Is there a solid open-source Rpi-based home security camera solution yet? I'd like to set up something of comparable quality to say a Ring doorbell camera or a Nest/Blink security cam or a baby monitor but that I can fully control.
Not rpi, but I think there seems to be a pretty solid system built up around the esp32-cam devices using esphome, which are actually quite a bit cheaper and lower power than rpi.
Not Rpi, but much more of an integrated design. The PineCube (from Pine64) is basically designed to be just this -- a home security camera with completely open software.
That's been a dream of mine for a long time. I don't think there's anything quite like we want just yet.
However, there is a super cool open source project from the author of GKrellM (remember that from the ancient days of Linux?). He's using the Pi's built-in hardware video coder to get high quality motion detection very cheaply. The basic idea seems to be, when the encoder produced a lot of bits, there must have been some motion in the frame.
MotionEye works very well. Read all the docs first before messing with the settings as they are not intuitive - trying to tweak the motion trigger settings is a bit of a pain (frames threshold, timeout, etc.) but can be done and there is a debug frame setting which is helpful. Works with the Raspberry Pi cameras but also with any USB cam as long as you choose the correct driver. I have an IR nightview USB cam that gives superior night shots and doesn't require additional power outside the USB connection. You can save all files locally or send them to any number of services - I have all my photos and videos dropped into Google Drive. I'm also using DuckDNS for external access to the IP cam port for a real-time view into my home whenever I am out and about. The network stream feature in VLC on mobile works really well for that. The only issue I've come across (and this was ~4 months ago) is that 8GB RAM Raspberry Pi 4's are more trouble than they're worth for this application - software support was very much lacking but the 4GB Pi's work very well.
I've been thinking about just getting off the shelf system like Hivision IP camera and NVR, then run it on a separate network disconnected from internet. It shouldn't be much more expensive, but still I'd probably disassemble cameras to make sure there is no wifi of other means to leak data.
I set up a reolink PoE camera with a PoE injector connected directory to a RPi. The RPi itself is connected to the Wifi and I have homeassistant running on it and the camera itself can generate an event when it detects a motion that homeassistant can do stuff with. I am pretty happy with this solution.
i (deeply) reject your inquiry as a harmfully narrow, reductive consumerist ask, when this could be a much more neutral, open ended friendly question. you have qualified this from the start as a "solution," which is against the best premises, the best strengths of open source: "small pieces, loosely coupled."
the best software is small, purposeful, targetted. interwoven with other systems. only then is open source able to continue to focus on innovation & advancement, without becoming mired down in endless maintenance & complexity.
you should re-evaluate your ask, to ask for something that, will, in the end, not becoming limiting & ossified. open source ought best avoid the pretense commercial software competes on, of being a complete and final thing, of being everything to everyone. open source ought be more humble, and for this, it is better. ask, instead of a solution, after what systems of software might help one accomplish the home security systems they might want to build.
the best piece of open source home security cameras that I've seen is Frigate, which has masking & less interesting to me but probably interesting to many, object detection. designed for home assistant but it has other uses. much assembly required. good. solve your problem how you want to solve it: not how everyone else also has to.
i'd point out that home assistant itself is regarded by many as somewhat of an abomination, too big, unwieldy. core has 1.4k issues open and almost 300 PRs open. it's a shit show. it does way too much, it's way too monolithic, the project is basically doomed to stay where it is. it's a solution, and one that will rot & be no better in 3, 30, or 300 years: there's no open future here. it's only upside is that it is a plugin architecture, that it is an interoperation layer, that projects like Frigate can contribute & add capabilities too. home assistant is hugely popular, but basically it's core redeeming feature is that it allows small pieces, loosely coupled, to do something. home assistant itself is an anti-solution. frigate is an anti-solution. they are both parts, pieces, and in that is the strength. and hopefully, someday, we can kind a better system of pieces such that we can get rid of bloody ugly home assistant.
