Entertaining putting a "house feeder" out with protein or cottonseed this offseason and we have starlink at cabin. I think it would be cool to have some sort of WiFi camera in place, like Ring, but maybe without the subscription to just randomly check in and see what's eating there. Any of y'all done this before and/or have a camera recommendation for this?

I have cell cameras already just looking to piggyback off the WiFi and not get another plan.

TIA

I have solar powered wi-fi cameras for our foaling/horse pens. A 2-pack was $80 on Amazon. They're over a year old and still work great.

The ones I bought aren't available now, but these are most similar to them

https://a.co/d/3OUd5dU

ETA: I believe these are the exact ones I have. Use the UBOX app, no issues. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D1G8KV7C?ref_=cm_sw_r_cso_cp_apan_dp_58HM79QHP3CYSNF782XD

Thank you! Do they have any sort of motion indicator or do you just periodically log in and check it out?

I have solar powered google nest cameras on a couple of water features. I already had the google home subscription as part of our home security system, so it was easy to add them as a separate location. You can select what kind of notices you do or don't want to receive (person, animal, vehicle, motion, etc.). This thread (https://texags.com/forums/34/topics/3568709/replies/71069733) has some examples of the types of videos it records. I can pull it up and watch live or go back and look at recorded clips later.

I also tried an Arlo cam at the same site and I was not impressed. One of the two cameras has never connected properly and the other takes a long time to recognize motion and their service is not as easy to access and save clips from.

Yes, you can adjust the sensitivity to motion. You can also move them around 360 degrees to see what else is out there. Day & night quality is surprisingly good considering the price.

You can pay for a subscription, but if you don't it defaults to save a certain number of videos to the cloud. You have to download them to view, but who cares. Cheaper than a subscription. Very rarely do I go back and look at saved video. It's more just checking in on things.

That's awesome! Side note - how did you make those GIFs? I've been looking for a way to do that and most of the gif makers I have seen require subscription.

Awesome! Thanks for the intel

ttha_aggie_09 said:

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That's awesome! Side note - how did you make those GIFs? I've been looking for a way to do that and most of the gif makers I have seen require subscription.

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I just save them as a video clip directly off the google home app to my phone or tablet then upload them to Imgur. Then just insert them as an image here using the Imgur link.

yes; out at my land, i have a solar powered reolink wifi camera right by the barndo where it can reach the wifi network and cellular reveal cameras out where there's no wifi.

i don't have a feeder by the barndo, but the reolink is watching a grove of persimmons trees where a ton of wild life come right up to the building every night and also serves as a security camera for when septic or pest control or any visitors arrive at the property. it records and uses AI to recognize vehicles, humans, and animals.

the reolink does not require a cloud subscription. just put a micro SD card in it. sends real-time notifications when movement is detected. you can watch live, pan 360 degrees, and watch play back vidoes from your phone any time you want. you can turn on alarms or spot lights, talk through it like a ring door bell - just no subscription.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D1K25BMM?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

Another reolink vote. I've had one out in various spots for 3-4 years now without having to charge it.

I have the WYZE cams at our farm house and at my home. WYZE have several different panning cameras. PanCam 3 & 4 (higher resolution), PanCam duo that is two cameras, one fixed and a panning camera underneath. They also just came out with a solar panning camera if you don't have access to power.

I use the panning camera with a connected light socket that powers the camera and also allow you to control the light on/off or set it for dusk/dawn operation. Only works with the PanCam 3. PanCam 4 needs an outlet.

No monthly subscription, but this limits features and motion capture playback. I have SD cards that I can access through the app for playback. Monthly adds capabilities and cloud storage for playback.

I control all my cameras with the app. You can also share access to others if you would like.

They are relatively inexpensive. PanCam 3 is $40 and the light socket if you don't have and outlet is $17

I have 12 cameras at three different locations.

I have a few amazon blink cameras up and one is on the feeder, one on water and the other one on the rain gauge......I can tell you I hardly ever look at the rain gauge one.

You can pay for them to be monitored but I dont do that.

Thanks! I like the rain gauge idea

I had a client that had 4 blink cameras setup looking on all sides of his deer stand then he had a mobile hotspot in the deer stand powered with a large solar panel and some kind of battery backup. I'm not sure all of the specifics but he said it worked great. He always knew when I was at the property because the cameras would go off. I'm sure a little research could tell you how to provide enough power for the hotspot. I always thought it was an interesting idea then I bought tactacam's and never really needed anything else.

Yeah this would be literally within 20-30 yards of cabin where we have existing WiFi and probably just run on solar. This is one of those, "why not" projects I am looking into plus we have always wanted a house type feeder.