DEEN

Guide

Turn an Old Phone Into a Security Camera

Almost everyone has a retired Android phone sitting in a drawer. Instead of buying an expensive IP camera or a CCTV setup with a cloud subscription, you can turn it into a Wi-Fi camera in a few minutes. With Sentrio IP Cam everything runs locally on your network: no account, no third-party cloud, no subscription.

What you need

  • An old Android phone. Even older devices work fine; what matters is a working camera.
  • A charger or a power outlet nearby, because a camera running around the clock needs power.
  • Your home Wi-Fi. The camera phone and the device you watch from stay on the same network.

Step by step to your own Wi-Fi camera

  1. Install Sentrio IP Cam from the Play Store on the old phone and open the app.
  2. Follow the intro. It first asks what this phone should be; here you pick “Camera”. Then grant the camera and microphone permissions. Without them the app cannot deliver a picture or sound.
  3. Position the phone facing your subject and plug it into the charger. For continuous operation, allow the exception from battery optimisation.
  4. Tap “Start server”. The app shows you an address such as https://192.168.0.20:8080 along with login details.
  5. Open that address in the browser of another device on the same Wi-Fi, such as your PC, tablet or a second phone, and sign in. The live view now runs.
  6. Choose the recording mode in the web interface: Video, Continuous, Time-lapse, Motion or Sound. For motion and sound you also set what should happen: record video, take photo, video + photo or notify only. Zoom, night-vision boost and image rotation are set there too.
  7. Optional: set up a second phone as the Viewer. It shows all cameras in one list and reports motion and sound as a notification, even when the app is closed. Exempt Sentrio from battery optimisation there too.

What the camera is good for

An old phone plus Sentrio becomes a home security camera that fits your situation. A few typical uses:

Pet camera

Check in on what your dog or cat is up to while you are out. Sound detection alerts you when your pet barks or meows.

Baby monitor and room watch

With audio and sound detection the phone becomes a baby monitor or a quiet room watch. You can see and hear whether everything stays calm in the nursery.

Entrance and door

Point the camera at your front door, hallway or driveway. Motion detection starts recording only when something actually happens.

Workshop, garage, holiday home

Keep an eye on your garage, basement, workshop or holiday home. Another spare device covers each additional room.

Local on your Wi-Fi: no cloud, no account, no subscription

Video, recordings, live pictures and alerts never leave the local network. The picture goes straight from the camera phone to your viewing device, not through a third-party server. There is no user account and no sign-up.

Your recordings stay on the device. If you like, the app also uploads them to your own NAS (SMB, FTP or SFTP), without any detour through a cloud. The app talks to a server of ours at exactly one point: the free trial period. Pictures, sound and alerts have nothing to do with it.

For access while you are away we recommend a VPN into your home network rather than a port forward. That keeps the camera protected and still reachable.

Set up remote access →

Frequently asked questions

Does this work with any old Android phone?

Usually yes. The app runs on common Android versions; you need a working camera and Wi-Fi. Older devices are a great fit precisely because they would otherwise sit around unused.

Do I need an account or a subscription?

You need no account, and no subscription either. The camera is free to try for 3 days, counted from the first camera start. After that you need Premium to keep using the phone as a camera: a one-time purchase through Google Play that lasts.

Can the camera see anything at night?

That depends on the phone's camera. In dark rooms a bit of ambient light or a small light source helps. For low light the web interface has a night-vision boost that brightens the picture, where the phone supports it.

How does motion detection work?

You set the “Motion area” and the sensitivity level, in the web interface or in the Viewer. Recording only starts when something changes there. That saves storage compared with continuous recording. In the dark the detection switches to the “Night” level by itself.

Can I watch while I am away from home?

Yes, most securely through a VPN into your home network, for example with FritzBox WireGuard or Tailscale. The detailed walkthrough is on the “Sentrio on the go” page.

Where do my recordings end up?

By default in the camera phone's gallery. In the settings you can pick your own folder or have recordings uploaded to your NAS automatically. A second phone in the Viewer role lists the recordings of all cameras.