I became inspired to start this project while researching home security camera systems for something offline, customizable, and secure. Assuming there may be hidden scripts/code in commercial camera systems (backdoors/data collection/etc.), I decided I could make my own. I already had a Raspberry Pi 4 laying around and I found that ESP32-CAM modules were pretty cheap, all that was left was software and I had my own DIY security camera system.

The system is set up as an offline LAMP server hosted on a Raspberry Pi 4. The RPi is configured as a secured wifi hotspot that the ESP32-CAM modules connect to, snap and upload a picture, then disconnect to conserve power. A wifi device (phone/tablet/computer) can access the pictures by connecting directly to the secured wifi hotspot and navigating to 'localhost' on a browser. From there, the user can manage the pictures with various tools.

Updates:

init	LAMP server and picture upload working.
7/3/26	Cloudflare tunnel set up on RPi connected to a subdomain of ArkNLA.com, allowing for remote viewing of local web server.