The Spanner
Hi Makers, I love building projects that combine engineering, embedded systems, and product design into something both useful and visually refined.
In this project, I created Sentra — The Smartest DIY CCTV Camera, a fully battery-powered smart surveillance system built around the ESP32-S3. Sentra combines live Wi-Fi video streaming, continuous SD card recording, motion detection, automatic night vision, real-time sound monitoring, and even robotic voice announcements into a compact custom-built device.
The entire enclosure and interface were designed in Autodesk Fusion 360 with a strong focus on clean aesthetics, portability, and a futuristic user experience. Alongside the hardware, I also developed a custom real-time dashboard that works directly in any browser — no apps, subscriptions, or cloud services required.
What makes this project special to me is that everything runs locally on the device itself. From motion analysis and adaptive infrared control to real-time voice synthesis and sensor monitoring, Sentra was designed to show how far modern DIY hardware can go when thoughtful engineering and creativity come together.
This project is my attempt to create a smart camera system that feels less like a typical DIY build and more like a real next-generation product.
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