how to use an old cell phone as a webcam

Copied the following from TCMAS as it looks like a cool idea.


As some of you saw at my meeting, I've recently set up an old cell phone as a fish cam. Here's how you do it.

1. Get an old Android phone which no longer has cell service. The only requirements are that it has WiFi and a camera.
2. Connect it up to your home WiFi
3. Load the free program "IP Webcam" https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...s.webcam&hl=en
4. Position the phone so it has a good view of the tank and plug in the phone.
5. Run the app. It will tell you the web address to view it.

Now you have it set up for working while on your own network, but that is hardly useful yet. To make it work outside your network you need to do a little work on your router.

1. Go into your router's setup. Usually under the advanced settings you'll find a section for port forwarding. If you have any problems do a Google search on port forwarding and your router model.
2. Set up to port forward 8080 (the default port the app uses) to go to the IP the phone is using (the app tells you it when it starts).
3. Determine your external IP. From inside your network just type "what's my ip" from a Google search window. Most ISP's use a dynamic IP, so this may change every few months.
4. If you did the port forwarding correctly you should now be able to access the camera via http://[your external IP]:8080. You may also want to add a password to the app since you are now publishing it externally.

If you are using an APEX, you can add the video feed to your dashboard using this URL. http://[your ip]:8080/videofeed. Use the internal and external IP's in the appropriate local and remote lines when you add the video to the APEX dashboard.

Someone else posted this.


I think as long as your router offers some good port forwarding options, you shouldn't have any issue what hardware you're using. I do agree with BN though. PASSWORD IS A MUST! Port 8080 is a fairly common port, so a lot of incoming/outgoing traffic accesses that port. Play it safe.