Second viewing station for under $50!

Dasstrum

Dasstrum

IPCT Contributor
Nov 4, 2016
578
737
Florida
So I after searching to find a economical way to have another monitor in my house running 24/7 that displays my camera feed I finally found a solution! A Raspberry Pi 3!

Entering into this project I knew absolutely nothing about Linux (which is what Raspberry Pi's operating system is based on) but found it was super easy to learn and configure.

Components needed:

Raspberry Pi 3 B+: https://www.amazon.com/ELEMENT-Element14-Raspberry-Pi-Motherboard/dp/B07BDR5PDW/

A case with cooling fan: (A cooling fan is absolutely needed to run the Pi 24/7. I was getting overheating warning without one but as soon as I bought one my temps went way down and I haven't had any problems Amazon.com: Smraza Transparent Acrylic Case for Raspberry Pi 3 / 2 Model B B+ with 2.5A Power Supply, External Cooling Fan and USB Cable with ON/OFF Switch: Computers & Accessories

You will also need a SD card (Recommend at least a 16gb but a 8gb will work)
A monitor (with HDMI input) and HDMI cable. I had all these other things laying around the house so I didn't need to buy them.

Simply open up Chromium in the Raspberry Pi and navigate to your Blue Iris web IP address and login.

If anyone wants to try this and needs help or questions just let me know!

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I thought you would have pointed at one of the amazon fire tablets, but this is better.

Since you have a pi3 you could try streaming the video streams directly from your cameras, bypassing Blue Iris. This would give you a much better frame rate and not create any additional load on your BI server.

RasPipC - Cameras on your TV made Easy.

(note that "RasPipC" was never finished -- yet -- and so I linked to the more manual program that I use myself to display multiple cameras)
 
Dasstrum said:
So I after searching to find a economical way to have another monitor in my house running 24/7 that displays my camera feed I finally found a solution! A Raspberry Pi 3!

Entering into this project I knew absolutely nothing about Linux (which is what Raspberry Pi's operating system is based on) but found it was super easy to learn and configure.

Components needed:

Raspberry Pi: Amazon.com: Raspberry PI 3 Model B A1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARMv8 CPU, 1GB RAM: Electronics

A case with cooling fan: (A cooling fan is absolutely needed to run the Pi 24/7. I was getting overheating warning without one but as soon as I bought one my temps went way down and I haven't had any problems Amazon.com: Smraza Transparent Acrylic Case for Raspberry Pi 3 / 2 Model B B+ with 2.5A Power Supply, External Cooling Fan and USB Cable with ON/OFF Switch: Computers & Accessories

You will also need a SD card (Recommend at least a 16gb but a 8gb will work)
A monitor (with HDMI input) and HDMI cable. I had all these other things laying around the house so I didn't need to buy them.

Simply open up Chromium in the Raspberry Pi and navigate to your Blue Iris web IP address and login.

If anyone wants to try this and needs help or questions just let me know!
Click to expand...

I just use iPads wall mounted and display the allcams.htm webpage. This allows touch expand of camera window. Much smaller footprint and gives a more "built in" look. You can get older iPads on groupon pretty cheap.

b421e7e5711866bf8543fdddfd18dc88.jpg


618aedf0a4da94219bae8cfe8f367de4.jpg



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bp2008 said:
...
Since you have a pi3 you could try streaming the video streams directly from your cameras, bypassing Blue Iris. This would give you a much better frame rate and not create any additional load on your BI server.

RasPipC - Cameras on your TV made Easy.
Click to expand...
Where was this link when I was searching how to do this project! Lol!

bp2008 said:
I always get my raspberry pis with adhesive heatsinks and those keep it running well enough without a fan.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I bought my Pi with a heatsink but it was still having overheating problems. Bought a cheap $8 fan+case combo and it works perfect now

dgreene157 said:
I just use iPads wall mounted and display the allcams.htm webpage. This allows touch expand of camera window. Much smaller footprint and gives a more "built in" look. You can get older iPads on groupon pretty cheap.
Click to expand...

Good thought - what do you pay for your ipads when you buy them on groupon? Also I like the idea of being able to plug the Raspberry Pi into any TV with HDMI. My wife isn't for the idea of having a monitor mounted on a wall somewhere :)
 
Dasstrum said:
Where was this link when I was searching how to do this project! Lol!



Yeah, I bought my Pi with a heatsink but it was still having overheating problems. Bought a cheap $8 fan+case combo and it works perfect now



Good thought - what do you pay for your ipads when you buy them on groupon? Also I like the idea of being able to plug the Raspberry Pi into any TV with HDMI. My wife isn't for the idea of having a monitor mounted on a wall somewhere :)
Click to expand...

Seems like they were around $120-140 ea. Then the wall mount case, which I don't recall how much those were. I have two wall mounted and one table top with a different enclosure. I also use my iPads for home automation control, (homeseer HS3Touch) so I do screen pops based on camera motion triggers, doorbell and driveway alerts as well. The benefit is always on opposed to switching hdmi ports to view the camera when you hear a noise or the doorbell rings.


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i was thinking of using an android box(running gdmss or tinycam) connected to a spare tv via hdmi.
 
Be conservative with the bit rates of any streams you send to an android/iOS/any device over wifi. Unless you have amazing wifi capacity.
 
bp2008 said:
I thought you would have pointed at one of the amazon fire tablets, but this is better.

Since you have a pi3 you could try streaming the video streams directly from your cameras, bypassing Blue Iris. This would give you a much better frame rate and not create any additional load on your BI server.

RasPipC - Cameras on your TV made Easy.

(note that "RasPipC" was never finished -- yet -- and so I linked to the more manual program that I use myself to display multiple cameras)
Click to expand...

Ok I've been playing around with my Raspberry Pi and this RasPipC program for a few hours now past 2 days and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to install/run/use this program! I've downloaded both the .zip and .tar.gz files.

Can someone please explain how to open/run this?
 
The RasPipC program doesn't work, as nayr never finished it. Did you read the note I wrote just under the link?
 
bp2008 said:
The RasPipC program doesn't work, as nayr never finished it. Did you read the note I wrote just under the link?
Click to expand...

Ahh got ya... I read it but didn't really understand what you meant till now.

I was thinking "Nayr never finished it" meant some features wont work or it's buggy... not it plain wont work hah.
 
Are there any updates on new Android sticks to we should be using if this is still a good way to add additional viewing TV's to a system
 
wilric said:
Are there any updates on new Android sticks to we should be using if this is still a good way to add additional viewing TV's to a system
Click to expand...
I'm 99% sure an Android stick would be fine for second station. Just have to make sure the stick you buy is updated to a newer version of Android that is compatible with Blue Iris Android app.
 
I just tried using a new Android (5.0) box with an old DVI monitor. It didnt work with any DVI-HDMI adapters or cables. I also tried HDVI to VGA and still no go. I just ordered a Raspberry Pi 3 and hope that works.
I've am able to get 19" DVI montors over at Savers for under $5 a pop. So these would be great to be able to use as cheap, extra view stations.
 
katamara said:
I just tried using a new Android (5.0) box with an old DVI monitor. It didnt work with any DVI-HDMI adapters or cables. I also tried HDVI to VGA and still no go. I just ordered a Raspberry Pi 3 and hope that works.
I've am able to get 19" DVI montors over at Savers for under $5 a pop. So these would be great to be able to use as cheap, extra view stations.
Click to expand...
Just make sure you have a cooling fan and Heat sink for the Pi or you'll overheat it running live view for extended period of time
 
What is the “allcams.htm webpage “ dgreene157
dgreene157 said:
I just use iPads wall mounted and display the allcams.htm webpage. This allows touch expand of camera window. Much smaller footprint and gives a more "built in" look. You can get older iPads on groupon pretty cheap.

b421e7e5711866bf8543fdddfd18dc88.jpg


618aedf0a4da94219bae8cfe8f367de4.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
 
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