Siphoned gas and Security Cameras

[Snattlerake]

What was the incredible one you saw?

It is called the Eufy. It is a 4K wireless camera. I would have liked to try one before I installed all of mine. I have to admit I already had an old non HD system. It was crapping out so we decided to go with the Night Owl because I had the wires run for it already.

Here is the good and bad for the Eufy. Jeebus what kinda names them Chinese come up with.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=eufy+4k

 

[dennishoddy]

I will tell you after 15 years in the business, the ONE time you need the wifi camera to be recording, it has lost the connection. This has happened over and over and over.

You can remedy this by getting one that has an onboard SD card.

You also remedy the wifi situation losing its connection by using a UPS backup if the power fails by a thief pulling the electric meter which is common practice to shut down a wired system.
We keep our wifi system online with the wifi router and base unit for the wifi cams plugged into a UPS. I've killed power to the home, and we still get alerts just like normal on our phones thousands of miles away. We do have the SD cards in the cams as well.
Of course, a wired system could be backed up the same way, but wifi systems are so easy and inexpensive to install and maintain these days.
The technology is growing day by day. You can talk on them, start sirens, have internal flood lights, color night vision, 1080P, and so on.
I just can't see going to a wired system anymore, but I'm not in the business.
Like you said, we have cams looking at cams to make sure someone doesn't slip behind one and pull it down, also use cellular game cameras for a secondary backup to monitor the property outside the home and possible access areas that are unreachable unless one has one heck of a ladder.

 

[SoonerP226]

It is called the Eufy.

Eufy has gotten Anker (the company that makes them) in some hot water recently. Apparently, some of their claims about privacy have been shown to have been not exactly truthful, and their response to a recent security incident has been almost universally deemed unsatisfactory.

ETA: Link to one of the stories:
https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/30...oud-private-encryption-authentication-storage

 

[dennishoddy]

Not all of us have cell phones.
But something got me thinking what about a game camera you guys post a lot of nice deer in the woods pictures.

That's what I use for perimeter security around the house where wifi can't reach and cables don't run. There is about 30 seconds latency between the time it picks up motion and it shows up on my phone though.
Edited:

 

[Roy14]

Great info guys, keep it coming.

My biggest reason for using a non-WiFi is we don’t have WiFi. Lol. Crazy I know, but my phone’s hotspot is 3x as fast as the WiFi we can get, and it costs me $5/ month for unlimited. I do have an Apple Watch now (I swore I’d never get one) for an extra 10/month that gets service so I can leave the phone at the house.

One of the wired models I was looking at would connect to WiFi and you could use an app on your phone to control and monitor the cameras. I probably wouldn’t use that, but it’s a nice option.

What is a UPS system?

@Snattlerake how much for you to come out of retirement? I was going to ask a local place, the former radio shack, if they install them, but sounds like you’re the guy for the job.

 

[Perplexed]

What is a UPS system?

Uninterruptible power supply. Basically, a smart battery.

 

[JeffT]

UPS - Uninterrupted Power Supply.
Basically a battery that is plugged into the wall to maintain its charge, that you plug your devices into so even when the power goes out, you still have power to those devices, at least until the battery dies.
Commonly used for devices you always need to have power.

 

[Bigdawg90]

You don’t need Wi-Fi connected to the actual internet to create a LAN (local area network). Just grab a router and you can use it as an access point. When you connect your phone to the router you’ll grab all the camera activations. All the cameras should sync up to the router just the same.

No 100% cloud based cameras would work with that, but you could plug a simple usb drive into the router and then they would work offline. I did something similar to create a secondary access system when one of my neighbors was a weirdo. I was worried about him hacking my internet router, so I created the secondary system.

It sounds all tech savvy but it’s actually connecting like three wires and logging into the router through your phone. I hate wired systems. They’re unsightly unless installed correctly and that’s either expensive or means lots of drilling and crawling through an attic.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

If you are still leaning towards wired systems I highly recommend Swann. I would also recommend that you get an NVR system instead of a DVR system. NVR is better because the cables are simply ethernet cables as opposed to powered BNC cables (1 power adapter per camera with BNC, with NVR only one power adapter through your DVR box). 1 UPS connected to the DVR handles your power outages. I have had an NVR system for two years, only issue is DVR and Software upgrades are a bit of a pain, although the last two can be done over the internet. The cameras on my NVR system all have microphones as well. Totally wireless systems like Arlo are good, however expect to change batteries, also may have subscription services attached to them for full use. I have the option for Internet with my Swann. My experience has been with Swann, Blink, Simply Safe, RemoBell and Defender (a system much like Night Owl.) By the way, I have found all the apps to be wonky, as well as the DVR software. The big dissadvantage with Swann or any NVR system is you may need to reboot your system and cameras frequently (1 X) per day. You can set it to auto reboot.

 

[kingfish]

I'm not sure what you are expecting from a security cam system. If you are looking to document when a crime has occurred, they are good for that. What useful information the cameras will provide to law enforcement is a bit iffy. Providing night time infra red videos to identify perps is not good unless they get up close to the camera. But you might be able to recognize a neighborhood kid or the cops might recognize a known perp with a good image.
If you are expecting to get an alert when someone comes on your property so you can intercede and stop them, you will be disappointed. Night time infra red cameras will be constantly triggering from bugs flying around the cams. They are attracted to the light. Getting alerts all night long will drive you crazy and you will soon disable that feature. Even in the daytime cameras will trigger from birds and four legged creatures passing through the cameras FOV. Even the wind blowing trees around will trigger the cams.
So my system is a wireless 4 cam one. I would prefer to have a wired one with the capability of providing power over the ethernet cable so you don't have to locate cameras near outside power outlets. It also lets you only need one UPS for the recorder. Locating wireless cameras where you want them to be looking and having a strong enough signal to reach the wireless receiver/recorder can be hard to do depending on the size of your property. You might have to use signal boosters on some cameras.
Having overlapping camera FOVs might be useful in certain circumstances. My personal opinion is it's much easier for a thief to just pull a ski mask over their face rather than running around your house disabling cams. Most crimes like your gas theft are ones of opportunity and they are not even concerned about being caught on camera cause they are probably high on something.
What I get the most use out of my system is if I hear a sound outside at night, I can check my phone or iPad to see what might be going on rather that running around the house trying to see out windows in the dark. Each morning I check my recordings to see how many deer came through my yard and if any of them were big bucks.
Fog and rain will fill your recording at night making them next to useless, but I guess you could run through the night's recording at high speed if you needed to look for something in particular.
One thing I have always been undecided about is putting up a sign saying the property is under 24 hour video surveillance. That might make some criminals decide to move on to an easier target, or it might make a savvy perp wonder what you might be hiding in your home that is worth stealing.