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Turning old iPhone into a surveillance camera

ciarals

ciarals

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 26, 2010
91
10
Italy
Hello! It's some days I'm planning to turn my old iPhone 4 into a surveillance camera by attaching it to the wall. I'm reporting below some links if someone is interested.

After hours of searching and readings, I've found the right app for my needs: AtHome Video Streamer (for the iPhone 4) and AtHome Camera (for the other iOS devices that are used to control the iPhone 4). Here's the link.

I've also found the right mounts: CMPHD006 from Arkon + MG002WR from Arkon.

I've already tried the app and it's pretty good: no registration, no recordings (I don't need them) and it just works. I still have to order Arkon stuff. Here are my questions for you:

  • Do you have any experience in turning old iOS devices into surveillance cameras? Any apps or mounts to recommend me?
  • (Most important question) The iPhone 4 will have to stay on 24hrs a day, with power cord always connected and the screen always on. The app has a dim option to turn the screen dark and let the iPhone heat less; also, the power cord is the original Apple one to avoid any power problem. But my big question is: the iPhone was not designed to be a surveillance camera, so by leaving it on 24hrs a day, will it burn itself or turn into a nuclear weapon? :D

Thank you! :)
 
Use Presence on my old 3GS, iPhone 5 and my iPad mainly to keep an eye on our dog but sometimes set up the 3GS if we go away.
 
No one can help me? Mostly regarding the last question about heat/nucelar weapon possibility? :D
 
braddick said:
An iPhone is like a clock.
We don't turn off our clocks and they seem to run just fine.
Same with your iPhone (with a dimmed screen, of course).
Click to expand...

Yes, this is exactly what I was thinking about... My only concern is that a clock is not attached 24hrs a day to a power cord: this will of course not do the best to the battery longevity (but it's not a problem), but I hope it won't heat too much the iPhone. This is my only worry.
 
I ran presence on my old 3GS for a full 8 days or so whilst plugged in when i was on holiday and didnt have any issues. Also tend to use the iPad as a camera whilst in a stereo dock so its charging again with no issues.

Presence has an option that the device that is being used as a camera can have the screen dimmed and this stops most of the heat issues. I certainly dont remember either of the devices being to warm when i came back to them.
 
bransoj said:
I ran presence on my old 3GS for a full 8 days or so whilst plugged in when i was on holiday and didnt have any issues. Also tend to use the iPad as a camera whilst in a stereo dock so its charging again with no issues.

Presence has an option that the device that is being used as a camera can have the screen dimmed and this stops most of the heat issues. I certainly dont remember either of the devices being to warm when i came back to them.
Click to expand...

Very happy to hear this :) Thank you!
 
ciarals said:
Yes, this is exactly what I was thinking about... My only concern is that a clock is not attached 24hrs a day to a power cord: this will of course not do the best to the battery longevity (but it's not a problem), but I hope it won't heat too much the iPhone. This is my only worry.
Click to expand...

You can locate clocks with power cords at swap meets and second hand stores that were produced in the 50's/60's and the 1970's that once plugged in, still work to this day.

Computers and other electronics are left running 24/7. Shouldn't be an issue with a used iPhone4 either.
 
braddick said:
You can locate clocks with power cords at swap meets and second hand stores that were produced in the 50's/60's and the 1970's that once plugged in, still work to this day.

Computers and other electronics are left running 24/7. Shouldn't be an issue with a used iPhone4 either.
Click to expand...

Thank you ;)
 
Another choice for software

I have been using manything.com for the software. Thanks for the links to the mounts.
 
frank33v said:
I have been using manything.com for the software. Thanks for the links to the mounts.
Click to expand...

Hello Frank and dhank you for your reply. Manything.com was the first one I tried, but there's one thing i don't like of it, but please tell me if I'm wrong.

The app I'm using (AtHome) simply leave my iPhone on all the time and, when I want to check the live stream, I connect to it remotely and only in that case the app streams the content to the internet.

With manything.com the iPhone is always uploading the video on manything's cloud, so that I can check previous records and the live stream. There's no way to check only the live stream. By doing this, the ADSL modem is always uploading data to the internet, correct? So if I want to use manything AND some other internet-related device (PS4, Apple TV, who knows...) it's nearly impossible, isn't it?

If you will contradict me I will be very happy, because I love manything interface :)
 
Last edited:
frank33v, dukebound85: can you please provide me an answer to my last post regarding manything? I'm curious about it :) Thank you!
 
I received an answer from Manything staff: I'm posting it here in case someone is interested.

You are right, we stream and record video continuously to the cloud. We don’t just stream on demand/record on motion. We are looking to add that later in the year.

Is your device an iPhone 4 or a 4S? On the 4S models and above we have “bandwidth conservation” a feature that drops the frame rate to 3FPS when no movement is detected, significantly reducing the amount of data sent to the servers.

We have found that Manything uses between 14MBytes and 140MBytes per hour when recording. This translates to between 2.4GB and 23.5GB per week if recording 24/7. The exact figure in any given scenario is dependent on the selected video quality and the amount of motion being recorded.

Depending on the speed of your ADSL broadband it doesn’t mean you can’t use Manything in conjunction with other internet relates services. Also, from the manything settings menu you can can check your data usage, so you could run the app for a few hours to get an idea of how much data is being used.

You can remote control your Manything camera on and off whenever you need, so you could just turn it on remotely whenever you want to check in, but I appreciate this may not be ideal.
Click to expand...

Since I don't need the 24/7 cloud recording, I think I'll stay with the current AtHome app and when Manything will update with the "stream on demand only" function I will surely switch to Manything :)
 
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