I’m looking to power a V3 camera outside. What’s the longest power cable I could buy that is supported to power this thing? I don’t think I would need more then 50-100 feet. Thanks!
WOW - that’s a long way for USB power. I have three V3’s outside. One is on a 10’ USB extension the other two are on 20’ USB extensions. I have had zero issues with this. My guess is the someone smarter than me will advise to use a POE (power over Ethernet) adapter. You could also use a quality extension cord to get the power closer.
48V POE is the way to go for long distances. There’s another similar thread in which i posted some adapters that you could use to do this.
D.C. power has voltage drop over distance, to overcome this using a 12 volt power supply to a 5 volt regulator at camera end takes care of this very well. I have 4 cameras wired this way for several years on V2’s and now I have replaced those with V3’s.
12 volt input to 5 volt output micro-USB cable (adapter)
12 volt power supply 1 amp with connector adapter
Edit: My longest run is 188 feet from 12volt wall transformer to 5volt micro-USB regulator/camera
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48 volt POE will work too but it is overkill in my opinion. 12 volts to a 5 volt regulator is my preferred setup.
Works on the same principle as a POE, send excess voltage down line and regulate at source. I prefer 2 conductor cable over Ethernet cable (Costs less too)
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Running 12v through a 100 foot long 24 gauge wire with a load of 5W results in a 18% drop in voltage at the other end.
Running 48v through the same wire with the same length and the same load results in a 1% drop in voltage.
If you want to be efficient, use POE.
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The cameras don’t draw 5 watts in my experience, measured a V3 with IR on, streaming video at 1.6 watts.
5.11 volts .31 Amps
The 12 volt to 5 volt adapter cable will regulate with a input as low as 7 volts
In my 188 foot run the voltage drop is approximately 1.2 volts, so the regulating adapter sees 10.8 volts and works as expected as it will work down to 7 volts. I could go 750 feet and still have over 7 volts…
I use 20 awg wire
Efficiency is a moot point when working at current/wattage this low - 2.6 watts at 12 volt feed I can live with and not upset Greta because I killed a watt in the cable run and 5 volt regulation… LOL
Edit: And with my setup I don’t need a POE to USB adapter connected to an Ethernet cable with another cable USB to camera just too messy for me.
The 20 AWG wire is weatherproof and the adapter is weatherproof, doubt the POE to USB is…
This setup I use also on a 12 volt Solar/Battery setup on my driveway entrance, another reason I stuck with 12-14 volt range feeding the 5 volt USB adapter cable in all my cameras.
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Your adapter isn’t weather proof. Neither one is (usb connections are not waterproof). They both need to be placed into an enclosure if they are going to be exposed directly to the elements. The other big problem you are going to have with a camera that is 100 feet away from the house is that there’s likely to be no wifi signal or very poor signal there, A POE cable run can have an AP at the remote end with a little bit of modification, so you’d have a strong wifi signal for the camera to use. Good luck getting that to work with a 2 wire cable.
With POE, if you have a bad signal once you get your wire run, you simply run an ethernet cable from the router to the POE injector, and then get a microusb splitter in the enclosure near the camera and put one of these in:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TQEX8BO/
Set it up and say goodbye to constantly disconnecting wifi/ poor signal on your outdoor camera. With your setup, you have to either move the camera closer, or run POE.
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Actually the adapter is weatherproof up to the USB connection, and the V3 has a rubber cover built on the cable from V3 that does make it weatherproof.
The V2 was there for over 2 years before the V3 replaced it, 2 years of rain, hail & snow. The V2 was inside a camera enclosure that covered USB. Never had an issue and same USB adapter is now on V3 mounted 15 feet up a 90+ foot pine tree, No weather protection at all…
188 feet from Wireless Access point with 3 full bars
Myself I would not want a “Live” Ethernet cable outside for anyone to connect to and be on my network, as would be in your POE WAP scenario…
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I’ve been trying to determine how to finalize the pre-run CAT5 I have throughout my house to power my Wyze Cam v3s. So far I’ve relegated myself to making a new plug up on my wall after a few failed attempts with POE. I saw a few adapters people have posted and purchased a POE TP-Link Network Switch and 2 POE Splitter adapters. It seemingly worked for a day or so then my camera started making a motor noise like it was constantly adjusting focus. Has anyone else experienced this or do I just need to make a new regular plug up my wall for my v3 to work? Any help is appreciated.