Anybody have a solar charging setup they’re happy with for the Aqara G5?
A friend of mine is using this:
But I’d like to keep the cost to under $120 per camera.
As always, fire safety is a big issue for me, so safety certifications matter.
We get a lot of wildlife going through our backyard at night (even a bobcat once), and I’d like a better quality camera for that area, but it’s on the wrong side of the house for POE and obviously I’m not going up and down a ladder four times a year.
My friend says the WiFi model just uses a USB-C plug for charging, so as long as the solar unit can charge a tablet or phone, the camera should plug in. But there’s still a question of the right specs.
I know, so does Eufy. I use them. But I’m interested specifically in the aqara G5, and at present it does not have an official solar panel option.
What it does have is a remarkable true color night vision option which does not require turning on a floodlight. So for wildlife observation, that’s ideal.
I assume you’ve already done the power draw calculation to see how big of a battery you need to keep the G5 running without X days of sun? How big of a battery you looking for?
That’s exactly what I was hoping to hear some practical experience on.
A guy did publish a bunch of different metrics on the aqara forum (with floodlight on, with floodlight off, etc.) looks like the floodlight is the big issue, with consumption going up to 10 W, maybe even 12, when it’s on.
Camera consumes 10560mah a day at 5v.
That’s about three times what the eufy outdoor camera requires.
I did hear from a guy on another forum who has an outdoor outlet with a case enclosure. He ended up putting the power block for the camera’s USB-C in that that enclosure. He was also considering putting a Wi-Fi access point in the enclosure with an ethernet port on the side so he could use the POE to that. But I haven’t seen an updated report on that configuration yet.
The jaquery I linked to above is a 40 W panel with a 99 W power bank so it’s probably way more than enough for where I live, San Francisco, Bay Area, because we get some sun any day it’s not raining, and it doesn’t rain a lot. The power bank is the key to that setup because that model can both recharge itself and power something else at the same time. So you run off the power bank at night and in the morning, the solar recharges it. But of course, the panels are way bigger than the ones you see on other camera brands.
