I'm looking to to put a wireless wifi camera on the end of my barn it's 300 ft from my house, with full clear of sight view. My question, is it possible to go all wireless from my barn to the house to a plug and play hikvision Nvr that i already have setup a hard wired camera that's on my house. My other Question is what would all needed to do this, besides the the wifi camera. could i put hard wired box to my nvr on the outside of the house to communicate to the camera and what would it be.
Hi My name Brian I'm new to ipcamtalk, and new posting on the net, I'm a retired 64 year old farmer wanting to learn setting up wireless Wi-Fi cameras
- Thread starter bkhick
- Start date
Assuming there's power available at the barn I'd go with with either a pair of Ubiquiti Nanostation 5AC Locos or a pair of TP-LINK CPE-510's.
Unlike a link between Wi-Fi devices, repeaters, etc. the radios I linked both use proprietary protocol, channel widths and more to provide fast, reliable connections between the 2 devices, creating a wireless transparent bridge much like a straight Ethernet cable as far as data is concerned.
You configure them with unique, static IP's in the same subnet as the cameras and your LAN (but outside of your router's DHCP pool); no port forwarding required OR advised.
If you have a POE NVR you would not connect the cams to the NVR's POE ports (the NVR places those POE cameras on a special private subnet to isolate them from the Internet) but instead configure them with static IP's in the same subnet as the NVR's LAN. You would connect those cams to either a POE switch, POE injector or in some cases, using the cam's 12VDC power jack...it depends on the cam's physical location.
NOTE 7/7/24 @ 0731 CDT: The above drawing is using "M" devices; the configuration of "AC" devices is somewhat different and is pointed out in the linked "transparent bridge" instructions.
Unlike a link between Wi-Fi devices, repeaters, etc. the radios I linked both use proprietary protocol, channel widths and more to provide fast, reliable connections between the 2 devices, creating a wireless transparent bridge much like a straight Ethernet cable as far as data is concerned.
You configure them with unique, static IP's in the same subnet as the cameras and your LAN (but outside of your router's DHCP pool); no port forwarding required OR advised.
If you have a POE NVR you would not connect the cams to the NVR's POE ports (the NVR places those POE cameras on a special private subnet to isolate them from the Internet) but instead configure them with static IP's in the same subnet as the NVR's LAN. You would connect those cams to either a POE switch, POE injector or in some cases, using the cam's 12VDC power jack...it depends on the cam's physical location.
NOTE 7/7/24 @ 0731 CDT: The above drawing is using "M" devices; the configuration of "AC" devices is somewhat different and is pointed out in the linked "transparent bridge" instructions.
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So how would it work if i didn't have power to the barn, and also i was thinking putting the camera on the other side of the barn on a pole barn that's between the house and the barn would that work, could i put a repeater on top of the barn to commutate to house and pole barn camera.
The schmea I cited in my above post requires power for the remote cam and for the Ubiquiti radio that's hardwired to it.
NVRs expect a camera to be on and streaming video all the time, but a typical battery powered camera can't do that. Battery powered wifi cams are designed to be in a very low-power state most of the time, using something like a passive infrared motion detector to wake the camera when it senses movement, record a clip and push it to the cloud as fast as possible and then go back to sleep. While this might be good enough for you, you'd still want a directional wifi antenna on the house pointing out at the camera with clear line of sight so it would have a more solid wifi connection. I would use one of these:
Those are from the old 802.11n series so they are not blazing fast but these older "m2" and "m5" models are compatible with standard wifi devices so you could just put one of those into "access point" mode, on the outside of the house facing in the general direction of the barn, and have a particularly good long range wifi network as long as things remain in line of sight.
If you want something that can stream and/or record continuously, you'll need power at the barn. Running utility power can be expensive to do properly and by the book, and also local governments like to have buried power cables properly permitted, inspected, documented, and mapped so they can be known before future digging projects which adds a bunch of red tape to the process. If you don't want to deal with all that right now you could probably get by with a plug-and-play solar and battery kit like this one EcoFlow Solar Power Station DELTA 2 Max 2048Wh + 400W Solar Panel Kit Refurbishe | eBay and that would let you run a camera or two along with an ubiquiti or tp-link directional radio to link to the house. A 2048 watt hour battery like that should be able to run a couple cameras and an ubiquiti radio for several days without good sunlight to recharge the battery.
- 2.4 GHz:
- 5 GHz:
Those are from the old 802.11n series so they are not blazing fast but these older "m2" and "m5" models are compatible with standard wifi devices so you could just put one of those into "access point" mode, on the outside of the house facing in the general direction of the barn, and have a particularly good long range wifi network as long as things remain in line of sight.
If you want something that can stream and/or record continuously, you'll need power at the barn. Running utility power can be expensive to do properly and by the book, and also local governments like to have buried power cables properly permitted, inspected, documented, and mapped so they can be known before future digging projects which adds a bunch of red tape to the process. If you don't want to deal with all that right now you could probably get by with a plug-and-play solar and battery kit like this one EcoFlow Solar Power Station DELTA 2 Max 2048Wh + 400W Solar Panel Kit Refurbishe | eBay and that would let you run a camera or two along with an ubiquiti or tp-link directional radio to link to the house. A 2048 watt hour battery like that should be able to run a couple cameras and an ubiquiti radio for several days without good sunlight to recharge the battery.
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...and turn off Airmax and WDS and set channel width to 20MHz.
A lot of people find it far easier to run Power over ethernet cables to the cameras rather than use WIFI and electrical. You can run one ethernet cable to the barn and run maybe 4 cameras.
That's a lot of under ground cat 5 ethernet wire to run, and would that be very expensive. By the way how deep would you have to bury the cable. By the way i do have power at the barn, i was just looking for the easiest and the cheapest way.
If you use good Ole wifi, you are better off with nothing. The drop outs will be numerous and will likely alow your whole network down. Unlike Netflix and other streaming services, these cameras do not buffer video, so it needs a strong and solid connection.
With power, the nanostation mentioned above is the preferred choice.
You could also try a powerline adapter that runs data over the existing electric wires - way more stable than wifi for cams. But you would have to test it first because it is dependent on the internal electric grid of the property.
With power, the nanostation mentioned above is the preferred choice.
You could also try a powerline adapter that runs data over the existing electric wires - way more stable than wifi for cams. But you would have to test it first because it is dependent on the internal electric grid of the property.
"cat5" is a very old standard which you actually don't want anymore. "cat5e" is the modern minimum. A 1000 foot box of this cable typically costs about $100 to $200 USD and you can find it rated for outdoor and direct burial. Avoid the "CCA" or "Copper clad aluminum" variety even though it can be cheaper. Solid copper is better.
"PoE" (power over ethernet) is low voltage and isn't going to hurt anyone if it is accidentally cut, so I think nobody really cares how deep you bury it (or if you even bury it at all). You get to decide if you're going to bury it, how deep, and what kind of conduit you want to use (if any).
When I ran cat5e out to some planters in my front yard, I just tucked it out of sight under the coarse gravel landscaping rocks and called it a day. Didn't even need a shovel. Of course I wouldn't want to do that for a 300 foot span.
Since you have power at the barn, forget about using wifi cameras or running a long cable. Get PoE cameras instead, and link them back to the house using a directional radio bridge like @TonyR suggested. Do note that both suggested radio options use 24 volt passive PoE. This is NOT COMPATIBLE with standard 802.3af PoE than cameras use. You need special 24v passive PoE injectors for those. The TP-Link radios come with suitable injectors, but the Ubiquiti 5AC radios do not. So if I were you I would probably just buy a pair of the TP-Link 5 GHz kit for $50 per radio ($100 total). You will also need several cat5e cables. Two for each bridge radio (one into PoE injector, one out to radio), one for each camera. Best to cut and crimp the cable yourself if you don't like drilling big holes for prefabricated cables.
Here are a bunch of products to consider.
TP-Link 5 GHz bridge radio (you'd need two of these):
Cheap solid copper cat5e cable (1000ft):
RJ45 connectors, crimping tools:
Cheap PoE switch for cameras:
My favorite overview camera:
ANNKE 6MP POE Security Camera Dual Lens Outdoor Color Night Two-Way Audio FCD600 | eBay
ANNKE 6MP POE Security Camera Dual Lens Outdoor Color Night Two-Way Audio FCD600. Condition is New. Shipped with Standard Shipping.
www.ebay.com
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Easisest?
You could have the wireless transparent bridge installed and working in a day....the CAT-5e, not that quickly if you're burying it.
Cheapest?
Not sure how much lightning you get in that part of NY but no way would I string ANY length of metallic conductor such as CAT-5e between two structures down here in AL, FL, TN, GA, MS and more. The lightning is just way too fierce and I'veseen a lot of damage from ESD after nearby strikes. That can render a "cheap" job not so cheap after the damage is tallied.
looney2ns
IPCT Contributor
I have some direct burial cat 6 that goes to our generator and tree house. I have a wire burial spade and I pushed the wire into the ground maybe 6 - 12 inches or so....