Any thoughts on the Blink XT2 for monitoring my driveway? I have wanted a camera for a while but have been put off by the need to wire up to it. The cordless feature appeals.
- posted
4 years ago
Any thoughts on the Blink XT2 for monitoring my driveway? I have wanted a camera for a while but have been put off by the need to wire up to it. The cordless feature appeals.
No cord for power?
Ah, battery powered. I'd take that "2 years" battery life with a very large pinch of salt. Only 8 seconds live view or 60 seconds of motion detected recording/day?
And with some of the negative reviews indicating that the time taken to wake up from sleep mode gives a perfect picture of a person leaving the property. From all accounts the unit mainly sits in a deep standby mode with some motion detection active. When motion is detected it wakes up to transmit data and then shuts down shortly afterwards. Set the motion detection too sensitive or mount the camera in the wrong position and some report the battery may only last a few weeks.
I haven't looked, will it run off a small lead acid? Or off LV fed by speaker cable?
NT
The camera doesn't appear to have any power socket. Just a battery cover for replacing the two off lithium 1.5V batteries (£3 a set for a reputable brand).
Both companies owned by Amazon, my impression is that this Blink camera has similar technology to the Ring doorbell where the camera is only intended to be fully working for very short periods. Motion sensing doesn't appear to be based on a difference in sequential video images but purely on the inbuilt PIR sensor detector which triggers the camera and wi-fi to wake up. I wonder how it would cope on a sunny day where clouds cover the sun for short periods?
Stupid name for a camera. Blink is a slang term for blind. Brian
They probably don't picture the battery the size of a bee hive in the picture.... Brian
The blurb mentions a USB socket for power but having something plugged into that stops it being "waterproof". What "waterproof" means I don't know, didn't spot an IP rating.
Hmm, so blind as in blink, might well be a good description of it then. Brian
The usb socket is on the receiver.
That's not how I read:
"Ports: Micro USB (optional for power). Camera no longer weather resistant when USB cover is open"
On:
FSVO "perfect picture" it only quotes "up to 1080p" . Is that 1080 native or upscaled? And with a 110 deg field of view unless some one is fairly close to the camera they won't be many pixels for them.
Personally I'd look a PoE IP camera. I've a Hik Vision DS-2CD2432F-I that is now rather old and discontinued but that can do 2048x1536, goes down to 0.07 lux in monochrome mode (it can see the stars and produce a decent image by moonlight). Has PIR and IR LED illuminator. Not IP65 though. These days I'd expect to find 4k and HDR IP cameras at that £100 price point.
Or a solar panel?
I bought Blink 2. Fitted in a jiffy - bought an extender to help with the wifi connection. Works well. Quite reassuring when I was away for a few days. Not perfect - but some nice features. I really didn't want wires anywhere.
Snags - a bit too sensitive even in the areas deselected - perhaps reflections.
clips need a gap beween them
That was one the main reason for negative reviews. As it triggers so often to transmit the batteries may/will last a lot less than the 2 years claimed - perhaps just weeks!
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