Advice on camera without video stream

Devices & Integrations Connected Things
1

Hi, I’m looking for some advice in selecting a camera.

My scenario is this:

  • Have cabin with limited WiFi plan (metered 4G connection)
  • Have installed ST hub v2
  • Want a “web-cam” type of functionality, i.e. view an image from the camera upon request in the ST app
  • No streaming needed nor wanted (due to limited bandwidth)

I have looked around but all I seem to find are live streaming cameras. I guess I could install the Samsung Camera, switch it off and then manually switch it on when I want a short bit of video, then switch off again. Not ideal.

My perfect camera would be one that doesn’t stream anything until I look at it in the ST app, then it shows me one picture taken now. Is there something like this?

Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance.

2

You can get Foscam cameras. You don’t need to stream. And they don’t stream if you don’t have a plan for it, but you can access the video feed through their Foscam app.
You can set them up to record motion videos to SD card, and the video can be accessed through the app too.

@RBoy has a device handler for them which has an image capture function. It can be combined with his other apps and devices like open close or motion sensors to take images on trigger.

2 Likes
3

Check out Generic Camera Device using local connection (new version now available). I use the original version to pull snapshots from an old Conbrov IP Camera. The trick is determining the location of the images depending on the camera.

1 Like
4

See the first topic for pictures, with this Foscam integration you can take a snapshot and then stream in the Classic app.

5

Thanks for your tips. I’ll go for a Foscam R2 and see how it goes.