Camera setup

Joined
Dec 22, 2023
Messages
3
Reaction score
1
Location
England
I require a camera for monitoring front and back door. I picked up one of these . It works but framerate is pretty bad. going from 4-15 fps. Not sure if it's at 2ghz or 5ghz. The App eats up my phone battery also.

The concern I have is the video is on the camera itself, so if the camera is smashed then the microsd card will be also.

I have a Synology NAS DS418.

Also pain with electrical wiring, USB power etc, so need to make sure mains strip is powered on, limited number of sockets . Are solar cameras workable, charging internal battery or do they still need USB power?

Any ideas what to go for? Can't afford cloud storage

I have Android phone.

On the back door I have a mains light, so could replace the bulb with a screw in camera type
 

Attachments

wittaj

IPCT Contributor
Joined
Apr 28, 2019
Messages
25,143
Reaction score
49,012
Location
USA
Wifi and cameras do not go together. Only use them for pet or kid watching.

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:
 
Joined
Dec 22, 2023
Messages
3
Reaction score
1
Location
England
So kit like this be considered?

 

Webfont

Pulling my weight
Joined
Sep 6, 2018
Messages
138
Reaction score
179
Location
Canada
So kit like this be considered?

That's an analog kit, not IP. Don't touch that.

If you're going to run cables, run cat5 ethernet and use a proper POE switch. Save some cash and get a used Cisco POE+ switch, SG300 series or 2960C for example. Look at classifieds or ebay.
Pickup this camera to start with; EmpireTech Refurbished IPC-T2231T-ZS 2MP IR Vari-focal Eyeball Network <- this is our recommended vendor
And this cam is a good little 2MP 1/2.8" varifocal, so good night image and you can 'zoom' to obtain the right pixels per foot PPF values to either detect/observe/identify
Buy a license of blueiris , and use some old computer you have as your NVR that saves to your NAS.

If none of the above makes sense, start by reading this: IP Cam Talk Cliff Notes :)

There's a bit of a learning curve to get your system going, so do it right and spend a few days gathering info before purchasing your next item.
 
Joined
Dec 22, 2023
Messages
3
Reaction score
1
Location
England
Can't afford a pro setup.

Amy recommendations for stable WiFi camera?

Got a HD IOT v99 and it's a bit unreliable and crap frame rate.

Tp link products seem ok ant of theirs ok?
 
Top