I bought this a few months back from Woot! Easy to set-up and the Cat5 POE is great. Makes hooking it up much easier than running multiple cables. Especially if you can make your own cables. It only uses the two middle pairs on the Cat5 if anyone is curious. Just make sure to change router settings if need be. I’m remote accessing a different way than the iPhone app, so I had to open up a port and forward IPs. If you just need something basic, this is it. If you need something exquisite, may want to hire locally.
Edit: I purchased mine WITH a hard drive. Can’t speak for those who purchased a setup without a hard drive - as far as setup is concerned.
I want to use these as external cameras for my home. How long are the cables provided? Do all 4 cameras have to be plugged directly into the receiver? I have a large house so cable runs will be long.
The description says both 50 and 80ft cables included. But it appears to just be using PoE (Power over Ethernet) so you can just buy a spool of network cable and make longer runs. The max recommended length for running cables over PoE is about 300ft each. If your house is pre-wired for network, you could probable get creative with the pre existing system.
What corvettejoe said is correct. To add to that, not all 4 cameras have to be plugged in. You can just use one camera, for instance - if that’s what you mean. You can also make your own cables if you have the proper tools. You can also go farther than 300ft if you have a power injector inline.
Just to clarify: It uses sPoE, which is simplified PoE. This device sends 18V (I think. I lost the paper that explains it.) down the ethernet cable. Standard POE is 48V, which is more than double what these cameras are expecting. You can google PoE and read the specs, but sPoE isn’t standardized (AFAIK).
Anyone hoping to use this with their existing PoE equipment will likely be disappointed unless they prefer smoking cameras to working cameras. (I have not connected these cameras to my PoE switch because I don’t want to fry them. They MAY work without any problem, but I wouldn’t bet a camera on it.)
For extra excitement, hook these cameras up to regular PoE switches and record yourself as you ride around on your discount hoverboard. Then come back and tell us which caught fire first.
Disclaimer: I am not an electrical engineer, but this is my understanding of the situation. Also, don’t hook these cameras up to standard PoE switches and ride a hoverboard. You’ll look like a flaming douchebag.
“Standard PoE”, or 802.3af, doesn’t send any power over the lines unless a PoE compliant device is detected. So, you can plug these, or any other PoE device, up to a PoE switch with no risk of frying anything.
What you DON’T want to do, is plug a “standard PoE”, or any other device up to a switch that provides sPoE. That’s when you can fry things.
Hooking these cameras up to a standard PoE switch won’t fry the cameras, but it also won’t work either.