Month: April 2021

The video security system is now a “fully armed and operational battlestation.”

I installed the replacement camera in it’s final position on the west exterior wall, aimed it, and connected it to ZM.  My initial aiming of the camera was close enough to the correct position that I decided to leave it alone.

The camera is working properly with ambient light and with IR lighting.  I set up a detection zone and a preclusive zone to try and prevent false positives, but I had to move the preclusive zone around a bit to achieve the desired effect.  There may be more tweaks in the future, but for now it appears to be working well.

So the system is complete and is working very well.  I’ve defined several run states, which controls the camera modes (monitor, motion detection, or disabled) by simply changing the run state.  You can easily change the run state from the web UI, a cron entry, or from the zmNinja phone app.  Very convenient, and much simpler than changing the mode for every camera in the system manually.

I didn’t spend a lot of cash for this system, but I did invest time in configuring ZM to do what I wanted, and to install the cameras and wire them to the POE switch.  Coding a script to copy event files to Google Drive was a bit of a challenge, and it’s working.  The system is secure, and the cameras are not accessible from outside my network.

An interesting journey from zero experience to a fully functional video security system.  Lots of people that I don’t know and will probably never meet shared their experience and knowledge on multiple forums, and ultimately helped me to get this system working.

My sincere thanks to the ZoneMinder authors and contributors, and to the people that post both questions and answers on the forums.  I learned a lot.

I received the replacement camera from Amcrest, fairly promptly if I’m honest about it.  I plugged it into the POE switch with a patch cable, and configured the network settings, including dedicated IP address, netmask, gateway IP address which you will recall is a valid IP address but not a gateway.  I configured the video feed parameters and turned off the overlays.

I went to the ZM console and activated the camera in monitor mode.  The camera worked fine and provided a good image with ambient light.  That night, I had a good image as well, with the IR emitters on the camera providing the lighting.  Success!

I ordered the exterior mount I need for this camera, and it arrived a few days later.  I’ll get the camera installed on the exterior wall, aimed, and then I’ll set up the detection zones.  I’ll use a preclusive zone to try and prevent a false positive when the camera switches to and from IR lighting, just like I did with the other exterior camera.

Then I will have a fully functional system, with two exterior cameras and two interior cameras, all with motion detection zones defined for the areas where there should not be motion – or to put it differently, areas where motion is something I want to know about.

The zmNinja phone app works very well, and I did some additional setup on the ZM console to make it easier to use.  You can configure the system as you want it to work when you’re away from the house, and you can save this run state as “Away”.  On the zmNinja phone app, you can change the run state to away with a couple of clicks (touches?) and all cameras will switch to modect.  I also set all cameras to monitor mode, and saved that run state as “Home”.  So when I pull in the driveway, before I get in range of the cameras, I can change the run state to “Home” and I won’t have to clear out a bunch of alerts from me driving up to the house.  Very useful and simple to manage.

I will also set up an additional run state that I will name “Night”.  In this run state, both exterior cameras and the downstairs camera will be in modect mode, while the upstairs camera will be in monitor mode.  I don’t need an alert when I turn on a bedroom or bathroom light during the night.  I also set up a “Privacy” run state, where the interior cameras are disabled, but the exterior cameras are in modect mode.

it’s a good system, with alert files uploaded to google drive as soon as they’re recorded, emails are sent for alerts with at least 10 frames of motion, just about full control with the zmNinja phone app, and UPS battery backup for the ONT, router, and camera power.  There is a 5 port switch upstairs so that the computer running ZM has a wired connection.  The upstairs switch is on another UPS, so it will continue to run even if the mains power fails.  The laptop running ZM has an internal battery so it doesn’t need to be on the UPS.

Pretty sophisticated security for a cabin in the sticks, and without spending a lot of cash to get there.  It took some thought and work to get the system where it is now, but hopefully documenting the process will help others figure out what they need and how to get it in place.

Happy video security to you!