recomondations on wifi, battery operated camera for temporary use at construction site?

[JayBart]

currently building a new house-- it's on the shore/beach, and is pretty visible... finished framining the third story, and want to add in some cameras to watch over the site while I'm/construction guys aren't there.
Right now no doors, windows, and barely sealed against the elements, won't be for at least another month or so. And limited electrict -- temporary hook up with a 110 outlet outside.

I'm currently running a hotspot with spotlight cams from ring (I know). Surprisingly, they work -- with the solar charger, I've maintained a 90% charge for over a week. But, the quality is .. lacking.
Anything better out there, or is this the high water mark?
once the house is more secure (and we actually have electric), I'll start thinking about adding in a blue iris setup (I've been running with BI for years, so very familiar with it), but and recomondations on something of better quality than ring?
HAS to be battery operated (I can't run extension cords throughout an active construction site) and HAS to be wifi (same).

 

[wittaj]

You will find that all of those kind of cameras are poor. Probably better off just staying with what you have until you get permanent ones in your new home (based on your other post).

 

[sebastiantombs]

My experiences with solar powered floodlights tells me that they are over rated and under provisioned. To run a camera plus WiFi will take about seven watts per hour, overnight. Plan on 12 hours of that. That means at a bare minimum you need a 100AH battery and a charger that can supply over 100WH of charging on a good day. Forget about a cloudy day. That's why battery powered, WiFi, cameras aren't worth the cardboard box they come in. If they are motion triggered, by the time they "wake up" and get video going it's already too late. Basing a system on Ring is a road to failure.

 

[JayBart]

like I said, it's doing a serviceable job, but not great. The ring cameras take snapshots every 30 seconds. The motion detection is an issue as you mentioned, but I have them grouped together so that if any one of the cameras sense motion, all of them start recording. As for the battery power, as I mentioned, after a week, they're maintianing around an 85-90% charge (even without the solar panels, they last over a week)... the house is only around 10 minutes away, so popping over to change batteries isn't a big deal.

Anyway, unless htere's anything else out there, it's either ring or nothing, I'd rather have some survalliance than none.,

 

[mat200]

 

[wittaj]

^Yeah that would work, but probably cost a little more than the Rings he has now LOL.

But that would be the way to do it if you wanted solar power.

 

[JayBart]

I'm not tied to solar, just have to use a battery.
Anyway, reolink looks a bit better-- higher resolutoin, faster bps, and battery life doesn't seem terrible.

 

[wittaj]

Reolinks will be worse at night than you are experiencing now...

Unless you spend big bucks for a solar or battery option, you are better off just staying with what you have.

See this thread for how reos work at night...

Reolink: Deconstruction of a dangerous misleading youtube review "Finding the BEST 4K Security Camera NVR Package (Reolink vs Amcrest vs Swann)"

Executive Summary: DO NOT be a sheep. Ask what a reviewer can be missing, ask if a reviewer is using hype words to sell the cheapest product. Test your cameras and kits right away. Just do a bench test. Test real world conditions. Test moving suspects. Test at night, test at day. Use a test rig...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[JayBart]

ok, good to know
given my limnitations for now -- running off a hotspot (limited wifi range) , no electricity, and can't mount anything permanently yet, ring may just be the best