Need camera mounted 100 feet from building.

L

Lakesteve124

n3wb
Sep 16, 2024
12
2
NY
I'm about to work on a project that involves mounting a camera at a lake that will be 100 feet from the power and internet source.

Trenching seems to be the only option.

I guess my main question is what will I need in terms of cable, and specific type of cable and conduit to shield from the weather.

Will will the signal degradation be at 100 feet?

The camera has not been picked out yet, but it should have an ethernet port.

Thank you all,
 
I use solid copper 23AWG cable in PVC conduit. Almost all of my cameras are more than 100' from the POE switch, some pushing 300', with no signal problems. If you choose to run 12 volt power instead of using POE, the power cable must be heavier gauge wire because of the higher current at 12 volts vs. POE voltage.
 
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tigerwillow1 said:
I use solid copper 23AWG cable in PVC conduit. Almost all of my cameras are more than 100' from the POE switch, some pushing 300', with no signal problems. If you choose to run 12 volt power instead of using POE, the power cable must be heavier gauge wire because of the higher current at 12 volts vs. POE voltage.
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I've never used POE. Does this require a special switch or amplification? My other installation is a Foscam wi-fi HT2 mounted to the house with two screws and plugged into the wall, so this is new territory for me.

I guess I should tack on another question - Recommendations on a camera for this? It will be at a sailing club, where members will use the cam to view conditions on the lake. It will need to be year round and will be in upstate NY where temps can go -20 in the worst "polar vortex" conditions that are not very common but do happen.. Needs to be RTSP ready for streaming.
 
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I don't consider a POE switch to be special, they are pretty common and readily available. You can also use a POE injector that goes between the switch and camera to insert power. Personally I prefer to use a POE switch, it's just simpler. The majority of cameras represented on this forum are made by Dahua, and it would be hard to find one that doesn't support POE. You might get a lot of camera recommendations. I throw out that it should be either a turret or bullet camera. My cameras have occasionally seen -20 and never had a problem with it. The kind-of standard camera recommendation is this one
EmpireTech IPC-T54IR-ZE-S3 1/1.8" CMOS 4MP IR Starlight 2.7mm–12mm Vari-Focal Turret Security Camera
or it's equivalent bullet, but with more specific info on your application, there could be a better choice. I'm assuming you're not looking for a recorder, just live streaming.
 
tigerwillow1 said:
I don't consider a POE switch to be special, they are pretty common and readily available. You can also use a POE injector that goes between the switch and camera to insert power. Personally I prefer to use a POE switch, it's just simpler. The majority of cameras represented on this forum are made by Dahua, and it would be hard to find one that doesn't support POE. You might get a lot of camera recommendations. I throw out that it should be either a turret or bullet camera. My cameras have occasionally seen -20 and never had a problem with it. The kind-of standard camera recommendation is this one
EmpireTech IPC-T54IR-ZE-S3 1/1.8" CMOS 4MP IR Starlight 2.7mm–12mm Vari-Focal Turret Security Camera
or it's equivalent bullet, but with more specific info on your application, there could be a better choice. I'm assuming you're not looking for a recorder, just live streaming.
Click to expand...
Thank you! I will look into the POE setup. The camera will be a scenic one as well, local TV already uses my other cam on their weather segments, so it needs to be good quality. The cam will stream on iPcamlive and the player will be embedded into my website with the other cam. I live within 20 minutes of both sites.
 
100ft is not that much to trench and well in range of PoE. I have quite a few kameras at 55m (180ft) away. Including getting into the building my longest cable run is probably more like 65m (213 ft). I run cat6 gel filled ground cable. No problems at all with PoE (except lightning and the fact I'll be adding more cameras on each pole and my PoE switch tops out at 35W per port). So I'll be swapping to fiber, but unless you have similar "special needs" PoE is very nice. A single cable for data and power. I can't imagine a better thing (Well, I guess I can imagine PoF - Power over Fiber, but this is not practical for cameras yet).

Once thing I would say, if there is any chance of future expansion. For example you may need more power for a floodlight, or extra cables I suggest to put in a conduit. My favourite is this:
1751011651540.png
Sold in 50m (164ft) rolls. I guess in your location other stuff may be better, but I like these. If you use a similar bendable tube make sure to do gentle curves to ease future work with it.
 
The only thing I can add to the excellent recommendations above is I would suggest that the CAT cable have a jacket rated for direct burial or flooded burial, as eventually the conduit low spots will have standing water in it. This generally happens when at least one end is out of the ground and the occurrence of what I call "thermal differential cycling"......the ground and the conduit heat up during the day and when they cool off at night damp air is drawn in which condenses into water and it never leaves and the cycle continues like clock work.....the low spots collect the water.

The PVC or PE jacket on indoor CAT cable with a CMR (Riser) or CMP (Plenum) jacket is not permeated by water but being thinner it is subject to slits and cuts that can be caused by tiny rocks, sand or debris in the conduit when the cable is pulled in. The thicker, stiffer jacket of a cable rated for direct or flooded burial is usually HDPE and will resist such slits and cuts.

Just my two cents. :cool:
 
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