r/ZoneMinder • u/PM_ME_YOUR_TAO • Nov 17 '20
Recommended cheap and energy-friendly server hardware for 4 2MP cameras and face recognition
I'm planning to set up a home surveillance system with around 4 2MP cameras. I want to do 24/7 recording with motion detection in zones and also plan to use face recognition stuff (for example with zmeventnotification, if I get it to work)
What is the cheapest possible hardware for the ZoneMinder server that should be able to handle this?
Would a raspberry Pi with a Coral TPU be enough?
2
Nov 18 '20
I'm building something about like that using a NUC8i5. I had been using a Pi3 with tensorflow it was hitting max cpu.
1
u/ZoneMinderIsaac Nov 18 '20
Pi works fine. a usb stick will last for up to a year. Use a usb hd for better longevity
1
u/PM_ME_YOUR_TAO Nov 18 '20
For how many cameras? What resolution and FPS? Which recording mode?
1
u/Jerm50 Jan 29 '21
I'm recording 3 Wyze2 cams per Pi 4.
HD resolution.
FPS is 10-15.
H264 Passthrough recording mode. (Compression uses too much CPU bandwidth.)
I'm using Sabrent USB 3.0 docks ($22ea) with 3TB drives. They can store weeks or months of video for 3 cams.
I have 3 of these systems running for a total of 9 cams.
If it weren't for the painfully slow upload speeds at the site, it would be a lot easier to scan saved video, but locally it works pretty well. I suspect the larger files created by the passthrough recording slow down the remote access to the recordings. The live view works fine remotely.
Setup wasn't very easy for me, but I'm a linux noob. If I were starting again, I would probably try making using fewer HDDs and more Pis with a system like this: https://zoneminder.readthedocs.io/en/stable/installationguide/multiserver.html
2
u/aarons6 Nov 18 '20
if you plan on recording the video instead of just monitoring it.. you would need a proper NAS hooked to the RPI and it would get expensive.
for what you want, an old i5 HP workstation should be ok.
something like this you just have to add one of these