1

We recently adopted a pet hamster for our office, and are interested in setting up a live feed for evenings and weekends so that employees and customers can tune in to the lil guy during his most active hours, and so we can additionally make sure he's doing alright when there are not as many people in the office to check up on him.

We'd be working with close quarters here - he's in a plastic DIY hamster cage that measures 12.62 inches (H) x 18.75 inches (W) x 34.62 inches (L). Because the plastic is not 100% clear the camera would need to be mounted inside the lid of the enclosure, in a corner. We need a fairly small camera as a result, just to ensure he can't climb up to it and chew on it. (It's a dwarf hamster though, so as long as it's a few inches off of the bottom of the enclosure that should be fine... he's short!) If need be, we could probably make a hole in the enclosure for the lens to peek through, but I'd like to avoid that.

The cage currently isn't terribly close to an ethernet switch, so WiFi would be ideal, but the cage could likely be moved to be connected to either my extra Linux box via USB or directly to ethernet. I would then be running broadcasting software on the Linux box to send the stream to Twitch or YouTube or whatever works.

I don't know nearly enough about cameras to know where to start. If it could be done for under $100, that would be a great start - not looking for super high quality, just like a nanny cam situation but on a smaller scale. I've felt a little lost looking online, as it seems many of these consumer surveillance cameras all have their own specific apps you have to view the feed through, with limits, etc, and I just want to be able to access the feed directly so that I can forward it on to the internet.

1 Answer 1

1

You can use old(ish) Android phone to have all-in-one solution or you can use go-pro camera with laptop.

1
  • I'm worried about getting a phone mounted and keeping it live for long periods of time (I know my phone turns into an oven just about when using it while it's plugged in), plus the quality in the dark is a concern there too. I actually think our videography department here has a GoPro they never use... What would be the sort of setup involved to get that working over the internet?
    – Caitlyn
    Mar 1, 2018 at 21:07

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.