How to use an old Android phone as an IP web camera

[JeremyS]

I've been using this for a few months now and thought some of you might find it interesting.  It works great, I've used it with low end phones (original Motorola Droid) and high end phones alike.  These pics were taken on a phone running Android 4.2, so if your phone is older or newer the options might look a little different but be similar enough to get you through.

 

First, you need to assign a static IP address to your phone.  Connect the phone to your wireless router.  Once connected, go to the Wireless settings and long press your network name (SSID).  Select modify network.

 

Scroll down and check the Show Advanced Options.  Continue scrolling down and change IP settings to Static.  Enter the IP address and gateway (router's IP) that matches your network settings.  Not pictured is the network mask, which is default at 24, and probably correct...unless you understand network masking in which case you'll know what to change this too.     Also not shown is DNS server, you can enter the same IP as the gateway.

 

Test your internet connection and if working go the Play store app and download IP Camera by Pavel Khlebovich.

 

Start the IP Camera app.  Here you can set the video and photo resolution...the options available will be determined by the capability of your phone's camera.  Quality and FPS determines the smoothness of the video, you'll have to play around to find a resolution/quality/FPS combination that gives you the quality you want based on the speed of your phone.

 

Continue to scroll down to Port.  here you set the internet port you want to access the phone on.  The standard port is 80, I prefer to change this to a nonstandard available port like 8080, or 8081 for just a tiny bump in security. 

 

Continue to scroll down to Login/Password.  Set the username and password you want use to secure the actions selected in the next step.

 

Press the Set features that require password button.  Choose what you wish to require a password.  You'll need to uncheck Video Stream Acquisition if you want to use this IP camera with your Apex.  Generally more checks is more secure, but you'll be entering your username/password more frequently.

 

Press OK to back to settings and make any other changes you want.  I highly recommend Stream on device boot be checked if you will be using this as a dedicated IP cam.  To start the cam, press Start server at the bottom

 

You'll see this...hopefully with an image (in the pic below I had it pointed at a black table).  You'll see the IP/port info displayed in the lower center of the screen.

 

Go to your PC, open your browser of choice (hopefully Firefox or Chrome for best support) and enter the IP/port combo as displayed on your phone.  depending on what password security options you checked you may be prompted to enter the username/password you specified, but you should get to a page that looks like this.

 

Select the Use browser built in viewer and enjoy the view.  If you want to use this with an Apex, the URL you will enter in the dashboard config is http://ipaddress:port/videofeed where ipaddress and port are the same as you entered in the wireless config and camera settings.

 

You can configure your wireless router to allow the camera to the internet, but that is a bit beyond the scope of this how-to.  Enjoy!

[nova423]

Genius

[AlanM]

Thats awesome. I should stop donating old phones and start asking for them when screens break.

[smallreef]

Very cool!

Now I know what to do with my old moto android global!

[Origami]

That's great. Thanks for posting this. I've got an old Droid Incredible sitting around that I may try this on.

[ctenophore]

Brilliant. Thanks for the tip.

[YHSublime]

Very cool. I've got a Droid X sitting around. Might have to charge it up and test this out. Thanks for sharing!

[CaptainRon]

Very cool! I have two HTC Amaze phones sitting around at home that would be fun to turn into webcams for the tank!

[DCReefer1964]

Great work son !!!!   Now everyone search for nice Android phone with bad ESN for cheap.

[smallreef]

Great work son !!!!   Now everyone search for nice Android phone with bad ESN for cheap.

I bet we all have a few laying around...I have 2 atleast..if not 3,lol

[monkiboy]

thanks for the share. man, we got some clever people on WAMAS.

 

jeremy or anyone, can you post a link to an IP phone camera set up this way recently and mention what phone it is? curious to see. thanks!

[JeremyS]

I opened mine so you all can take a look.  It's a Galaxy Nexus, currently set at 1280x720 resolution, 90 quality, 30FPS.  I used to use an original Droid at 800x600 resolution, 85 quality, and 30FPS and it was good enough.  You can find those on CL for ~$30.

 

I apologize in advance if anyone should see me walk by in my skivvies.  :/

 

 

[monkiboy]

thanks jeremy. pretty boring after lights out but hope it's still available tomorrow so i can check it out better! thanks for sharing!

 

edit: also just realized you're not a member yet - how is that possible?! i'm sure by this time you've realized how awesome we all and you want to join our happy membership family right?

Edited December 5, 2013 by monkiboy

[SpideyFish]

Very cool thanks for posting this.

[CaptainRon]

Got my old phone out last night and the wifi on it doesn't work :( looks like a common problem witg the amaze. Definately going t9 figure it out tho! Looking forward to playing with it

 

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

 

 

[PotomacBoater]

I was able to make mine work last night

ofcourse, the firewall at work doesn't like me going to port 8081 - shhh don't tell anyone

but I run my aquacontroller on port 80, so ...

 

I can get to it from my tablet

BUT

when I try to get to it from my phone I tried to "USER IP Cam Viewer"

Has anyone made that work?

I have the right IP and port,

but I think its mad about the type of camera I should select

[bqq100]

I was able to make mine work last night

ofcourse, the firewall at work doesn't like me going to port 8081 - shhh don't tell anyone

but I run my aquacontroller on port 80, so ...

 

I can get to it from my tablet

BUT

when I try to get to it from my phone I tried to "USER IP Cam Viewer"

Has anyone made that work?

I have the right IP and port,

but I think its mad about the type of camera I should select

 

I'm pretty sure I got IP Cam Viewer to work by setting it to "Generic URL".  I can't verifiy that it works right now since I'm on Wifi at work.

[rtsusc83]

Will this work on old iphone 3gs?