Posts made by Crimp On_62210811129

My understanding is that battery powered cameras are not activated until the PIR sensor detects motion, and thus cannot record before "waking up". My RLC "powered" cameras do record 5 seconds prior to motion detection. That is the main reason I decided not to deploy more battery (Argus) cameras and instead deploy the RLC PoE or transformer powered cameras.

Yes, Playback has returned. I noticed that my cameras still recorded to SD Card and the files are available to Download. Appears it is only the "Playback" function on the Windows app that is broken. Will make a Calendar note to check it next Fall.

I had some issues with video "skipping" (no pixelating) and contacted support@reolink.com.
One of my issues with Playback, is I keep forgetting to click on "Clear" ("Fluent" is much lower bandwidth, not as sharp)
I have never seen an option to begin recording on hearing a sound.

Well, that's a real puzzle. I have RLC-410-5MP, RLC-420-5MP, and RLC-410WS and they all record motion 50' away (up to 20m). Day and night both. Autos, people. Mostly set on sensitivity 41. My issue is recording things I do not want, such as hummingbirds, flowers waving in the wind, tree shadows moving. (We almost never get rain in Southern California).

I can say this for sure, if it's not doing what you want, better to return it than to resent it every day.

Thanks. Getting the right "balance" in terms of recording motion and not making nuisance recordings is hard. Rain and tree shadows are two of the worst phenomenon. I am afraid there is not much more you can do.

Is this camera wired to an NVR, or stand-alone with an SD Card in it?

I was unable to find "POSE/PSE socket". Is there a typo? Or, could you spell it out?
When a computer has both WiFi and ethernet jacks, my experience is that connecting via ethernet often takes over and shuts down the WiFi connection. Is this computer Windows, Mac, Linux?

a) Yes, you may be able to periodically connect to the camera as follows:
* Before mounting the camera permanently,
* Create a WiFi Hot Spot on your phone.
* Configure the camera to connect to the phone Hot Spot.
* Turn off the Hot Spot and wait a day.
* Leave the camera "waiting".
* Turn the Hot Spot back on and see if the camera connects.
The non-battery Reolink cameras (mine anyway) have an option to set
a "static" IP address. My Argus battery cameras do not.
I honestly have no idea how long a battery camera will wait for WiFi
to return.

b) Oh, yes. Battery cameras create their own hole through the router by connecting to the Reolink "cloud".
The Reolink app and Client software use the camera UID to learn where the camera can be found.
In this case, of course, you can do "live view", get alerts, and look at recordings without
going to the site. MUCH BETTER as long as the hotel allows you do to this. My experience with
hotel networks is they typically force users to grovel (Click "I understand") at least once every 24 hours.
The camera does not know how to do this. (Ha!)

I believe so. What you need is a Power over Ethernet (PoE) injector, such as this one:
https://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-PoE150S-Injector-Adapter-Compliant/dp/B001PS9E5I/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=poe+injector&qid=1582658774&sr=8-3

Of course, I would test it with the 500' of Cat6 cable before physically installing the cable. The PoE injector is not expecting to see PoE on the input side, so the first step is to determine whether you need a PoE splitter (see the diagrams on Amazon). Probably ask TP-Link about that.

Good Luck

Does Norton write anything to any of the various logs (system, application, etc.) when it takes action against a program?
Are the cameras defined in the Reolink Client program by IP address or UID?

I would "start small" before investing massive amounts in battery-powered cameras (from any vendor). I fear you are in for disappointment in terms of replacing batteries more frequently than desired, not "catching" motion when it starts, detecting "motion" that is not people, animals or cars, coverage area, and WiFi connection issues. Put in two and see "how it works" before buying 10 more.

I have two of the original Argus cameras. I now power them using USB adapters. My "go to" cameras are the new 5MP Power over Ethernet (PoE) cameras. They are a chore to install, but the picture is amazing compared to the Argus.

Good Luck

Does Norton require you to allow the "app" to accept connections through the firewall? In my Windows Firewall, there is an entry for "Reolink Client", checked for both private and public.

Yes, Reolink cameras have a HUGE bundle of cords!

Even though these models support Power over Ethernet (PoE), they also can be powered by a transformer. (I have done it.)

The reset button is convenient during initial setup. The cameras can be rebooted remotely, but not "Factory Reset". That takes the button. I have not pressed the reset button since my cameras were installed.

With an NVR, cameras can be viewed using a TV set connected directly to the NVR. No network required.
But, most of us would prefer to view cameras or recordings from elsewhere. For that, the NVR has to be connected to a local network (router). To view files remotely, the local network has to be connected to the internet through a modem (and an Internet Service Provider).

I found that the weatherproof ethernet connector was the critical component when drilling holes for installation. I would shove that part through the hole first, and once it was through the power cord and reset cord went after it.

Cat6 is "overkill", but the cost difference is so little between Cat5e and Cat6 that you might as well.

When I mounted cameras, I thought that the mounting template had a hole in the center of the correct size.
What I did was estimate hole size (think I started with 3/4"), drill a hole in a scrap of wood, and see if I could shove all that stuff through it. No? Need bigger hole. Certainly practice before drilling into the house!

I would email support@reolink.com about the disk drive. I do not have an NVR and was unaware that it provided for attaching USB hard drives. Silly me, I thought all the drives had to be internal hard drives. All I see on the NVR "specs" are SATA internal and eSATA (external). No mention of USB drives.

(Caveat: I have only stand-alone cameras, no DVR.) When I want to set up cameras to view remotely, I have to define them by their UID, not their IP address. Each of my cameras automatically contacts the Reolink "Cloud" and registers using the UID.
Maybe what happened when the Reolink App was activated was it learned a similar identifier, maybe an NVR UID.

Not having one to look at, I do not know if DVR's have a unique identifier that can be used for remote access.

My advice is to email support@reolink.com and ask, "How do I set up my Windows Reolink Client software to access a Reolink at a remote location?"

There was a question previously about this and the answer is, "No. Not on the NVR."

If this were a stand-alone camera with internet access, there are things you could do to grant access to others, but the NVR appears to be "all or nothing."

Reolink gathers suggestions for product improvement. You could find that previous post and "Second it". Or, send email directly to support@reolink.com and make the suggestion.

I would have to climb a ladder to reset either of my Argus cameras, and I cannot remember (so long ago).
Is the Argus setup one of those screens where the password is shown only as "dots" and not the actual letters?
I have this vague memory of my pudgy fingers entering characters that I did not intend to enter and being very frustrated. I might have even had a period in the password and my phone would "autocorrect" and add a space.

On my Reolink Windows Client, when I click on the "Stop" icon in the lower left (looks like a square), my camera pictures all go blank. This matches the images above. When I click on the "Start" icon (triangle), they appear.

Can you try clicking on the triangle?

Yes, the Argus camera should have got a new IP address by itself.

The Reolink battery cameras connect to 2.4G WiFi because that is the only radio in them. When I set up my (first generation) Argus cameras, the setup process had me enter the WiFi name (SSID) and password in my smartphone app and then point the camera at the code that appeared. There is no need to fool around with the router 5G channel, changing channels, etc. Once the camera learns the SSID and password from the app, it looks at the available WiFi networks, picks the one with that SSID, and connects.

Can you relate what happened at each step of the camera factory reset and setup?

This is one of the annoying features of products which detect "motion" by counting how many pixels in the image are different from one frame to another. Moving shadows definitely "change pixels". I opted to keep making (mostly useless) recordings, but no longer send alerts. I also did some minor adjustments to the motion area. i.e. we have some plants near the front door that constantly move in the breeze, so I blanked them out. Did the same thing with the hummingbird feeder. For a while, I blocked out where cars would pass in the street, but then decided we have little traffic and it is kind of interesting to see how many actually do drive down our street. If this annoys you too much, be happy you only invested in two cameras.

Just a note: I saw a new item that Wyze was forced to remove their "person detection" code from their $25 cameras because whoever owned the patent had sold it to somebody (Google? Apple? Nest? don't remember).