A cute, connected, cephalopod camera to stick on your window or sit on your shelf!

The OctoCam kit has everything* you'll need, including a Pi Zero W, a super-small 5MP camera, a fun octopus acrylic mount with four suction cups, and a desk stand. It'll take you around 30 minutes to put it all together (check out our assembly guide for details).

Note that connecting your OctoCam running motionEyeOS to Wi-Fi requires a bit of extra configuration, but we have full details in our tutorial on setting up motionEyeOS.

Kit contents*

• Pi Zero W
• 5MP camera with built-in cable and circuitry
• OctoCam acrylic mount, suction cups, desk stand
• 50cm USB A to micro-B cable
• USB A (female) to micro B (male) adaptor
• Mini to full-size HDMI adaptor
• Male 2x20 pin header
• Sticker sheet
• Comes in a reusable kit box

*Just add your own micro-SD card

OctoCam uses our neat little Pi Zero camera; the most compact way to add a camera to your Pi. It uses the same 5MP sensor as the original Pi camera, so it works out of the box with your Pi, in the same way as the official Pi cameras. The cable and circuitry is all built-in, meaning that connecting it is as simple as plugging in the ribbon cable to the connector on your Pi Zero W.

This kit takes advantage of the built-in wireless LAN and Bluetooth on the Pi Zero W, meaning that there's no longer any need for a USB Wi-Fi dongle.

OctoCam is perfect for setting up a compact CCTV camera in your house, or for recording time lapses. Stick it to your kitchen window and keep an eye on your bird feeder or nesting box. Keep tabs on your cat or dog while you're out of the house, or use it to track the growth of your houseplants!

Software

We love the motionEyeOS software, which makes it simple to set up your OctoCam as a remote camera that you can monitor through any connected web browser. It has all sorts of bells and whistles to trigger photos and videos to be captured when motion is detected, build time lapses, send notifications or tweets, and automatically sync. images to Dropbox or Google Drive.