Simple pole mount for Reolink Go PT 4G
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Here's a cheap pole mount I made for my Go PT 4G using 15mm PVC pipe and some saddle clamps. The PT mounting bracket aligns with the 15mm saddle clip holes so easy to fit with a few screws. I cut some padding strips from the foam packing in the box to allow the saddles to screw on with a snug fit around the PVC pipe. For the solar panel I had to drill an extra hole into the saddle to get 2 holes on the Reolink supplied mount to align before screwing together. Finally I just tidied up the cable with some flex ties. Parts cost around $10 in total. It sways a little in windy conditions, but equivalent steel or copper pipe was around $30 so settled on the cheaper PVC for now.
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@fizzball_241945990828201
Wow, nice sharing! Thank you for the tips. -
Looks good.
I have a few suggestions, if not applicable to you then they may assist other readers.
If you have a local Bunnings, they have galvanised 16mm pipe with 1.2mm wall thickness in 3 meter lengths for AUD$12.25 (Apparently I can't add links but if you go to the Bunnings web site and search for "Metal Mate round tube" you should find it). Or you could spend another couple of dollars to get the larger diameter (19mm) which might remove the need for the foam packing on the PT mount.Would also make the pipe stronger with less chance of any sway.
Another cheap and sturdy option might be to just use a length of framing timber screwed to the post. This would give a nice flat surface to screw the PT and solar panel to.
If using the PVC pipe then you could possibly strengthen it by using a length of wooden dowel fitted snugly inside, that would stiffen it up quite a bit. Use the same length of dowel as the pipe.
Maybe add a PVC cap (AUD$2.25 from Bunnings) to the top to prevent water getting into the dowel.
The dowel also prevents the PVC pipe from being able to distort and fold under load.
The leverage forces on the saddle clamps holding it to the post will be greatly reduced if you use a longer piece of pipe and have the pipe extend much further down the post.
Depending on the type of livestock in the field and their tendency to destroy things, you could mount the solar panel on the fence top rail. This would be more sturdy and also reduce the wind loading on the PVC pole. The solar panel doesn't care where it is mounted as long as it pointed at the sun and has no shading. -
@radioastronomy_410111540293820 Thank you for the detailed sharing. These tips are very helpful.
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....thx for the tips... I actually went to Bunnings and found some 12mm dowel and just padded it with some electrical tape to fit snugly inside the 15mm PVC tube (ideally a 14mm dowel would have been a better option, however my local Bunnings only seemed to jump from 12mm to 19mm); it seems to have added a bit more rigidity. I taped around the top and bottom of the dowel also to give it some water protection. However the sway appears to have had an added advantage in that the horses don't seem to use it as a scratching pole, thus it remains in tact thus far!
I recently cobbled together another using an old aluminium music stand extendable pole - this time with a PT (4K) camera. The pole was 16mm at the bottom and 13mm at the top, so again a bit of padding was necessary, and the 15mm saddles a bit too small. I didn't have anywhere to rest the bottom of the stand, so I just used an L-bracket to give it a base to rest upon. This camera was located out of range of my house WiFi signal, however it was only around 100m away; so rather than use the PT 4G model as I did on the previous one (which was approx. 500m away with no line of sight) I chose to use a Unifi WiFi extender which did the trick. It seemed to save a few hundred dollars with the lower cost PT WiFi only model, and no SIM card fee. The Unify cost around $140.
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... for the technically inclined, WiFi stats from the Unify (model UAP-AC-M) to the PT 4K camera... ideally signal strength could be a little better, however I have a few trees impairing line of sight which is probably the issue... still performing at > 70Mbps which is more than adequate for my usage.
