RPi CCTV System

📋 Overview

A multi-camera CCTV surveillance system based on Raspberry Pi. Designed with a client-server architecture, it enables multiple RPi clients to capture video footage and transmit it to a central server for management and storage.

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🎯 Project Goals

• Build a cost-effective CCTV system
• Manage distributed camera nodes
• Centralized video storage and management

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Project Architecture

• Client (Raspberry Pi)
  • Captures video using the Raspberry Pi Camera
  • Records video in 2-minute segments
  • temporarily stores videos locally use RAM disk to minimize SD card wear
• Server (Ubuntu)
  • Collects video files from multiple RPi clients via SSH and rsync
  • Uses multithreading to handle multiple clients concurrently
  • Uses a SSH config file for easy host management
  • Organizes videos by host and date
  • Provides a foundation for future video management features

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📁 Project Structure

rpi-cctv/
├── README.md                          # Project documentation
├── Client/                            # Raspberry Pi client
│   ├── setup.sh                       # Client setup script
│   ├── record.sh                      # Video recording script
│   └── rpi-cctv-client.service        # systemd service file
└── Server/                            # Central server
    ├── setup.sh                       # Server setup script
    ├── config.yaml                    # Configuration file with host aliases
    ├── collect_cctv.py                # Main video collection script
    ├── rpi-cctv-server.service        # systemd service file
    └── rpi-cctv-server.timer          # systemd timer for scheduled collection

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🖥️ Tested & Verified Environment

Client (Raspberry Pi)

• Hardware: Raspberry Pi 4B
• RAM: 2GB
• Storage: 16GB microSD card
• Camera: Raspberry Pi Camera v2
• OS: Raspberry Pi OS (Bookworm)

Server

• OS: Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS
• CPU: Intel(R) Celeron(R) J4005 CPU @ 2.00GHz
• RAM: 4GB

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🚀 Installation & Setup

Client Setup

sudo ./Client/setup.sh

Server Setup

This system uses Host Alias instead of IP addresses. You need to configure the ~/.ssh/config file. also, edit the Server/config.yaml file to add your host aliases. this file generated automatically when you run the setup script.

sudo ./Server/setup.sh

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📝 Common Commands

• Client Side

  Check Recording Status

  sudo systemctl status rpi-cctv-client

  View Logs

  sudo journalctl -u rpi-cctv-client -f

  Restart Service

  sudo systemctl restart rpi-cctv-client

• Server Side

  Check Collection Status

  sudo systemctl status rpi-cctv-server.service

  View Logs

  sudo journalctl -u rpi-cctv-server.service -f

  Restart Service

  sudo systemctl restart rpi-cctv-server.service

  Check Collection Timer

  sudo systemctl status rpi-cctv-server.timer

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📚 References

• Raspberry Pi Camera Software Official Documentation

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📄 License

MIT License