I own several acres a few miles away from my house with absolutely zero utilities on site. In the past (pre-Covid), I briefly used 3G trail cams to attempt to keep an eye on it. The people in the neighborhood seem to have a disregard for private property. Those 3G trail cams have gone the way of the dodo. I'm accustomed to Dahua cams and BlueIris at home, and would consider setting up something more substantial than trail cams at the property to keep an eye on things. It would have to use cellular service (US, likely Verizon), and I would have to rig up a solar powered battery system for power. I don't mind rolling up my sleeves if necessary (quite capable in that category). Would anybody have a recommendation for a camera, or suite of cameras, that would work in this situation? I have 3 Dahuas at home, as well as 1 old Hikvision, and really like the Dahuas.
Recommended Dahua for remote 4G/5G location, possible solar power only
- Thread starter wickywick
- Start date
Not a direct answer to your question but hopefully helpful.
For years I ran a pair of Foscam G4(?) WiFi off of a 100Ah battery, 180W panel with a Victron controller. I replaced the cameras' tiny WiFi antennae with Yagis pointing directly to WiFi AP. One was about 80ft clear LOS. The other was about 120ft through woods. Camera load was around 4W each at night with IR. All good except for short winter days with extended weeks w/o sunshine (2022). Battery got down to ~11.0V a few times. Everything still worked - just bad for battery life.
Dahua loads will be much higher so you will need more battery capacity and panel power to charge with available sunlight. Then you need to account for your communication equipment. I recently picked up a Starlink mini and its self-reported power consumption is about 18-20W. The mini provides a WiFi AP and also supports Ethernet plug. So either WiFI cams or account for powering a switch as well.
For years I ran a pair of Foscam G4(?) WiFi off of a 100Ah battery, 180W panel with a Victron controller. I replaced the cameras' tiny WiFi antennae with Yagis pointing directly to WiFi AP. One was about 80ft clear LOS. The other was about 120ft through woods. Camera load was around 4W each at night with IR. All good except for short winter days with extended weeks w/o sunshine (2022). Battery got down to ~11.0V a few times. Everything still worked - just bad for battery life.
Dahua loads will be much higher so you will need more battery capacity and panel power to charge with available sunlight. Then you need to account for your communication equipment. I recently picked up a Starlink mini and its self-reported power consumption is about 18-20W. The mini provides a WiFi AP and also supports Ethernet plug. So either WiFI cams or account for powering a switch as well.
I have a remote setup for my motorcoach since it was broken into at the storage yard. While the cams are not great, it provides what I need.
I have four Wyze cams, one inside pointed at the door and three battery powered cams attached to the outside of the coach. The battery powered ones last a few months before they need to be charged. I just swap out and recharge the batteries as needed.
They connect to an Inseego MiFi X Pro 5G Verizon hotspot. This unit uses a USB 3.1 charger. So the draw is like a typical cell phone charger. Since I do have power to the rig at the storage facility, I use the included 18W Qualcomm charger. The included 5050 mAh Li-Ion battery that the hotspot runs on typically needs to be charged up for about an hour a day when I am out on the road using it a lot for web surfing. The nice thing about this unit is that it can stay plugged in 24/7 and not have an overcharging issue. It goes into battery preservation mode if it has been on charge for more than 16 hours. So I can leave it unattended at the storage yard for weeks at a time.
You could use this hotspot and keep it charged up with a small solar panel/storage unit and if the weather was bad the internal power of the hotspot would keep you going for probably a few days of incidental use.
Depending on what you really need for cams, this may work for you.
I have four Wyze cams, one inside pointed at the door and three battery powered cams attached to the outside of the coach. The battery powered ones last a few months before they need to be charged. I just swap out and recharge the batteries as needed.
They connect to an Inseego MiFi X Pro 5G Verizon hotspot. This unit uses a USB 3.1 charger. So the draw is like a typical cell phone charger. Since I do have power to the rig at the storage facility, I use the included 18W Qualcomm charger. The included 5050 mAh Li-Ion battery that the hotspot runs on typically needs to be charged up for about an hour a day when I am out on the road using it a lot for web surfing. The nice thing about this unit is that it can stay plugged in 24/7 and not have an overcharging issue. It goes into battery preservation mode if it has been on charge for more than 16 hours. So I can leave it unattended at the storage yard for weeks at a time.
You could use this hotspot and keep it charged up with a small solar panel/storage unit and if the weather was bad the internal power of the hotspot would keep you going for probably a few days of incidental use.
Depending on what you really need for cams, this may work for you.
