TLDR - very cool. Bit more testing needed in the wild. Looks solid.
$250 4K AI 256GB !
After lots of googling, and looking at the local tech companies product lines, and having good experiences with Tp-link products, i looked further into the Tapo product range. I purchased 2x Tapo C460 cameras - $195 Jb-hifi & noel leaming
along with 256GB microSD - $60 for sandisk 190Mb/sec
My goals are to replace our aging trailcam fleet ($79 jaycar 1080 forever out of stock) with newer better stuff, and also power up community groups with a trailcam solution that helps them identify their threats, and generate community action.
Im looking to build a nz wide solution for community groups, this is me looking for something that works, to answer the “what do you guys use/recommend…” qn…
Ideally we can order a “conservation pack” and get a bunch of stuff that works.
My thoughts on the Tapo c460 as a trailcam - which is not its intended purpose
Im super impressed with the 4K quality, Ease of install, lack of wiring (wifi and solar) and most of all the tapo app integration. I’ll write up my findings - which are not yet complete, but i just bought another 2 (now 4) while the sale is on and the dollars still sinking.
What’s it like as a trailcam. It works for me - (subect to *…)
Quick detection of these animals is excellent. Quality is excellent.
Motion detection managed to catch birds flying past the cameras, which was truly impressive. Its picking up blackbirds easily (daytime) they are very rat like …
night vision for this camera
I can turn on Spotlights - which is bright resulting in daytime colours at night, but its very not animal or battery friendly. Default is the IR lights which have good coverage and - you can see the night time vids seem good enough. No concerns.
Zero animal interaction with the Infra Red. No camera noises. This is excellent
IR is 850nm which is a little low frequency so may scare some off, but not observed.
Continuous video.
The camera can be configured to record 1,2,5,10 frames every second over a longer period up to 24 hours. This results in a hyperlapse in between detection’s. Superuseful if something happened that was outside your capture options (or regions). C460 does this C425 does not. Its worth paying extra for, and im guessing there is a battery/sdcard cost there.
Triggering.
Too early to be certain but i felt im not missing anything. Running two cameras with similar views, they are in agreement. I’ve yet to check smaller target species eg Rats but suspect it will work. Trick is to not have the camera too high. Pets dont trigger from 3m high locations. Knee high is very high rate - but into theft issues.
Detection’s are AI driven and all from the camera not PIR like most trailcams.
Options are Motion, Vehicle, Pet and Person, each with selectable zones and sensitivity settings. Turning on tags gives the bounding box with the detection type, and tracking. Its superquick and accurate. Feels like the future.
The C460 is a new camera, with AI moving fast - its not suffering like some older gen cameras (C425)
Tapo App
Brilliant. Intuitive. Surprisingly good. It worked while i was away from home - so the cameras are busting a hole in my home firewall to make my app experience seamless. Alerts pop up, click on them and you are watching streaming video of the detection. 1 click later you are swiping between live camera feeds in high resolution.
Im using android. No issues, works well. Connects to wifi cams within 5 seconds, but usually near instantly - 1sec.
The app holds very little video. Its job is to connect you to the camera with its live footage, and any stored video you want. Distant/Slow wifi to the camera means a bit of a wait.
Cloud option - Tapo Care - Its USD $69.99/yr for 2 cameras.
Pointless for remote trailcams that are not on the internet;.
Not tested - too expensive. The cameras are tested without, so just wifi
Offline recording
The cameras record to the SDcard when away from your base Wifi. Not sure if they time out, but guesing not.This makes them good for trailcam operations.
Alerting
Bit of a fail here for our purposes. The app makes a tweet noise for every detection. Clicking the alert takes you to the video, which is all good. There is no option to do anything with the alerts, which means motion events and pet events are treated the same. Probably tapo-care does something better ?
Tree mounting
The cameras are magnetic, and sold with magnetic mount which makes installation two plonks circa 5 seconds. I cut a slab of mild steel that i can screw onto a tree allowing the magnets to stick to tree.
Solar power
Seems to work well, but it tested in summer with direct sunlight. 1hr/day means 100% forever battery. I’ve run it for 4 days without panel, and its now down to 32% so more work needed and maybe a showstopper. Turning off 1 frame/sec 24x7 recording will extend the life. Turning off daytime also.It connects via USB-c and generates a cute little graph of battery usage and gain. Supercool.
Wifi connectivity
Impressive wifi tech in the cameras. They default to 5G for speed but fall back to 2.4G for range. These cheapo cameras wifi outperformed by Samsung S20 Ultra’s wifi considerably. The cameras were still streaming long after the phone gave up.
Connection to PC - no can do
The Tapo battery cameras are unable to stream via standard protocols eg RTSP / Onvif so its tapo app only. Home Automation may work, but didnt for me. Maybe cloud subscription, or buying the “tapo hub” may work.
Questions outstanding for me
- Rats n Mice and smaller animals - do they trigger the detections ??
- Battery life - advertised 180 days is unrealistic without solar or in bush
- IP rating - these units are well made. I have no concerns with weather, but not tested
- Built in 10,000mah batteries. Guessing not replaceable. May be what ends these units life.
- What size SDcards - there is very little indication of file sizes. Its all kept hidden.
- 2nd life. Once they arent trailcams - what then. Security cams obviously.
Next Steps
4G LTE connectivity to these cameras in a remote location
Maybe use a 4G pocket modem to allow remote connection to these wifi cams in remote bush
Take these cameras out to our wildplaces and see how they work “in the wild”
Review the captured video “in the wild”
Either pull the SDcard and review the captures - yet to be tested
Or setup a hotspot with ssid it knows. Will it sync up
Or return the camera to its original Wifi setup and then review.
What i dont like
- no RTSP/Onvif for streaming from VLC or standard apps (due to battery)
- lack of alerting - eg IF [Loud Noise] THEN email “trap #3 went bang” …
- busting my firewall at home. Convenient but they crossed a line. Plug n play… grrr
- With my user/pass allows anyone to stream my wifi-cameras. How safe are my keys?
Happy to discuss further and will update with findings.
These $250 trailcams are looking good at this stage.
Their “in the wild” testing however is yet to start.