DIY Guide: Grow Cam for Remote Monitoring!

Welcome to GrowTechs Grow Cam for Remote Monitoring Guide
DIY tutorial by GrowTech 2008. Much love for all my fellow growers in the RIU Chat

Hello, welcome to my guide for setting up your grow cam. I found having a grow cam particularly useful in remotely monitoring my grows. Remote monitoring can prove to be an effective way to ensure the safety of your grow, and is now fairly affordable to set up.

This guide will walk you through the various cameras you can use, and different ways to install the camera in your grow. If you have anything questions, please feel free to ask.

First I will list the typical requirements for this DIY:

1. USB web cam (long cord preferable, I would get an intel cam with a lens cover so you can close the lens whenever you are working on your grow.)
2. High speed/always on internet connection
3. A spare notebook, or desktop computer to serve images from
4. Wifi card unless you're going with a wired network connection
5. A copy of software (Sorry Windows XP only) that will upload pictures.
6. Web hosting account with FTP support (Google "free ftp web space")
7. Be semi-familiar with uploading files using the FTP service (File transfer protocol), you can Google FTP for more information

The following are steps to take in setting up your Grow Cam:

1. Grab your desktop or notebook computer, place it in the grow room.
2. Connect ethernet cable, or establish WiFi connection to your network.
3. Mount the USB Camera in the position you want your grow cam, you can mount the camera onto an oscillating fan for increased coverage.
4. Run the USB Camera cable in a safe manner to the computer that will be broadcasting the images.
5. Connect the camera, if driver disc came with the camera, install the drivers for the grow-cam onto the computer. (Reboot if needed)
6. Download, run, and install the latest free copy of booru webcam
7. Take your FTP information from the web hosting account mentioned as Requirement #6, and add the information to the booru webcam software, so that it uploads the pictures it takes. Set the filename for the pictures being saved to "room.jpg" (this is what the HTML file you will need later will be set to)
8. Set your booru cam snapshot time increments between 10-30 seconds. Save booru webcam settings
9. Then using your FTP knowledge as mentioned in requirement 7, upload this HTML file to your web host. (right click on link- save as index.htm)
10. Once uploaded you should have a fully functioning GrowCam page that will update every 10 seconds. If you want to add live images to your grow journal here on RIU, right click on the grow cam image on your index.htm, and click on "Copy Image Location"
11. Visit your web hosting page hxxp://www.w.hat.ever.co.m/GrowTech/index.htm (example) and you should see your babies live online

I will soon be writing software, and building a website mainly for hosting, and supporting, and will update it in this part of the tutorial, as well as shorten the tutorial (as my software will do most of the work for you ).

Anyhow, I hope this inspired or helped you in setting up your own grow cam. Nothing feels better than the relief you get from knowing what's going on with your grow, and perhaps this will enable you to leave the house once in a while, all while knowing that your babies are okay!

cool, it works good.
thanks

Cool, I was going to research how to set this up but you might have saved me some time. I also want to remote control stuff with something like x10 modules, and have a cam or a couple that shows everything from res level to temps to ph to ppm with the ability to manipulate stuff remotely.

Will you work that out for me? (wink)

There are a lot of different ways to do this stuff... And it sure could be useful if you could not only watch but control every aspect remotely but still reliably. I guess on that note x10 is out.

I was kinda hoping we could all see your cam live...

OregonMeds said:

Cool, I was going to research how to set this up but you might have saved me some time. I also want to remote control stuff with something like x10 modules, and have a cam or a couple that shows everything from res level to temps to ph to ppm with the ability to manipulate stuff remotely.

Will you work that out for me? (wink)

There are a lot of different ways to do this stuff... And it sure could be useful if you could not only watch but control every aspect remotely but still reliably. I guess on that note x10 is out.

Click to expand...

X10 could work. The management would be web based or you might have to VNC or Remote Desktop into your machine in order to achieve remote control.

Is there a possible way that it can be done this for Windows Vista?

I believe there is a copy of booru cam for windows Vista.

one other thing, would the police look out for things like this, surely they could locate where its coming from and then come bust you?

Askelluk said:

one other thing, would the police look out for things like this, surely they could locate where its coming from and then come bust you?

Click to expand...

I am not a lawyer or anything, but I am sure that the nobody is going to actively hunt down your grow (unless you're growing a substantial amount) because your grow could be anywhere in the world. Additionally, this DIY isn't to post pictures of your grow up on the internet and show off, as much as it is to make it possible to view your grow remotely when you're not there to watch it yourself.

ok then mate thanks for your advise, went and bort a cheap cam but is it possible to get it to stream so its a constant video? or would that take up to much space on the computer?

Set up the same stuff, but instead of using using the booru software, use something like USTREAM.TV: LIVE VIDEO Streaming, Free Video Chat Rooms. Watch Shows & Broadcast Live TV, stream videos, web podcasts. Live streaming videos and webcam chat

I have a set up like this. X10 turns on/off the cam. The cam is a pan tilt ethernet cam. I can access it all over the net, cell phone even. So when I wanna peek, I turn on the cam, then look, then turn off. No full time broadcasting.

I don't mind full-time broadcasting. I'm not doing anything illegal. I will be doing some guides for some X10 stuff, so you may want to check my sig over the next couple of weeks, as I will be posting the URL to the guide there.

GrowTech said:

I am not a lawyer or anything, but I am sure that the nobody is going to actively hunt down your grow (unless you're growing a substantial amount) because your grow could be anywhere in the world. Additionally, this DIY isn't to post pictures of your grow up on the internet and show off, as much as it is to make it possible to view your grow remotely when you're not there to watch it yourself.

Click to expand...

If you have the cam passworded they'd have to obtain a warant all to its own to gain access depending on your area.


I have my box under two cams so I get different angles, and both are passworded to where only I can access them.

Anyone looking into passwording their grow cam, should look heavily into .htaccess authentication on google. It's a good start.

the only way i would do this is to be assured that on one can ever see the cam ect. "growtech" how does htaccess work exactly i was doing some reading but didnt really understand it.

You take a .htaccess file, basically the contents of the file tell the browser to to challenge the users authentication.

You store the password in a .htpassword file, or even within the .htaccess file.

http://www.evolt.org/ultimate_htaccess_examples has several varieties of .htaccess files.

Also add in limiting the number of connections. Now if the DEA has logged on first... (but that opens them up for a breaking encryption case (also a federal violation))

is there a way to make it work so you can view images when you are not on site? like via pda or cellphone pda?

I use my blackberry to view these. Which is why I provided the FTP instructions.

rep+1.... I am moving this month and I'm planning on putting up a few cams myself around the new house..I'll be coming back for more info and a dumb question or two....thanks