Two to four teaspoons of tapioca starch per cup of water. Pour on dry hair and this alone is a deodorizing shampoo. Massage evenly into hair. Rinse thoroughly after a minute.
I have oily hair. Even if I wash with pure Castile soap and leather twice daily I still smell. If I'm not careful, it's not smell, but horrible smell soon after shampoo. The kind that people accidentally came close within a feet will bounce back and cover their noses. But after I got the smell, a tapioca starch shampoo alone can remove the smell immediately. It's not a cover up. The hair 'smell' better into the day when the very mild starch odour disappears.
I have tried baking soda. A lot of it in a paste enough to pour on hair and massage into it. To my surprise it doesn't work.
My theory is that the root/scalp has oil that repulse water. If you apply soap/detergent, it's like washing a grease filter with soap/detergent. It won't work as detergent works on the surface and cannot handle bulk grease. Baking soda can deal with grease but it doesn't work on scalp. Maybe dry or wet, the coarse particles cannot reach the scalp. All shampoos have the formula to reach the scalp but then they are too strong and strip away oil on the shaft.
Of course tapioca starch (and similar starch) used in cooking is an oil emulsifier. It doesn't dissolve in water nor thicken cold water so water is a good carrier of it. Shake well so the starch is evenly in the water bottle. Just pour and the starch will reach the scalp.
You can use dry tapioca starch but I doubt it will reach the scalp as efficiently as a water mixture.
Now I'm using dilute castile soap and tapioca starch mixture. They don't seem to cancel each other. With soap it's easier to tell if the mixture reached your scalp. It seems the mixture stays on the scalp longer and it is easier to massage into it. The soap also smell nice, with moisturizer and acidic balance.
My hair can take straight liquid Castile soap (or solid bar), which is already mild. Diluted is enough as long as I don't smell. With tapioca I think I don't. I have little helpers to check it. It seems that I can use less tapioca with soap in it.
Wet shampoo isn't a bad thing because that's how to rehydrate skin and scalp. But you need moisturizer to go with it. Castile soap have lots of it. If you don't want soap with tapioca starch, you can add your own ingredient. But be careful, I tried to thicken the starch water mixture with Guar gum but it's a disaster.
If you search for tapioca, you can find the better home made articles for personal care. It is used in many commercial things like dry shampoo, deodorizer.
For my soap tapioca mixture, it's a deodorizing shampoo and body wash all in one, how convenient. It's also a 'conditioner' too as you don't need one. It's almost as easy to use as a bottle of concentrated shampoo, but preparing a bottle for each kid is a bit of work. I'm trying to figure that out.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Food grade instant fly killer
This is a cost effective, more convenient improvement of my previous fly killers.
Two squirt of food grade liquid soap, such as Dr Bronners, or just any soap/detergent. Mix with 40% or less alcohol. Vodka is 40%. You can find rice wine approaching that at a lower cost. Or you can just dilute with water cheap first-aid rubbing alcohol at 70% or 90% to 40%.
Ideally you need a spray bottle that can deliver a strong narrow conic stream at one to two feet. But most bottles will do.
Previously, a little soapy solution can stop flies flying, or they have to stop nearby. Diluted alcohol can do the same. So combining them is a good thing.
Previously, I find that only 70% alcohol can kill flies almost instantly. They are struggling a bit but cannot move far and will die soon. Diluted alcohol can also kill but seems to be slower. Adding soapy solution seems to increase the kill speed. I tried 40% but I think lower concentration will be sure kill too.
I woke up in a heat wave and killed 4 flies at the patio door.
Two squirt of food grade liquid soap, such as Dr Bronners, or just any soap/detergent. Mix with 40% or less alcohol. Vodka is 40%. You can find rice wine approaching that at a lower cost. Or you can just dilute with water cheap first-aid rubbing alcohol at 70% or 90% to 40%.
Ideally you need a spray bottle that can deliver a strong narrow conic stream at one to two feet. But most bottles will do.
Previously, a little soapy solution can stop flies flying, or they have to stop nearby. Diluted alcohol can do the same. So combining them is a good thing.
Previously, I find that only 70% alcohol can kill flies almost instantly. They are struggling a bit but cannot move far and will die soon. Diluted alcohol can also kill but seems to be slower. Adding soapy solution seems to increase the kill speed. I tried 40% but I think lower concentration will be sure kill too.
I woke up in a heat wave and killed 4 flies at the patio door.
Monday, September 8, 2014
Putting science in home made shampoo to avoid disaster
There are just too much info on the net that good articles are well hidden. Firstly, people avoid off the shelf shampoo for various reasons, animal testing, environmental, harmful substances, customization, money saving.
I read a few disasters all because many 'recipe' are worse than cooking receipts, no quantity, no how, and no steps.
Reasons for no 'poo
The strongest reason was to avoid SLS, which is almost universal in cleaning products. The reason was that a toxic trace substance was detected in SLS, not SLS itself is proven harmful. FDA didn't set a limit on that toxic thing, relying on manufacturers to self regulate. I think the reason is that the toxic substance shouldn't be there at all. It's either the chemical process generates the substance unknowingly, or the plants are contaminated.
I think the problem is eliminated now as this is under so many watchful eyes. But obviously all the contaminated SLS bottles were sold because the FDA must be thinking that short term exposure to the toxic substance is not critical. And that how do you recall all cleaning products?
The funny thing is that some people when they sport the word L on a shampoo bottle, they call the manufacturer and ask why it is still there. In the chemical world, if the compound is slightly differently named, the process to produce it is different, and that the batch will not be the same as the contaminated SLS batch.
Know your hair type
The best hair 'conditioner' is natural 'oil' produced at roots in the scalp, with the theory of evolution to back it up. It's is very light and makes your hair shiny. The problem is, with any detergent or soap, every very mild, the oil is stripped off. You may feel dry and lack of conditioning. So you apply artificial conditioner that makes you feel good, if only for a later part of the day. Then you feel dirty and sticky, and have to wash your hair the next day.
I have oily hair but thought I has dry hair because that's what I feel after shampoo. I always use conditioner until when I went no 'poo for a while (to save money) my fingers feel so perfect running through my hair.
If you have oily, the danger is that if you stop using a strong shampoo, you may develop dandruff, the kind caused by high bacteria activity feeding on scalp oil. If you have dry hair, some innocent ingredients could be a very strong oil stripper if you use it incorrectly, eg, baking soda.
Castile Soap
The other definition of oily hair is: if you use pure liquid Castile soap such as Dr Bronner's, no matter how much clean you feel after you shampoo everyday, your hair will smell in no time! I though it was due to something else, but it happened to me again and again, even with twice lathering and rinsing. You can add this to the one of the disasters. This is even worse as you cannot smell your head, everybody knows except you.
Other than the big problem, my hair feels great with daily shampoo.
The other misconception is that soap is bad. Real soap is good as you make moisturizer when making soap - glycerin, which has healing properties as reported on research papers. But manufacturers take out the glycerin, sell the soap and sell the glycerin to make cosmetics or moisturizing shampoo or body wash.
Baking soda
Baking soda emulsifies oil, or may be absorb/dissolve oil. There is no way detergent can deal with the grease under microwave hood filters, no matter how much you pour on it, but baking soda remove all the grease just by gentle rubbing baking soda powder on it. Dissolved in water, baking soda does nothing. And baking soda is highly soluble.
So, when people copy baking soda rinse, it can be anything and disaster can happen.
Some clever girl use BS for deep cleansing after oil treatment. She got a mess on her head of course. Like when I wash oil filter with BS. You have a paste of BS and oil on your head. It's worse with coconut oil as it is solid or semi-solid in room temperature.
If you have oily hair, it's rather difficult to get the BS onto your scalp. Also, any powder can be bad for the lung system. I tried to saturate water with BS so there is a lot of white powder left in the water. Then I shake the bottle and pour and massage onto my scalp. I would think this is a case of not enough cleaning on the scalp and too much on the shaft.
But I think other than it is slightly alkaline, my skin doesn't seem to like it. I always rinse thoroughly. That bring out another potential disaster. If you don't rinse enough, or you think it will be more effective by leaving in your hair for a while, it could be dangerous. pH I think is log scale. So you have to dilute with a lot of water to move down the scale to neutral. The same is true if you think leaving your hair acidic will help to maintain the natural pH of hair. Did you measure the pH?
Acidic rinse
I think a vinegar rinse (dilute) after baking soda make sense. BS do not decompose so you have to neutralize it. But vinegar is organic (from living things) so excess of it may decompose to harmless materials.
Also, after acidic rinse, my hair feel fluffy immediately. I have to say it works. But it just too much work and that I can't explain to kids why my hair stinks after shampoo.
I was trying to be clever to use lemon juice, the crystal version of it is cheap and convenient. I knew it would lighten hair under the sun so I use little, 1/8 teaspoon per cup. But still the hair lightens. I have dark hair so it's a disaster if I didn't notice it until later.
Another author claimed that her hair is damaged after 3 years and have pictures to show for it. I think a likely cause is she neutralize the BS on her head without enough rinsing and with neat vinegar. I wash my carpet that way - sprinkle on carpet BS and replace carpet shampoo on a steamer (carpet washer) with vinegar. It's very effective that way but I can't explain it chemically.
I think just the dissolving of BS in water is a non-insignificant reaction. The neutralizing of BS is not just releasing carbon dioxide but something else in the transient state. Anyhow, the lesson is, it should take 3 days or 3 weeks to discover any disaster, and watch carefully.
I might try other fruit juice that do not belong to the citric family. Aloe or guava. Some of them contain the other organic acid that is used for treating dandruff. The cost isn't much higher than citric crystals but it is inconvenient if you do that day in day out. And that part of my body skin don't seem to like baking soda.
Flour and starch
Then I discovered somebody using flour to wash hair. That make a lot of sense as cooks have been emulsifying oil since the dawn of time, making sauces. Immediately I thought of one of my fav ingredients - tapioca starch, which is commonly used in several continents.
It's a teen movie star recipe to treat acne and pores. Let it dry on the skin and absorbs all the grease around the pores. It's dry and bacteria can't survive on it.
But then I'm not original. Many uses corn starch. Flour is sticky, starch is less and tapioca starch is least. It is also finer than corn starch I think. It is also used in dry shampoo!
I don't want to breath powder. And to deliver starch powder to the scalp, I use a bottle to shake water with a lot of starch in it. Before it settle I pour it onto dry scalp, so I know where the starch went. After leaving it for a while on the scalp, I rinse and then finish with some castile soap. In contrast to using soap alone daily, my scalp doesn't smell (so far) and my dandruff seems to be almost invisible.
Next time will be my experiments on conditioner.
I read a few disasters all because many 'recipe' are worse than cooking receipts, no quantity, no how, and no steps.
Reasons for no 'poo
The strongest reason was to avoid SLS, which is almost universal in cleaning products. The reason was that a toxic trace substance was detected in SLS, not SLS itself is proven harmful. FDA didn't set a limit on that toxic thing, relying on manufacturers to self regulate. I think the reason is that the toxic substance shouldn't be there at all. It's either the chemical process generates the substance unknowingly, or the plants are contaminated.
I think the problem is eliminated now as this is under so many watchful eyes. But obviously all the contaminated SLS bottles were sold because the FDA must be thinking that short term exposure to the toxic substance is not critical. And that how do you recall all cleaning products?
The funny thing is that some people when they sport the word L on a shampoo bottle, they call the manufacturer and ask why it is still there. In the chemical world, if the compound is slightly differently named, the process to produce it is different, and that the batch will not be the same as the contaminated SLS batch.
Know your hair type
The best hair 'conditioner' is natural 'oil' produced at roots in the scalp, with the theory of evolution to back it up. It's is very light and makes your hair shiny. The problem is, with any detergent or soap, every very mild, the oil is stripped off. You may feel dry and lack of conditioning. So you apply artificial conditioner that makes you feel good, if only for a later part of the day. Then you feel dirty and sticky, and have to wash your hair the next day.
I have oily hair but thought I has dry hair because that's what I feel after shampoo. I always use conditioner until when I went no 'poo for a while (to save money) my fingers feel so perfect running through my hair.
If you have oily, the danger is that if you stop using a strong shampoo, you may develop dandruff, the kind caused by high bacteria activity feeding on scalp oil. If you have dry hair, some innocent ingredients could be a very strong oil stripper if you use it incorrectly, eg, baking soda.
Castile Soap
The other definition of oily hair is: if you use pure liquid Castile soap such as Dr Bronner's, no matter how much clean you feel after you shampoo everyday, your hair will smell in no time! I though it was due to something else, but it happened to me again and again, even with twice lathering and rinsing. You can add this to the one of the disasters. This is even worse as you cannot smell your head, everybody knows except you.
Other than the big problem, my hair feels great with daily shampoo.
The other misconception is that soap is bad. Real soap is good as you make moisturizer when making soap - glycerin, which has healing properties as reported on research papers. But manufacturers take out the glycerin, sell the soap and sell the glycerin to make cosmetics or moisturizing shampoo or body wash.
Baking soda
Baking soda emulsifies oil, or may be absorb/dissolve oil. There is no way detergent can deal with the grease under microwave hood filters, no matter how much you pour on it, but baking soda remove all the grease just by gentle rubbing baking soda powder on it. Dissolved in water, baking soda does nothing. And baking soda is highly soluble.
So, when people copy baking soda rinse, it can be anything and disaster can happen.
Some clever girl use BS for deep cleansing after oil treatment. She got a mess on her head of course. Like when I wash oil filter with BS. You have a paste of BS and oil on your head. It's worse with coconut oil as it is solid or semi-solid in room temperature.
If you have oily hair, it's rather difficult to get the BS onto your scalp. Also, any powder can be bad for the lung system. I tried to saturate water with BS so there is a lot of white powder left in the water. Then I shake the bottle and pour and massage onto my scalp. I would think this is a case of not enough cleaning on the scalp and too much on the shaft.
But I think other than it is slightly alkaline, my skin doesn't seem to like it. I always rinse thoroughly. That bring out another potential disaster. If you don't rinse enough, or you think it will be more effective by leaving in your hair for a while, it could be dangerous. pH I think is log scale. So you have to dilute with a lot of water to move down the scale to neutral. The same is true if you think leaving your hair acidic will help to maintain the natural pH of hair. Did you measure the pH?
Acidic rinse
I think a vinegar rinse (dilute) after baking soda make sense. BS do not decompose so you have to neutralize it. But vinegar is organic (from living things) so excess of it may decompose to harmless materials.
Also, after acidic rinse, my hair feel fluffy immediately. I have to say it works. But it just too much work and that I can't explain to kids why my hair stinks after shampoo.
I was trying to be clever to use lemon juice, the crystal version of it is cheap and convenient. I knew it would lighten hair under the sun so I use little, 1/8 teaspoon per cup. But still the hair lightens. I have dark hair so it's a disaster if I didn't notice it until later.
Another author claimed that her hair is damaged after 3 years and have pictures to show for it. I think a likely cause is she neutralize the BS on her head without enough rinsing and with neat vinegar. I wash my carpet that way - sprinkle on carpet BS and replace carpet shampoo on a steamer (carpet washer) with vinegar. It's very effective that way but I can't explain it chemically.
I think just the dissolving of BS in water is a non-insignificant reaction. The neutralizing of BS is not just releasing carbon dioxide but something else in the transient state. Anyhow, the lesson is, it should take 3 days or 3 weeks to discover any disaster, and watch carefully.
I might try other fruit juice that do not belong to the citric family. Aloe or guava. Some of them contain the other organic acid that is used for treating dandruff. The cost isn't much higher than citric crystals but it is inconvenient if you do that day in day out. And that part of my body skin don't seem to like baking soda.
Flour and starch
Then I discovered somebody using flour to wash hair. That make a lot of sense as cooks have been emulsifying oil since the dawn of time, making sauces. Immediately I thought of one of my fav ingredients - tapioca starch, which is commonly used in several continents.
It's a teen movie star recipe to treat acne and pores. Let it dry on the skin and absorbs all the grease around the pores. It's dry and bacteria can't survive on it.
But then I'm not original. Many uses corn starch. Flour is sticky, starch is less and tapioca starch is least. It is also finer than corn starch I think. It is also used in dry shampoo!
I don't want to breath powder. And to deliver starch powder to the scalp, I use a bottle to shake water with a lot of starch in it. Before it settle I pour it onto dry scalp, so I know where the starch went. After leaving it for a while on the scalp, I rinse and then finish with some castile soap. In contrast to using soap alone daily, my scalp doesn't smell (so far) and my dandruff seems to be almost invisible.
Next time will be my experiments on conditioner.
Saturday, September 6, 2014
From IP Security camers to security video archives
IP cams are really cheap now, as low as $30 if you do not need HD. For indoors, can they can replace window door sensors, PIR motion sensors with much easier installation, operation and maintenance. If the window moves, the motion will trigger the cam to send images to any device connected to the internet, trigger an warning alarm to any smart phone connected to the internet, and or trigger an alarm connected to the cam.
For outdoors, uniformed personal are at their best behaviour when they pass by. Never have any cold door to door calls since, nor spam materials left at my door. And those persistence vandals went to great lengths to test the system and piss me off when they don't dare to challenge the cams directly.
My advice is to get some cams with local storage, from buffering for a few hours of images to a cyclic long term storage. With cyclic storage, the cam can store the most current X GB of images or the latest 7 days or images. Otherwise the cheaper the cam the more work you need.
Also, do you need HD? As a security deterrent, DVD quality is way better than analog tapes used for decades. HD may capture more faces and license plates at longer distances, but there's no guarantee. The disadvantages is that the complexity increases multiple folds down the line. You need a good wifi signal to sustain the higher bit rate. You need a lot more storage. File transfers and processing are also longer.
Power outage
Interestingly, after a total power outage, everything went up by itself! The cable modem and wifi router is expected. Others include, an old router converted to a wireless ethernet bridge, a pair of powerline ethernet, both to extend the wifi range to outdoors. The cheapest cams themselves are solid, though a bit tricky to setup without manual and support.
Image recording
There is no problem of viewing video from the cams over the internet at 30 fps, but recording them is a total different story. If you record the video or image sequence directly, you need a MS Windows computer and an big external USB drive. MS seems to be open source in China so they will not think of supporting or developing anything else. That is bloody inconvenient with all the power consumption and the sole use of a computer for 24/7.
You can use the cloud but say Amazon charge by operating hours and data going out.
Motion detection
Motion detection is a good way to reduce storage, but ... The record speed is totally different. The cams can push out a normal video at 30 fps but for motion detection, it can only send out via emails or ftp at about 1 frames per second.
I don't think it's the processing power of the cams but the limitation of the network pipes. Remember that for ftp, the client have to download several files concurrently to be efficient?
I brought the Tinycam Android app hopefully to store faster on a spare phone. I don't know if it's only me, but for motion detection with Tinycam I can get only about 1 fps, and in addition, longer delay than straight from the IP cams. Without motion detection, you can record the normal video or image sequence straight without problems.
In conclusion, if you can afford storage for a few days continuously at 1 fps, you don't need motion detection. For outdoors with moving plants and car pass by, you don't save that much.
Night vision
Also, on-board night vision is pretty good unless you need facial recognition at high priority. But night vision is not enough for motion detection. You can spend $10 for a inferred security light, which surely triggers the on-board motion detector when the lights turn on.
Image transfer
Practically, I have 1 image per second recorded on my device, when motion is detected. Cloud storage is out of the question as you have to pay 24/7. Paying for an ftp service is about the same for a few dollars per month. But you pay forever.
An Android device is good for storing the images, a spare phone, a TV box or a stick computer attached to your TV. If you have a spare phone you can use it as a cam too. It's low power, out of the way, and can be left on 24/7.
I have a stick computer and in theory if I plug a 64 GB flash drive or SDCARD into it, all my problems are solved.
The problem is, processing and retrieving on Android is very limiting. I tried a few FTP server on Android. All are good and reliable. But I think Android changed the security mode since 4+ so unless your phone is rooted, you cannot receive files in a sub folder, and you can't even delete files remotely.
All the FTP servers I tried do not support cyclic deletion. So you have to delete old files manually or via a scheduler. Again I see no good scheduler or just no scheduler if you phone is not rooted. Also because flash drive and SDcard usually use FAT, the number of files in a folder is limited. Anyway, I got errors when the number of files that the server received become huge, while I still a couple of GB spare storage on the phone.
Apps such as Tinycam seems to solve the problems. But instead of multiple cams working in parallel hardware, now the phone has to process all the image detection of all cams. It's not too bad, but I find it lagging.
So, an Android device is only good for buffering the images. You need a computer to retrieve the images for "permanently" storage, processing, organizing and retrieval.
I have a huge number of images in a single folder received by the FTP server. It's highly inconvenient to do anything with it or to organize them and send them to the computer.
So I wrote a script in Android to parse the file names and put them into folders, eg, 2014/09/02/camid. I ended up learning to code my 1st Ruby program and executed in Ruboto, Ruby on Android. Now deleting old files and getting new files to remote places are easy.
I even wrote a Ruby script to get files via ftp so as to automate the whole process. But the problem is, if you remember, ftp request need to be concurrent to be fast. I can write Ruby codes for that but I rather use Filezilla in Ubuntu. It's not too bad. You can download all subfolders. You can set not to download duplicated file names. You can still delete files, which will still be there but with 0 size. These are not features of Filezilla but the limitation of ftp servers on Android.
Image retrieval
My aim is to identify every tiny sneaky trick that my persistent vandals tried on my property. It's not easy if I have only a huge number of jpg files.
On Android you have two decent apps to deal with the huge number of files. Quickpic can display huge numbers of thumb nails and allow you to glide through them with your fingers. It's not difficult to spot changes by your eyes when consecutive images are mostly identical. However there's no page up and down buttons so you will not miss when scrolling. Quickpic also did some dirty tricks like 'cookies', leaving some nasty hidden things on the file system so other apps may crash.
Then I discovered time lapse video. This is exactly when you want when you have a huge number of jpg files. The Lapse it app can handle that number of images fast. But the problem is, you cannot go back in time when you spotted someone just walked across the cam. Sadly, if this works, you don't need a computer and everything could be done in a standalone Android.
Computer processing
I can download directly the folder structure on the Android, ie, 2014/09/02/camid. But still I have the same Ruby script on Android (with slight modifications) that parse each filename and put them in the right folder (strictly speaking, directory). I can sync the files on both devices easily and reliably.
Do you remember that analog security recorders have time stamp? If you can find one IP cam that have the option. The problem is, mass produced chips don't do that. It degrades the image, increase the size, and need extra processing. The time stamp is always on the file anyway.
In addition, my recording is not linear, ie, a burst of images only when motion is detected. This made any manual attempt to get an idea of time difficult.
If you watch a video, you spot something and pause, but how do you find out what that time is?
So I add write a script to add a time stamp to every image, according to the info on the file name. It's a pain to use the time info such as modified time of the file. When you copy, most likely the time stamp is not copied. Android doesn't allow you to move a file across different media, such as internal storage, SDcard and USB drive. The program is 'convert', standard in Linux.
There's no usable time lapse programs on Linux to view the sequences. Many time lapse apps cannot set the duration to below 1 sec. Also there's too much overhead to go to the the correct directly and specify the files. It's extremely difficult to go back and forth to find something in a frame.
Creating a security video
I ended up creating a video from the sequences. That's the last thing I tried because many video editors cam import sequences, but it's way too much overhead. And then you have you record each image into video format, which is slow for an old spare computer.
I tried Openshot, Avidemux, which is pretty much like the old Dub, all of which I made a lot of different types of video. Then it dawned on me that the standard linux command avconv can import sequences as easy as video files.
My luck changed when I remembered mpeg, which is just jpg's stacking together into a video. It's fast to put the images into a video with .mpeg as the video file extension. But actually, jpg is also really the video codec for mpeg so the right convert option is '-codec copy'. The conversion rate is over 100 fps for an old computer, while it is slower than real time (<30 conversion="" format="" fps="" if="" is="" p="" real="" required.="">
One more thing. The importing needs the file be named imageXXX.jpg, where XXX stand for consecutive numbers. That forced me to write more Ruby codes. But at the end, you just need on script to store and sort the files, and another to create a video.
For outdoors, uniformed personal are at their best behaviour when they pass by. Never have any cold door to door calls since, nor spam materials left at my door. And those persistence vandals went to great lengths to test the system and piss me off when they don't dare to challenge the cams directly.
My advice is to get some cams with local storage, from buffering for a few hours of images to a cyclic long term storage. With cyclic storage, the cam can store the most current X GB of images or the latest 7 days or images. Otherwise the cheaper the cam the more work you need.
Also, do you need HD? As a security deterrent, DVD quality is way better than analog tapes used for decades. HD may capture more faces and license plates at longer distances, but there's no guarantee. The disadvantages is that the complexity increases multiple folds down the line. You need a good wifi signal to sustain the higher bit rate. You need a lot more storage. File transfers and processing are also longer.
Power outage
Interestingly, after a total power outage, everything went up by itself! The cable modem and wifi router is expected. Others include, an old router converted to a wireless ethernet bridge, a pair of powerline ethernet, both to extend the wifi range to outdoors. The cheapest cams themselves are solid, though a bit tricky to setup without manual and support.
Image recording
There is no problem of viewing video from the cams over the internet at 30 fps, but recording them is a total different story. If you record the video or image sequence directly, you need a MS Windows computer and an big external USB drive. MS seems to be open source in China so they will not think of supporting or developing anything else. That is bloody inconvenient with all the power consumption and the sole use of a computer for 24/7.
You can use the cloud but say Amazon charge by operating hours and data going out.
Motion detection
Motion detection is a good way to reduce storage, but ... The record speed is totally different. The cams can push out a normal video at 30 fps but for motion detection, it can only send out via emails or ftp at about 1 frames per second.
I don't think it's the processing power of the cams but the limitation of the network pipes. Remember that for ftp, the client have to download several files concurrently to be efficient?
I brought the Tinycam Android app hopefully to store faster on a spare phone. I don't know if it's only me, but for motion detection with Tinycam I can get only about 1 fps, and in addition, longer delay than straight from the IP cams. Without motion detection, you can record the normal video or image sequence straight without problems.
In conclusion, if you can afford storage for a few days continuously at 1 fps, you don't need motion detection. For outdoors with moving plants and car pass by, you don't save that much.
Night vision
Also, on-board night vision is pretty good unless you need facial recognition at high priority. But night vision is not enough for motion detection. You can spend $10 for a inferred security light, which surely triggers the on-board motion detector when the lights turn on.
Image transfer
Practically, I have 1 image per second recorded on my device, when motion is detected. Cloud storage is out of the question as you have to pay 24/7. Paying for an ftp service is about the same for a few dollars per month. But you pay forever.
An Android device is good for storing the images, a spare phone, a TV box or a stick computer attached to your TV. If you have a spare phone you can use it as a cam too. It's low power, out of the way, and can be left on 24/7.
I have a stick computer and in theory if I plug a 64 GB flash drive or SDCARD into it, all my problems are solved.
The problem is, processing and retrieving on Android is very limiting. I tried a few FTP server on Android. All are good and reliable. But I think Android changed the security mode since 4+ so unless your phone is rooted, you cannot receive files in a sub folder, and you can't even delete files remotely.
All the FTP servers I tried do not support cyclic deletion. So you have to delete old files manually or via a scheduler. Again I see no good scheduler or just no scheduler if you phone is not rooted. Also because flash drive and SDcard usually use FAT, the number of files in a folder is limited. Anyway, I got errors when the number of files that the server received become huge, while I still a couple of GB spare storage on the phone.
Apps such as Tinycam seems to solve the problems. But instead of multiple cams working in parallel hardware, now the phone has to process all the image detection of all cams. It's not too bad, but I find it lagging.
So, an Android device is only good for buffering the images. You need a computer to retrieve the images for "permanently" storage, processing, organizing and retrieval.
I have a huge number of images in a single folder received by the FTP server. It's highly inconvenient to do anything with it or to organize them and send them to the computer.
So I wrote a script in Android to parse the file names and put them into folders, eg, 2014/09/02/camid. I ended up learning to code my 1st Ruby program and executed in Ruboto, Ruby on Android. Now deleting old files and getting new files to remote places are easy.
I even wrote a Ruby script to get files via ftp so as to automate the whole process. But the problem is, if you remember, ftp request need to be concurrent to be fast. I can write Ruby codes for that but I rather use Filezilla in Ubuntu. It's not too bad. You can download all subfolders. You can set not to download duplicated file names. You can still delete files, which will still be there but with 0 size. These are not features of Filezilla but the limitation of ftp servers on Android.
Image retrieval
My aim is to identify every tiny sneaky trick that my persistent vandals tried on my property. It's not easy if I have only a huge number of jpg files.
On Android you have two decent apps to deal with the huge number of files. Quickpic can display huge numbers of thumb nails and allow you to glide through them with your fingers. It's not difficult to spot changes by your eyes when consecutive images are mostly identical. However there's no page up and down buttons so you will not miss when scrolling. Quickpic also did some dirty tricks like 'cookies', leaving some nasty hidden things on the file system so other apps may crash.
Then I discovered time lapse video. This is exactly when you want when you have a huge number of jpg files. The Lapse it app can handle that number of images fast. But the problem is, you cannot go back in time when you spotted someone just walked across the cam. Sadly, if this works, you don't need a computer and everything could be done in a standalone Android.
Computer processing
I can download directly the folder structure on the Android, ie, 2014/09/02/camid. But still I have the same Ruby script on Android (with slight modifications) that parse each filename and put them in the right folder (strictly speaking, directory). I can sync the files on both devices easily and reliably.
Do you remember that analog security recorders have time stamp? If you can find one IP cam that have the option. The problem is, mass produced chips don't do that. It degrades the image, increase the size, and need extra processing. The time stamp is always on the file anyway.
In addition, my recording is not linear, ie, a burst of images only when motion is detected. This made any manual attempt to get an idea of time difficult.
If you watch a video, you spot something and pause, but how do you find out what that time is?
So I add write a script to add a time stamp to every image, according to the info on the file name. It's a pain to use the time info such as modified time of the file. When you copy, most likely the time stamp is not copied. Android doesn't allow you to move a file across different media, such as internal storage, SDcard and USB drive. The program is 'convert', standard in Linux.
There's no usable time lapse programs on Linux to view the sequences. Many time lapse apps cannot set the duration to below 1 sec. Also there's too much overhead to go to the the correct directly and specify the files. It's extremely difficult to go back and forth to find something in a frame.
Creating a security video
I ended up creating a video from the sequences. That's the last thing I tried because many video editors cam import sequences, but it's way too much overhead. And then you have you record each image into video format, which is slow for an old spare computer.
I tried Openshot, Avidemux, which is pretty much like the old Dub, all of which I made a lot of different types of video. Then it dawned on me that the standard linux command avconv can import sequences as easy as video files.
My luck changed when I remembered mpeg, which is just jpg's stacking together into a video. It's fast to put the images into a video with .mpeg as the video file extension. But actually, jpg is also really the video codec for mpeg so the right convert option is '-codec copy'. The conversion rate is over 100 fps for an old computer, while it is slower than real time (<30 conversion="" format="" fps="" if="" is="" p="" real="" required.="">
One more thing. The importing needs the file be named imageXXX.jpg, where XXX stand for consecutive numbers. That forced me to write more Ruby codes. But at the end, you just need on script to store and sort the files, and another to create a video.
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