Author: JIAHUI

To install a video surveillance system outdoor, two points are needed for the camera to work properly, one is to have a power source to supply power, and the other is to have a network that can transmit video signal. The signal transmission of the web cam can be through wired (network cable, fiber optic), wireless (4G, 5G, Wi-Fi or wireless AP) and other ways.

And power supply, you can use the power line transmission method, but also can consider the use of solar + battery power supply.

To install video surveillance system outdoor without electricity and network, using solar 4G surveillance camera is a very good choice.

Adopting solar power to get rid of cable, the installation is more flexible, convenient, fast, and somehow more cost-saving.

The difference between solar powered 4G camera and ordinary surveillance camera is mainly in three aspects: low power consumption, solar panel, and built-in battery.

Power Consumption

Using solar panel + battery method of power supply, the power consumption of camera is an important factor that must be taken into account.

When surveillance camera is running, the power consumed in different states is not the same. For example, normal operation, standby, PTZ rotation, remote access connection, local TF card recording, night light open etc. consume different power. Solar + battery power supply, limited capacity, certainly not as good as conventional power supply, so we must consider in any one of the working state as much as possible to save the power consumption of the camera.

Standby Mode

In this state, all functions basically stop running, only the heartbeat connection to the network is maintained, and the camera system is always in a dormant state.

Working Mode

Wake up the camera from sleep state (Standby Mode) to working state through mobile APP.

Remote access to preview the live screen of the camera requires continuous network connection (Wi-Fi or 4G), the camera is in normal working state, at this time the camera power consumption increases.

However, if the camera does not have remote access, always in standby mode, when the monitoring scene is abnormal, there is no TF card local video recording, and there is no remote connection to the NVR, then the deployment of monitoring is meaningless. The solution is very simple, connect the camera to a body-sensing alarm device, when there is a person in the monitoring scene, the alarm will be triggered to wake up the camera, so that it enters the normal operating state (push alarm information or alarm video stored to the local TF card).

Considering the low power consumption of the device, the body sensor alarm device of the surveillance camera is mostly PIR body sensor.

Solar Panel

Solar panels convert solar energy into electricity, which is then stored in the battery to provide electricity to the equipment. The raw materials used are monocrystalline and polycrystalline silicon, the more commonly used is monocrystalline silicon, which has a service life of more than 25 years and a photovoltaic conversion efficacy of about 20%.

According to the installation location, determine the tilt angle of the solar panel installation to obtain the maximum solar energy. The principle is that the azimuth angle in the northern hemisphere toward the due south direction, and the southern hemisphere toward the due north direction.

Batteries

The batteries used in home solar camera are mostly 18650 battery and 21700 battery. The maximum capacity of a single 18650 lithium battery is generally not more than 3000mAh, while the maximum capacity of a single 21700 battery can be made larger than 5000mAh. The voltage of a single battery is generally 3.7V, while the camera needs to work for more than 5V or 12V voltage, so it is necessary to use more than one battery in series and form a battery pack.

The project installation of solar cameras use storage battery, because of the need for larger capacity, storage batteries are more cost-effective. But the size is bigger and heavier, not suitable for home camera lightweight requirements and trends.

TF card is the old name, which was officially renamed Micro SD Card in 2004, so the appearance of TF card usually indicates the name Micro SD.

Home surveillance cameras need to choose the right TF memory card. Those with too strong performance are wasteful and uneconomical. Bad performance and too poor quality will result in not being able to record video properly (write speed is too poor and unstable), or not being able to read video properly during playback (read speed is too poor and unstable), or even not being recognized after installed into the camera (quality is too poor). How to choose the right TF memory card for home surveillance camera?

Speed

The read/write speed of the TF card needs to meet the demand of video recording and playback. Video recording corresponds to the write speed of the TF card, and video playback corresponds to the read speed of the TF card, which must be greater than the write speed, so here we only consider the video write speed.

How much write speed is needed to record and store video locally via TF card depends on the size of the camera’s stream (i.e. bitrate). Currently, most common home security cameras have resolutions of 2, 3, 5, and 8 megapixels, usually encoded in H.265.

Even with H.264 encoding, a full HD (1080P) surveillance camera stream is less than 4MB/s, which means that a C4 grade TF card is able to meet the video writing speed requirements of a 1080P surveillance camera. C4 is speed class 4MB/s.

Capacity

How large capacity TF card you choose depends on the resolution (pixels) of the camera and how long the recording is kept.

Take the above mentioned 1080P, H.265 encoded camera as an example, the storage space needed to store 24 hours a day is 21.6G. (The actual storage space is also related to the code stream, frame rate,  and other factors.)

The capacity of TF card is limited, and the number of days of video recording storage is limited. In order to extend the number of days of video storage, we can choose dynamic video recording, that is, there are moving situations in the monitoring screen, such as vehicles, human body movement, etc. This kind of video recording method can prolong the time of video storage when the capacity of TF card is limited, and at the same time, because the recorded video is the human body moving picture, it is more valuable than 24 hours uninterrupted video recording, and it is more convenient to playback.

TF card for video surveillance

There is no need to specifically use the so-called video surveillance TF card. This card and ordinary TF card is not much difference, just a method of marketing and promotion. It is more important to focus on the points mentioned above.

The maximum capacity that camera can support

Limited by the hardware performance, the manufacturer will indicate the maximum capacity TF card that camera can support. it is best not to use more than the recommended maximum capacity of the TF card, which may lead to recognition or instability situations.

Use TF card from a brand manufacturer

This is actually the key, if you use a TF card from an unknown source, then everything said above is meaningless.

Cloud Storage

If you are worried that the TF card storage is not safe, you can also open the cloud storage service, the video recordings are saved in the cloud server, even if the camera is damaged, TF card is damaged or stolen, etc., you can still play back previous video recordings from the cloud.