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Solar Powered Wifi Camera with Wireguard (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 days ago by johnnychicago@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

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Hello --

I know this is not a 100% fit for this community and I apologise - but I don't really know where to ask best. There's some selfhosting involved, so maybe the smart crowd here has some recommendations.

Here goes:

I want to mount a camera at a quite remote location. I have Wifi there that I can use (I pay for it, but its usage is shared, I don't monopolize it). I do not have power there. It's outside, mild in winter, quite warm in summer. I will not get there for months at a time. I want the camera to be private, not open to the world. Ideally I'd like a solar powered wifi camera that can connect to my home via Wireguard (I have that bit going, multiple roaming notebooks and phones connect to home, terminated in an Opnsense router).

I do not need any specific smart features on the camera - PTZ would be nice, but not even fully required.

I can come up with a configuration that involves a Raspberry Pi routing an off the shelf camera via a Wireguard tunnel, or similar, but that doubles the power issues I need to solve. I am not opposed to DIY a solution, but there's the challenge of getting it well packaged in a waterproof way.

Considering I can't really touch the wifi setup (cheap commercial router), I don't really see a way to have a private connection without having some sort of a VPN (I could do others than wireguard in a pinch).

If you'd like to help me chip away at one or the other bit of this problem, I'd be very grateful.

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[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (7 children)

Grab a regular ethernet connected camera with 12V supply and ONVIF compatible (most PTZ cameras like Amcrest or Vikylon are 12V), and a OpenWRT router like GLiNet's cheapo units in bridge mode. They have a wireguard VPN active already, you just need to get it set up. Then you specify what subnet the inside of that router is so you can get to the camera, and access it via IP.

Put down a car battery, a cheap MPPT charger and a panel or two. The PowMr charge controllers have a couple of USB ports on them to power the router and they're $50.

[–] johnnychicago@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I've thought of bundling a small router, since I have a GLiNet lying around - but I am afraid power management will be challenging. Car battery and a few panels seem bulkier than I had in mind, and packaging that for weather is a challenge, too.

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

Well, I guess whatever camera you get should give you a power requirement and you can work backwards from there as to storage and panel requirement. My off the cuff notion would say you'll need a deep cycle or a group 31 of 100aH to last for a day or two depending on weather and length of day, and lithium batteries will get plating if you try to charge below freezing so they're out.

It's all in the math, then double it because nature hates you.

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