How to monitor your torts on the cheap (IP web cam) with an old phone.

[mushmouth26]

If you have an old Android smart phone and wifi at your house you can use your old phone as an IP webcam.
Im sure you can use an Iphone as well.

Things you will need.

• Retired android phone with a camera.. A plus is if it has the LED light for night time. I tested with HTC Thunderbolt and HTC evo 4G lte.
• WIFI coverage. You will need a wifi router that is in range of your enclosure.
• If outdoor you will need power to keep your phone running 24/7

The easy route- the draw back to the easy route from what I could tell is the quality was just ok.. Im a techie and this software didnt give me all the bells and whistles i wanted.

1. on the old phone you will need to get it setup on the wifi.
2. go to google play store, search and download ALFRED Surveillance IP Cam your phone will need to be logged into your gmail account to access the app store.
3. run thru setup and set as CAMERA - You will need a gmail account to tie the software too.
4. Mount the phone where you want it.
5. on your current phone install ALFRED and run thru setup, set as VIEWER. sign in to same gmail account.
6. YOUR DONE! you can view the stream from anywhere.

The more complicated route. - Not for the technically challeged. But has better controls and viewing is not limited to your phone. Better stream quality as well.

1. on the old phone you will need to get it setup on the wifi.
   
2. go to google play store, search and download IP Webcam your phone will need to be logged into your gmail account to access the app store.
   
3. This software has alot of different settings.. Main thing is set the resolution you want. go to bottom to start the SERVER.
4. At this point it will give you the ip and port number that you can punch into any browser to access the phone.. This will be a local ip.. so it will only work with in your home network. And also only on your own phone if your are on your local wifi.
5. If you want remote access via the internet you will need to go a couple steps further.
6. Because you home cable or dsl modem probably has a dynamic IP you will need to setup a Dynamic DNS service. Good news its free. One service is http://freedns.afraid.org/ you will basically want to setup a subdomain that is forwarded to your home router. You will need some knowlege here that I dont plan on writing steps for.
7. Next you will need to setup port forwarding on your firewall.. If you dont know how to access your routers interface than you probably dont need to mess with this anyways.
8. You basically will end up with a method to access your ip cam from the internet.
9. For example if the ipcam software says your cam is now viewable at http://192.168.1.100:8080 this will only work inside your local wifi or lan network. After you have configured dynamic dns and port forwarding on your firewall you will end up with a url like http://Tortcam.mooo.com:24302
10. Any time you hit http://Tortcam.mooo.com:24302 this will redirect to your home router and in turn your home router will forward to http://192.168.1.100:8080
11. Once you this is working it will look like below. Video render will be BROWSER and if you want audio.. HTML5 Opus should work on phone and PC.

 

[Tyanna]

This is awesome! Thanks for the info and easy step by step instructions! I might have to try for fun!

 

[smarch]

VERY NICE! I was thinking about getting a cam a while ago, but the prices were not working for me for just a camera, I don't have an old phone, but I believe when I get my raise I will treat myself since my phone is now over a year old and its been a huge hassle (LG Optimus L9 had about 1.2Gb hard drive storage, and you cant store apps on your external... I've been having storage issues since about a month in!)

 

[ascott]

I am sure that was really clear to most....but my head hurts now....lol....

 

[smarch]

I am sure that was really clear to most....but my head hurts now....lol....

Reasons why I didn't even read into the second one after having to adjust it more to see anywhere, i'm technologically capable but not enough, plus simple and just ok quality works for me, I only really want it so I can check in and make sure he's not upside down (he's not known to, but I still worry) and sometimes I go away on weekend trips (only a handful a year) but I leave him with plentiful food and moist substrate, but I ALWAYS worry something will go wrong and I wont know (my gradfathers close by and could quickly help, but its too much to teach him food and care for just a weekend). Now I'd know ... well unless the power goes out, last one back in July we had some bad thunderstorms come through and I was half freaking out. Everything was fine though.

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

That is a great idea!

 

[Teesh]

Thank you!!


Teesh

 

[puffy137]

Brilliant. but way beyond my capabilities. You are amazing mushmouth , best wishes from Pumpkinpuff

 

[leopard777]

how long have you been running this ? handphone on 24/7 tend to be very hot

 

[mushmouth26]

Ya it hasn't really been a problem. I guess summer could be a different story. I do keep the screen brightness pretty low. They do run 24/7. I have to reboot them maybe once a week. Looking at using TASKER to automatically reboot every few days to clear the memory. Requires rooting the phone though.

how long have you been running this ? handphone on 24/7 tend to be very hot

 

[leopard777]

the screen is always on or on stand-by ? oh ok the app required rooted phones .

 

[el_ote]

Just installed on my phone and an old phone at work. the easy instructions worked like a charm. only one phone was rooted, but i dont think it is a requirement of the app.

 

[Tyanna]

It was not in Apple Store, but a similar app called "Presence" for those interested with iPhones.

 

[Tyanna]

Or "WebOfCam"

 

[mushmouth26]

the screen is always on or on stand-by ? oh ok the app required rooted phones .

The camera software does not require root.. Im saying if you want to run a task to automatically reboot the phone every so many days you would need ROOT privileges for an app like TASKER to automate this. Screen does stay on all the time or the phone will go to sleep.. Depending on the version of android some version have to stay awake or you will have issues so really just depends on your phone. There are a lot of settings and haven't quite figured out the power management side if you want to use things like motion detection.

 

[johnandjade]

just set up the presence app on iphones, works a treat! what a cool idea, be so cool to see what the little guy gets up to during the day

 

[mushmouth26]

I also use these 2 itemns to mount the phones..

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BPRM4W4/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JNTP0AE/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20

 

[Irwin4530]

Thought about a used baby monitor...never would
Have been able to figure this out

 

[johnandjade]

wee screenshot of the presence app on iphone, really impressed as its free and easy to set up! i