4G Solar powered CCTV

[Robotstar5]

Mrs Robo wants CCTV at her stable, problem is it's in the middle of nowhere so no mains power or WiFi so I have found a couple of candidates, but any advice from the forum collective would be appreciated on alternatives, pitfalls etc.

Link to specs

Link to specs

 

[knighty]

how many cameras do you want/need? the monthly charges will soon add up

and if footage is stored on the 32gig sd card it'll soon fill up

do you mostly just want to check on things remotely or record crime etc. ?

there's not many options with no mains power.... only other option would be a solar panel, battery, traditional cctv system and then a 4g router (router like you have at home but has a sim card in it)

or... a camera with a sim card in it but no solar panel, add a much larger solar panel and battery for it separately

that £155 ptz camera is shockingly cheap - £155 for a motorised camera, wifi, 4g, a solar panel and it must have an internal battery? - there's something wrong there... I'm assuming it's crap and it'll only last 2 min or the camera picture is really poor quality

EDIT: missed the link to ebay the first time round - it's £205 with 4g and 32gig sd card... still too cheap, it's only 2mp which is pretty poor, guessing you;ll have it watching a large area? you need 4mp minimum and ideally 8mp

also willing to bet the 6 x 18650 batteries it comes with are crap


I'll look around later and see if I can see any better options - never really looked at 4g/solar cameras before

also... with three (the mobile network) you can get unlimited data sim cards for £6/month irrc, might be handy for you :-)

 

[qwakers]

So can you with voxi and lebara... with much better (vodafone) coverage and no contract tie ins.

 

[Robotstar5]

Only need one camera and the best location is on a tree by the gate as it would give a view of the yard, stables and fields so ideally a self powered unit.

 

[Baloo]

Hi
I had the same requirement stables in field no power on site but wanted to see what was going on ..
I went with the blink camera system available as a 1 , 2 or 3 camera kit, battery powered cameras that are supposed to last for 2 years, mine have been going 18 months and still going strong, there is a hub that talks to the cameras that requires power via a usb style charger I did this with a 150 watt solar panel on the stable roof feeding an old car battery, cameras need to be within 100ft or so of the hub for the wireless to work, then it connects over a cheap data sim also powered from the car battery, it all works fine any movement pings on my phone and I get a video clip or l can live view at any time. 2 of the cameras keep a look out the 3rd is looking at the bird table, picture quality seems good enough to me..
When I've figured out how to attach video l will post up some of the results

 

[knighty]

do you have to pay a subscription fee?

thinking about it overnight I was going to come back and recommend blink or ring - you get stung with the subscription fee etc. but it'll be worth the cost - one of those times where sticking with a big well established brand is worth the extra cost

(not sure if ring do sim card cameras, thought they did but quick google isn't finding much)

 

[Baloo]

hi
no subscription fee on mine but ive had the account 18 months or so and they may have changed that now

the quality of the vids is really quite good, or at least it is on my phone,

peanut cam 2021 10 25T17 28 40+0100 1 - YouTube

i found out badgers climb tree to get on the bird table, well i never.........

camera 1 2021 08 30T04 36 28+0100 - YouTube

 

[ukracer]

So can you with voxi and lebara... with much better (vodafone) coverage and no contract tie ins.

What about a EE based network sim?

 

[ukracer]

do you have to pay a subscription fee?

thinking about it overnight I was going to come back and recommend blink or ring - you get stung with the subscription fee etc. but it'll be worth the cost - one of those times where sticking with a big well established brand is worth the extra cost

(not sure if ring do sim card cameras, thought they did but quick google isn't finding much)

If you already have a ring doorbell and subscription does it go up for extra cameras?

 

[Robotstar5]

hi
no subscription fee on mine but ive had the account 18 months or so and they may have changed that now

the quality of the vids is really quite good, or at least it is on my phone,

peanut cam 2021 10 25T17 28 40+0100 1 - YouTube

i found out badgers climb tree to get on the bird table, well i never.........

camera 1 2021 08 30T04 36 28+0100 - YouTube

Certainly decent enough image quality.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

My neighbour has the reallink ones in the cow shed, they’re absolutely spot on

 

[gaz1]

id not bother with that but go the way of a proper battery bank and solar system to run it

you want something more based on this design

Would this distort if it was galvanised?

The angle would be 120x120x8, the plate 8mm and the box 50x50x4. Overall dimensions are 1200x1200. Would the plate warp when it was galvanised? It's basically a pallet that a mast gets mounted on, and I'm trying to make it as heavy as possible..

www.mig-welding.co.uk