Casual commercial surveillance

17 October 2025 - 7 mins read time
Tags: IoT

Let’s explore practical and secure low-cost home surveillance options.

Introduction

After weighing many options — DIY Raspberry Pi cameras, solar IP cams, commercial “plug-and-play” cameras, even contracted surveillance services — this post kicks off a small series about realistic, budget-friendly home surveillance setups.

In this first entry, I’ll cover the “casual commercial” route: an off-the-shelf Wi-Fi camera one can find online (I bought it on Wallapop), managed entirely through a mobile app.

Other (future) posts will cover the DIY (RasPi Cam) and solar setups, among others.

The device: a V720 E27-type camera

I picked up a cheap 10 € E27 screw-base camera (light-bulb style) on Wallapop. It connects to the V720 app, made by 广州钱柜物联科技有限公司, which has 5 M+ downloads.

camera1

What I discovered when connecting it

Setup was simple: connect the camera to the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and link it in the app. From my router’s web panel (http://192.168.1.1/) I noticed the camera runs RT-Thread, a lightweight real-time OS used in many IoT devices.

router_camara_identificada

Security observations

While convenient, these low-cost cameras share a few recurring issues:

app0

Options I considered

  1. Just connect it to my main Wi-Fi. – Fast and easy, but it exposes my entire home network to any camera flaw.

  2. Use an ESP32 as an isolated gateway. – Cool idea on paper (camera → ESP32 → router), but not worth it in practice: the ESP32 lacks true routing/firewall features, and adding it can increase the attack surface.

    Note: I dropped this approach after testing; the ESP32 is great for prototyping, but not for continuous IoT video bridging and a vulnerability dressed as an isolating gateway.

  3. Network isolation at the router level. – The solution I kept: manage everything from the router, creating a dedicated network just for cameras.

Router configuration

Accessed via http://192.168.1.1/ (First step: changed the default credentials to a strong, unique password.)

zte

  1. Changed the admin credentials. It is important to never leave factory defaults active.

  2. Disabled remote / WAN management. The admin panel must be accessible only from inside the LAN.

  3. Updated the router firmware. Critical for patching known vulnerabilities.

  4. (Optional) Created a dedicated “Camera” SSID / VLAN. Devices on this network can’t see my laptops or phones. Client / AP isolation enabled.

  5. (Optional) Blocked Internet access for that VLAN. Only local communication with my NVR is allowed.

  6. Disabled UPnP and WPS. These can open ports or pair devices automatically — unsafe defaults.

  7. Forced WPA2 / WPA3 encryption. Using a long, unique passphrase.

(Optional) Basic firewall rules (concept)

The goal would be the following:

# Example (OpenWRT / iptables)
iptables -I FORWARD -s 192.168.3.0/24 -o eth0 -j REJECT
iptables -I FORWARD -s 192.168.3.0/24 -d 192.168.1.100 -p tcp --dport 554 -j ACCEPT

Tip: order matters — specific ALLOWs first, then the general DENY.

Optional: Cellular connectivity, motion detection & edge AI

Besides using local Wi-Fi, it’s also possible to equip or pair the camera with cellular connectivity (SIM card via 4G/LTE, NB-IoT, or LTE-M). This allows recording or sending alerts even when Wi-Fi is down — or as a fully independent channel.

Technical overview

A setup like this can work with:

This way, one can run a lightweight AI model (e.g., TinyYOLO, MobileNet-SSD…) to filter out irrelevant motion — only sending alerts when humans or unusual objects are detected, nested with a simple alert system can send photos directly via Telegram, e.g.:

https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/sendPhoto?chat_id=<CHAT_ID>&photo=<FILE>

Or other push alerts like Firebase or Pushover.

Under Spanish and EU privacy law (AEPD guidelines), indoor home cameras used strictly within your private property are generally considered domestic use. That means:

Summary:

If your camera records only inside your home and doesn’t capture other people’s private areas or the public street, you’re typically not required to display a surveillance notice. Always disable audio recording and maintain secure access credentials.

Power setup: light socket or dedicated outlet

Currently, the camera is powered from an existing E27 light socket, which provides 230 V AC. It’s a simple plug-and-play setup since the device behaves like a standard bulb.

Electrical basics (Spain / EU)

The camera consumes aprox. 5.8 W and internally converts AC to DC. The earth wire doesn’t carry current — it’s purely a safety path in case of faults.

Moving the camera elsewhere

One can extend power from a nearby junction box:

  1. Take L and N from a lighting circuit (10 A breaker).
  2. Add PE to the new socket or metal housing.
  3. Use an insulated enclosure for connections.
  4. Test polarity and insulation before re-energizing.

Safety tip: Work only with the circuit powered off with electrical insulating gloves (IEC 60903). Permanent wiring must comply with Spain’s REBT standard (grounding, RCD protection, proper insulation, etc.).

Practical alternative

Of course, if one doesn’t want to modify the fixed wiring:

Conclusion

Results and impressions

For a 10 € gadget, it does its basic job fine — as long as it’s treated as an inherently untrusted device. Isolation is the single most effective control.

Among all considered approaches, the commercial Wi-Fi camera + router-level isolation may represent the best balance between cost, convenience, and security.

Upcoming posts will explore: – A solar-powered standalone camera build. – A fully local encrypted Raspberry Pi camera. – Integration with Home Assistant/AI/IoT through VPN access.

Finally, Ojoloco looks like this:

camera2

app

References