Installing a security video surveillance system outdoors requires two conditions for the camera to work normally. One is that there is a power supply for the camera, and the other is that there is a network that can transmit video signals. The signal transmission of the network camera can be through wired (network cable, optical fiber), wireless (4G, 5G, Wi-Fi or wireless AP) and other methods. In addition to the conventional way of laying out power lines for power supply, you can also consider using solar energy + battery power supply. It is a very good choice to deploy a security video surveillance system outdoors without electricity or network, and to use a solar-powered 4G surveillance camera.
Because of environmental protection, low carbon and other ideas are generally accepted, the development of new energy technology, solar energy, wind power and other clean energy supply is widely used. In the field of security, the use of solar power, free from the constraints of wiring, camera selection, installation is more flexible, convenient, fast, and to some extent more cost effective.
We once disassembled a solar-powered 4G camera (ISULINK program solar 4G camera disassembly), the difference between its ordinary surveillance cameras are mainly reflected in low power consumption, solar sail panels, built-in batteries in three areas, this article on these three aspects of solar-powered security cameras to do a summary.
Low power consumption
The use of solar panels + battery power supply, the power consumption of the camera is an important factor that must be considered, of course, consider this factor should be in the product design stage, and the average user is not too big, but understand this clearly, the user selection of the use of solar surveillance cameras is not without benefit.
Security surveillance cameras run, the power consumed in different states is not the same. For example, normal work, standby, PTZ rotation, remote access connection, local TF card recording, night fill light start, etc. The power consumption is not the same. Solar + battery power supply is limited in capacity, certainly not as often electricity, so must be considered in any one of the working state as much as possible to save the camera power consumption. Consider different working states can be broadly divided into different solar cameras into hibernation, low power consumption, full power consumption three power consumption mode.
1.1 Sleep
In this state, all functions of the camera basically stop running (remote access to preview the camera screen, local video storage, etc. are not), only to maintain a heartbeat contact with the network, the camera system is always in a dormant state, typical power consumption of about 400mW1-700mW2.
1.2 Low power consumption
Through the cell phone APP or trigger alarm (PIR or microwave infrared body induction, wake up button, etc.) and other ways to wake up the camera, from the dormant state into the working state.
Remote access to preview the camera live screen, need continuous network connection (Wi-Fi or 4G), the camera is in a normal working state, when the camera power consumption increases.
But if the camera does not have remote access, always in low-power mode, when the monitoring scene in an abnormal situation, there is no TF card local recording, there is no remote connection NVR or back-end recording, then the deployment of monitoring is meaningless. The solution is simple, the camera is connected to a human sensor alarm device, when the monitoring scene in the presence of people, it will trigger the alarm (the general wind will not trigger, avoiding false alarms), and then wake up the camera, so that it enters a normal state of work (push the alarm information or alarm video stored on the local TF card).
Considering that the power consumption of the device to be low, surveillance cameras human body sensing alarm devices are mostly PIR human body sensing or microwave radar human body sensing. In order to make the human body detection more accurate, PIR human body induction and microwave two ways are sometimes used at the same time, appearing on the same camera. In the Xiongmai program solar 4G camera teardown an article on PIR and microwave radar body induction has been introduced, you can refer to read.
The camera is usually in a dormant state, when there is an app remote access or someone appears in the monitoring scene, the camera will be woken up and enter the normal function mode (depending on the settings, there will be alarm information pushed or alarm video local storage at this time). When the camera’s remote access connection is disconnected or the alarm message disappears for a period of time (can be a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on the settings), the camera will enter sleep mode again and wait for the next time to be woken up. Note that the low-power operation mode, the camera can not be set to 24 hours or timer recording, only alarm recording.
In order to avoid the initial configuration of the use will always be in hibernation mode, the camera will set a wake-up button, the camera can wake up from hibernation mode into a normal working state, in order to facilitate the installation of the camera configuration use.
The above is the camera in low-power mode operation of all the circumstances.
1.3 Full power consumption
Full power consumption, as opposed to low power consumption, is the same as the normal power camera, in a continuous normal working state, when all the functions of the camera can be opened normally
Solar panels
2.1 Materials
The basic principle of solar panels is to use the photoelectric effect of silicon and certain metals to convert solar energy into electricity, which is then stored in a battery to provide electricity to the corresponding equipment. The raw material used, silicon, can be divided into monocrystalline silicon and polycrystalline silicon. Currently, monocrystalline silicon is mostly used, with a service life of more than 25 years and a photovoltaic conversion efficiency of about 20%.
2.2 Installation
Depending on the installation location, the tilt angle of the solar sail installation is determined in order to obtain the maximum solar energy. The general principle is that the azimuth is facing due south in the northern hemisphere and due north in the southern hemisphere.
Battery
Home solar cameras use batteries are mostly 18650 and 21700 batteries. 18650 batteries have ternary lithium-ion batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries, the maximum capacity of a single 18650 lithium battery is generally not more than 3400mAh, while the maximum capacity of a single 21700 battery can be as large as 5000mAh. single battery voltage is generally 3.7V, while the camera The voltage of a single battery is generally 3.7V, while the camera needs to work with 5V or 12V, so generally multiple batteries are connected in series and parallel to form a battery pack. For example, a home solar camera uses six 18650 batteries to form a battery pack, its maximum capacity can reach 20000mAh/3.7V, the discharge efficiency is generally higher than 95%.
The professional class of solar cameras use more batteries, because the consideration of the need for higher-capacity electricity, batteries are more cost-effective. But the battery size is larger, heavier, not suitable for home cameras lightweight requirements and trends.
Selection calculation and use
Calculate the duration of the solar camera continuous rainy days and the time required to charge with load. Need to consider the camera power consumption, battery capacity, discharge efficiency, solar photoelectric conversion efficiency, solar panel power and other parameters.
Different use scenarios, use habits, will lead to a large gap in the calculated data, here is not a specific example of the calculation.
