I am swapping my solar cams with 24/7 E330 Cams and I have 1 place that I can’t get power to.
Would there be any reason why I can’t use a battery to power it and a small solar panel to keep the battery topped up? I believe they are 12V from the power adapter output specs. Would a car battery work?
Thanks
I don’t see why not… And a car battery would be a good choice as long as the power supply needed is DC.
If you don’t have an outlet nearby a cable power extension may help you out.
you need an extension cord, you can easily find one online. Simply search for “12V 5.5mm*2.1mm Male to Female DC Extension Cord” and you should be able to find several options to choose from.
: What is the maximum extension length for the power cord?
: The power cord for each eufyCam E330 camera can be extended up to a maximum length of 30 meters. This allows for a great deal of flexibility in camera placement, even in larger properties or complex installation scenarios.
Thanks for the info. Unfortunately I can’t use a DC extension in this instance. I need 2 cameras placed much further than 30m from the nearest power outlet.
I would love to give a car battery a shot and see if it works. I would assume that a car battery should be big enough to run it.
I would give it a try, if that’s the only option you have…
Do some web searches on it (powering an outdoor camera with car battery)
You would want a solar panel set up with a controller. Also some way to keep the battery safe from the outdoor elements.
Yep, agree to everything you’ve said, I’ll do some research and give it a go!
Thanks
No, because the E330 consumes a lot of power. You can touch the body and find that it is hot. If you want to use batteries, you need larger batteries and larger solar panels to ensure normal operation because there will be cloudy and rainy days.
The other issue is keeping your external battery from overcharging the camera batteries. Lithium ion batteries don’t like being kept at or near 100% all the time. This will seriously limit the number of charge cycles you get from the internal camera batteries. That’s one of the reasons Eufy’s solar panels only source ~500 ma of current.
Lithium-ion suffers from stress when exposed to heat or keeping a cell at a high charge voltage. A battery dwelling above 30°C (86°F) is considered elevated temperature and for most Li-ion a voltage above 4.10V/cell is deemed as high voltage . Exposing the battery to high temperature and dwelling in a full state-of-charge for an extended time can be more stressful than cycling.
Note that once the internal batteries fail, the camera dies because it pulls directly from the battery circuit. Keeping it plugged into external power at that point can lead to elevated temps and eventual destruction of the camera.
Great advice, I think I may have to plan my power supply locations are little more carefully.