Raspberry Pi Security Cameras: the plan

Home Security Cameras with Raspberry Pi Zero

This will be easy.

– me

It all began innocently enough. I thought it would be cool to make a little security camera to put in the garage attic to look down on my driveway. I’d get a NoIR so it could work in low light levels. I’d get a Pi Zero so it’d be small. Yeah, that should be easy.

And it was, but it’s not enough to simply have a camera is it? You need to be able to view it. You might want it to alert you to motion. You might want the video files to upload somewhere. So now it’s a whole thing.

I’ll document what I did and how I did it and break it down into pieces so you can follow along if you’d like, or just use it as a starting point and do your own thing.

Desired Outcome

• Setup a camera that can operate in low light conditions
• Be able to view live stream over the web
• Be able to detect motion so an alert message can be sent via SMS

The Plan

• Find parts

  • Raspberry Pi Zero W (wifi)
  • NoIR camera
  • power supply
  • enclosure case
  • OS to run on the Pi

• Assemble and configure the OS

• Test Functionality

You can get the Zero W NoIR Camera pack which includes the enclosure case and the mini camera cable. You’ll still need to order the power supply and SD card.

Next Time

In the next article I’ll go over which OS I selected and the results of the inital testing.

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