Need help with powering the Reolink RLC-811A

[thatcalifire]

Hello,
I am interested in powering four maybe five Reolink cameras over Poe+. RLC-811A | 4K Ultra HD Spotlight PoE Security Camera

I have found a Poe extender that's hardened which would live in the attic from Intellinet here PoE-Powered 8-Port GbE PoE+ Industrial Switch w/ PoE Passthrough. Which I would power with a Poe injector here Intellinet Gigabit PoE++ Injector (561495) which should provide 95w to the extender. The injector will hook into my core switch and relay the video from the cameras to my NAS.

I'm confused because the spec sheets on the cameras say it supports (PoE IEEE 802.3af, 48V active), and this Poe+ extender definitely supports IEEE 802.3af, but it has a power budget of 120w, which i don't think is enough to even power on the camera on a given port since it's an active Poe device and not a passive one.

the other reason I would like to have a Poe extender is so that I may run the Poe injector off of my UPS power supply in the data closet out of the heat of the attic so that it will remain on and mostly uninterrupted with brownouts and power outages.

thoughts on all of this?

thanks in advance!

 

[TonyR]

If I understand correctly, this is your plan:

IEEE 802.3bt/at/af compliant, 95w POE injector => IEEE 802.3at/af compliant, 120w POE-powered POE switch => IEEE 802.3af compliant, Reolink POE cam​

If so, and the devices are indeed compliant with the POE specs as stated by the manufacturers, then I don't see a problem.

 

[wittaj]

If I understand correctly, this is your plan:

IEEE 802.3bt/at/af compliant, 95w POE injector => IEEE 802.3at/af compliant, 120w POE-powered POE switch => IEEE 802.3af compliant, Reolink POE cam​

If so, and the devices are indeed compliant with the POE specs as stated by the manufacturers, then I don't see a problem.

At least with the powering of the cams....

 

[TonyR]

At least with the powering of the cams....

Yes, after powering up we may have some other things to sort out....

 

[Perimeter]

four maybe five Reolink cameras over Poe+

Sound as if you have not yet bought them?

 

[thatcalifire]

Sound as if you have not yet bought them?

Precisely lol doing research before pulling any triggers on buying. But want something that is offline no subscription and capable of spotlight with a POE requirement. After initially posting this thread I did find the spec sheet buried on the product page for the camera here

https://home-cdn.reolink.us/files/docs/specs/RLC-811A-IP-Camera-Specifications.pdf?v=1686729594489

and it's a 12w draw well within the max power for each port on the proposed hardened extender I linked above from Intellinet.

If I understand correctly, this is your plan:



IEEE 802.3bt/at/af compliant, 95w POE injector => IEEE 802.3at/af compliant, 120w POE-powered POE switch => IEEE 802.3af compliant, Reolink POE cam



If so, and the devices are indeed compliant with the POE specs as stated by the manufacturers, then I don't see a problem.

Yep you nailed it

At least with the powering of the cams....

I'm interested in knowing where if any dragons you might anticipate being ahead haha

Yes, after powering up we may have some other things to sort out....

Tony do you see other issues? If so can we air them out here lol. I'm well under 100m for each run, and am thinking of finding a way to ground out the extender somehow if the injector doesn't give that to me for the 3 prong AC connection in the data closet with the UPS power supply. Thanks for the responses all of you!

 

[wittaj]

Since you haven't bought Reolink yet....

Stay away from Reolink unless all you care about is what time something happened. Their night time performance is horrible.

In most instances, you want to get a camera that will perform at your location for the worse situation, which for most of us is at night when it is dark and there is little to no light. If a camera performs at night, it is easier to tweak settings to make it work during the day than it is the other way around.

Did I mention avoid Reolink, especially at night they are horrible. Look at these examples.

What you mean a missing hand isn't normal LOL (plus look at the blur on the face and he is barely moving and this should be ideal indoor IR bounce and it struggles):

How about missing everything but the head and upper torso

The invisible man, where can he be. Thank goodness he is carrying around a reflective plate to see where he is LOL (hint - the person is literally in the middle of the image at the end of the fence)

I've seen better images on an episode of ghost hunters

And of course, this is an example from Reolink's marketing videos - do you see a person in this picture...yes, there is a person in this picture.... Could this provide anything useful for the police other than the date and time something happened? Would this protect your home? The still picture looks great though except for the person and the blur of the vehicle... Will give you a hint - the person is in between the two visible columns:

Bad Boys
Bad Boys
Watcha gonna do
Watcha gonna do
When the cameras can't see you


Here is the unofficial Reolink page where people have provided their best nighttime image captures. As you will see, they are basically useless.

Reolink: Deconstruction of a dangerous misleading youtube review "Finding the BEST 4K Security Camera NVR Package (Reolink vs Amcrest vs Swann)"

Executive Summary: DO NOT be a sheep. Ask what a reviewer can be missing, ask if a reviewer is using hype words to sell the cheapest product. Test your cameras and kits right away. Just do a bench test. Test real world conditions. Test moving suspects. Test at night, test at day. Use a test rig...

ipcamtalk.com

Also the spot lights on the cameras are gimmicky. They turn on and wash the image just long enough to miss a clean capture. Either have lights on all night or use infrared.

Here is usually what happens when a motion activated floodlight comes on - it just about completely blinds the camera right at the moment of optimal opportunity to get the picture. There are 3 deer in this picture and two of them are lost in the blinded white while the camera's exposure adjusts to the rapid change in available light:

Take a look at this thread that mentions the most commonly recommended cameras based on distance to IDENTIFY. These represent the best overall cameras in terms of price, performance day and night, and reliability. In some instance 2MP is more than enough. These cameras can all be isolated from the internet and do not need a subscription.




The Importance of Focal Length over MP in camera selection


These are also some good threads:

"I want 2.8mm cameras everywhere to see everything..." - This is why you need specific FOVs with purposeful focal lengths.

Why I Like Redundant Views/Multiple Cam Views

 

[thatcalifire]

Since you haven't bought Reolink yet....

Stay away from Reolink unless all you care about is what time something happened. Their night time performance is horrible.

In most instances, you want to get a camera that will perform at your location for the worse situation, which for most of us is at night when it is dark and there is little to no light. If a camera performs at night, it is easier to tweak settings to make it work during the day than it is the other way around.

Did I mention avoid Reolink, especially at night they are horrible. Look at these examples.

What you mean a missing hand isn't normal LOL (plus look at the blur on the face and he is barely moving and this should be ideal indoor IR bounce and it struggles):

How about missing everything but the head and upper torso

The invisible man, where can he be. Thank goodness he is carrying around a reflective plate to see where he is LOL (hint - the person is literally in the middle of the image at the end of the fence)

I've seen better images on an episode of ghost hunters

And of course, this is an example from Reolink's marketing videos - do you see a person in this picture...yes, there is a person in this picture.... Could this provide anything useful for the police other than the date and time something happened? Would this protect your home? The still picture looks great though except for the person and the blur of the vehicle... Will give you a hint - the person is in between the two visible columns:

Bad Boys
Bad Boys
Watcha gonna do
Watcha gonna do
When the cameras can't see you


Here is the unofficial Reolink page where people have provided their best nighttime image captures. As you will see, they are basically useless.

Reolink: Deconstruction of a dangerous misleading youtube review "Finding the BEST 4K Security Camera NVR Package (Reolink vs Amcrest vs Swann)"

Executive Summary: DO NOT be a sheep. Ask what a reviewer can be missing, ask if a reviewer is using hype words to sell the cheapest product. Test your cameras and kits right away. Just do a bench test. Test real world conditions. Test moving suspects. Test at night, test at day. Use a test rig...

ipcamtalk.com

Also the spot lights on the cameras are gimmicky. They turn on and wash the image just long enough to miss a clean capture. Either have lights on all night or use infrared.

Here is usually what happens when a motion activated floodlight comes on - it just about completely blinds the camera right at the moment of optimal opportunity to get the picture. There are 3 deer in this picture and two of them are lost in the blinded white while the camera's exposure adjusts to the rapid change in available light:

Take a look at this thread that mentions the most commonly recommended cameras based on distance to IDENTIFY. These represent the best overall cameras in terms of price, performance day and night, and reliability. In some instance 2MP is more than enough. These cameras can all be isolated from the internet and do not need a subscription.




The Importance of Focal Length over MP in camera selection


These are also some good threads:

"I want 2.8mm cameras everywhere to see everything..." - This is why you need specific FOVs with purposeful focal lengths.

Why I Like Redundant Views/Multiple Cam Views

Lmao fantastic this is great and thank you for the good laughs, I'll dig in and make a better educated decision hahahah

 

[wittaj]

The next question is how do you plan to record them?

Once you get above 2 or 3 cameras, you will want a VMS system like an NVR or a computer/Blue Iris to manage the system.

If you get an NVR, most come with POE ports on them.

There is a big debate here on which is better. Personally I found the NVRs to be too clunky and not very user friendly and got to the point that I was reactive instead of proactive. I literally tested BI and knew within a few minutes it was better than any NVR I ever had.

Like literally I would go months on end not even looking at the NVR videos because the interface was too clunky and would take forever to pull up any motion from the night before. And ended up turning off the alerts because there were so many false triggers. I would only look at it if I could tell someone messed with something on my property or a neighbor asked me if my cameras caught anything.

With BI, in addition to being able to configure it such that I get notifications whenever someone gets too close to my house, I can literally in less than 30 seconds every morning do a quick review to see if there was any suspicious activity or people walking down the sidewalk at 2am. I could never do it that fast with an NVR.

Here is the search tool of all the NVR versus BI comparisons:

blue iris vs nvr ip cam site:ipcamtalk.com - Google Search


I have had whatever the NVR operating system is running on go out. TWICE. Got to buy a whole new NVR - TWICE

I have had the ethernet port go out on an NVR. Got to buy a whole new NVR.

i had the HDMI port go out on an NVR. Got to buy a whole new NVR.

Most I ever got was 2.5 years. The only working part was the HDD that I simply moved from the old NVR to the new one. I got to the point of realizing that an NVR is simply a stripped down computer, so I went to BI and never looked back. I got tired of buying a whole new unit.

So in my BI Computer, at least if the SSD goes out, I can just replace it. If the ethernet card goes out, I can just replace it. If the HDMI port goes out, I can just replace it. etc.

Personally I gave up on NVRs because I have found them to be clunky and a struggle to review clips and if a component goes out like the internet port, then you are stuck buying a new NVR whereas a computer part goes out and you replace just that component. I went to BI on a dedicated machine and haven't looked back.

Keep in mind an NVR is simply a watered down computer....



You can use the camera AI to trigger events in BI.

An NVR is way less secure on the internet than a BI computer. NVRs are rarely provided with updates to fix vulnerabilities. Your BI computer can get constant antivirus updates or Windows updates if you want to (though most of us disable them and it is still more secure than an NVR).

One of many areas where I think BI does a better job is how it displays the alerts/timeline, and I believe it is still the same as when I last ran SmartPSS and DMSS.

As we can see from this screenshot, it gives a green timeline with lines at various times to show when it triggered. Over to the right is a graphic/text representation of each trigger, but no image of the trigger.

So when I wanted to find or look at something, I needed to click each one until I found what I was looking for.

Wanna know when UPS came by in an NVR....well just start clicking on the timeline triggers till you see the UPS truck. May take awhile depending on the amount of traffic that goes by.

With BI, it gives alert thumbnails, so I can quickly scroll and find UPS way quicker than I ever could with an NVR playback timeline.

Or if you want to be notified when UPS, or FEDEX, or USPS comes by, with BI AI, you can set up an alert just for those vehicles. Good luck doing that with an NVR.

But to me, the thumbnails are invaluable. I can quickly scroll it at night and look for any activity instead of having to click each one and be like "oh that is John coming home" If I recognize the vehicle or person in the image, no need to investigate further.

 

[looney2ns]

Hello,
I am interested in powering four maybe five Reolink cameras over Poe+. RLC-811A | 4K Ultra HD Spotlight PoE Security Camera

I have found a Poe extender that's hardened which would live in the attic from Intellinet here PoE-Powered 8-Port GbE PoE+ Industrial Switch w/ PoE Passthrough. Which I would power with a Poe injector here Intellinet Gigabit PoE++ Injector (561495) which should provide 95w to the extender. The injector will hook into my core switch and relay the video from the cameras to my NAS.

I'm confused because the spec sheets on the cameras say it supports (PoE IEEE 802.3af, 48V active), and this Poe+ extender definitely supports IEEE 802.3af, but it has a power budget of 120w, which i don't think is enough to even power on the camera on a given port since it's an active Poe device and not a passive one.

the other reason I would like to have a Poe extender is so that I may run the Poe injector off of my UPS power supply in the data closet out of the heat of the attic so that it will remain on and mostly uninterrupted with brownouts and power outages.

thoughts on all of this?

thanks in advance!

"Thoughts on all of this?"
Yep, buy much better cams. Reolinks are hot garbage.

 

[thatcalifire]

The next question is how do you plan to record them?

Once you get above 2 or 3 cameras, you will want a VMS system like an NVR or a computer/Blue Iris to manage the system.

If you get an NVR, most come with POE ports on them.

I guess I haven't gotten that far, some back story I just bought a house and in the process of moving out of this rental into that house (the build is complete in Mid-July) we close and get it inspected/final walkthroughs by early August.

So far I've had pretty awesome success with Synology Surveillance Station that lives in my 8-bay DS-1815+ (that also runs on the UPS), but sadly all the features that come with my current cameras particularly with the Amcrest IP4M-1041B "cat cameras" which are offline now are limited, for example, the 2-way talk. But works fine in their Amcrest App haha -- we used this around the house for hours of endless entertainment when were away on trips.

I'm running with 3 poe Hikvision DS-2CD2083G0-I in the above screenshot and they might very well work in the future but after considering designing for the worse situations, specifically around night, they probably aren't up to snuff and I'll keep them in the closet, so I don't think the Hikvisions I have will jive lol.

So because I've been pretty happy with the Synology Surveillance Station I haven't given too much thought to an external NVR but have considered it in the past, particularly around event detection. I have not really put SSS through the paces with regards to AI event detection but it does have this ability. And because I'm using the NAS (with two WD Purple drives) dedicated for video, I've had to consider a POE switch (currently a cisco meraki, that sits in my conditioned house), which will have to change to a hardened switch that can tolerate the extreme temperatures in the attic while relaying video down to the NAS in our data closet under the stairs in our new house ( I lovingly call this the closet to Narnia haha).

Again thanks for the all deeets you know your stuff and it shows

 

[thatcalifire]

"Thoughts on all of this?"
Yep, buy much better cams. Reolinks are hot garbage.

haha I've been saved by IP talk, thank you all for helping me avoid a costly mistake -- I just wish I joined before going in on my current Hikvisions lolol, thank you all

 

[wittaj]

OK, with your SSS that is much better than trying to manage several cameras independently on the manufacturer app! Wasn't sure how much of a NOOB you were since you mentioned Reolinks and how to power them but then no discussion on how to manage them.

Yeah, your 8MP Hikvision cams are on small sensors that would work well for 2MP cams, so night performance will suffer compared to cameras on the ideal MP/sensor size ratio.

You will find two-way talk for ANY IP camera kinda sucks LOL. It is more like walkie-talkie talk. And it will perform better in the native app of the camera, but then that means yet another app LOL.

They might be fine for yapping to the cats LOL, but most find it useless trying to talk to someone at the door or in their yard. I can use it with Blue Iris if needed, but have found it is easier to use the two-way to scream at them to get off my lawn LOL and have it be a one-way conversation LOL.

 

[thatcalifire]

They might be fine for yapping to the cats LOL, but most find it useless trying to talk to someone at the door or in their yard. I can use it with Blue Iris if needed, but have found it is easier to use the two-way to scream at them to get off my lawn LOL and have it be a one-way conversation LOL.

I died hahaha

Non-tangental direction here, but those dang cats are hilarious when we're not around, and when they hear the little PTZ motor kick in when we operated the Amcrest cams hahahah, some of the footage captured was classic. Laser eyes and sniffing noses for days lmaooo

I'll look into perhaps hosting BI on a VM in the nas and see how that plays, or perhaps spinning up a small server to host BI and have it save to the NAS on the network that way -- you've piqued my curiosity

 

[TonyR]

Tony do you see other issues? If so can we air them out here lol.

No, @wittaj pretty much covered the Reolink issue ....glad to hear you hadn't purchased yet.

I'm well under 100m for each run, and am thinking of finding a way to ground out the extender somehow if the injector doesn't give that to me for the 3 prong AC connection in the data closet with the UPS power supply.

Regarding grounding, the injector looks good IMO, has a 3 prong HP receptacle (AC input with ground) and a ground lug on the chassis.
Otherwise, I'd use a properly installed and grounded Ubiquiti ETH-SP Ethernet Surge Protector.

 

[Tic]

Ok now I get the picture why to stay away from Reolink cameras. But that does not explain why to avoid the brand altogether. Their RLA-PS1 POE switches got good reviews on Amazon. Is there a reason to avoid them too? Or, is it just the cameras?

 

[looktall]

Ok now I get the picture why to stay away from Reolink cameras. But that does not explain why to avoid the brand altogether. Their RLA-PS1 POE switches got good reviews on Amazon. Is there a reason to avoid them too? Or, is it just the cameras?

I think it's mainly the cameras and probably the nvrs too.
Having said that, they have a doorbell camera that is quite popular on these forums.

I use one of the poe sensor lights.
No camera, just a sensor light that is poe.
That works perfectly fine.

 

[Tic]

I think it's mainly the cameras and probably the nvrs too.

Yep, just learned about that from another thread.

Still wondering why Toons and others are livid about the brand, not just the cameras.

Back to the switches...these Reolink switches are not proprietary, are they? They will work with other camera brands, right?