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Power a Paspberry Pi Zero W with alarm wiring?

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  • 02-07-2020 4:16pm
    #1
    BopNiblets
    Registered Users Posts: 3,579 ✭✭✭


    Hi all, I'm investigating some video doorbells for the gaff and they all look pricier than what I need, the only one I'm interested in is the Eufy one, no monthly fees etc, but it's not available here yet.

    I just want a notification that someone has approached my front door for whatever reason, packages delivered etc, and a recording.

    I see you can get a Pi Zero W & camera kit cheap enough with MotionEye OS, I could mount it on my front window, but I'm wondering if it's possible to power it from an extended wire from an alarm sensor wire at my front door?
    I don't want to have to thread a USB cable to the door from somewhere!
    There's a sensor installed on the wire already so can I split that off?

    No idea what kind of power that has but the Pi Zero W seems to need around 270-300mA for capturing video while on WiFi.

    Appreciate any advice!


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    #2
    TuringBot47
    Registered Users Posts: 991 ✭✭✭TuringBot47


    I'm all for hacking stuff as a card carrying nerd, but not when it takes more effort than something more dedicated.

    I believe a house alarm system uses 12v. (Ask the alarm/home security forum here)
    RPI are usb powered, so 5v, 2amp.
    Even if you could convert the voltage and current, then when there was a power cut I imagine the RPI would drain the house alarm backup battery faster
    than designed. So not ideal.

    Then you would have issues with weather proof enclosures for the Rpi camera.
    Or if you put the camera behind glass, then reflection issues and can't use IR illumination.

    A year or two ago I installed a fairly reasonably priced VStarcam C17S

    https://shop.vstarcam.com/outdoor-ip-camera-c17s

    It's an outdoor camera, uses Wifi so only needs a power cable.
    HiDef camera with it's own SD card, and I had to knock up a bit of Python scripting to let me pull down the recordings and back them up to my NAS drive periodically.

    I got a 5m DC power supply extension cable so I was able to put the C17S camera under a side extension roof, thread the cable under roof tiles and into an internal attic and down a hole where the gas boiler was. So it went to a standard power supply plug.

    I've an Rpi 2, 3 and Zero, with camera modules, but not quite sure a nice way to do what you said.
    Maybe if you had a front door peep hole thing, you could position an Rpi camera inside the door.

    But I'd say anything else needs a carpenter or electrician to drill a few holes to run some cables through.


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    #3
    BopNiblets
    Registered Users Posts: 3,579 ✭✭✭BopNiblets


    TuringBot47 wrote: »
    I'm all for hacking stuff as a card carrying nerd, but not when it takes more effort than something more dedicated.

    I believe a house alarm system uses 12v. (Ask the alarm/home security forum here)
    RPI are usb powered, so 5v, 2amp.
    Even if you could convert the voltage and current, then when there was a power cut I imagine the RPI would drain the house alarm backup battery faster
    than designed. So not ideal.
    I see, good to find out beforehand!
    I had an ideal spot inside window beside the door with a good view of the front of the house, and they actually sell suction cup mounts especially for the Pi Zero (https://thepihut.com/products/zeroview-mini-suction-cup-camera-mount)

    May have to look for a doorbell camera.


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    #4
    TuringBot47
    Registered Users Posts: 991 ✭✭✭TuringBot47


    Nice find on the suction mount for the RPI camera... I like it.
    I've an attic conversation and might try some long exposure shots of the night sky.

    I didn't mean to discourage you.
    You can always mock up the install to start with.
    Stick the rpi camera on the window with the suction mount/sellotape and power it with a conventional usb cable to see the results first in day and nighttime.
    Wedging the camera as close to the window should help minimise reflection issues.

    It's just the alarm power supply wire sounded dodgy.

    I still have a pan and tilt indoor camera upstairs behind a window and it suffers from a lot of reflection issues and you can't shine an IR light through glass it'll just reflect back and blind the camera.

    But if you really wanted good nighttime shots you might by the pi camera without the IR filter ( pi noIR ) and have a separate external IR light camera to light outside with IR night. But the PI noIR camera will distort the colours in the daytime, so picture looks more pink and colours aren't as accurate.
    More dedicated IP cameras have "ir cut", where they have an ir filter in daytime and remove it at night.

    One downside of the VStarcam C17S was that as an external camera it has embedded IR lights. But that attracts swarms of insects flying around it at nighttime triggering motion detection. So a separate IR light from the camera would help with that.

    Anyways, good luck!


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