Seeking feedback on Mesh network design

I have concerns about WiFi and battery operated cameras.  (All the solar does is charge the battery, not increase the voltage or amperage.)

The convenience is fantastic. It's the performance I doubt.

PoE offers some (different) advantages:

• There are many PoE cameras with a variety of features.
  Different resolution.
  Different Lenses, or Zoom.
  Pan and Tilt.
• The two ethernet cables allowconsiderable flexibility in where the WiFi unit and the Camera are located.
  One cable connects a PoE injector at an electrical outlet to the WiFi unit.
  A second cable connects the WiFi unit to the camera.
  For example, the WiFi unit could be located where it gets good line-of-sight to the WiFi base unit (or repeater), while
  the camera could be located where it has a good view of the surveillance area.
  The only visible evidence would be an exterior rated ethernet cable, which looks a lot like a cable TV coax cable and can be painted to match the building.

I enjoyed looking at outdoor rated PoE parts, such as this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Waterproof-ethernet-Splitter-Compliant-Surveillance/dp/B0899B2LPX/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=PoE+adapter+outdoor&qid=1618870819&sr=8-3

Depending on your location, there may be an installer near by who would be happy to offer suggestions. Are you located anywhere near one of these companies:

https://www.ui.com/distributors/ 

I am guessing you have already driven around similar housing complexes and observed which have security cameras (and perhaps talked to their management about why they did what they did and how they feel about the results)?

"

I have concerns about WiFi and battery operated cameras.  (All the solar does is charge the battery, not increase the voltage or amperage.)

The convenience is fantastic. It's the performance I doubt."

I had checked with the Reolink customer support team and they had this to say:

"2. Our solar panel could work when it is facing direct sunlight only.
And it will take about 4 hours to fully charge the battery. 

Normally, it's not necessary to separately charge the battery if there is 2 hrs worth of recording done every day."

For our use case of ~2 hrs worth of recording per day, it seems the panel is good enough. So probably worth giving it a try at least for the pilot phase. Though one thing that hasn't been stated above is that the batteries are warranted only for 2-years though Reolink claims a 5-year battery life.

Reference: https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/900000421243-How-Long-does-the-Battery-Last-for-Argus-Eco

Sorry I was not clear.  I have the original Reolink Argus camera, and have no doubt that the solar panel will keep the battery charged enough to provide operation indefinitely.  My concern is more with the WiFi performance over an extended distance.

Security cameras are frustrating experience.  Either they record too much or they record too little or too late.  Reolink's cameras are no different in this regard from any other brand.

Battery cameras utilize PIR sensors to trigger recording because they require a tiny (very tiny) amount of current to operate.  Basically most of the camera's electronics are idle waiting for the PIR sensor to trigger operation.  This is why there are so many complaints that "the UPS man dropped a package on my porch and was gone before the camera started recording anything."  And, getting the right "sensitivity" is a challenge.

Powered security cameras can keep the electronics going all the time.  My Reolink PoE cameras record constantly and when "motion" is triggered, they begin the event file 5 seconds before the  trigger point. Newer powered cameras often feature software to identify people, animals, vehicles, packages, etc. so they are not tricked into recording when trees sway or create shadows. (When I put the college flag out on football game days, one camera essentially records constantly.)

Please let us know how the experiment turns out.  Just having cameras mounted on the walls may be enough to improve behavior.

BTW, the same thing is true for Ring cameras.

Too high latency in the battery (or battery+solar panel) cameras comapred to powered ca,eras (doorbells or POE).

CrimpOn 

"Please let us know how the experiment turns out.  Just having cameras mounted on the walls may be enough to improve behavior."

Will do. You are right, the current experiment on 1-camera has already shown improved behavior. The challenge now is to scale it to the entire community.

alokeprasad 

"

BTW, the same thing is true for Ring cameras.

Too high latency in the battery (or battery+solar panel) cameras comapred to powered ca,eras (doorbells or POE)."

Valid point. In our current experiment, we've used the Simplisafe indoor camera and faced sensitivity issues. However after upping the camera sensitivity to max in the app, we get very good results and don't think we missed anything.

-Sharath

"I like the idea of running tests first. I would use an inexpensive WiFi router, like a TP-Link A7 and move a camera around to see what distances "work".

I did a few basic speedtests as a proxy for moving around the camera (due to the convenience of moving the phone around). Note that my ISP advertises a Downloads speed upto 100 Mbps, which I can indeed get when I run a speedtest using a Macbook Pro about 10-12 feet straightline distance from the router However for thr purposes of the test, I just used the phone for convenience.

• I measured the speed at the camera as a baseline: Download/Upload: ~16 / ~5 Mbps. This is approximately ~10-12 ft from the TP-Link router with a glass door in between.
• Stepping away another 10 feet away past the concrete compound reduces the speed to <1Mbps both download & Upload.

I went further away too, and speeds were lower or in some cases the speedtest (by Ookla app) would just fail.

At this point I do think trying out the Wireless signal strength with a Orbi router & extender together will likely give the best real-world data of what speeds are available when the extender is placed ~30 meters away from the router. I feel that will give a realistic sense of whether the bandwidth is indeed sufficient or not to support the cameras.

Thanks,
Sharath

CrimpOn : You mentioned you have the Reolink Argus camera. I had a question about the cloud backup if it's okay:

1. Does the basic plan essentially give you a rolling window of the videos that were captured whenever the motion sensor was triggered?

2. 

2. Not sure if you have multiple cameras. Does reolink have a nice web-interface or app where you can view the videos from all cameras on a single dashboard?

Thanks,

Sharath

Alas, I have not signed up for Reolink's "Cloud Storage" option. All of my cameras record to internal SD Cards and my PoE cameras also FTP motion recordings to a server (my desktop computer).

The Reolink Client for Windows/Mac allows viewing 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 16, 25, or 36 camera at one time.  Having only 7 cameras active right now, I've attached some screen shots.