NAS is more than just storage. Because there is a need for storage, I bought NAS as a data storage center, and made a file center for mobile phones, computers, and so on. Later, I found that Synology NAS can also take a simple monitoring system of an old mobile phone group, set up simple monitoring for home or work scenes, view monitoring at any time and anywhere, and analyze the scene. It allows me to check the situation of the elderly and children at home while working outside, and also to check the situation in the work room.

Use your old mobile phone to build a home monitoring system: Synology LiveCam

The two old people in the family are over 80 years old, but my parents and I are working outside, we are often not with them, so the rigid need to install home monitoring is in front of us - you can always know what is happening at home, on the market There are also many surveillance cameras. In addition to the traditional professional hard disk surveillance cameras, there are various kinds of cloud cameras, etc., but in terms of saving money and reusing old equipment, if you can use old mobile phones, you can use them. Turning into a surveillance camera is of course the most economical and flexible solution.

Especially after the group is installed in the home, the monitoring data can be stored on the NAS. The old mobile phone acts as a surveillance camera, and the monitored data is transmitted wirelessly through the intranet - a decent home monitoring is easy! And the biggest advantage of the old phone is that it can be moved at will, not subject to the constraints of cable and location.

Of course, the first thing to do is to download the Surveillance Station kit from Synology's Suite Center, which can be seen as the basic software for monitoring. After installing the LiveCam on your old phone, enter your QuickConnect ID and your username and password. Click Recording Monitoring below to get started! Yes, now you have completed the home video surveillance via your old phone!

Of course, you can make some settings for the mobile phone for monitoring. With advanced settings, you can further set the video quality (resolution, frame number, quality, camera used, etc.), and you can also set the alarm rules (action Monitor alarms) and customize the number of days of recording on the NAS and whether it is seamlessly recorded – even if you are disconnected, you can save the recorded video on your phone and upload it to the NAS if you have a network.

The scene I used was to put the mobile phone in the living room where the old man walked around the house near the gate, and use the mobile phone holder to mount the mobile phone above the shoe cabinet to form an open monitoring angle. The monitoring opening time is the time when I go to work. That is to say, from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm, there is no need for night monitoring because it lives with the elderly. Of course, this also facilitates the use of the device for the next day. Since the mobile phone recording does not have the trouble of requiring wiring, the mobile phone can adjust the monitoring angle at any time, and it is also possible to use a mobile phone bracket similar to a car for fixing in a more suitable position.

In addition to recording, if you want to watch the monitoring recordings, you can also use the mobile phone to operate (checking the monitor and opening the computer to view the webpage is really troublesome). With the DS cam application, you also log in to the QuickConnect ID and the username and password. You can see all the surveillance videos saved on the NAS, and the finger slide timeline can be the key monitoring information, so you can watch the monitoring without using a computer to watch the home, and you can know the situation at home anytime, anywhere.

Perhaps Synology's NAS can't be as professional as a professional surveillance system, but it basically meets the needs of the home and small scenes. Overall, it is more cost-effective than a separate monitoring system + storage system solution, and it is also simpler and more convenient to use, and does not have multiple background operations, which saves trouble.