Wi-Fi Camera?

[crackerjack222]

I have a vacation cabin in the mountains of Northern New Mexico. I am going out there just before Christmas. The local electric co-op is going to install a connection to their fiber optic internet while I am there. I want to install one or two wi-fi enabled cameras while I am there, one inside the house and one outside. I want to be able to keep an eye on things, get text a message if motion is detected etc. In other words for security purposes.
Does anyone have recent experience with these cameras and can offer advice on what to get and how to install?

 

[kcflhrc]

I just in stalled a QSee brand DVR with 4 cameras at our house. Has an app on your phone for live monitoring and will send you an e-mail when a camera is activated with motion. You just need to connect a Cat5 cable from your router to it and give it a GMail address, works great. This is what I bought for $199 on sale, it's not on sale any more.

Q-SEE 8-Channel 96H 1TB Surveillance System with (4) 9TVL Camera, 1 Night Vision-QT598-4V6-1 - The Home Depot

This one is a good deal

Q-SEE HeritageHD Series Wired 8-Channel 1p 2TB Video Surveillance System with (4) 1p Cameras and 1 ft. Night Vision-QTH82-4CN-2 - The Home Depot

 

[techman]

I added 3 of these: 72�P HD Wireless Indoor Network IP Camera

They are easy to install, can be had for $ 59 at walmart or $ 45 on ebay (new). They zoom, pan, mic; have motion and sound alert detection with notice to smart phone and you can hear, talk, watch from a smartphone or PC.

Can't beat'em for the money

paul

 

[CCWKen]

Neither of those DVR systems use wireless cameras. Each camera needs to be wired back to the DVR with general limit of 60' of wire. Which brings us to another problem. Even "wireless" cameras require a power source as does the Wi-Fi network. If you are using any system for remote security, you should consider an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) for the Wi-Fi and a Solar Power Supply for each camera. If you loose your mains power, intentionally or unintentionally, your security system would be DOA.

 

[kcflhrc]

Yep, the one's I listed are wired cameras with a BNC cable that gives you power and video. Easier to run a BNC cable than it is to get 120 VAC to each camera. Plus a single UPS will power the whole system if that is a concern. There is no general limit of wire, 2 of my cameras are installed with 100' cables.

 

[jloven]

I have a lake home and use ATT internet service to monitor 8 cameras. I used the Lorex 8 camera DVR system that can be found online (ebay, Lorex.com,...). Simple system that allowed me to mix wired and wireless cameras together. Software is simple to use and you can remotely monitor via phone or computer. I never did get the email alerts setup correctly. Does allow you to record motion only and allows you to filter the area on each camera so you don't get motion recording when the wind blows the trees... Works fine except when a bee or other insect hovers around the camera.
I used 2 wireless cameras since they were 300' or so away on our boat dock. We have power on the dock so that made for the easier install. Wired cameras are more reliable. Have to reboot the wireless transmitters every 2-3 months.
My biggest advice is to splurge for the digital 1080p (1 Megapixel or greater) cameras. They cost more but are much clearer than the 720 or 960 versions. This seems to be the standard now anyway. We use Vivotek cameras at work and they are unreal as to the clarity. You get what you pay for usually as they are about $300-$400 each. Picture quality isn't that important until you are trying to identify an intruder. Then its too late and really important!

 

[nybirdman]

Would a cell based "game camera" with a solar charger work in your situation.Cameras are about $500 and $10.00 a month service charges.I believe they can send a picture/text when activated.

 

[crackerjack222]

Would a cell based "game camera" with a solar charger work in your situation.Cameras are about $500 and $10.00 a month service charges.I believe they can send a picture/text when activated.

The cell based camera "might" work but our cell service at the cabin has been erratic. When there are a lot of folks in town as during Christmas/New Year ski holidays, the cell service is poor. I have one of those cameras at the barn at my ranch and finally dropped the cell account after about a year of getting alerts showing rabbits, road runners, and birds. I will be paying about $40/month for internet service at the cabin so the camera could ride on that.
Whatever I get, I will also have to put it, the modem and router on a battery back-up as our electric service is ferquently out for hours at a time (one time for about 3 days).

 

[RedNeckGeek]

I've been using one of these for the last month or so:
Amcrest IP2M-841 Video Camera

It uses a WiFi network to connect to your wireless router and can be accessed via a smart phone app or PC over the Internet. The resolution and color are good, and it has built in IR LEDs for seeing at night. Tlit, Pan, and Zoom are built in. Just plug it in to a 110V wall socket, follow the instructions that come with it to configure it using your phone, and perhaps set up port forwarding on your router to access it from anywhere. I got mine for about a hundred bux on Amazon and will probably add a few more.

I learned about the Amcrest from a friend who has been using three of them for the last year and he's been very happy with them. Recently he was back east for three weeks and was able to watch for emailed alerts triggered by motion in the areas watched by the camera, then log into them using his phone to look for trouble. One such message was triggered by a spider crawling across the lens, clearly visible when he reviewed the stored files.

Which reminds me, you'll need to have a computer or NAS to store the files, or you can use a service provided by Amcrest to do so. They'll give you a limited amount of storage for free, but to get a week's worth will cost a small amount of money.

And the same caveats about UPSs apply as well.

 

[jclaudii]

If you need a cheap dvr on the wireless cameras a laptop could work great. Built in battery back up, you can log into it remotely, run ispy or other ipcam software, etc. As for power, perhaps a cheapish 12v battery solar charger and some junkyard car batteries would work. If you had an outlet where your wireless cameras are you could run an ac battery maintainer. I'll be waiting to see what you come up with.