Ultra 2 charging cables in attic

[AshTray900]

Ok so I just wanted to run something by everyone. I have run all my 4 outdoor cams through the ceiling in the attic.

I mounted a high quality wall strip made of metal on the beam. Plugged 2 directly in it, the other two 25 foot cables were just too far away so I used an extension cord.

not looking for electrical code requirements, but just general advice, the low power consumption of two Arlo chargers secured to a typical indoor extension cord isn’t going to be a big issue is it? I’m not running anything else than two Arlo bricks secured so they won’t pull loose through a cord. I assume these chargers don’t require a lot of juice at all and the cord just won’t get any load worth worrying over,

my only other alternative is to flip the switch on them and keep them off until they are low but that isn’t what I want to do as the cameras seem to keep some recording history in them and catch more pre-detect action on them.

so not likely to burn the house down with two little chargers right? I have not nailed anything down, I just simply taped the blocks to the cord with high quality packing tape that also sealed the open plug not used and layed them over a few beams until the cord could reach the holes I made for the cams

[jguerdat]

The low current draw shouldn't be a problem at all. The usual issue is the voltage drop across a distance of wiring but the low current of the wall warts should be minimal at worst. It would be more the distance of the 5v over thin wires which would increase the voltage drop to the camera.

Short answer - using extension cords, other than code violations, is not a problem.

[AshTray900]

Yeah didn’t figure it would be much, other than the cord may degrade over time, I’m getting a quote for an electrical box back there, probably a good idea at some point, the wire past the bricks is low voltage so I have no concern for it at all,

when they wired up my fiber internet they used one of those **bleep**ty three splits like you’d use in a kitchen to make 3 plugs out of one lol, I ended up putting a 50 dollar high grade strip up there so the alarm and fiber power box weren’t both dangling off the leftover outlet where the furnace is connected. Unfortunately the wires weren’t quite long enough for 2 of them, wish they had 50 foot ones too.

[jguerdat]

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@AshTray900 wrote:

Yeah didn’t figure it would be much, other than the cord may degrade over time, I’m getting a quote for an electrical box back there, probably a good idea at some point, the wire past the bricks is low voltage so I have no concern for it at all,

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"No concern" is relative - it's not the possible overheating but the voltage drop from the wall wart to the camera. The indoor charger is 5v but the outdoor one is 9v to compensate for the voltage drop over the distance.

[AshTray900]

I just mean I’m not concerned with the fire hazard of a 9v/5v wire, I don’t plan to cut it though.

the concern I have is the extension cord to the brick packing 120v and as many amps that can be pulled until something gives. Hence the worry of the rubber of the standard extension cord breaking down and shorting years from now, my last Arlo set lasted 8 years, but I was charging them all the time.

probably not a budget killer to have one put up there compared to the cost of all the cameras base, large sd card and charger wiring