Long Range POE Camera Solutions for a rural application

S

SuperChimp

n3wb
Jan 4, 2020
7
4
USA
Hi All-
I live in a rural area and unfortunately have a problem neighbor. My neighbors and I have caught this individual and his family trespassing on their/our properties before. We currently use trail cameras to monitor our properties and this individual has been arrested in the past for trespassing and damaging property.

Unfortunately he can and has removed the trail cameras before and we don't like replacing batteries. We'd like to implement a more permanent and instantaneous solution to control these issues where we can receive immediate alerts when he intrudes and summon law enforcement as needed. The idea we're interested in is running some sort of power and ethernet line underground across and around our properties and daisy-chaining cameras together. We'd like to be able to view a screen with a lot of different cameras, potentially hundreds of feet apart, fed by a single power source. My neighbors and I would share monitoring of this system through a common dashboard that I'd make accessible through our phones.

Are there any products or systems that would allow this?

If that's not possible, any suggestions for installing a POE camera 1000 ft away from a power injector?

Thanks!
 
You'd have to run fiber and need power if you need something 1000ft away from your "house" or wherever you intend on viewing them from. Ethernet via Cat5e/6 only extends 100m.

So if you can trench power you could also trench fiber.
 
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Dahua ePoE extends out to 600 feet, I believe but check the specs. Either fiber or a dedicated RF link like a Ubiquity Nano Station Loco would work as well. The Loco can handle multiple cameras with no problem and is not WiFi but dedicated link system. You would need power and a PoE switch at the far end, though.
 
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biggen said:
You'd have to run fiber and need power if you need something 1000ft away from your "house" or wherever you intend on viewing them from. Ethernet via Cat5e/6 only extends 100m.

So if you can trench power you could also trench fiber.
Click to expand...

We'd be basing this all from a pole barn we have located central to the affected properties. Building already has power/data.

Got it, so, if I understand we would need to run a trench with fiber and power for the distance of the long runs and somehow emerge from our trench, power the camera, provide data from the fiber optic line, and then continue the fiber line from there...right?
 
You could also use something like this: Ubiquiti | Simplifying IT

But you will need some pretty good networking "know how" to accomplish this because you also need a base stations antenna at the other end.

SuperChimp said:
We'd be basing this all from a pole barn we have located central to the affected properties. Building already has power/data.

Got it, so, if I understand we would need to run a trench with fiber and power for the distance of the long runs and somehow emerge from our trench, power the camera, provide data from the fiber optic line, and then continue the fiber line from there...right?
Click to expand...

I don't know how far the cameras need to be apart. Lets say you have a single long run of 1000' but all other locations are within 300 feet of the long run. You'd trench the long run with fiber and power, install a NEMA enclosure at that location, put a POE switch inside the enclosure, and then feed the other camera locations from the enclosure via the switch. The fiber is the backbone for the long run while the smaller runs use Cat6 and PoE to power those cameras.

The problem is if he is stealing trail cameras, he will probably destroy a nice looking NEMA enclousure hanging off a pole unless it is way up high.
 
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sebastiantombs said:
Dahua ePoE extends out to 600 feet, I believe but check the specs. Either fiber or a dedicated RF link like a Ubiquity Nano Station Loco would work as well. The Loco can handle multiple cameras with no problem and is not WiFi but dedicated link system. You would need power and a PoE switch at the far end, though.
Click to expand...

Wow, Dahua ePoE that might be perfect for us actually. We'd need to run multiple cat5 lines (I think we'd use that in this application) in a trench, but we could definitely do that. Maybe mount a NEMA enclosure discretely on a post somewhere to feed the cameras. Thanks
 
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sebastiantombs said:
Dahua ePoE extends out to 600 feet, I believe but check the specs. Either fiber or a dedicated RF link like a Ubiquity Nano Station Loco would work as well. The Loco can handle multiple cameras with no problem and is not WiFi but dedicated link system. You would need power and a PoE switch at the far end, though.
Click to expand...

Thats pretty cool they have that. I didn't even know that was a thing!
 
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biggen said:
You could also use something like this: Ubiquiti | Simplifying IT

But you will need some pretty good networking "know how" to accomplish this because you also need a base stations antenna at the other end.

I don't know how far the cameras need to be apart. Lets say you have a single long run of 1000' but all other locations are within 300 feet of the long run. You'd trench the long run with fiber and power, install a NEMA enclosure at that location, put a POE switch inside the enclosure, and then feed the other camera locations from the enclosure via the switch. The fiber is the backbone for the long run while the smaller runs use Cat6 and PoE to power those cameras.

The problem is if he is stealing trail cameras, he will probably destroy a nice looking NEMA enclousure hanging off a pole unless it is way up high.
Click to expand...

All great points, I wasn't familiar with the Ubiquiti Solar product, but I will look into that. Yes, the plan is that the camera could capture the individual damaging it before it is damaged. Then of course the video could be provided to law enforcement.
 
I install cameras for people in rural areas. They've pretty much covered the options here. I use Ubiquiti Nanostation and Nanobeams often to get out to remote buildings as needed, usually alot easier than trenching, and have been very reliable. My longest link is about a mile and it has been rock solid.

I don't know where you are, but Andy sells a POE Switch that is rated for -40C operation, I use them frequently when installed in unheated locations. They still need to be protected from the elements of course, but you don't have to worry about temperature. In my experience though, as long as everything is already running before it gets really cold, things can usually handle much lower temperatures than they are rated for.

My typical install is Nanostation @ House -> Remote Nanostation -> To POE Switch -> To Cameras.

The other option is something like a Vosker Cellular Camera. They are basically trail cameras that upload pictures to their cloud service. They are battery or solar powered. They are not nearly as good as a dedicated Dahua Security Camera, so if you are able to get everything in place to use a Dahua camera,do that. Sometimes though you can't and the Vosker is an alternative.

You may also want to look into Dakota Alert, they sell different motion/break beam/vehicle sensing alerts, with dry contacts out. You can use them to tie into your camera to alert/flag when it detects someone crossing an area. You could have a PTZ camera tied into a Dakota alert system, have the camera watch one area, when the Dakota Alert goes off have the PTZ move over to that location. I know dedicated cameras are best, but keep in mind alot of people here are dealing with urban areas, not rural. Some yards I'm trying to cover are 10+ Acres and you would go broke putting fixed cameras everywhere. Not to mention sometimes you need to monitor something a couple hundred feet away from where you can realistically install the camera, and a 25x or more PTZ is the best solution.
 
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Yes epoe would work, when running copper between buildings you need to be mindful of lightning protection, as well as ground loop issues. If both buildings don't have a common ground, they could be at different potentials and cause your network equipment to act as a ground, which would fry it.

There are ways to mitigate that with copper, but wireless or fiber lines work much better.

I personally rarely trench wire to reach remote cameras for a multitude of reasons. Nanostations do the job and in some ways are better than running copper wire.

Also with epoe you'd have to run those cables back to the house for each camera. You'd be better off trenching one wire and switching at the remote location instead. I've never tried using epoe between switches, not sure how it would work. Maybe someone with experience could say.
 
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cd36 said:
Also with epoe you'd have to run those cables back to the house for each camera.
Click to expand...
Dahua makes an epoe switch. That could go in the pole barn with the camera runs going to it.
 
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tigerwillow1 said:
Dahua makes an epoe switch. That could go in the pole barn with the camera runs going to it.
Click to expand...

That is good to know thanks. I don't believe any of the switches I have ever used are epoe but maybe I should double check!

Edit: neither the pfs 3110 (low temp) or 3010 are epoe, those are the only 2 I have used. I'll have to look into the epoe one, thanks.
 
So the uplink port is not epoe, you'd have to use one of the 4 switch ports for your uplink as well, effectively becoming a 3 port switch.

What about using a set of lr1002 cat5 to coax epoe adapters between a couple of normal switches, anyone ever try that?
 
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