After years of wondering how to setup a webcam I took the dive. Trying
to find one set of instructions was elusive, so after reading multiple
posts in this topic area, I figured out a solution that worked for me.
The key factor that convinced me to use this setup was the Power over
Ethernet (PoE) capability in which the Ethernet cable can provide power
and comm.
Hardware:
* REOLINK RLC-510A PoE IP Camera $55
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08F568BH1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
<https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08F568BH1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1>)
* TRENDnet Gigabit PoE Plus Injector $30
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BK4W8TQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
<https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BK4W8TQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1>)
* Cat 6 Ethernet Cable 50 ft White $11
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WD017GQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
<https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WD017GQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1>)
Software:
* IPTimelapse PRO $79 (https://iptimelapse.com/
<https://iptimelapse.com/>)
I started by using the 7-day free trial of IPTimelapse and setup the
camera and injector on my desk for a couple of days just to make sure
everything worked. I needed the injector because my main switch was not
PoE capable. First, I installed the Reolink software to setup the
camera. The trickiest part of the setup was getting IPTimelapse to
"find" the camera. The IPTimelapse website has a link to the iSpy Camera
Connection Database (https://www.ispyconnect.com/cameras
<https://www.ispyconnect.com/cameras>) in which you can look up your
camera and generate a URL to enter into the IPTimelapse setup for the
camera's URL on your home network that looks something like
this:http://username:[email protected]:80/cgi-bin/api.cgi?cmd=Snap&channel=0&user=username&password=PASSWORD
<http://username:[email protected]/cgi-bin/api.cgi?cmd=Snap&channel=0&user=username&password=PASSWORD>.
All I needed to provide in the URL was the username and password I setup
in the Reolink software. It was easier than it sounds! Once I was
confident that everything worked and I was satisfied with the
IPTimelapse features, I purchased IPTimelapse and started the
installation. Many thanks to Mike at IPTimelapse for answering several
questions I had. I connected the Ethernet cable to the camera and
installed the waterproof lid that came with the camera before climbing
the ladder. Using the paper template from Reolink, I drilled the
mounting holes in the molding on the southwest corner of my house and
mounted the camera (camera1.jpg) about 12 feet off the ground. I mounted
the camera just above two of my Arlo wireless security cameras
(camera2.jpg). I tidied-up the Ethernet cable and the Reolink reset
switch cable & optional power port cable with plastic ties and then
attached the Ethernet cable to the molding with cable holders that came
with the cable (camera3.jpg). I ran the Ethernet cable along the molding
and attached it with the cable holders. I drilled a ½ inch hole in the
molding by the mechanical/communications room in the basement and fed
the cable through the hole after protecting the Ethernet connector with
electrical tape. I used exterior Mortite Caulking Cord to plug and
waterproof the hole around the Ethernet cable. In the
mechanical/communications room, I connected the injector's power cord to
an UPS, the Ethernet cable to the main switch, and then plugged-in the
camera's Ethernet cable (switch.jpg) to the injector. Finally, using the
Reolink app on my phone, I went back outside and climbed the ladder to
adjust the camera's position to get the best view facing southwest
towards the field behind my house. Done! It wasn't nearly as hard as I
imagined. Since my neighborhood homeowner's association has a policy
about security cameras not viewing any neighbor's property, I used the
crop feature in IPTimelapse to minimize any views of the neighbor's
properties.
IPTimelapse takes an image (still picture) every 10 seconds and saves
each file in jpg format to a directory on my NAS that runs my weather
website. It creates a timelapse of the 10-second images every hour and
shows 2-hours' worth of images as a single video. Every hour it saves
the video files in mp4 format to a directory on my NAS. At 11:50 PM each
night, it creates a 24-hour timelapse from all the image files. All
these settings are customizable in IPTimelapse. About 5GB worth of files
are created each day. And while my server has about 2.3TB of free space,
I wrote a script in Powershell that runs at 11:58 PM each night in
Windows Task Scheduler to delete all 8,640 image files and all 24 video
files from the previous day and move the 24-hour timelapse video to an
archive folder. That way, I'm only storing about 23MB per day for each
24-hour mp4 file.
The live image and hourly timelapse is shown
here:https://novawx.dscloud.me/wxcam.php
<https://novawx.dscloud.me/wxcam.php>and the archives can be accessed
here:https://novawx.dscloud.me/2022-video-archive.php
<https://novawx.dscloud.me/2022-video-archive.php>.
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