Rural camera system advice

[Kkroadie]

Hi all, New to the forum and thanks in advance. So I have a 70 acre ranch in Texas and I find myself upgrading my system due to Q-See exiting the business and I would like advice on some “upgrades”. I currently have 16 cameras spread out over about a 1/4 mile from the main house. I just purchased a Dahua 32 Channel 960 FPS 720P real-time HD-CVI H.264 DVR. I plan on connecting my existing 16 cameras to the unit when it arrives. All my existing Q-See cameras powered locally (plugged in where they are installed) and I have run BNC video cable through buried PVC pipe to the home base.
So here come the “upgrades”. As I add additional cameras and go further out from the DVR (perhaps a half a mile or so) I will need power and perhaps a signal amplifier. I am thinking a dry box with a large enough 12 VT rechargeable battery and a small solar panel (like the rig that powers my front gate). Then run the BNC cable through new buried PVC pipe and terminate the connections at both ends. Also if possible I would like to upgrade the cameras and possibly add motion to them if feasible. I would like recommendations for cameras, power equipment and opinions if I need a signal amplifier (and at what distance). I am not currently using any amplifiers now and the cameras work great but they are the small non moving consumer HD cameras from Q-see. I am fairly good with electronics but beyond the store bought systems I need a little help. Hiring a professional to do the install is problematic because I am 150 miles from any major city and besides I would like to maintain a little secrecy by doing everything myself. Thoughts? KK

 

[Kkroadie]

So any suggestions on solar powered motorized cameras for my application (see original post)? I am not opposed to paying someone to help me with this project. Thanks in advance. KK

 

[sebastiantombs]

Solar powered cameras are available but are on the expensive side. The general application is 24/7 operation for a camera. That means you need at least 100WH per day of battery power just to run the camera for a day. What about cloudy days and what about "safety factor"? That means at least 200WH, or more of battery power for each camera. That translates to a 100 watt solar panel. The price just keeps going up. If you're talking about a PTZ camera the power budget needs to be tripled or quadrupled. Usually, all the solar stuff I've seen here has been "home grown" but there is one person who sets them up for a University and has been very successful with them, but he does seem to have a pretty large budget to work with.

If you have power available, within 330 feet or so, of camera locations standard PoE cameras are a far better choice. They can be powered with a PoE switch and connected using a dedicated, point-to-point, encrypted wireless link. Being in Texas I would suggest the wireless link system or fiber optic cable to provide electrical isolation, to protect against surges from nearby lightning strikes and differences in ground potentials between buildings, rather than buried PVC. Any cable in a PVC conduit, especially underground, needs to be outdoor rated, gel filled, because moisture will still get into the conduit, even from condensation as weather changes.

Additionally, Dahua makes PoE cameras that will work out to about a half mile of cable. Again, I'd be very cautious with that simply because of surges that can get into the system and toast everything in an instant. If you do use cable to connect cameras over distances like that, properly shielded cable with proper grounding and surge protection for each cable is a given.