Compact indoor wall camera powered from lighting circuit?

I

itm

Getting the hang of it
May 1, 2017
197
44
Greater London, UK
I have an internal lighting circuit which I'd like to use for a small BI-compatible wide angle camera. Virtually all indoor cams seem to be DC-powered (with an adapter).
Does anyone know of a BI-compatible camera which can be wired into a lighting circuit?stair lamp socket.png
 
Would the camera not get turned off with the light at the switch?

What about some sort of wifi light bulb camera, not sure if such a thing actually exists or would work with BI?
 
Bruce_H said:
Would the camera not get turned off with the light at the switch?

What about some sort of wifi light bulb camera, not sure if such a thing actually exists or would work with BI?
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Yes that's the best option but I've had 2 or 3 of these (including the one in the photo) - none has lasted more than a couple of years, so I figured it was time to give up and find something more robust.
 
If you’re already running BI, why not just run a POE cable right to that location so you don’t have any limitations on what cameras you can use at all?
 
MTL4 said:
If you’re already running BI, why not just run a POE cable right to that location so you don’t have any limitations on what cameras you can use at all?
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It's a very awkward location for an ethernet cable run (in the middle of the house). When power is already accessible at the site a mains-powered wifi solution seems more logical.
 
What about a powerline adapter that runs the data over your existing electric wires - way more stable than wifi and then opens you up to better quality POE cameras.
 
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Just get a light socket adapter. And then plug in whatever wifi camera you want. are passable for cheap indoor cams and they do support RTSP streaming to Blue Iris and you can even block their IP addresses from having internet access and they will still work (just not via the TP-Link app anymore).
 
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itm said:
Sorry I should have said - I'm in the UK. I haven't found anything like that for UK light sockets.
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If it’s too hard to run ethernet then I would try to get some way to simplify things. Seems like dealing with the light is a headache so I would just convert to an outlet then use this to get your data over to the BI PC. Then again you can use either wifi or hardwired, whatever you prefer.

 
MTL4 said:
If it’s too hard to run ethernet then I would try to get some way to simplify things. Seems like dealing with the light is a headache so I would just convert to an outlet then use this to get your data over to the BI PC. Then again you can use either wifi or hardwired, whatever you prefer.

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Not sure powerline ethernet would work, as the power at the site is a lighting circuit which is different to the circuit that the power sockets in the house are on.
Converting the lighting circuit to a standard 3-pin power socket is looking like the most feasible solution at the moment, though. That would at least allow me to choose from a much wider range of cameras.
 
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