Changing from Trail Cams to Wireless Security Cams

[TractorGuy]

You can make a mountain out of a molehill if you want. All the talk about high bandwidth routers and high gain antennas is great but I don't think it's all that necessary.

Your results may vary with the trees but you are saying your cameras will be closer than I had mine set also.

My GL-AR300M-EXT router is only rated at 300 Mbps. I have my 5GB cameras set to record at 1080P because my old win7 media player won't play the higher resolution and my monitor doesn't support it anyways.

Here is a video taken from the Reolink RLC411WS camera out about 300-350 ft from the router. Mind you the router sits inside a window sill in my house and doesn't have any outside antennas.

The Daily Deer 14 - YouTube


Here is one with the camera out about 200+ ft. You can see my house in the background of this one.

The Daily Deer 12 - YouTube

 

[BoylermanCT]

I know you gave us a technology problem to solve for, however, have you thought about the health benefits your getting for having a reason to go for a walk?

Yes, I thought of that, and my dogs will be disappointed if I don't take them trail running every Saturday. I'll still take them out on the trail.

Looks like the Blink XT2 won't work for my application. There is a base station that comes with them, and Blink says the cameras have to be within 100 ft of the base station. Anyone have XT2's and have the base station more than 100 ft from the cameras?

 

[BoylermanCT]

You can make a mountain out of a molehill if you want. All the talk about high bandwidth routers and high gain antennas is great but I don't think it's all that necessary.

Your results may vary with the trees but you are saying your cameras will be closer than I had mine set also.

My GL-AR300M-EXT router is only rated at 300 Mbps. I have my 5GB cameras set to record at 1080P because my old win7 media player won't play the higher resolution and my monitor doesn't support it anyways.

Here is a video taken from the Reolink RLC411WS camera out about 300-350 ft from the router. Mind you the router sits inside a window sill in my house and doesn't have any outside antennas.

The Daily Deer 14 - YouTube


Here is one with the camera out about 200+ ft. You can see my house in the background of this one.

The Daily Deer 12 - YouTube

Very nice videos. Thanks for sharing.

 

[s219]

Can't remember if I posted this one before, it's a bald eagle doing a cannonball near my dock. I heard the splash from about 300 feet away and checked the camera to see this -- pretty cool. Can't tell if he got the fish.

 

[TractorGuy]

Just ordered an Argus Eco. I will chime back in when I get it and test for distance.

 

[TractorGuy]

Just got the Reolink Argus Eco. Here is a pic of it strapped to a cherry tree 350' from my router which is inside the house. I wrapped it with camo wrap.

Second pic is a shot taken from the camera.

 

[BoylermanCT]

Thanks TractorGuy. Can you access the camera from your smart phone? Does it send motion alerts? Are they too sensitive, not sensitive enough or just right? How about battery life?

I'm in FL on vacation right now, but returning to CT tomorrow morning. Will be going out to my cameras to see how much signal I currently have at the camera locations. This will determine if I need an outdoor access point or can use my current wireless router.

 

[TractorGuy]

Thanks TractorGuy. Can you access the camera from your smart phone? Does it send motion alerts? Are they too sensitive, not sensitive enough or just right? How about battery life?

I'm in FL on vacation right now, but returning to CT tomorrow morning. Will be going out to my cameras to see how much signal I currently have at the camera locations. This will determine if I need an outdoor access point or can use my current wireless router.

Yes, Yes, and Yes.

I had the sensitivity set down to 30% before I stopped it from sending alerts from the weeds blowing. At that setting it didn't send an alert when my daughter entered the gate but the gate may be out of range where I have it anyway.

As soon as it got dark outside the picture became blurred like the lens was fogged up so I won't know how good the camera is going to do dark and changing temps for a few days. My other Reolink cameras generally stay pretty clear unless it's poring rain.

This camera was easier to set up with the phone app but so far I haven't got it to connect to the PC software. Gonna send a request in tonight to see if they can tell me why that is. Reolink is fairly responsive but they respond late night due to the time difference.

Not going to know about battery life for a while either since I just got it. I charged until the light turned green before I set it up and it was showing 96% after some testing.

 

[TractorGuy]

I have moved the camera closer to my gate which makes it about 400' from the house.

Playing with the push setting. I mounted it higher to cut back on falsies from the weeds blowing. I have the sensitivity set up to 100% with the false alarm switch turned off. I am getting a few false alarms now but it won't trigger movement at my gate. 400' is about as far out as I can get the camera and have a signal. The gate is another 50 feet from the camera so it may just exceed the limits of the PIR sensor. I just had to set the sensitivity back down to 90% to stop the false push notices. Still getting some so I have to set it lower still. The lower I set it the closer a subject has to be to trigger motion.

I just realized I had the stream set at fluent instead of high due to the distance. I set it back to high to get better quality photos. It records top quality to the SD card no matter what but when you want to take a photo or record to the phone you have to have it set to high quality to get a decent pic.

This will be and ongoing test subject.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

We use Spypoint products. I致e been down the Wifi route- it cost more and was more of a PITA than it needs to be. These look handy. We have enjoyed our camera from them.


Spypoint Cell-Link Cellular Attachment - YouTube

I second the Spypoint products. I have their Micro Wireless camera and it has worked flawlessly, great battery life and and the pics it streams are ample, much better once you get them off of the card. Good Luck!

 

[TractorGuy]

I think I have the Argus Eco fairly well sorted. To recap I have it positioned approximately 400 feet from the house. My home network is on a GL-AR300M-EXT travel router.

I have the camera set to stream high quality and the sensitivity set at 89%. It will trigger an event when I drive through the gate about 40-50 ft away but I have to get closer than that if I'm on foot.

False triggers are minimal and the battery is showing 89% after 3 days. I will probably add the solar panel to it.

This clip it captured yesterday didn't start until I was center with the camera. I trimmed the 30 second after off to save space.

 

[TractorGuy]

First wildlife capture on the Argus Eco.

Then a spider moved in. This is a constant problem with outdoor cameras. Bugs, spiders, and caterpillars will trigger events you don't care to see. I had to get a caterpillar off of it the other day. After 5 days the battery is already down to 57%. The batteries in this camera are not removable so I will have to bring the camera in to charge it or install the solar panel to keep it charged.

 

[YLee Kioti]

Sub'd.....by year end we should move into our house and want to replace our game cams for same reason.

 

[BoylermanCT]

I have ordered the outdoor wireless access point. Should come in later this week. I'll get it installed on a 8' pole on top of the roof and see if I can get wireless signal to where all the trail cameras are. Still researching wireless cameras.

 

[TractorGuy]

I just pulled the Argus for charging. 15 days it was showing 20% battery. One thing I don't like about it is the batteries are not removable. I put it back out with a small solar charger that was made for cell phones. I am going to collect my thoughts and do a separate thread on what I've learned.

The images and video are okay quality but not as good as my 5mp Reolink cameras even though I have those set to record at 1080P.

Still, this is only a $55 camera. I paid another $9 for a 64gig sd card and I think I spent another $12 for some camo wrap.