I do a lot of UniFi. Networks and cameras. I think you'll be fine with the
G5 Pro and the Cloudkey. I usually prefer to use G4 cameras when they're
outdoors, mostly due to the metal case, and my assumption that they'll be
less susceptible to nearby lightning than the plastic cases on the G5s. But
that may just be my paranoia talking and may have no basis in reality.
The Cloudkey Plus does have a 1 TB 2.5" HDD and has more than enough
horsepower to do a single 4K camera. I have seen a hard drive in one of
these fail prematurely after about a year and a half. They aren't
surveillance class drives, so the duty cycle probably isn't what a
surveillance drive would give you. I don't think they even make
surveillance class drives in a 2.5" form factor. Note that after I replaced
that drive, I did have to reset the Cloudkey back to defaults in order to
get it to come alive again. I'm not sure if that's typical, as this is the
only time I've had this happen. Since I had to reset the Cloudkey, I then
had to restore it from a backup in order to avoid physically resetting and
re-adopting all the cameras and APs. The Cloudkey should configure itself
to back up to the cloud periodically (just configuration, not footage).
Overall, since I started installing UniFi cameras for customers a
few years ago, my overall experience with them has been good, and so far,
reliability seems fine. Someone mentioned the flash drives burning out in
the NVRs. That issue got resolved quite a while ago. I had a customer
where I had installed a G4 Bullet in a shop that caught fire (the shop
caught fire, not the camera). The camera picked up where the fire started
(a bucket full of rags), and recorded everything until there was so much
smoke it couldn't see anymore. The camera survived the fire. I don't think
it was ever exposed to direct flames, but it was about 12 feet away from a
55" TV that completely melted. It had to have endured some pretty serious
heat. That was about a year ago and that camera is still going strong.
Craig
On Wed, Mar 6, 2024 at 3:00 PM Bill Prince <part15...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> bp
> <part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com>
>
> On 3/6/2024 1:24 PM, Ken Hohhof wrote:
>
> *FWIW, some customers seem to like the Blink cameras (Amazon's other
> camera brand besides Ring). I know you said no batteries, but supposedly
> with the 900 MHz Sync module, the camera batteries last 1-2 years. My
> understanding is that's because they use the 900 MHz Blink protocol for
> command & control and only use WiFi when sending video. You're sure you
> can't get your WiFi to reach out there? *
>
> Absolutely not. The spot we want to put the camera is at least a couple
> hundred feet away from the house (at least where the WiFi is) and about
> 60-70 feet lower elevation. We have a shed about 50' away behind the house
> where we get WiFi occasionally that is only 30' behind the house and on the
> same elevation with no trees. Plus I need to mount the camera in a tree
> about 8' above the ground to get adequate view of the driveway below. It
> will be a challenge to get a ladder there to mount it in the first place. I
> don't want to visit it very often, if at all.
>
> *As far as IR illumination, you can't put an illuminator on the house to
> light up the driveway? Or is this a long winding drive and you want to
> watch the part by the road? *
>
> Yeah. Very long driveway; maybe 3/4 mile in all. However the area we want
> to cover is not even visible from the house. It's maybe only 1/8 mile along
> the driveway, but the driveway makes a U-turn back on itself as is follows
> the ground contour. It will not be a problem to get ethernet down there, as
> I can put a switch partway in between to make the distance.
>
> *Oh, and the audio has problems with wind noise, but maybe all cameras
> have that problem? If there's no wind it can pick up people talking 200
> feet away, but if it's windy, the microphone is useless.*
>
> Not too worried about that. It is quite sheltered down there, and I don't
> really expect any real wind.
>
> Thanks for the thoughts though. Always good to consider the issues.
>
> I did order the G5-PRO and the Cloudkey thingy. The description of the
> Cloudkey made it sound like they have an actual hard drive in it. If I have
> to swap the hard drive, at least it will be somewhere where I won't have to
> get on a ladder.
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