Wildlife camera's or fox watching at night

[Steve509926]

Originally Posted by A1an

Activity is recorded on to the SD card in the unit, you then view that activity via the Wi-Fi connection your camera has to you home Wi-Fi network. You can also log in to the camera to view live.

If your camera hasn’t got a connection to your home Wi-Fi network it’s pretty much useless. I’ve got a TP Link range extender inside the house to enable the camera to get the connection

Thanks A1an, pretty much as I thought. Where I want to put a wildlife camera is approx 100 mtrs away from the house/router so I don't think it would be suitable.

[Oldman2]

Originally Posted by Steve509926

Thanks A1an, pretty much as I thought. Where I want to put a wildlife camera is approx 100 mtrs away from the house/router so I don't think it would be suitable.

If you have a shed somewhere close with a mains supply then its just a case of ethernet over mains with a repeater hanging on the end.


I do that for watching video in the shed. (not that sort either!)

[Oldman2]

Have a watch of this from iegeek to use cameras without available wifi Steve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1PRC5rAzOs

[Steve509926]

Thanks Oldman2

[User name]

110ft (or 34 metres for us metric folk) is nothing for a decent quality router. You could always run a length of ethernet cable for pretty cheap, and send power over it instead too.

[Fenlander]

>>run a length of ethernet cable

Good call, that tends to get overlooked. Before we went with the BT multi discs whole property setup I was within a whisker of speeding up the Mac by running ethernet cable from the router to what counts as our office. About 25m of cable and I understand there is almost no loss over that sort of length... or even several times more.

[Steve509926]

Originally Posted by User name

110ft (or 34 metres for us metric folk) is nothing for a decent quality router. You could always run a length of ethernet cable for pretty cheap, and send power over it instead too.

I didn't say 110ft, I said 100 mtrs.

Now I'm home and looked at it properly it's closer to 120 mtrs. Ethernet cable is possible, although not very practical.
I think a WiFi extender through the mains is probably the answer, as I do have power down there for outside lighting.

[User name]

Originally Posted by Steve509926

I didn't say 110ft, I said 100 mtrs.

OP said their lawn is 110 feet.

[User name]

Originally Posted by Fenlander

>>run a length of ethernet cable

Good call, that tends to get overlooked. Before we went with the BT multi discs whole property setup I was within a whisker of speeding up the Mac by running ethernet cable from the router to what counts as our office. About 25m of cable and I understand there is almost no loss over that sort of length... or even several times more.

Yep, 25 metres is nothing for a decent quality ethernet cable. Even 100+ metres is perfectly fine on good quality, properly terminated cable (avoid CCA).

When renovating my house I ran Cat6 everywhere, to places I'll probably never need it but it could always come in handy. I also run a length of nylon string in the ducting with it so that if I never needed to run any other cables through, it's just a matter of tying in and pulling it through. You can then pull more string too so that you could do it again in the future if required.

That was a lifesaver when I was adding in a bunch of CCTV cameras and I can also power my additional routers over PoE, all from a single cable. You can even power lighting, laptops, phone chargers etc from newer PoE standards. It's really handy stuff.

[Steve509926]

Originally Posted by User name

OP said their lawn is 110 feet.

apologies

[Oldman2]

Originally Posted by Steve509926

I didn't say 110ft, I said 100 mtrs.

Now I'm home and looked at it properly it's closer to 120 mtrs. Ethernet cable is possible, although not very practical.
I think a WiFi extender through the mains is probably the answer, as I do have power down there for outside lighting.

This looks like its the best and simple solution to extend your 2.4GHz wifi up to 200mtr with a bit of cat6 to this external Access point from a well known maker. £46



https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wireless-Wa.../dp/B01N4EGN6H

[Steve509926]

Originally Posted by Oldman2

This looks like its the best and simple solution to extend your 2.4GHz wifi up to 200mtr with a bit of cat6 to this external Access point from a well known maker. £46



https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wireless-Wa.../dp/B01N4EGN6H

[mick]

Originally Posted by A1an

Ah, mine is B&W night video, not colour, they must've been upgraded. mine also has 4x18650 batteries not the 2 that is stated in that ad.

The app for them is really good, it also allows you to talk to the intruder/nosey person through the camera. Notifications on movement are instant. Youll need good wifi coverage at camera location.

I would of thought your Fox watching would be through an thermal scope with a cross hair and a twitching trigger finger

[A1an]

Originally Posted by mick

I would of thought your Fox watching would be through an thermal scope with a cross hair and a twitching trigger finger

Thats EXACTLY what I use. The camera is just for keeping an eye on the kennels.

I use the trail cameras for the Wild Boar though. Youve got to know about their movements before getting that itchy trigger feeling.

[Oldman2]

Firstly wrong place for this but for the past couple of days I seem to be only seeing 1-2 new posts a day or ribnet. Is something broken I wonder?


Anyway back to trail cams or security cams. Some bad news on my choice...


Well the choosing of a security camera for use as a wildcam has continued.

I purchased an Iegeek ZS-GX2S with battery/solar/wifi and found its video just about acceptable, but it seems to not record 24/7 like most but to save battery I guess seems to wake up when it sees something. The video was quite blocky and reducing the quality seemed to make little difference. The instructions for the ZS-GX2S say not to use wifi extenders, so I put it withing 1mtr of the router in the end to test and it wasn't an awful lot better there.
Very nice to have battery and wifi meaning it can be located anywhere you have wifi but even with over 75% wifi as they suggest is needed it wasnt good enough for me. I also struggled with fine zooming in with this and my phone, it seemed to be all or nothing where the Tapo inits are much more refined.
Some specs: 2K FHD 3MP 65ft night vision IP65 with a warning to mount under eaves to save full rain on unit.

My C110 indoor Tapo was doing better from the same locations.
Some specs: 2K 3MP HD 2304x1296 30ft night vision (NOT for use outside)

So I went back to my original choice of Tapo C320WS which alas is 9v dc fed from mains brick, but is wifi or if you want ethernet cable. So no mobile use.....unless I go back to my 12v battery pack with buck converter

In testing this one seems to have the edge by some margin, the picture quality is pretty much the same in daylight as my C110 indoor camera looking through glass to outside. At night the 320 in greyscale has a longer vision than if I use the spotlights and colour vision but I am still testing the options for the best view.
Some specs: 2K 4MP HD 2560x1440 98ft night vision IP66 waterproof with no warnings (choice of 2KQHD, 1080P full HD or 720P HD vision for data saving.


Forgot the pricing the Iegeek was £55 with solar and the Tapo was £38

[chipko]

Originally Posted by Oldman2

Firstly wrong place for this but for the past couple of days I seem to be only seeing 1-2 new posts a day or ribnet. Is something broken I wonder?

Yes dead on here since they shut down the mobile app. Doubt I’ll be on as regularly as a nightmare now to use on a phone even switching to mobile view, and no easy way to upload photos anymore.

Like going back to the dark ages.

[Fenlander]

Re the cams glad the Tapo is ok. I know they aren’t wildlife specific but for general use the best budget type we’ve used so far.

It is of course the time of year to go quiet here. We were lucky to get sun on the river this Monday but there is no incentive to get it all out again for a few months. With the OBs fogged and well wrapped up for the winter plus all the other gear cleaned/checked I find I have nothing left to buy either so after my new solid OB trolley wheels arrive tomorrow that’s me done hence little ammunition left to start threads.

I’ve only ever used the phone for a minority of replies but I’m doing so now and can’t really see why it’s so bad apart from the photo invalid file issue with my iPhone, it’s fine for text.

[Steve509926]

Thanks for the update Oldman2. Think I'll get the WiFi extender and another Hiseeu PTZ and add it to the house security cameras as I know the quality of that camera is very good.

I'd noticed it had gone a bit quiet, but as Fen said it is that time of year and not a lot is happening.

I've never used the app as I didn't like it, so I don't miss it. I find the mobile view on my phone works fine. I agree uploading pics is a bit archaic and it would be a benifit if you could upload pics so that they could have wraparound text.

[A1an]

Originally Posted by chipko

Yes dead on here since they shut down the mobile app. Doubt I’ll be on as regularly as a nightmare now to use on a phone even switching to mobile view, and no easy way to upload photos anymore.

Like going back to the dark ages.

Have you tried it on Tapatalk?

That’s how I use the forum when posting pictures.

[Oldman2]

Discovered a new problem now, rain...


The Tapo C320WS detects rain as motion and sends alerts every minute its raining so I had to turn off motion detection as reducing the sensitivity to minimum didn't solve the problem. I had the previous night had a spider web that crossed the lens path as the wind blew and that was sending multi alerts but I put that down to bad luck.
The rain sensitivity could be a game changer.
My capture of animal antics will be severely restricted if I need to only have human detection option set.
A search suggests rain alerts have been a problem for Tapo camera's for quite some time.
I wonder if I am wasting my time & looking for the holy grail.