Remote Webcam Installation
Animal Surveillance for Landcare
The project’s aim was the remote video transmission of wild animals for a coastal landscape regeneration project.
If possible, the camera should be installed swivelling and not rigid so that the surroundings in the vicinity of the location can be monitored day and night. The camera should also send push messages and save video data locally. The video data should be available for all device classes (cell phone, tablet, PC).
The camera should forward motion reports at the location to mobile devices via push messages.
The optimal range of the night vision was defined as around 30m from the camera location.
The webcam is located about 350m from the nearest fixed Internet connection.
Evaluation
During the solution evaluation, three possible scenarios were searched for and closely examined.
1. Variant 4G Webcam with SIM card
Camera with installed SIM card. Here we evaluated different camera models on the market. Static webcams are relatively cheap to buy but have follow-up costs (SIM card, data) that are open to the top.
The cheaper camera models usually only have a limited night vision range and must always be adjusted by hand for new viewing angles. In addition, these devices mostly have no zoom function or a reduced zoom function.
The partially included mini solar cells were also criticized in many reviews. Short running time and rapid degradation of the battery power was evidenced in many reviews.
2. Variant PTZ webcam via POE / RJ45 connection.
The webcam evaluated for this approach has a 360-degree radius and can be swivelled vertically by 90 degrees. The evaluated camera has a fourfold zoom and a night vision range of 33m.
The camera can be supplied with power via Power over Ethernet (POE). Technically it would be possible to provide the camera with power over 350m via a network cable. The limitation of 100m can be bypassed using signal amplifiers every 100m. With this type of connection, the construction of a WiFi bridge would be obsolete. The effort and costs for the outdoor cable and the cable laying are significantly higher. The reliability of the signal amplifier is only guaranteed with expensive products.
In addition, once a location has been defined, the camera location could not be moved to another hill without expensive cabling.
3. Variant PTZ webcam operated via POE / solar
As described in Variant 2, the camera can also be powered with a solar system and connected to the base station via a WiFi signal. The WiFi signal can be routed to the camera using a WiFi bridge.
A solar system can be used to power the system. The solar cell supplies the electricity for operation and feeds it directly into a battery via a solar charge controller. The camera itself is powered by a DCDC POE adapter connected to the solar charge controller. Commercially available outdoor WiFi transmitters can be used to set up the WiFi bridge. We have had excellent experiences with Ubiquiti products. These devices work with meagre power consumption and have a specified range of up to 5km. The reviews with information up to 2km were consistently good. The structure of this variant is technically more demanding than Variant 2, but there is a high degree of flexibility in the installation. With this variant, there is no need to lay an expensive outdoor network cable.
After a preliminary project, the evaluation was complete, and the pros and cons of the version weighed, the client decided to go with the third variant – a PTZ camera with a WiFi bridge.
System overview:
Solar system:
A current, commercially available 130W solar cell with a solar charge controller was selected here.
The average capacity of the solar cell must correspond to the actual power consumption of the system. Manufacturers usually state average production in terms of watts per day.
We use a new car battery as our power storage.
Webcam:
The Reolink RLC-423 had the best price-performance ratio of a pan/tilt/zoom camera.
We had used this camera for a separate project. In that project, the camera worked flawlessly for over two years in the harsh coastal climate.
The camera can be rotated horizontally over 360° and has a vertical swivel range of 90°. The night vision is a little over 30m. The power consumption is around 20W/h.
Reolink also has a perfect administration backend and good mobile apps for all standard mobile devices. A 128GB SD card was also built into the camera.
The webcam is supplied with power from the solar system using a special POE adapter from Tycon (TP-DCDC-1248D).
Wifi Bridge:
Due to our positive experience with the Ubiquiti devices, we chose the NanoStation Loco M2 for this project. The power consumption of the devices is less than 5 W/h
These devices can be configured and adjusted very well in the administration backend. You have good signal setting software.
A passive POE injector ensures the power supply for the webcam. The second head of the Wifi Bridge is powered by a standard POE injector near the Internet modem.
We recommend strongly GoWireless NZ as a supplier for your next project! They have great products and a real friendly technical and sales support.
Project Photos
