenet, we have unlimited data on that sim also on my wife's and my own sim with unlimited calls and txt.
The router I put in to link the various WiFi enabled devices onboard and to allow our laptops/tablets to surf the web, the camera came later and it works well, alerts me if it see's movement in it's detection area.
For the basic install there is no fee charged by Eufy only when you want to use their advanced AI detection and cloud storage do you have to pay, I had another brand and the costs of using it was mounting up £70 per year so I disconnected them and went with Eufy as their cameras were/are much better than the likes of what Tapo offers, I use Tapo automation in my house in Scotland and it works well, however all the cameras are Eufy and I have Eufy cameras on multiple sites across different countries.
Camera cost €48
128GB SD €19.99
Just put a new eufy Security Indoor Cam S350 4k camera onto my property in Scotland, well impressed with it, Amazon.co.uk £74
Click to expand...
The TP Link hotspot comes much cheaper on ebay. Amazon has become an expensive place to shop.
 
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