I am thinking of buying this poe camera - what kind of poe switch it needs ?

curiousv

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This is the camera -
It does not say anywhere about what kind of POE switch or injector it needs so I am asking here.
It does say 12V power adapter but nothing about POE

so it requires 15w injector like this or the other version
which is 30w and both at/af complaint -
 
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TonyR

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Listen up , he's spot on ^^^^.

The description says "Wirefree" which is deceptive (wireless and wirefree are not the same) because they furnish a 12VDC adapter to power it; so is the "Camera has built-in PoE function, Power over Ethernet directly" further down true or not?
 

mat200

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This is the camera -
It does not say anywhere about what kind of POE switch or injector it needs so I am asking here.
It does say 12V power adapter but nothing about POE

so it requires 15w injector like this or the other version
which is 30w and both at/af complaint -
FYI - camera in question .. posting info here

1692996604162.png
1692996639505.png
 
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curiousv

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Starglow

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I wanted to ask do I need POE or POE+ type of switch ..I learned poe is 15w rated and poe+ is rated 30w so which one of these 2 switch ?
and Do I need managed switch or unmanaged is fine?
That camera doesn't need 30 watts of PoE power and using an unmanaged switch is fine. It's not a high quality camera, so expect to be disappointed.
 

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TonyR

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Wait dont buy that piece of crap either.....read the reviews....no web interface? wtf?
Keep doing research. you can do better than that.
I'm glad you reversed your opinion of that thing...it's one of those "Smart Home" cams that have to be set up with an app, they work for some but don't for more. And no webGUI is a deal-breaker, IMO.
 

wittaj

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Wifi and cameras do not go together. Then add it is a PTZ - forget about it. Unless it is just to watch the pet or kids.

There are always ways if you don't want to run an ethernet cable.

You need power anyway, so go with a powerline adapter to run the date over your electric lines or use a nano-station.

Maybe you are fine now one day with wifi cams, but one day something will happen. A new device, neighbors microwave, etc.

Cameras connected to Wifi routers (whether wifi or not) are problematic for surveillance cameras because they are always streaming and passing data. And the data demands go up with motion and then you lose signal. A lost packet and it has to resend. It can bring the whole network down if trying to send cameras through a wifi router. At the very least it can slow down your entire system.

Unlike Netflix and other streaming services that buffer a movie, these cameras do not buffer up part of the video, so drop outs are frequent, especially once you start adding distance. You would be amazed how much streaming services buffer - don't believe me, start watching something and unplug your router and watch how much longer you can watch NetFlix before it freezes - mine goes 45 seconds. Now do the same with a camera connected to a router and it is fairly instantaneous (within the latency of the stream itself)...

The same issue applies even with the hard-wired cameras trying to send all this non-buffer video stream through a router. Most consumer grade wifi routers are not designed to pass the constant video stream data of cameras, and since they do not buffer, you get these issues. The consumer routers are just not designed for this kind of traffic, even a GB speed router.

So the more cameras you add, the bigger the potential for issues.

Many people unfortunately think wifi cameras are the answer and they are not. People will say what about Ring and Nest - well that is another whole host of issues that we will not discuss here LOL, but they are not streaming 24/7, only when you pull up the app. And then we see all the people come here after that system failed them because their wifi couldn't keep up when the perp came by. For streaming 24/7 to something like an NVR or Blue Iris, forget about it if you want reliability.


This was a great test that SouthernYankee tried and posted about it here:

I did a WIFI test a while back with multiple 2MP cameras each camera was set to VBR, 15 FPS, 15 Iframe, 3072kbs, h.264. Using a WIFI analyzer I selected the least busy channel (1,6,11) on the 2.4 GHZ band and set up a separate access point. With 3 cameras in direct line of sight of the AP about 25 feet away I was able to maintain a reasonable stable network with only intermittent signal drops from the cameras. Added a 4th camera and the network became totally unstable. Also add a lot of motion to the 3 cameras caused some more network instability. More data more instability.
The cameras are nearly continuously transmitting. So any lost packet causes a retry, which cause more traffic, which causes more lost packets.
WIFI does not have a flow control, or a token to transmit. So your devices transmit any time they want, more devices more collisions.
As a side note, it is very easy to jam a WIFI network. WIFI is fine for watching the bird feed but not for home surveillance and security.
The problem is like standing in a room, with multiple people talking to you at the same time about different subjects. You need to answer each person or they repeat the question.

Test do not guess.

For a 802.11G 2.4 GHZ WIFI network the Theoretical Speed is 54Mbps (6.7MBs) real word speed is nearer to 10-29Mbps (1.25-3.6 MBs) for a single channel


And @TonyR recommends this (which is the preferred way IF you want to do wifi)

The only way I'd have wireless cams is the way I have them now: a dedicated 802.11n, 2.4GHz Access Point for 3 cams, nothing else uses that AP. Its assigned channel is at the max separation from another 2.4GHz channel in the house. There is no other house near me for about 300 yards and we're separated by dense foliage and trees.

Those 3 cams are indoor, non-critical pet cams (Amcrest IP2M-841's) streaming to Blue Iris and are adequately reliable for their jobs. They take their turns losing signal/reconnecting usually about every 12 hours or so for about 20 seconds which I would not tolerate for an outdoor surveillance cam pointed at my house and/or property.

But for me, this works in my situation: dedicated AP, non-critical application and periodic, short-term video loss.... if any one of those 3 conditions can't be achieved or tolerated, then I also do not recommend using wireless cams. :cool:
 

looney2ns

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I wanted to ask do I need POE or POE+ type of switch ..I learned poe is 15w rated and poe+ is rated 30w so which one of these 2 switch ?
and Do I need managed switch or unmanaged is fine?
I linked a switch that will work in my above post.
Being that is such a cheap cam, and the specs are questionable, get the switch I linked, and it will handle whether it actually requires Poe or POE+
 

CCTVCam

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I'm just wondering why he needs a 5-125mm zoom?

Apart from it sounds too good to be true, if not needed, would be far better off with a varifocal 5442 he can set and fix to the optimum distance for what he needs to protect. Cost will be double the cheap zoom camera, but at least he'll have quality day and night and he might even manage colour night vision if he buys one of the newer variants with a wider aperture zoom and improved sensor. Either way, we all know 5442 has excellent IR at night for BW on the non colour night variants.
 

curiousv

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Wifi and cameras do not go together. Then add it is a PTZ - forget about it. Unless it is just to watch the pet or kids.

There are always ways if you don't want to run an ethernet cable.

You need power anyway, so go with a powerline adapter to run the date over your electric lines or use a nano-station.

Maybe you are fine now one day with wifi cams, but one day something will happen. A new device, neighbors microwave, etc.

Cameras connected to Wifi routers (whether wifi or not) are problematic for surveillance cameras because they are always streaming and passing data. And the data demands go up with motion and then you lose signal. A lost packet and it has to resend. It can bring the whole network down if trying to send cameras through a wifi router. At the very least it can slow down your entire system.

Unlike Netflix and other streaming services that buffer a movie, these cameras do not buffer up part of the video, so drop outs are frequent, especially once you start adding distance. You would be amazed how much streaming services buffer - don't believe me, start watching something and unplug your router and watch how much longer you can watch NetFlix before it freezes - mine goes 45 seconds. Now do the same with a camera connected to a router and it is fairly instantaneous (within the latency of the stream itself)...

The same issue applies even with the hard-wired cameras trying to send all this non-buffer video stream through a router. Most consumer grade wifi routers are not designed to pass the constant video stream data of cameras, and since they do not buffer, you get these issues. The consumer routers are just not designed for this kind of traffic, even a GB speed router.

So the more cameras you add, the bigger the potential for issues.

Many people unfortunately think wifi cameras are the answer and they are not. People will say what about Ring and Nest - well that is another whole host of issues that we will not discuss here LOL, but they are not streaming 24/7, only when you pull up the app. And then we see all the people come here after that system failed them because their wifi couldn't keep up when the perp came by. For streaming 24/7 to something like an NVR or Blue Iris, forget about it if you want reliability.


This was a great test that SouthernYankee tried and posted about it here:

I did a WIFI test a while back with multiple 2MP cameras each camera was set to VBR, 15 FPS, 15 Iframe, 3072kbs, h.264. Using a WIFI analyzer I selected the least busy channel (1,6,11) on the 2.4 GHZ band and set up a separate access point. With 3 cameras in direct line of sight of the AP about 25 feet away I was able to maintain a reasonable stable network with only intermittent signal drops from the cameras. Added a 4th camera and the network became totally unstable. Also add a lot of motion to the 3 cameras caused some more network instability. More data more instability.
The cameras are nearly continuously transmitting. So any lost packet causes a retry, which cause more traffic, which causes more lost packets.
WIFI does not have a flow control, or a token to transmit. So your devices transmit any time they want, more devices more collisions.
As a side note, it is very easy to jam a WIFI network. WIFI is fine for watching the bird feed but not for home surveillance and security.
The problem is like standing in a room, with multiple people talking to you at the same time about different subjects. You need to answer each person or they repeat the question.

Test do not guess.

For a 802.11G 2.4 GHZ WIFI network the Theoretical Speed is 54Mbps (6.7MBs) real word speed is nearer to 10-29Mbps (1.25-3.6 MBs) for a single channel


And @TonyR recommends this (which is the preferred way IF you want to do wifi)

The only way I'd have wireless cams is the way I have them now: a dedicated 802.11n, 2.4GHz Access Point for 3 cams, nothing else uses that AP. Its assigned channel is at the max separation from another 2.4GHz channel in the house. There is no other house near me for about 300 yards and we're separated by dense foliage and trees.

Those 3 cams are indoor, non-critical pet cams (Amcrest IP2M-841's) streaming to Blue Iris and are adequately reliable for their jobs. They take their turns losing signal/reconnecting usually about every 12 hours or so for about 20 seconds which I would not tolerate for an outdoor surveillance cam pointed at my house and/or property.

But for me, this works in my situation: dedicated AP, non-critical application and periodic, short-term video loss.... if any one of those 3 conditions can't be achieved or tolerated, then I also do not recommend using wireless cams. :cool:
Thank a lot for spending time for an excellent explanation.
Coincidently I have also dedicated 2.4 channel for 4 wifi cams with 128gb sd card - I have not setup blueiris yet.
But since they have an sd card - I dont care if they loose signal sometimes...(I.e. it only record/store video or image when there is motion so its not continuous and I dont need continuous record)

But I am also buying 2 POE camera (agreeing with all of you that I need buy better POE camera)
(so total I will have 6 cameras- 2 wifi out of 4 will be indoor and 2 wifi outdoor and 2 poe outdoor

Just a question for knowledge - lets assume I bought the camera which requires only a POE power i.e. 14.5 Watts but if I connect POE+ NVR or POE+ switch to power that camera - will that camera be damaged because
I am giving double the watts than it needs? or POE switch or POE nvr will automatically sense the watts need and will provide lower watts automatically so no damage to those lower watts/volts cams?

I also want to know instead of POE switch can I buy POE NVR - if so I can totally avoid need of POE switch or I will miss something and I must have POE switch ?
I have a small home - so I dont need very high end cams or devices. (again I am not buying the cheap one I mentioned above either)
 

wittaj

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The switch or NVR will auto-negotiate the power needed, if any. Just like you can plug a computer into one of those ports and zero power will be sent to it as the laptop ethernet doesn't need power.

How do you plan to power the outdoor wifi cams? A powerline adapter that runs the data thru the existing electric is a much better choice than wifi, especially for a PTZ!
 

curiousv

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I'm just wondering why he needs a 5-125mm zoom?

Apart from it sounds too good to be true, if not needed, would be far better off with a varifocal 5442 he can set and fix to the optimum distance for what he needs to protect. Cost will be double the cheap zoom camera, but at least he'll have quality day and night and he might even manage colour night vision if he buys one of the newer variants with a wider aperture zoom and improved sensor. Either way, we all know 5442 has excellent IR at night for BW on the non colour night variants.
I did not even think of zoom capacity. I only searched for ONVIF /POE /PTZ /optical zoom /auto tracking /sd card /email alert / 2 way audio and this cam passed all my checkmarks so...
 

curiousv

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The switch or NVR will auto-negotiate the power needed, if any. Just like you can plug a computer into one of those ports and zero power will be sent to it as the laptop ethernet doesn't need power.

How do you plan to power the outdoor wifi cams? A powerline adapter that runs the data thru the existing electric is a much better choice than wifi, especially for a PTZ!
Those 2 outdoor cameras are close to power source so not at all difficult to power them via regular 12v adapter but I understand I can use the same power outlet for powerline adapter
may be I should upgrade to POE powerline adapter so I don't have to provide power via 12v adapter (I understand those wifi cams should also have inbuilt POE otherwise POE powerline adapter is of no use)
 
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