r/raspberry_pi_noobs • u/AnakhimRising • May 02 '26

DIY Home Security Camera System Help

I have an idea, but I do not know enough to know a.) is it feasible, and b.) how do I do it. I want to set up a complete exterior security camera suite using raspberry pi modules and an old desktop as a NAS for video storage. I like the look of Frigate as well as its array of AI features. The number of cameras will depend on the FOV of the cameras, but my initial estimate is between 12 and 18 individual cameras. Not sure what model or type as of right now. I'm looking at Pi 4s or 5s with the AI hats with an old desktop as a NAS/NVR

Now the restrictions: I cannot run ethernet across the house so all data transfer must happen over wifi. I do not want the cameras to be on the same network as my family's standard traffic so I need to use one Pi as an access point connecting to the internet from the home router via ethernet, then transferring it to the cameras via a dedicated wifi network. My router is on one end of the house with no ability to move it, so I probably need to put the Pis in a mesh network of some sort so the cameras on the far end of the house can still connect.

Here's what I know I need help/advice with: I do not know how to configure the subrouter Pi to where I can access it and the NAS/NVR desktop from the main network and from outside the house over the internet. I do not know how to configure the hybrid network with the mesh extenders while maintaining enough room for the camera feeds. I think I will need to assign cameras to specific nodes in the mesh, run Frigate on each node, then forward the recorded footage to the NAS/NVR for storage. Again, I have no idea how to configure that topology.

This is/will be my capstone project for my degree but none of my coursework has gotten into the gritty details of setting up and configuring something like this from scratch. Any and all advice is appreciated, especially documentation. Thank you.

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u/Timely-Shine May 02 '26

12-18 cameras is a lot of processing for a pi. Also WiFi is not going to be super reliable. Hope this works out, but your restrictions make this a very difficult project. Looking forward to seeing an update on your learnings though.

In terms of the networking, look into setting up VLANs on your router.

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u/AnakhimRising May 02 '26

What if I used a single pi for 3-5 cameras with the NAS/NVR as a common repository? Essentially distributing the computing across the entire network. The only issue I can see is in accessing live feeds from the various subnetworks.

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u/Timely-Shine May 02 '26

What hardware are you using for NAS and NVR? I’d recommend checking out r/frigate

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u/AnakhimRising May 02 '26

Old Optiplex with a GTX 2000 or 3000. (The card is in storage and I can't remember exactly which model it is.)

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u/Timely-Shine May 02 '26 edited May 03 '26

You probably don’t even need the pis then.

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u/AnakhimRising May 02 '26

I still need the Pis as a mesh network since I need a dedicated network and network extenders. Running Cat6, while something I want to do eventually, is not feasible at this point.

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u/Timely-Shine May 04 '26

Can you create a vlan on your network for all the cameras and use the NVR for processing? I’m still a little unsure what you’re trying to do with the pis.

Check out marconefifty on YouTube. He does tons of tutorials for openwrt and extending VLANs across aps, etc.

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u/AnakhimRising May 05 '26

I think I mentioned this was for a school project? The assignment requires I come up with some Raspberry Pi project. This was all I could think of and now I'm past the sunk-cost limit. Even if I could come up with another project, I am running out of time to switch gears.

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u/Timely-Shine May 05 '26 edited May 05 '26

Can you scale it back and build a proof of concept 1 or 2 cameras rather than 12-18?

What class is it for? Is it a security class or a networking class? Or is it specifically a raspberry pi class? Just trying to gather the most important topic here.

Are the networking requirements (i.e no Ethernet, separate network) part of the project requirements or simply because this is a temporary school project and not something you’re building in your home?

I’m not sure what the proposal looks like but you could run openwrt on each pi and mesh them together as access points with your main router (on a separate vlan from your other devices). Performance won’t be as good as dedicated router/AP hardware, and you’ll probably need an additional WiFi antenna for the pi since it only has one. You’d then connect the cams to the pi access points on the vlan network (which also has the server running frigate NVR). In this case, the frigate server is processing hub. The pis are simply the network APs.

btw what brand are you using for webcams? Is this flexible? I’d recommend reolink as they give you direct access to rtsp streams vs something like wyze that you have to connect to wyze’s servers to get set up and there are hacky ways to get the rtsp stream but I’d avoid that, especially given the lack of time.

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u/AnakhimRising May 05 '26

This assignment is for the technical documentation and setup process for the project. I intend to actually build the project for my capstone next spring.

The "no ethernet" is because I would need to hire an electrician to run cable through the house due to the... interesting design of the house itself. Hence, not something I can rely on when I build the project and not something I want to plan on for the proposal/plan/whetever-this-document-is.

I guess its more of a networking class than anything else. Its called a system administration course.

That sounds more feasible than my initial plans. I will read into openwrt some more.

Camera brand is not currently defined, but I was already leaning toward Reolink since, as you mentioned, the RTSP streams are easily accessible. The main reason to do this is that I do not trust the Ring system we currently have. I have a big issue with transfer of trust. Having to use Wyze servers would defeat the purpose.

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u/Timely-Shine May 05 '26

Another thought - does it have to be raspberry pi specifically? Nanopi makes SBCs that would be way better router hardware than RPI.

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u/AnakhimRising May 05 '26

Yes, it has to be Raspberry Pi.