I've re-used old phones as monitors - buy a cheap docking station for I generally hate wifi stuff - perhaps because consumer-grade APs are all junk, perhaps because of cheap wifi chipsets in the devices themselves - so I wasn't surprised to see a tiny bit of instability.
I downloaded the free version of the app just to make sure it worked with the camera, and then bought the pro version to get the various necessary features (like audio - you really need audio for a baby monitor). To be fair, I haven't actually tried any other apps. They look like good units at the right price point. Nice to see someone recommend it.Īlso thanks for the camera recommendations. I'd actually put a reference to Tin圜am in my OP, but removed it because I didn't want to bias responses.
Probably other camera apps for Android as well, but I can vouch that your $4 for tinycam PRO is well worth it. It sounds like you're on Android, but I'm sure there's an iOS app, too. By the way, they sell security cameras too. (They may have improved this.) Until you get a baby #2, you won't care about this unless you add more cameras for another reason. But by then you won't really need the camera anyway.Īlso, the app itself can show more than one camera at a time in a tiled mode, but I believe it only has sound from one of the cameras. It's not all that useful, as the only scenario I can see using it is when they're a little older and you want to tell them to get back in bed without getting up from the couch, LOL. Oh, and I forgot, you can talk through the cameras - I think most of them have a speaker as well as a mic. I haven't tried any, but the "tinycam" app has quite the selection of cameras it understands. (When deciding between color and not waking the baby, I'll go B/W night mode, thanks!) Other companies also make WiFi/LAN cameras with IR LEDs as well. On most of them, there's a noticeable "Click!" when it switches between night and day modes, so I tend to use the tinycam app to set it into permanent night mode.
I haven't tried that particular one, but the FI8918W is getting a bit old, and I've got one of their HD ones (FI9820W I think) and like it pretty well. I see they've got some HD cameras for not much more, like the FI9821P on Amazon for $70. Happy to answer more questions, you're welcome to PM me if I forget to check back in this thread. I'd recommend wired ethernet if you can, as the first one I bought had problems connecting, but newer ones were much better. Plus, it expands to as many cameras + monitors as you want. They have HD cameras as well (but cost more).
Done! Got IR LEDS, pan/tilt, audio + video. I think most IP cameras come with included software, or use an app from Google Play Store.įoscam FI8918W + "tinycam monitor pro".
So, any recommendations on:ġ) Is this a good idea? Or just get a pre-made baby monitor?Ģ) Webcam suggestions, needs IR/night vision obviously, needs a microphone, no pan/tilt, can be wired or wireless.ģ) Software suggestions.
Or I could just get an audio only monitor to leave on at all times, and use the webcam for "investigating suspicious noises". That's a huge drain on cell phone battery, but I've got a few old cell phones laying around that I can connect to wifi and a wall charger. The downside of my idea is the fact that people typically leave the baby monitor on all the time while baby is sleeping (night/naps). I feel like making a baby monitor is as simple as grabbing an IP camera and using an app on our phones ( something like this). Figured the TR community has more experience and could help me out. We're having a baby!!! My wife drug me to BabieRUs, and when I saw the baby monitors for $150-$250 my techie kicked in and said "I bet I could do that for a lot less." I only have a little experience with webcams: for my college thesis where my professor and I set up an IP camera that allowed other researchers to view live feed of my tests.