[boboche]

For those who are anti-cloud or want a 2-tier system for any good reasons, Been using this with several wyzecam V2 cameras for 2 years with no issues other than the cameras not being low light sensitive like the V3, otherwise the setup is pretty solid and fast.

https://github.com/EliasKotlyar/Xiaomi-Dafang-Hacks

[firefalcon222]

Wyze V2 with Dafang-hacks have been super reliable in the past but these cams are now out of production with no reliable confirmation of this working with the V3s. I have been in the market for cheap 20-30$ cams like Wyze V2 with reliable setup like Dafang-hacks for a while but unable to find a good alternative yet.

[chaldron]

I have been using wz_mini_hacks [1] on my Wyze V3 and have been pretty happy with it. Among other things, it has a “self-hosted” mode which patches the binaries running on the camera to no longer phone home to Wyze servers. I’ve been using it on my local network over RTSP with no issues.

[1] https://github.com/gtxaspec/wz_mini_hacks

[colordrops]

I was not happy with wyze V3 but found reolink to work fine without internet, and Amcrest to be the best overall for being open and working without needing fancy software. I'd wholehearted recommend Amcrest except they don't have a very wide angle cam.

[bradknowles]

The issue with Amcrest and Wyze (and hundreds of other brands), is that they're just re-badging Dahua cameras, which are banned in the US. See https://ipvm.com/reports/ban-law for more information.

Of the lower cost and reasonably well-known names, the only brand that doesn't seem to be doing that is Reolink.

[rahimnathwani]

What do you use for recording?

I've thought of replacing cloud cameras, but I'd still want:

- recording (not just live view)

- alerts

- offsite storage

What's the best way to set this up these days? Zoneminder running at home? With syncthing handling off-site storage to a VPS?

[syntaxing]

I run frigate (mines runs off their Docker image but you can use other alternatives like home assistant plugin). I also pair frigate with scrypted so you can tie the cameras into HomeKit. It’s pretty much the best of both worlds, online storage and detection using iCloud (if I trust a company when it comes to privacy, it’s Apple) and local storage and detection using frigate.

[epakai]

Not OP, but I configured a mosquitto server. Then a simple shell script service with 'mosquitto_sub' and ffmpeg to fetch the rtsp stream on motion events [0]. Somewhat crude, but it was only for a temporary setup.

Another option seems to be Home Assistant [1]

[0] https://github.com/EliasKotlyar/Xiaomi-Dafang-Hacks/blob/mas...

[1] https://github.com/EliasKotlyar/Xiaomi-Dafang-Hacks/blob/mas...

[boboche]

Ftp upload, local storage and some that I dont mind being exposed are sending to telegram. Looking into frigate right now, guess that makes me a grandpa ;)

[shellerik]

I've been using Agent DVR for recording, alerts and local storage though the alerts rely on a non-local MQTT broker (HiveMQ) due to the double-NAT setup my ISP imposes, otherwise I would have used a local Mosquitto broker. Here is a diagram I put together about my setup. https://i.imgur.com/mAmP9rA.png

[housemusicfan]

Zoneminder is your grandpa's NVR.

The kids are using Frigate these days.

Or if you aren't against proprietary software, Blue Iris on Windows is a popular option.

[rahimnathwani]

Haha that shows how long it's been since I looked into this stuff!

I did a clearout recently and gave away 5 Xiaomi Xiaofang cameras that I'd flashed with samhacks firmware years ago, but never gotten around to using.

If I'd known about Frigate, I might have kept them. But I guess there are better cameras available now?

[syntaxing]

Not OP but frigate works with any camera with RTSP. You can get Amcrest PoE cameras that are great quality that are around $50. Works without wifi or an app but someone in HN posted that the newer ones need an app? But I haven’t come across one and the newest one I got was about six months ago.

[gardnr]

Frigate was a bit limited in usefulness until they added OpenVINO and TensorRT support in April. Trying to find a Coral TPU these days can be a bit of a challenge.