Home Automation

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Discussion about general home automation ideas and projects, home automation protocols like Z-wave, Zigbee, Matter, etc, and home automation software and hubs like HomeSeer, Home Assistant, OpenHAB, Homey.

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Looking for a self-hosted alternative to the Canary (home security) (self.homeautomation)

submitted 3 months ago by ViperProbeDroid to c/homeautomation

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Hello peoples,

We've had a Canary home security system since its crowdfunding days. They never did much to improve the experience, chances of connecting during critical moments (and/or recording similar) seemed to go down and down, sensors were unhelpful ("air quality is bad" Okay, HOW is it bad?) and all of the ads in the free version makes me feel like they're always looking for a way to monetize me and my data. I finally canceled my subscription this month and am looking for a replacement solution.

Here are my requirements:

• Wide-angle camera with night vision and audio via a hardwired network port. I can connect from camera to network/NAS/etc

• Self-hosted. I have a NAS that could help with recording and can deploy a raspberry pi† – but also I could get a turnkey box if that's better. No cloud solutions unless I'm hosting the cloud and can do end-to-end encryption.

• Viewable live footage from my mobile device, even when not in my home wifi network

• Motion sensing and recording for up to 24 hours' worth of motion instances

Here are the nice-to-haves:

• No systems built by a Chinese company that is prrrrobably a front for their government and/or could contain their own backdoor code

• Extendable to bring in future cameras

Any advice from you Thunderbirds would be f-a-b. Thank you!

† I am not a complete newbie when it comes to assembling/flashing a raspberry pi – I have set up easy things like a Magic Mirror and an Octoprint – but I'm also not a Linux guru. I'd like something that's mostly deploy & forget

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[–] phobiac 7 points 3 months ago

Frigate is the go-to open source self hosted solution for this. https://frigate.video/

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Frigate + Alarmo (a Home Assistant integration) would fit your needs almost perfectly. You can integrate various IP cameras with Frigate, including non-Chinese brands.

Alarmo will work for the sensors that aren't cameras.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It looks Luke the Frigate website is recommending chinese Dahua cameras?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Their recommendations are less brand related and more related to compatibility with Frigate. I use Reolink, personally, but there are plenty of non-chinese brands that are compatible (such as Amcrest). Really, any camera with RTSP should work. OVINF support is a bonus.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

For a hardware response, my go to camera company is Amcrest, in case you're looking for someone reliable and trustworthy (cameras don't require dedicated apps or internet and work perfectly with a regular PoE to an unmanaged PoE switch)

[–] ViperProbeDroid 1 points 3 months ago

Thank you the folks who helped out. I'm looking into Frigate + Alarmo with Amcrest hardware.