Using high def security cameras and NVRs as trail cams

[ksJoe]

Is anyone else using security cameras and NVRs (network video recorder) as trail cameras?
If so I'd be curious to hear what you're using, what has worked well for you, and what hasn't.

I'm just getting started, but here's what I've got so far

Power:
I have 400 watts of solar panels, a charge controller, and a 100ah lifepo4 battery, on my deer blind. Everything is powered DC, there is no inverter in the system. There are 3 DC buck converters to get the necessary DC voltages to power things.

Internet access:
Internet access is an old cell phone tethered to a raspberry pi. One frustration is that the tethering app on the phone requires I click something to restart it after a power off. So if its overcast for too many days and the system goes down temporarily, the NVR doesn't have internet access until I get back down there and touch the phone. I changed battery charge settings recently. If that doesn't fix it, I'll add another battery. Eventually we'll probably get satelite internet access.

Cameras:
I've been buying Reolink security cameras for years for home and elsewhere and been very pleased with them, so that's what I'm using. To get started, I got an 8 channel NVR with 4 cameras (4k / 8mp) with the smart/AI motion detection that identifies people and vehicles. The smart motion detection is a huge improvement over the old motion detection on my cameras at home. I set it to alert me for people and vehicles. So far I've not gotten any false alarms and if I walk or drive up to the blind my phone dings before I get to the door telling me there is a person or vehicle there.
With the current drive in the NVR and camera count, I get 1 week of 24/7 4k video. I have the motion detection flagging points of interest in the video, but the video is recored regardless.

Night vision is disappointing because the IR LEDs on the cameras aren't very bright. On my home cameras I've disabled the IR on the cameras to avoid drawing insects to the cameras at night. Instead I have external IR lights that light up much better. At some point I may do that around the blind.

future plans:
- I'll be adding pan-tilt-zoom cameras, which are controlable over the phone.
- I'll be building an equipment storage building, which will also have solar, and more cameras.
- In the next few years we'll build a tiny house out there, which will also have solar, and more cameras.
- I need to make a plow for burying wire, then I'll bury cat5 cable to put PoE cameras scattered around the property.

If anyone is doing anything similar I'd like to compare approaches.

Here's the battery, NVR & charge controller in an insulated box:



Solar panels:


Monitor inside the blind:



The view from some cameras (these are still photos taken from the video feed):

 

[Telemark]

Is it just not possible to get an AC line out there?

What do you have to do to the phone to get the NVR to start up again after a power outage?

 

[omicron1792]

Is anyone else using security cameras and NVRs (network video recorder) as trail cameras?
If so I'd be curious to hear what you're using, what has worked well for you, and what hasn't.

I'm just getting started, but here's what I've got so far

Power:
I have 400 watts of solar panels, a charge controller, and a 100ah lifepo4 battery, on my deer blind. Everything is powered DC, there is no inverter in the system. There are 3 DC buck converters to get the necessary DC voltages to power things.

Internet access:
Internet access is an old cell phone tethered to a raspberry pi. One frustration is that the tethering app on the phone requires I click something to restart it after a power off. So if its overcast for too many days and the system goes down temporarily, the NVR doesn't have internet access until I get back down there and touch the phone. I changed battery charge settings recently. If that doesn't fix it, I'll add another battery. Eventually we'll probably get satelite internet access.

Cameras:
I've been buying Reolink security cameras for years for home and elsewhere and been very pleased with them, so that's what I'm using. To get started, I got an 8 channel NVR with 4 cameras (4k / 8mp) with the smart/AI motion detection that identifies people and vehicles. The smart motion detection is a huge improvement over the old motion detection on my cameras at home. I set it to alert me for people and vehicles. So far I've not gotten any false alarms and if I walk or drive up to the blind my phone dings before I get to the door telling me there is a person or vehicle there.
With the current drive in the NVR and camera count, I get 1 week of 24/7 4k video. I have the motion detection flagging points of interest in the video, but the video is recored regardless.

Night vision is disappointing because the IR LEDs on the cameras aren't very bright. On my home cameras I've disabled the IR on the cameras to avoid drawing insects to the cameras at night. Instead I have external IR lights that light up much better. At some point I may do that around the blind.

future plans:
- I'll be adding pan-tilt-zoom cameras, which are controlable over the phone.
- I'll be building an equipment storage building, which will also have solar, and more cameras.
- In the next few years we'll build a tiny house out there, which will also have solar, and more cameras.
- I need to make a plow for burying wire, then I'll bury cat5 cable to put PoE cameras scattered around the property.

If anyone is doing anything similar I'd like to compare approaches.

Here's the battery, NVR & charge controller in an insulated box:
View attachment 50151


Solar panels:
View attachment 50150

Monitor inside the blind:
View attachment 50146


The view from some cameras (these are still photos taken from the video feed):
View attachment 50147View attachment 50148View attachment 50149

My man. I love it.

I just went with the keen ranger pt. I have 8 up and running now. But if I had more time I would set something up like what you have.

I do like putting them on my major blinds. Nice to see view like I would if in the blind.

 

[BenAllgood]

Nice! Have you considered using an LTE modem instead of the cell phone and pi?

 

[omicron1792]

With your setup you could get a powered cell phone antenna up on poll above shed and cell modem and would rock.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I live at my location, and I bought a Lorex 4k system with a 10TB DVR, and I can add to that. It will take up to 16 cameras, but I havent set them out in the woods yet, just around my house for security. Once summer comes, I will be putting up the cameras. My system is wired though, so I have to run cables to them, so I am limited in distance.

 

[omicron1792]

Have you thought of using Wi-Fi repeaters connected to small solar panels? Could be done but I’ll tell you they can be a pain. If you get a good wire run to then everything after would be gravy.

 

[omicron1792]

Mine are all keen ranger pt so each has own cell service. But having 8 HD live video pan and tilt cameras around my property is one of my favorite things.

 

[ksJoe]

Is it just not possible to get an AC line out there?

What do you have to do to the phone to get the NVR to start up again after a power outage?

The utility lines are over a mile away, so getting AC to the property from the utility company (I think) would be tens of thousands of dollars, plus the cost of running it around the property.
I can put an inverter on the battery and have 1000 watts or so of AC cheaply and easily, but there is power loss going from DC->AC, then the AC->DC transformers for NVR, pi, monitor will lose power again. Its just more power efficient to keep it all DC.

I think the phone reconnects as soon as I unlock it. I think the tethering app only connects when the phone is unlocked, and it stays unlocked while its plugged into power, but if it looses power and runs off the battery it locks. I'm still figuring that out. Initially I didn't realize it was occasionally losing power.

 

[ksJoe]

Nice! Have you considered using an LTE modem instead of the cell phone and pi?

If the cell internet was permanent, I probably would. The long term plan is to build a tiny house out there for a weekend getaway. At that point I'll probably get starlink satellite internet. So the phone is a temporary solution.

 

[ksJoe]

I live at my location, and I bought a Lorex 4k system with a 10TB DVR, and I can add to that. It will take up to 16 cameras, but I havent set them out in the woods yet, just around my house for security. Once summer comes, I will be putting up the cameras. My system is wired though, so I have to run cables to them, so I am limited in distance.

Mine is wired. With Reolink, the battery/solar powered wifi cameras they offer only write to an SD card. They have wifi cameras to plug into DC power that will record to an NVR, but I suspect they draw a lot more power (too much for their little batteries they use).
About the distance limitation - I've wondered about that. They say 100 meters, or whatever the ethernet standard is, but the cables that come with Reolink cameras are not impressive. The wires are inconsistently twisted inside, and probably not even up to cat 5 standards. It sorta makes sense, they're running under 10mbit and quality cable is gbits. I've wondered if I used quality cat6 if I could go a couple hundred meters. Some day I might put ends on the box of cable and see if it will connect.

Have you thought of using Wi-Fi repeaters connected to small solar panels? Could be done but I’ll tell you they can be a pain. If you get a good wire run to then everything after would be gravy.

Its my plan to only have 1 paid internet connection point. Currently that's the cell phone. Eventually probably starlink. The plan is for wifi between buildings, which should eventually cover most of the property. I'm hoping to get enough range with directional wifi antennas between routers, but it will be a while before I get to the point of testing that.
So it will be mostly wired at each building, wifi between buildings, and maybe a few wifi cameras if I just can't get cable somewhere.

 

[ksJoe]

Mine are all keen ranger pt so each has own cell service.

How do you like them? I love the idea of their keen product line, but 1 cell plan per camera is a deal-breaker for me. Within a few years I expect to have dozens of cameras on this property. Hopefully they'll offer the keen cameras in a PoE or battery/wifi version.

But I do wonder if the keen cameras are so different from their standard smart cameras. I'm a software engineer, and at past employers we served different markets with fundamentally the same product with minor customization. So I'm very suspicious of the differences between their "animal" detection in the keen line and "pet" detection in the smart cameras. I suspect the non-keen cameras just mash all the animal detection into a single "pet" alert. It wouldn't make sense for them to implement the two software stacks from scratch, it really ought to be the same software on all the cameras. If that's the case, the non-keen smart cameras should work very well for me. But so far I've not gotten the pet detection enabled on my cameras even though they're supposed to have it.

 

[omicron1792]

Mine is wired. With Reolink, the battery/solar powered wifi cameras they offer only write to an SD card. They have wifi cameras to plug into DC power that will record to an NVR, but I suspect they draw a lot more power (too much for their little batteries they use).
About the distance limitation - I've wondered about that. They say 100 meters, or whatever the ethernet standard is, but the cables that come with Reolink cameras are not impressive. The wires are inconsistently twisted inside, and probably not even up to cat 5 standards. It sorta makes sense, they're running under 10mbit and quality cable is gbits. I've wondered if I used quality cat6 if I could go a couple hundred meters. Some day I might put ends on the box of cable and see if it will connect.



Its my plan to only have 1 paid internet connection point. Currently that's the cell phone. Eventually probably starlink. The plan is for wifi between buildings, which should eventually cover most of the property. I'm hoping to get enough range with directional wifi antennas between routers, but it will be a while before I get to the point of testing that.
So it will be mostly wired at each building, wifi between buildings, and maybe a few wifi cameras if I just can't get cable somewhere.

Reolink has cloud storage too.

 

[omicron1792]

How do you like them? I love the idea of their keen product line, but 1 cell plan per camera is a deal-breaker for me. Within a few years I expect to have dozens of cameras on this property. Hopefully they'll offer the keen cameras in a PoE or battery/wifi version.

But I do wonder if the keen cameras are so different from their standard smart cameras. I'm a software engineer, and at past employers we served different markets with fundamentally the same product with minor customization. So I'm very suspicious of the differences between their "animal" detection in the keen line and "pet" detection in the smart cameras. I suspect the non-keen cameras just mash all the animal detection into a single "pet" alert. It wouldn't make sense for them to implement the two software stacks from scratch, it really ought to be the same software on all the cameras. If that's the case, the non-keen smart cameras should work very well for me. But so far I've not gotten the pet detection enabled on my cameras even though they're supposed to have it.

I agree. I think you can use Reolink pt or Wi-Fi and it is exact same thing cheaper just not camo. They do say the IR is better but I’m doubtful on the keen ranger pt. They do work flawlessly.

I use eiotclub cards for cell on each. 8 bucks a month. You pay 99 for a year of data. Say 100 so 800 bucks a year for 8 cameras.

Unlimited cell data service not cheap. But say it’s 50 a month. So some savings. But there is no extra cost for wires. Solar. Connectors. Set up time. And each camera still runs if one goes out, not one thing shutting down whole system.

I truly don’t know which would be better. They could both work. Mine do all sync easy to the app and cloud and work well together.

 

[ksJoe]

Another difference between keen & non-keen cameras: they've started offering color night vision with white light LEDs. For trail cameras I strongly prefer IR. Fortunately, so far, its only some of their cameras that have white light, and even those still have IR LEDs, and appear to have the option of turning off the white light.

We use cricket wireless for cell phones. They have a 4 line plan, unlimited everything for $100/month. But 3 lines would be $90/month so the 4th line in that bundle is only $10/month. The blind is the 4th line for us, so its costing me $10/month for unlimited data at the blind. It is throttled, so its not super fast, but it works well enough that I'm not interested in paying more until I'm ready to get starlink. When I get starlink, I might set up a VPN so the land's network is directly on my home network. Then I can use the desktop app to browse cameras at their native resolution. I don't think I can use the desktop app without it (thinking it is) on the local network.

I really like the idea of adding cameras being a one time cost, and not adding any monthly bills. For fixed cameras (not PTZ) their 5mp (non-smart) cameras are $40, the 8mp smart ones are around $100. PTZ starts at around $140 for a refurbished 5mp and go up to $300 for 8mp that will zoom in 16x. If I had to buy a data plan per camera, I'd be asking if each camera was really worth that for the next 5-10 years? But with them all sharing one internet link, my attitude is that any place that's easy to get cable to should have camera coverage.

 

[ksJoe]

IMO, reolink really should be viewing their product design decisions as a "share of wallet" situation. That is: how big is their share of the customer's wallet ($)? I expect their keen cameras will develop quite a following and serve many people very well. But the cell providers will make more money off reolink's keen customers. Every keen camera sold creates a recurring revenue stream for a cell provider.

At a minimum they should make their keen cameras form their own wifi mesh network and share a single data plan. Then they get a bigger share of the customer's wallet because less $ is going to cell providers.

Or better yet, if they wanted to cater to me, I'd love to see the keen camera line work with their NVRs over PoE or wifi.

 

[omicron1792]

IMO, reolink really should be viewing their product design decisions as a "share of wallet" situation. That is: how big is their share of the customer's wallet ($)? I expect their keen cameras will develop quite a following and serve many people very well. But the cell providers will make more money off reolink's keen customers. Every keen camera sold creates a recurring revenue stream for a cell provider.

At a minimum they should make their keen cameras form their own wifi mesh network and share a single data plan. Then they get a bigger share of the customer's wallet because less $ is going to cell providers.

Or better yet, if they wanted to cater to me, I'd love to see the keen camera line work with their NVRs over PoE or wifi.

All great points. I’ve set up a solar setup at my barn with 6 100w solar panels to 2 100ah lifepo lithium batteries with 3000w inverter. I love what you have done.

 

[Telemark]

If the cell internet was permanent, I probably would. The long term plan is to build a tiny house out there for a weekend getaway. At that point I'll probably get starlink satellite internet. So the phone is a temporary solution.

The LTE router sounds like it's your best option to avoid the issues you are having. Don't they cost like $100?

 

[ksJoe]

The LTE router sounds like it's your best option to avoid the issues you are having. Don't they cost like $100?

Yeah, some are are $80. But I'll soon have a larger building with a larger solar system. I'll move the phone there and use wifi to the blind. Then the phone should never go down. An LTE router would also be one more thing to set up. Its not a big deal, but its one more thing on the huge backlog of projects. Now that the days are longer it hasn't gone down in almost a month. I don't expect it to go down before I get it moved to the new building.

The raspberry pi sends the temp & humidity inside the battery box to InfluxData so I can see the temp of the battery to make sure its not freezing. With it insulated and sealed up it stays about 20 degrees higher than the outdoor temp.

 

[Telemark]

Do you have a heater hooked up to the Raspberry Pi?