Using a Raspberry Pi, a Microsoft VX-800 webcam and Motion – linux motion detection software.If motion is detected images are uploaded to dropbox and an email is sent to prompt looking in dropbox. Seen as the Raspberry Pi could also run on battery power there is even the possibility of a portable motion detection system (wildlife cam??).

1. Install Motion
2. Configure Motion
3. Install dropbox_uploader.sh
4. Configure mail
5. Re-configure Motion

1. sudo apt-get install motion ** For best results build motion and ffmpeg from source (see bellow)

2. sudo nano /etc/motion.conf

Check palette configuration is compatible with camera

sudo motion -n   ** (runs in debug mode, printing problems to screen)

3. Download dropbox_uploader.sh from github.

Save files in /usr/local/dropbox  (sudo mkdir /usr/local/dropbox;; cd /usr/local/dropbox;;sudo wget https://github.com/andreafabrizi/Dropbox-Uploader/tarball/master;;sudo tar -xf andreafabrizi-Dropbox-Uploader-cdc2466.tar.gz)

sudo ./dropbox_uploader.sh

follow onscreen instructions. Once configured don’t forget to copy ~/.dropbox_uploader to home directory of user that will be running motion (ie if starting motion with sudo this will be roots home) or edit dropbox_uploader.sh and change the CONFIG_FILE= line to point to your config file ie CONFIG_FILE=/usr/local/dropbox/.dropbox_uploader

Test dropbox_uploader.sh:
sudo /usr/local/dropbox/dropbox_uploader.sh upload /var/www/pic/1.jpg /motion

** Make sure the target folder exists in dropbox first.

4. Create a .mailrc file (mail profile). I use google apps for email so mine is as follows:

cd /root
sudo nano .mailrc

set smtp-use-starttls
set ssl-verify=ignore
set smtp=smtp://smtp.gmail.com:587
set smtp-auth=login
set smtp-auth-user=xyz@xyz.com
set smtp-auth-password=pwxyz
set from=”xyz@xyz.com(Your Name)”

Save then test mail:
echo “Test Email message” | mailx -s -v “subject” toxyz@xyz.com

5. sudo nano /etc/motion.conf
Scroll down to the external commands section
Change the ; on_event_start value line to:
on_event_start echo “Your message” | mailx -s “Your Subject” who@where.com
Change the ; on_picture_save value line to:
on_picture_save /usr/local/dropbox/dropbox_uploader.sh upload %f /motion/%d_%m_%Y-%H_%M_%S.jpg
Change the ; on_movie_end value line to:
on_movie_end /usr/local/dropbox/dropbox_uploader.sh %f /motion/%d_%m_%Y-%H_%M_%S.avi
Save and restart motion:
cat /var/run/motion/motion.pid
kill [pid returned by above command]
** Start in debug mode to test
sudo motion -n
If all is well restart motion in daemon mode (just sudo motion)

Building Motion and FFMPEG from source