Finding Camera too Far From Base Station

[dralh]

Funny story but we lost a camera ---- a raccoon or possum carried the camera from the front of the house to who knows where. It is too far from the base station. Any suggestions for how we might find it? I thought of getting a long extension cord and a long RJ-5 cable and w

[jguerdat]

Assuming the battery hasn't died, your thought is what's needed. You could use a WiFi extender instead of a long cable.

In the future, you may want to consider a threaded outdoor mount. That won't make it impossible to remove the camera (I think someone posted a while ago about a squirrel or raccoon that unscrewed the camera) but it may be enough. You could also add a security cable to at least keep the camera close.

[TomMac]

How ever you do it, do it fast....

As the cameras to far away from the base, it tends to deplete the battery faster ( as it attempts to always reconnect vs just pinging the base )

[dralh]

Thanks for the response. 

I can see my Netgear base station on my list of wifi devices, but every time I disconnect the Cat-5 cable from the base station I get a message telling me my base station is offline. 

I don't think my base station operates using wi-fi and requires a hard-wire. The base station and the Arlo (not a pro or anything) are at least three years old. 

Dralh. 

[StephenB]

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@dralh wrote:

Thanks for the response. 

I can see my Netgear base station on my list of wifi devices, but every time I disconnect the Cat-5 cable from the base station I get a message telling me my base station is offline. 

I don't think my base station operates using wi-fi and requires a hard-wire. The base station and the Arlo (not a pro or anything) are at least three years old. 

Dralh. 

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The base absolutely needs an ethernet connection.  @jguerdat was suggesting that instead of using a very long ethernet cable to make that connection, you could substitute a wifi extender that is set up with your router, and connect the base to the ethernet port of the wifi extender with a short cable.  That could be more convenient.

Though as @TomMac says, you need to track down that camera right away, because if it is out of range of the base it's battery will drain very quickly.

[dralh]

Thanks. Yes I figured that out after I thought about it for a minute. I was able to get the camera to show a live shot but it’s forest so hard to track down. We’re going to try at dark and see if we can see the red.

[TomMac]

yes...many cameras will "see" the IR lighting.

[dralh]

Thanks for all the advice. I was able to find the camera!!!!!!

[StephenB]

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@dralh wrote:
Thanks for all the advice. I was able to find the camera!!!!!!

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Great! 

You might consider getting the screw mount (though it seems unlikely to happen to again).

[ShayneS]

Also, if the mystery creature kept it close by, the camera would probably lose connection around the 300' range. I don't think they would have been too interested once they realized it's not food. Maybe that will give you a good search zone. 

[silverado44]

Iam late to this thread and you found the camera but I was going to say at night you could have walked around with your cell phone camera turned on using it as a search tool looking at the screen as you said the IR lights were on cause you had video the IR lights would have showed up like a spot light on your cell phone screen. The human eye has a very hard time seeing IR lights  yes you can see them on the cameras but there real dim some IR lights you cant see.

As a test take your cell camera turned on and then take your tv remote and point it at the cell camera lens and press a button on the remote you will see the IR light through the camera but you wont see it with your naked eye. 

[StephenB]

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@silverado44 wrote:

As a test take your cell camera turned on and then take your tv remote and point it at the cell camera lens and press a button on the remote you will see the IR light through the camera but you wont see it with your naked eye. 

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Often this does work, but there are some cameras what will filter out the IR - and it won't work with those.