Wiring to battery power...

[bobbo268 0]

I need to put a wireless camera under a birdhouse in the middle of my yard due to a problem neighbor... problem is, I don't want to dig for a power line, and run electric to the middle of my yard...

 

I will be using a lorex LW2110. ( I chose this because it was cheap and wireless)

 

I was thinking of using a solar powered trickle 12v 5w charger, a small 12v 9ah alarm system backup battery, and wiring the lorex to the battery... In theory, the solar charger would feed the battery power during the day, and the the battery should last through the night, and be topped off during the next day, and so on and so on and so on.....

 

Here's the questions:

 

1) Would this work?

2) Can i wire the camera directly to the battery or do i need something in between like fuses, resistors, regulators??

3) How long would the battery last from fully charged, assuming it was not hooked up to solar power?

 

Here's the products I used in my head when thinking of this... I'm trying to keep it cheaper than running real electric cable in the ground. The only thing I have so far is the camera so the charger and battery are just listed as what I thought I may buy to use.....

 

- Camera - lw2110 lorex wireless single camera setup

 

- Battery - http://www.amazon.com/UB1290-Computer-Back-Power-Battery/dp/B007XIUPCU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366981545&sr=8-1&keywords=12v+9ah

 

- Solar Charger - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006Q7C7L6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=AWPBFTW0ZXVPR

[sonyfcb 0]

I need to put a wireless camera under a birdhouse in the middle of my yard due to a problem neighbor... problem is, I don't want to dig for a power line, and run electric to the middle of my yard...

 

I will be using a lorex LW2110. ( I chose this because it was cheap and wireless)

 

I was thinking of using a solar powered trickle 12v 5w charger, a small 12v 9ah alarm system backup battery, and wiring the lorex to the battery... In theory, the solar charger would feed the battery power during the day, and the the battery should last through the night, and be topped off during the next day, and so on and so on and so on.....

 

Here's the questions:

 

1) Would this work?

2) Can i wire the camera directly to the battery or do i need something in between like fuses, resistors, regulators??

3) How long would the battery last from fully charged, assuming it was not hooked up to solar power?

 

Here's the products I used in my head when thinking of this... I'm trying to keep it cheaper than running real electric cable in the ground. The only thing I have so far is the camera so the charger and battery are just listed as what I thought I may buy to use.....

 

- Camera - lw2110 lorex wireless single camera setup

 

- Battery - http://www.amazon.com/UB1290-Computer-Back-Power-Battery/dp/B007XIUPCU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366981545&sr=8-1&keywords=12v+9ah

 

- Solar Charger - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006Q7C7L6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=AWPBFTW0ZXVPR

 

 

Hi

How long do you want this camera works?

Is it possible use the camera motion detective function ? when there is somebody or something moves , the camera begins to work , so the camera can use the battery .

I think your garden is quiet .

Philip

Phlip.Hdview@gmail.com

[bigglebowski 0]

 

1) Would this work?

2) Can i wire the camera directly to the battery or do i need something in between like fuses, resistors, regulators??

3) How long would the battery last from fully charged, assuming it was not hooked up to solar power?

 

 

It should work, if not you could always upgrade to a bigger battery like a deep cycle marine type. Its never a bad idea to have an inline fuse with any circuit like this where the power source can supply WAY more current than your device needs. A regulator is not a bad idea but most electronic devices have their own regulator built in. A regulator would be required if your battery was a different voltage then what the camera needs like an 18v source.

[ronp 0]

You'll need to look up the specs for the camera and find out how much power it draws. With that you can determine what size battery and solar panel you need.

 

Assume a typical camera (without IR LEDs) draws 150mA or .15Amps. Multiply that by 24hours and it will need 3.6Amp-hours over a full day. Your choice of a 9Ah battery is good because you never want to drain a battery lower than 50% and 3.6 is less than 4.5. A fully charged battery would power your camera for 24 hours with a little power to spare.

 

Solar panel ratings are usually given in Watts. But, the rated output is under ideal, bright sun overhead, conditions. In real-life situations a 5 Watt panel over the course of a day might average 3 Watts of output at best.

 

Working backwards, let's say you want to put 4Ah (3.6Ah plus cushion) of energy back into the battery over 8 hours of good daylight.

 

4Amp-hours / 8 hours = 0.5 Amps.

Watts = Amps * Voltage. Most solar panels output 14 Volts.

0.5Amps * 14Volts = 7 Watts so you'll need a panel that outputs at least 7 Watts.

 

*Since real-world panel output is probably 50% of their rated ouput, I think you'll need a 15Watt panel to be safe and to account for energy loss and inefficiency.

 

*These numbers assume that every day is sunny. There's no buffer for a single cloudy day. Double or triple your battery and solar panel to cover that.

 

*You will also need a solar panel smart charger. Basic trickle chargers won't work because when the sun comes up your battery will need much more than a trickle to charge it back up, then as the battery charges over the day the charger needs to slowly switch over to just a trickle.

 

*All the above calculations assume a camera that needs 0.15Amps of power, typical of many cameras that don't have IR LEDs. If your camera does have IR LEDs it will need much more power - perhaps 5 times as much.

 

The bottom line is you often require a much larger solar panel system than you might first assume. It's very frustrating to buy and build a system then quickly finding out it won't last more than a day or two before going dead (I've been there). There's always an extension cord...

 

Ron

[bobbo268 0]

The garden is fine, its the neighbors on the other side of the garden. If i have to get multiple panels, and batteries and such, i'll be right back to the same price as if i would have installed underground cables, except without the hassle of the upkeep and panel maintenance...... maybe a dummy camera will have to do for now..... maybe wind energy?

[Kawboy12R 0]

Depending on what the problem is and whether catching them on video stops it, simply running above-ground power for a while might work fine for a short term, depending on traffic and location I guess. Given that you've already got the wireless camera, an extension cord in conduit over the lawn with the ends of the conduit anchored might do. Maybe even run covert power, show them some video to prove the cam works, and if they stop what they're doing then remove the power but leave the cam. Problem solved and a cam is in place that they think works. Still not as good as full-time underground power. Even if underground cables cost a bit more than doing it wirelessly with an oversized panel/battery, it'll be a lot cheaper in the long run because of maintenance such as weather damaged panels, replacement batteries, etc. I wouldn't suggest just running power if you're going to do it wired either, run cat6 w/baluns or put a network cam there. That way you'll get a MUUUUUCH better picture than some old cheapo wireless analog cam. Wired analog is way better than wireless analog, and network cams beat analog in most situations as well, usually by a large margin.

[bobbo268 0]

My problem with hardwiring the whole thing is that my garage is detached, and closest to the garden, and my driveway cuts my lawn in half, so in order to hard wiee the bnc or cat id have to dig under the driveway and thats way too expensive. The dvr is in the house. This is why im forced to do wireless. I have one wired on my house

[ronp 0]

Another option is to buy a 96Amp-hour deep discharge marine battery (approx $100 at Walmart) and throw it on a car battery charger (or jump it from your car) for a couple hours every few days.

[bobbo268 0]

Thats not a bad idea. I through the new wireless one on the garage. Its nice, but not as real-time as the wired on. I think for now I may just put a dummy one in the garden with a led blinking light (even though real ones don't have blinking lights usually but most idiots don't know that.) and after a couple days i'll stop the blinking light and throw some shrubbery over it so they think i'm trying to hide it