Thanks, I'm another old guy that doesn't know much about this and some of the things you guys say are way above my head. LOL
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- Thread starter Vick H
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Welcome to IPCT! 
Another "old guy" here that claims to know a tiny, tiny bit about many things but very little about any one thing.
Put all the members here together and we can usually come up with a good solution and a viable answer.
P.S. - your location is stated as "la"; is that Louisiana or Los Angeles? Hopefully you're not in "la la land" like some?
EDIT: never mind! I see that's a capital "I" now so you're in Iowa. That's why in electronics connector pins and card edge connectors I was around never used "I" (eye) and "O" (oh). Some I was around the most used only 22 of the 26 letters of the English alphabet (also no "Q" or ????....can't remember, it's been too long).
Another "old guy" here that claims to know a tiny, tiny bit about many things but very little about any one thing.
Put all the members here together and we can usually come up with a good solution and a viable answer.
P.S. - your location is stated as "la"; is that Louisiana or Los Angeles? Hopefully you're not in "la la land" like some?
EDIT: never mind! I see that's a capital "I" now so you're in Iowa. That's why in electronics connector pins and card edge connectors I was around never used "I" (eye) and "O" (oh). Some I was around the most used only 22 of the 26 letters of the English alphabet (also no "Q" or ????....can't remember, it's been too long).
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IowaWelcome to IPCT!
Another "old guy" here that claims to know a tiny, tiny bit about many things but very little about any one thing.
Put all the members here together and we can usually come up with a good solution and a viable answer.
P.S. - your location is stated as "la"; is that Louisiana or Los Angeles? Hopefully you're not in "la la land" like some?
sebastiantombs
Known around here
Don't be sorry about Iowa, nice State!
If you get stuck with nomenclature, just ask. You may get a wise a$$ed answer, but will get a real answer too.
Can i ask about a Zumimal camera here?
Don't be sorry about Iowa, nice State!
If you get stuck with nomenclature, just ask. You may get a wise a$$ed answer, but will get a real answer too.
sebastiantombs
Known around here
Sure you can ask. Never heard of it and it sounds kind of "consumer grade", IE not very good, to me.
A quick duckduck search shows a line of WiFi, battery powered, cameras. Most of us, well probably all of us, will never recommend WiFi cameras other than MAYBE a doorbell. Battery powered, unless it's a real solar array with charger regulator and sufficient battery to handle a few days at a reasonable load, are not very reliable either.
Unfortunately, you're looking for a Unicorn. Dependable surveillance, contrary to what Hollywood and some manufacturers say requires a wired camera and a means to detect motion and to record video. Motion activated cameras miss anything that happened prior to them detecting motion and the time it takes the camera to boot up. Additionally, they are using sensors that are not efficient at gathering light at night which is when we want them to work well. Sure, you may see a nice, clear, still shot but motion will be blurred and the video will be useless.
Doorbells are a very special case. They are powered, normally, by the doorbell transformer which makes them more reliable. To put it in perspective I have a WIFi doorbell, transformer powered. It drops offline several times a day in spite of the fact that there's a wireless access point not more than four feet from it on the inside of the wall. Our WiFi supports a whole two laptops and that camera. Get more than two cameras on the same WiFi network and all bets are off because of signal saturation from multiple sources, cameras, and the bandwidth limitations of ISP style WiFi routers.
Solar powered cameras are very difficult. A quality camera draws about 7 watts. The wireless connect, a dedicated RF link and not WiFi, draws another 5 watts or so. Say a total of 15 watts for some headroom. 15 watts for 24 hours equals 360 watt hours. Allow for three days of power and we're at a total of 1180 watt hours. That means a battery system of 1200 watt hours and a charger system of 1200 watt hours to charge it up. The price is rather high to say the least.
Start with one wired camera. It can be viewed using the GUI of the camera on your computer and can record either to an SD card in the camera or to your computer, if left running 24/7, using any of many free programs. A program like that is usually available, for free, from any of the decent manufacturers. In short stick to Dahua or Hikvision cameras for a good price performance ratio.
One caution....Surveillance cameras are a rabbit hole. I started with two. See my signature line now.
A quick duckduck search shows a line of WiFi, battery powered, cameras. Most of us, well probably all of us, will never recommend WiFi cameras other than MAYBE a doorbell. Battery powered, unless it's a real solar array with charger regulator and sufficient battery to handle a few days at a reasonable load, are not very reliable either.
Unfortunately, you're looking for a Unicorn. Dependable surveillance, contrary to what Hollywood and some manufacturers say requires a wired camera and a means to detect motion and to record video. Motion activated cameras miss anything that happened prior to them detecting motion and the time it takes the camera to boot up. Additionally, they are using sensors that are not efficient at gathering light at night which is when we want them to work well. Sure, you may see a nice, clear, still shot but motion will be blurred and the video will be useless.
Doorbells are a very special case. They are powered, normally, by the doorbell transformer which makes them more reliable. To put it in perspective I have a WIFi doorbell, transformer powered. It drops offline several times a day in spite of the fact that there's a wireless access point not more than four feet from it on the inside of the wall. Our WiFi supports a whole two laptops and that camera. Get more than two cameras on the same WiFi network and all bets are off because of signal saturation from multiple sources, cameras, and the bandwidth limitations of ISP style WiFi routers.
Solar powered cameras are very difficult. A quality camera draws about 7 watts. The wireless connect, a dedicated RF link and not WiFi, draws another 5 watts or so. Say a total of 15 watts for some headroom. 15 watts for 24 hours equals 360 watt hours. Allow for three days of power and we're at a total of 1180 watt hours. That means a battery system of 1200 watt hours and a charger system of 1200 watt hours to charge it up. The price is rather high to say the least.
Start with one wired camera. It can be viewed using the GUI of the camera on your computer and can record either to an SD card in the camera or to your computer, if left running 24/7, using any of many free programs. A program like that is usually available, for free, from any of the decent manufacturers. In short stick to Dahua or Hikvision cameras for a good price performance ratio.
One caution....Surveillance cameras are a rabbit hole. I started with two. See my signature line now.
I already bought the zumimall cameras and I posted about my problem with I think I got two SD cards in each one but I can't get the first card out or even see them in the camera and then I posted it twice and don't know how to take one post off LOL