In my last blog on the topic I said I'd give an update once I'd got more experience with the Foscam cameras and the Perfect IP camera software. Well as I've reached a reasonably stable situation here's my update.
I found the perfect IP camera software unstable to start with but I think this was caused by my legacy cameras constantly dropping off the WIFI; this appeared to cause the software to stall while it hunted for the missing cameras. Getting the WIFI to the stables has always been the Achilles heel of my system so I decided to go for all ethernet. I spoke in the last blog about the BT Broadband Extender Flex 600 Kit which uses the electrical distribution around the house to transfer your Broadband signal to otherwise inaccessible places and that's what I've now used to access the stables (the power to the stables comes from the house). At the same time I have decided to update the critical cameras on my network.
Eight Way, Power Over Ethernet, Netgear Ethernet Switch
Let's start with the Ethernet. As I've said previously I've been indebted to Broadband Buyer for their help in this matter. As I'd decided to go for Power Over Internet (POE) I read the details on their website to make sure I purchased a switch with sufficient capacity as Pan/Tilt/Zoom (PTZ) cameras can draw a bit of power down the Ethernet. When you get the switch it explains how it will prioritize the inputs should it be faced with an overload but I wanted to avoid that situation. The switch I chose is unmanaged, which I think means you can't monitor it from the Netgear App, which although it is a fun thing to do wasn't really necessary and I decided wasn't worth the additional cost. I also worked out how many more cables I would require and obtained them from Broadband Buyer as well.
As always I'm not receiving any payment to promote Foscam, Netgear or Broadband Buyer and clearly different manufacturers and suppliers are available; I can only say they've worked for me.
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| My High Power 8 port POE switch |
Foscam Cameras
I actually made a mistake when I purchased my cameras for the stables. I ordered three R2M cameras thinking this was what I'd purchased as a initial trial. In fact I purchased the R4M which has a higher specification and costs about £30 more per camera. The R2Ms are 1080 cameras whereas the R4M is 2K. The R4M will also work on both WIFI frequencies as well. As I was intended to use Ethernet the latter was not an issue and the cameras are so much better than my legacy cameras that the 1080 looks crystal clear. So although I need to be more careful in future it was money well saved overall.
The R2M is not actually POE. Because I wanted to use POE I purchased the 5912 splitter with my three cameras in this configuration. As the name suggests the splitter allows you to run Ethernet from your POE switch to somewhere near to camera where you split the power from the signal and connect both to the camera. I tried the switch and the splitter with one of my legacy cameras first and all worked well. My only slight reservation is the 5V plug into the cameras feels loose so you need to ensure you don’t leave it under tension as it may pop out.
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R2M with 5912 POE Splitter
©Harveywetdog
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The swap over
I then set about swapping over my stable cameras, running in my Ethernet cables and where I was using POE, removing a plethora of mains extension cables and power supply units. There was some concern about system capacity but I was pleased that the initial switch was capable of feeding through to the new switch and the BT Broadband Extender Flex 600 was able to handle all the traffic from both switches. I connected everything up and switched everything on and the system worked beautifully.
Eventually I might let the POE switch feed through to the 5 way switch or I might feed each switch from its own BT Broadband Extender Flex 600. I think in my last blog I said I couldn’t add in a third Extender but I tried it again this time and it worked perfectly first time. I don’t know if it means I should have read the instructions more carefully or if the first pair have to be pumping data before you add in the third (and fourth).
One other thing I've discovered is that with my iPhone App I can specify a local address, i.e. the address of the device on my network as well as a remote address (I'm still using fixed IP addresses from DYNDNS at present). I have the local addresses set to Main Stream and the remote addresses set to Sub Stream.
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Cameras, cables and clips!
©Harveywetdog
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What next
I have one more security camera to install, a Foscam SD2 sitting on a FAB28S waterproof junction box, which is an external PTZ model and which I will configure in POE mode. My success with the BT Extenders means I have a fourth Extender and couple more security cameras around the house but that might mean getting into the loft so I’m leaving that for now.
I also need to decide what I'm going to do about the fixed IP addresses from DYNDNS as these are not supported by Gigaclear but I need to investigate if they are supported by the cameras themselves.
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Fiddling with the cameras on the iPhone
©Harveywetdog |
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