DIY anti-intruder alarm with video surveillance and mobile alert

Greetings sailors,

Today we are going to learn how to make a surveillance system for the interior of our boat so that it warns us if someone slips into it and to be able to monitor the interior of it.

And all this spending about 18$ on materials.

In reality, the solution that we are going to carry out is exactly the same to protect our boat, or our motorhome, or a second home…

To make all this work, we will need to have WiFi with an internet connection on our boat: which can be an old mobile phone sharing data, a WiFi network that reaches the boat, one of those 4g routers with WiFi like this one from Aliexpress or this other one from Amazon, or any other method.. but my recommendation is that you watch the post on how to install wifi on the boat.

It is not that one is distrustful, nor that we all keep a Picasso inside or our boats, but, at least, a little security must be put in our boats. At the end of the day, normally, we put a padlock so that no one gets in.

But regardless of the fact that someone can sneak in, be able to monitor the interior of our boat when we are far away, and see that everything is fine, that no water has entered in, or that we have remembered to close it correctly, we cannot deny that it can give us a lot of peace of mind…

But of course, when we see how much, these types of things, are worth in nautical stores, It will take away the urge to buy it… at least you’re going to spend 400$ … Surely that they are great alarms, and that they offer a lot of security. Come on, what I always recommend, if you can afford it then buy one of those super good and specific …

But if you want to do it by yourself and very cheap .. well here is what we will need …

Purchases
Our solution today is going to be pretty straightforward, we’re just going to need a couple of things:
The first thing, to be able to monitor the interior of the boat, we are going to buy a PTZ IP camera. We are going to buy it for 12$ which is wifi, motorized, very simple to install and that thanks to the WiFi of our boat we can watch it from anywhere on our mobile phone, specifically is this one from Aliexpress or you have the same one a little more expensive here on Amazon.

To install the camera, we may also need a USB cigarette lighter charger, depending on whether we want to connect it to AC or to the boat’s battery. If we want to connect it to the boat’s battery then we will need a USB plug of this style https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DD3Wgbt

And possibly a slightly longer micro USB cable to install everything right.

Additionally, we are going to buy one, or several, door opening sensors (depending on how many doors or hatches you want to monitor) … which will cost us around 6$ each.
You can buy them here on Aliexpress or a little (basically double) more expensive on Amazon

And we cannot forget two AAA batteries that we will need to buy to make it work, you can buy those anywhere, they are the classic ones for the TV remote control.

So, if like me, you only want to watch the opening of the entrance, the just with one you have enough, but if you want to watch other hatches, then you can add more to the shopping list …

The devices

On the one hand, we have the camera, which is really very small, but it looks great for 12$ and it comes with its USB cable and an AC adapter, which we will see if we use, one support with screws and plugs for its fixing, an iron to reset it and some instructions …

Additionally, we have received the opening sensor … This one is tiny, and it comes with an adhesive for installation. The truth is that this seems to be easy to install, so let’s go with it.

The sensor
We are going to start with the sensor that is the easiest to install.
The first thing is to download the «Tuya» application, which will allow us to manage this sensor and others that we will see in future episodes.
We will download the application from the Google Play Store, or the Apple Store, either with the QR code or by searching for it directly or with the links in this paragraph.

Once downloaded and installed… When opening it for the first time we must register with an email account and we will start by configuring our new device.

Basically, we will choose to add a new WIFI door sensor, we will have to put the data of the WIFI in which the device is going to connect, the boat’s one in this case, and then simply follow the instructions that will ask us to reset the device and in a few second it will locate it and it will be ready to go.

(You have all the details in the video)

Its operation is very simple, as long as the magnet is next to the sensor, all quiet … the door is closed. When they separate, we will receive an alert that the door has been opened, and when they come back together, the closing of the door will be recorded.

To install it we will use the double-sided adhesive that comes with it. It must be positioned so that when the door is closed the sensor arrow and the magnet arrow are together, and when opening they separate.

The camera

With the camera, it will also be simple… We will look for a good position from where most of the interior of the boat can be observed. In our case, We will place it on top of the chart table that has good visibility and does not disturb much.

Okay, once we’ve found its location, we’re going to feed it. We have two possibilities, plug it directly into an AC socket or plug it into a 12v USB charger connected to a cigarette lighter socket on the boat …

If we plug it in at 12V, the good thing is that the camera can always work, even if we don’t have the boat plugged into the port.
But in my case and to preserve privacy I have decided to plug it into one of the AC sockets, these have electricity when the boat is at the dock and they stop having it when I disconnect it from the dock power post .. so once I go out with I no longer need the camera on and it turns off by itself.

Once in place, thanks to its support, it will be time to configure it.

First, we download the application from the Google Play Store or the Apple Store, the application is called YCC365 plus, we search for it and download it.
In the same way, we register with our email and it is time to configure our new camera.

We plug it in for the first time, or we reset it with the included wire, and a voice will tell us something like: “Please config your camera”
From that moment on, we will see a new one on the Wi-Fi networks list of our mobile phone, called something like: «cloudcam» and a string of characters.
We connect to it and we can now go to the app. We choose “add hot spot camera” and then it will ask us for the WIFI data in which we want to connect the camera. Once put, it will find the camera, it will ask us to give it a name… And voila !! Ready to go.

By clicking on the image of the camera we will have access to the video in real time and in the upper right corner of the screen, a nut that gives us access to its configuration. By clicking on it we will make some small changes such as flipping the image 180 degrees, since we have decided to hang it upside down .. And we have everything ready to use it ..

There are multiple options, the truth is that it has a lot of things, to cost only 12$…

From being able to move it from the mobile, listen to the sound inside the boat, select preset positions and move it between them … to even set motion alerts or record the video either directly in the cloud or on a microSD card.

Conclusions

Well, the truth is that the door sensor is great and is very cheap .. notifications come immediately to the cellphone… And you also have a record of all the times you have gone to the boat… I can not say anything about the door sensor bad.

As for the camera? Well… if you connect to his cloud service, it is wonderful to have the videos in the cloud and stuff… but it’s only 3 months free, so the best long-term option is, if you want to record video, put one microSD card.

For the rest, the rest of the services, such as accessing the video remotely from the mobile, etc. .. is free forever.
And the camera itself, although it shows that it is Chinese, for example, I have had a problem with mine and the SD card slot, we must bear in mind that it only costs 12$… And to cost 12$ it makes a spectacular service
The truth is that I have not seen such a cheap motorized camera and I am very happy with the purchase. Obviously, it is not valid for the exterior, but we will dedicate another post to the exterior cameras, that I also have a lot of experience …