Looking for a motion activated snap shot camera app.

I want to see who is eating the food outside I leave on my porch.
The wild fox? The neighbors' domestic cat? Feral cats? Who? What?

The food is placed on the porch in the same spot every after nightfall
because I'm trying to keep it out of cat's paws. It's dog biscuits and
leftover kitchen scraps & fruit from the local trees (when available).

There is no danger of theft or water as it's a covered porch and nobody is
suspecting a camera to be there if they happen to walk by and see a flash.

It will probably need a flash although I can place it within six feet of the
food but it will always be at night as that's when the food disappears.

What app does that?

Do cats eat persimmons?

knuttle <keith_nuttle@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> Looking for a motion activated snap shot camera app.
>
> I want to see who is eating the food outside I leave on my porch.
> The wild fox? The neighbors' domestic cat? Feral cats? Who? What?
>
> The food is placed on the porch in the same spot every after nightfall
> because I'm trying to keep it out of cat's paws. It's dog biscuits and
> leftover kitchen scraps & fruit from the local trees (when available).
>
> There is no danger of theft or water as it's a covered porch and nobody is
> suspecting a camera to be there if they happen to walk by and see a flash.
>
> It will probably need a flash although I can place it within six feet of the
> food but it will always be at night as that's when the food disappears.
>
> What app does that?
>
> Do cats eat persimmons?

I'm confused by your description. You're tossing your trash onto your
porch rather than into a trash can with a lid? Why are you inviting
racoons, bears, and other feral animals into a residential area? Many
communities ban feeding deer and other feral animals, because it
attracts them into residential areas where they do damage and are a
hazard.

If you're storing food outside, you put it into storage containers with
lids, not leave it in the paper bags they came in. If you have racoons
in the area, you may have drill holes in the lid near the top edge of
the storage contain to use carbiners to keep the rascals from opening
the lids, or get animal-proof storage containers.

Besides preventing you from luring feral animals into the area, and
keeping your pets and other animals from getting at the food, the
storage containers retain the flavorants in the food; else, your pets
wouldn't touch the stuff. Storage containers help retain the flavor
that gets your pets to eat the food. Because you're storing the food
outside, and likely you have seasons of warm weather which means higher
humidity, use airtight storage containers, not those with simply
press-on lids. You know what happens to those crispy cookies you leave
on the counter in the open during summer.

If it's humans stealing the food (let them have it if they're that
starving), why would you risk them stealing your phone left outside?
You can get trail cameras that you can bolt down. You can also get
security wifi cameras that can alert your phone when there is movement.

If you intend to use your smartphone, you'll need to disable its
low-power mode which likely means the camera remains unlocked. You'll
need to run power to the phone, because it is unlikely to remain powered
by its battery when running full blast all during the night.

https://www.google.com/search?q=android%20motion%20sensitive%20camera%20app

finds several articles mentioning Android motion-sensitive camera apps.
You didn't mention if you're trying to snapshot the perpetrator, or
record a video for some duration after motion detection. If capturing a
video, check with apps upload the video to the cloud to prevent filling
up the phone's storage with superfluous false triggers.

As for leaving your phone (and food) on your porch, you have no wind in
your area?

On 12/1/2021 4:21 AM, VanguardLH wrote:

> If you intend to use your smartphone, you'll need to disable its
> low-power mode which likely means the camera remains unlocked. You'll
> need to run power to the phone, because it is unlikely to remain powered
> by its battery when running full blast all during the night.
>
> https://www.google.com/search?q=android%20motion%20sensitive%20camera%20app
>
> finds several articles mentioning Android motion-sensitive camera apps.
> You didn't mention if you're trying to snapshot the perpetrator, or
> record a video for some duration after motion detection. If capturing a
> video, check with apps upload the video to the cloud to prevent filling
> up the phone's storage with superfluous false triggers.

Let's stick the responses to the motion snap shot camera apps requested.

I'm already testing out four motion snap shot camera apps but I wanted to
jump start that search by learning what apps other people use for the job.

Does anyone use the "peephole" motion detector who can tell me how it works?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sixcarrots.peephole&hl=en_US&gl=US

It took bursts of pictures in some tests outdoors but it failed to snap a
single picture in the real test last night but I don't know how the buttons
work on the app which maybe means I hit the wrong set of buttons that time.

I probably did hit the wrong set of buttons but none of them seem to make
any sense to me. Do you use this app and do you know what the buttons do?

Button 1
Button 10
Button 30
Button Person
Button Circles
Button X
Button TwoLines
Button 1.0

In the Settings I have "Use e-mail" checked with the correct email address
and password, disable shutter sound checked, size of motion object 5%,
detection delay 150ms, outline detected objects checked, keep screen on
unchecked, turn screen on when motion detected unchecked, enable debug info
checked.

Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. I'm not sure why but it might be
those strange buttons, none of which do I know what they do. Do you know?

Also the email isn't working but it only has a login/password to gmail which
I gave it and yet nothing was sent to my gmail account by the application.

Tested four but haven't found any I like yet.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sixcarrots.peephole&hl=en_US&gl=US
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.remoteguard.phototrap&hl=en_US&gl=US
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sjm.camera&hl=en_US&gl=US
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.d136.smbsecuritycamera&hl=en_US&gl=US