Wireless and wifi and oudoor - and PTZ?
Anyone have any experience or recommendations for cameras that use a wireless connection ( 2.4 or 5g - a parking lot that getting ethernet cables to would be problematic ) and maybe even use solar/battery power? I could use fixed direction cameras, but am intrigued with PTZ cameras that might be able to cover larger areas with a patrol mode, and zoom in on motion/activity. Thats less important, as I’m concerned with how well motors and bearings would hold up. But durable, exterior grade, somewhat vandal proof (but will be mounted high) have a good image quality, decent night vision (100ft?) and a good mic would be nice. I’ve looked on Amazon, and the options are all over the place, and huge differences in price points, so I thought I’d ask about anyones experiences - thanks! Tad
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You might take a look at the Reolink RLC-523WA - https://reolink.com/product/rlc-523wa/ - albeit it only has a 5X zoom (but does include a useful spotlight) - but you would need to check your options for interfacing with it if you don't want to use their client apps. It also affords an ethernet interface if you need to switch at a later date - wifi not being robust enough for efficient surveillance.
It's actually quite difficult to find outdoor PTZ cameras with WiFi - most of them are wired. And I would certainly strongly recommend wired over WiFi wherever possible, though it sounds like that would be difficult in your situation.
We don't generally recommend Reolink as we've had so many problem reports about them. But on the other hand some users are finding success with some Reolink models, and I'm not sure whether this particular model (RLC-523WA) works well or not.
Sunba make some nice models, but they are all limited to 2 MP resolution, which is on the low side by today's standards.
SV3C have some wireless cameras, some of which are high-resolution PTZ models, and I think this would be a better option than the Reolink if you can get hold of one.
The Amcrest IP2M-858W is good but again only 2 MP resolution.
Other than that, I can't really find many. Are you sure you can't run an Ethernet cable to the camera? This would give you a far wider choice of cameras, a much more stable connection, and it can also carry PoE power to the camera (assuming the camera supports this - most do).
You won't find one with a built-in microphone, and anyway this won't be very useful 100ft away. You certainly won't find one with solar/battery power - PTZ cameras can be quite power-hungry, and a large panel/battery would be required. Not impossible, but you'd have to put your own solution together for this if required.
Thanks Ben - I wish every app I used daily was as well written and well supported as Security Spy -
I purchased the SV3C HX series wifi exterior PTZ camera from Amazon, and it arrived today. I used the ios app to connect it to my home router, set password, etc. Then opened it in SS, which essentially worked fine. Then, I disconnected the ethernet cable, found the wifi address, and re-added the camera in SS. And it still worked! But I’m kinda stuck on how to use it -
In SS, the PTZ controls for the individual camera window work, but they run to the extreme - I can’t “stop” the camera at a location I want to stop at. I also don’t know how to set-up patrol locations. And finally, I’m wondering how the patrol would work with motion detection, and if any of the alleged motion zoom capabilities would be possibly operational with SS motion/alarm alerts.
I’ve set the ONVIF port to 8080, and the RTSP port to 554. Not sure what more I need to check or do. Right now, its set up in my office, so it’s easy to play with, but ultimately, I’d like to mount it up high on a pole at the entry of my parking lot, scrolling along the sidewalk outside from one side to the next, stopping and recording motion and audio as it finds it, then go back to it’s patrol routine. I’m really hoping that the alarm beep from the gate operator would trigger the camera to scroll over and zoom in on the vehicle/driver going in or out. Maybe it’s too much - but I’m hoping. I also want to be able to manually zoom in when I want, and record video or photos as desired. I don’t know if zooming is part of the patrol options, or not, but if I get an alert emailed to me, it would be nice to aim the camera from my ipad remotely and zoom in or out as needed to see whats going on -
Hope you have some advice on all this! Thanks - Tad
ps - if it helps, the specific camera is - 2021 New Auto Track PTZ WiFi Wireless Camera Outdoor, SV3C 5MP 355 ° 5X Zoom Spotlight Color Night Vision Camera, IP66 Waterproof Floodlight Cam, Humanoid Detect, 2-Way Audio, SD Card Video Playback - I didn’t get a SD card for it -
Good to hear you have mostly managed to set this up and the video is coming through to SecuritySpy successfully.
In terms of the PTZ not working correctly, the two things to check are that 1. you are using the latest version of SecuritySpy, and 2. that you are using the ONVIF profile in SecuritySpy, not some other profile. If the PTZ still isn't working properly, please try the latest beta version of SecuritySpy. Also, make sure that the camera is running the latest firmware version that is available from SV3C. If this doesn't resolve the problem please let me know and I will investigate further.
For the auto-patrol: what you would do is set up some preset positions in SecuritySpy, and then tell SecuritySpy to auto-patrol the camera automatically. This is described in the PTZ section of the user manual.
In terms of the gate control - what kind of system is this and how are you planning to hook it up to SecuritySpy?
Yes, you can control PTZ from your iPad using our SecuritySpy iOS app.
Thanks for the quick reply -
i have everything (camera, mac, SS, ipad, etc) updated to their latest and greatest - in playing with the SV3C mac app, I can set a couple of pre-sets, and in the Security Spy app I can move to those presets ( I enabled numerical presets, not sure if necessary ). Motion detection works, when I walk by the camera, it will follow me ( although it’s kinda slow ).
Using the PTZ controls on the SV3C app, pushing and releasing a direction button causes the camera to move for only as long as the button is pressed. But on my ipad, using the PTZ controls for the camera window, a press of the button makes the camera move to its extreme in that direction. No way to do just a small move - once a button is pressed, it immediately starts moving that direction - very efficient, no lag, in fact pressing a different direction while the camera is moving causes the camera to immediately change direction. Unfortunately, no “stop” button. Using the presets, I can have the camera return to a home position, or an alternate, but manual control seems a bit problematic.
only had it hooked up for less than a day, but it seems to be working pretty darn well. My hope is that when the audible alarm on my gate goes off, the audio signal will trigger a move to a “gate” preset, with as much zoom as I do to get the max image of vehicle and driver, but then when the vehicle clears, to return to it’s patrol setting. At that time, fixed cameras on the building should pick up the lot in general - I think I’m ready to try mounting this up on the pole, and see how the wifi works across the parking lot, and what the resolution looks like -
Could you please try the PTZ controls in macOS SecuritySpy and let me know if these work properly or not to stop movement when you release the buttons. If you are finding that they work in macOS SecuritySpy but not iOS SecuritySpy, then this points to some miscommunication between the two. But if they both show the same problem, this points to a miscommunication with the camera.
In terms of the audio trigger, SecuritySpy can start recording from an audio trigger, but it is based purely on the level of the audio that is being received. SecuritySpy won't be able to distinguish between the sound of your gate buzzer vs. any other sound of the same volume.
Thanks Ben - on the mac, the control wheel that comes up is a little more operational. Using any of the arrows on the perimeter causes a max move, but sometimes, clicking on the center dot will stop the movement. Pushing the dot, even just a little, seemed to cause a limited movement at first, but soon found myself trying to click on the dot to stop movement - sometimes successfully, usually not.
Seems real close - hope you have a good idea!
The gate has a very loud alert beep that starts before it opens - the gate operator has a 12v output I use to power the beeper and a couple LED lights. I may have to figure out how to wire in some kind of trigger unit as well -
so far - just inside my house - the wifi seems to work quite well, image quality is good. I can hear audio from the camera, but have yet to figure out how to “send” audio. When I try the send audio on my ipad, it seems to just loop through the ipad and come out the ipad speakers. I may need to spend more time with the SV3C apps, or (horrors!) plugging the camera into a windows box and see it their windows config app is more full-featured -
Does this tell you anything?
Error performing computer-to-camera audio for camera "Network camera" 5.3.4,5345,81052
Apologies for the delay on this. It seems that the camera is not responding correctly to the ONVIF "stop" command. I've made some changes to SecuritySpy to tweak this command for this specific manufacturer. Please download and install the latest beta version of SecuritySpy (currently 5.4b4) and let me know if you see any improvement to the PTZ.
As for the audio: I'm afraid that for this camera, currently only camera-to-computer audio is supported, not computer-to-camera audio. We hope to add this feature for ONVIF devices in the near future.
Nailed it!! Thanks very much!!
Great to hear that! ONVIF has a specific "stop" command but that is apparently not working with this camera, which instead seems to respond to a normal "move" command with zero velocity. It's unusual, but I'm glad it works.
A follow up -
I wired an outlet at the top of a pole by my parking lot gate, and installed the camera on the pole and plugged it in. I'd gotten it all set-up on the wireless network inside the shop, and it came right up and on-line as soon as it booted up. You have to set your pre-set positions in the SV3C app, but they are selectable and you can enable the patrol from within SS.
Image quality is good, not quite license plate reading good, but I'm very pleased with it - And especially pleased that Ben managed to tune the controls within SS to make it remotely controllable - it's 2.4g wifi only, but the responsiveness and images are quite good - and its 100ft away from the building -
Still need to fine tune things, and don't have it enabled to immediately home in on the gate when the warning beeper goes off, but it's presence has already been noted by a few of the resident dealers, and they have moved a bit further away - so it works for me!!
OK - Ignore the above - when it works, its very nice - but in the 24 hours it's been up on the pole, I've had to reset the power to bring it back 4 times. Never had those problems when I was playing with it inside, so it may be a power problem, low voltage or?? because it is so far away from the panel. But, I don't recommend this one except maybe for monitoring your hamster cage -
My guess would be that it's losing WiFi signal, and not reconnecting. It's just a guess, but this is consistent with the camera working when in the shop, but being flaky when 100ft away, all other things being equal. Is there anything you can do to improve the WiFi signal (e.g. move the WiFi access point closer to the camera position)? It might be worth asking SV3C about this - they may be able to suggest how to configure the camera to more reliably reconnect to the WiFi after it drops.
Once again, you are correct - modified my Ubiquiti AP to max power output, and replaced the antenna on the camera (original was about 4", this one is about 2' - oops! original about 10cm, new one about 60cm) and since then I have had no drops or communications errors - still need to do a channel survey and see if I can find a low use channel in this area -
There is still some minor issues that I can't pinpoint with the PTZ operation, and the audio is less than ideal, but its a good first foray into PTZ cameras -
Thanks again!!
Update on this -
Camera is working - I've given up on the PTZ by and large, as the constant communication seems to cause the connection to fail more regularly. But for a basic wireless cam, that I can manually move around when desired, its OK. But is still needs to be power cycled every couple weeks to re-establish communication. Long-term - getting a cable out to the post and gate operator securely -
Does Ubiquiti support a WiFi mesh system?
If so, adding another AP (or 2) to give that camera a second/third WiFi path to triangulate the signal may improve things.
If you can locate a second/third AP at another location, it may improve reliability.
The second/third APs would not need a physical internet connection, just a power source.
They need to have good line of sight to the physically connected AP, and good line of site to the camera, and some angular separation from the existing AP, but not a lot.
If it's a long hop from the wired AP, another AP anywhere between the AP and the camera will allow the mesh system to do more of the WiFi work than the camera WiFi system, over the longer haul.
The system I'm using (Eero Pro, 2nd gen TriBand) (Developed Pre-Amazon purchase of Eero, but now supported by Amazon) arbitrates channels and signal strength on the fly, and makes continuous adjustments to optimize signals. I have 3 Eero networks now, with over a dozen access points, total. I've been buying used systems on eBay, as there are newer systems Amazon is pushing, so people are trading up and selling their old ones cheap, like 3 for $120.00.
One more detail...
I have used two 200' CAT 7 cables to extend the physical cable range from my modem on 2 of my 3 networks.
Modem>200' cable>wired Eero Pro AP>Multiple Eero Pro WiFi APs
An Eero Pro AP physically connected to the modem, and WiFi Eero pros off that one give each network a usable WiFi footprint of about 400' X200'.
This could be extended another 300' in any direction by using a switch and another 200' cable.
I'm on a fiber service, so I end up with 50Mbps up/down from the APs at the far end of those 200' cables.