CCTV camera system without mains electric?

[feelinggood]

Does anyone know if such a thing exists as a cctv camera system that can be fitted where there is no mains electric and that will stream to your phone without internet nearby?

 

[whatnow]

It can be done without nearby internet by using 4g BUT it’s all going to need some form of power. I don’t know if a battery would work but I have my doubts

 

[Brisel]

@sleepy

 

[puntabrava]

Does anyone know if such a thing exists as a cctv camera system that can be fitted where there is no mains electric and that will stream to your phone without internet nearby?

Are you sure on the phone?

 

[upnortheast]

Worth putting it in the Computer / IT section

 

[Shutesy]

Worth putting it in the Computer / IT section

 

[upnortheast]

Been bits on here in the past about running devices without a mains supply using a battery & solar panels.
Maybe @Pheasant Surprise might know the practicalities ?
Was mentioned on this thread
https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index...point-to-point-networking.87134/#post-1698298

 

[sleepy]

@sleepy

Thank you for the tag

It's simple enough to do

First of all you need some solar panels:
https://www.bimblesolar.com/offgrid/12v?product_id=1529
These guys are usually pretty well priced.

Then you need a 4G router, EE is by far the best option currently:
https://shop.ee.co.uk/dongles/pay-monthly-mobile-broadband/4gee-router/details#choosePlanAnchor

And then a CCTV kit, you need one that can run off 12v and that doesn't need a static IP address, but you don't need any of the normal WiFi stuff.

Various suppliers are available, with differing levels of support and backup

 

[manhill]

Sleepy's solution would probably facilitate a remote alarm call to a mobile phone as well as part of a security system if you want to take it further.

 

[axelr]

It's not that hard to do with solar panels and batteries for night operation. Of course, in winter, it's going to be quite challenging, average irradiation is 1/10th of summer, so you'd need *lots* of solar panels to pick up enough juice, and lots of battery to ride through a cloudy week.

There are existing solutions like https://reolink.com/product/reolink-go/ https://reolink.com/product/argus-2/ but I'm skeptical whether it's going to be enough for UK winter. You might look into using those, and adding extra battery or larger solar panel.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

It's not that hard to do with solar panels and batteries for night operation. Of course, in winter, it's going to be quite challenging, average irradiation is 1/10th of summer, so you'd need *lots* of solar panels to pick up enough juice, and lots of battery to ride through a cloudy week.

There are existing solutions like https://reolink.com/product/reolink-go/ https://reolink.com/product/argus-2/ but I'm skeptical whether it's going to be enough for UK winter. You might look into using those, and adding extra battery or larger solar panel.

Agreed. Any off-grid solar in the (relatively) far northern hemisphere like the UK, with very short days in winter you need to over-provision your panels AND your battery capacity.

So you end up with a system which can basically run for a week with only a few hours of usable daylight energy in that time.

It’s all doable, it just costs triple the budget of what you originally expect for summer operation.

 

[Still Farming]

Mates got a set up like that to his phone for watching calving and cows.
Got batteries ,a solar panel and small micro wind turbine.

 

[Against_the_grain]

Just stumbled across this thread
We have a Netgear ARLO camera here which is run solely on solar power. Can buy them through vodafone with 4G (£4/month) and stream the images live to your phone/desktop. Also can set timers to send you alerts when movement is detected etc...