RPI webcam motion monitoring

Simple Raspberry Pi webcam monitoring. It records before and after detecting movement, then combines the clips into continuous daily recordings. Ideal for indoor motion detection.

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Features

• Motion-triggered recording
• Pre-motion recording buffer
• Lossless video merging
• Automatic systemd setup

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Requirements

Requirements:

• sudo privileges
• python >= 3.10
• python-dotenv
• opencv-python
• ffmpeg
• V4L2 compatible camera

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Structure

PROJECT_PATH/
├── merged/
│   ├── merged_2026-08-20.mp4
│   ├── merged_2026-08-21.mp4
│   └── ...
├── recordings/
│   ├── .tmp/
│   │   ├── rec_2026-08-22_12-15-23.mp4
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── rec_2026-08-22_12-12-34.mp4
│   ├── rec_2026-08-22_12-12-59.mp4
│   └── ...
└── logs/

Installation:

Install requirements: python, ffmpeg and v4l-utils

sudo apt install python3 python3-pip ffmpeg v4l-utils

Clone repository

git clone https://github.com/aasiop/rpi-motion-camera.git

Enter repository

cd rpi-motion-camera

Install requirements: python libraries

pip install -r requirements.txt --break-system-packages

Create your configuration file:

cp .env.example .env

Change permissions:

chmod 600 .env

Edit the configuration:

nano .env

Set up systemd autostart

sudo python3 setup_autostart.py

Setup file merge using crontab

python3 setup_merging_time.py

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Configuration

Create a .env file from .env.example.

Example:

PROJECT_PATH            = /mnt/camera
TEMP_DIR                = /tmp/merge
RESOLUTION_X            = 1920
RESOLUTION_Y            = 1080
SENSITIVITY             = 65
BUFFER_TIME             = 4
AFTER_DETECTION_TIME    = 8
MERGE_TIME              = 6:00

Variable	Description
PROJECT_PATH	Path to store recordings
TEMP_DIR	Directory where files are temporary merged
RESOLUTION_X	Screen width
RESOLUTION_Y	Screen height
SENSITIVITY	Higher value = less sensitive motion detection
BUFFER_TIME	Seconds recorded before motion detection
AFTER_DETECTION_TIME	Seconds recorded after motion stops
MERGE_TIME	Daily merge time (24h format)

WARNING: Recording FPS is not configurable. It depends on your Raspberry Pi's processing performance, camera and selected resolution. Higher resolutions increase CPU usage and may reduce the achievable FPS.

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Usage

Check program status:

sudo systemctl status rpi-motion-camera.service

Stop program:

sudo systemctl stop rpi-motion-camera.service

Start program:

sudo systemctl start rpi-motion-camera.service

Disable autostart:

sudo systemctl disable rpi-motion-camera.service

Enable autostart:

sudo systemctl enable rpi-motion-camera.service

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Uninstallation

Stop and remove systemd service:

sudo systemctl stop rpi-motion-camera.service && \
sudo systemctl disable rpi-motion-camera.service && \
sudo rm /etc/systemd/system/rpi-motion-camera.service && \
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Enter cronjob:

crontab -e

Remove line with merge.py:

0 6 * * * /usr/bin/python3 /path/to/merge.py >> /path/to/logs.log 2>&1

Then delete the remaining files in rpi-motion-camera and recordings folder

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.