HKCam is an IP camera based on Raspberry Pi Zero W board and compatible with any HomeKit apps. The developer, Matthias Hochgatterer, did not make the hardware himself, and instead purchased a Raspberry Pi Zero W + camera kit sold for around $30 on Aliexpress. His main work was to design a 3D printed case and write the software running in the camera, as well as his own Home 3 smart home automation app for iOS compatible with HomeKit.
The only hardware needed is the Raspberry Pi Zero W with a power supply, the official Raspberry Pi camera module with is flat cable, and a microSD card, so you could also get those locally instead of purchasing them from Aliexpress.
The firmware is based on Raspbian, FFmpeg to access the camera stream, as well as hc, a lightweight framework to develop HomeKit accessories in Go. You’ll find the documentation, source code and STL files for your 3D printer in Github. If you don’t own a 3D printer, Matthias can print the enclosure for 5 to 8 Euros depending on whether you’d like the desktop case or the wall-mount case.
Home 3 app allows you to monitor the live stream, take persistent snapshots, and integrate the IP camera with other HomeKit compatible devices such as motion sensors. Note that persistent snapshots apparently only work with Home 3, and not other HomeKit apps at this stage. HKcam IP camera works best with Apple devices, but if you are using Android, you may have it working through Home Assistant for example.
More details can be found on the project’s page.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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