If you have a construction site project with no power available, that needs a time-lapse film and remote monitoring, then a solar-powered remote 4G time-lapse camera is an excellent choice. The system can run off a 12V battery and solar panels. The first thing to consider and find out is do you need to use solar. It’s usually a go to if there is 100% no power available on site to run the camera and networking hardware from. It’s good to note with the Burgess tec remote 4G time-lapse camera systems, is that they run off POE power. This means one single data cable can connect and power the camera. Therefore, only the 4G box needs direct power, the camera can be some distance away from that power source.
4G Solar Box & 4K Time-Lapse Camera
This image shows the steel cabinet that we build your networking hardware into. All components are pre-configured, including a high-speed 4G cellular router that is broadband ready to go.
Simply place your 12V battery into the bottom of the cabinet, then feed the cables from your solar panels into the cabinet through the cable glands. The 4K Ultra HD time-lapse camera connects to a POE injector within the enclosure.
Solar powered remote 4G time-lapse camera or POE
To go over the latter point mentioned in the first sentence, power on site could be a generator, it could be a plug socket in a works cabin. If there is any possibility of available power, it would be useful to explore this option before you purchase a solar powered remote 4G time-lapse camera, as there is always more to the installation when you’re installing solar panels and using a 12V battery. Let’s use the site cabin as an example, you would plug the 4G time-lapse box into a plug socket, from here the box is powered, and the router is running and picking up its pre-configured high-speed broadband connection. You could then run the camera to a location that is anything from 10 – 100 meters away, it connects back to (and powers from) a POE injector in the 4G box. The POE injector is connected to the 4G router, and a single outdoor cat5e data cable powers and transmits data.
12V DC POE Injector
This image shows the 12V DC input POE injector that is housed in the steel 4G solar cabinet. This sends data and power to the 4G 4K Ultra HD time-lapse camera. The system ships with a 20-meter data cable, but you can run up to 100 meters and beyond.
Ok, so you have established that there is no power source you can tap into at the construction site, and installing a solar powered remote 4G time-lapse camera is the only option, let us go over some common questions we get from our clients.
Which time-lapse camera is the best option
4K Ultra HD Time Lapse Camera
For a 12V solar time-lapse application, you need the camera with the lowest power draw. We have 2 x IP network camera options, they are our 8MP 4K Ultra HD camera, and our 12MP 4K+ camera. The 8MP captures images in 3840x2160 pixels, and the 12MP captures construction site images in 4000 x 3000 pixels. The 8MP 4K camera is the best option for solar, as it has the lowest power draw, let's look at them here: 8MP 4K Ultra HD Time-Lapse Camera power draw (max) - 8 Watts 12MP 4K+ Ultra HD Time-Lapse Camera power draw (max) - 15 Watts. For non-solar powered applications, the 8MP 4K camera is the most popular system anyway, and with it being the lowest power draw, it's perfect for your off-grid project.
What Size Solar Kit Do I need
First, let’s look at the other hardware components that need to be powered, the time-lapse system uses a 4G cellular router, this is for sending images off site, and to your web-portal, and the router is also pre-configured for remote access, which allows us to log in and make and changes to the camera, this could be a change of schedule or image capture frequency. The 4G router draws around 4 watts of power, add this to the camera and the total power draw is around 12 watts. There is also a POE injector, but that passes power through as opposed to drawing power. :
1 x 200 Watt Panel
1 x 90-100ah battery
1 x solar charge controller
1 x solar cable
What we provide
As standard, and with or without solar, all our time-lapse systems ship pre-configured with zero config deployment required, as soon as the router and camera have power, images will start to auto send to your cloud folder directory and remote web-portal. For a Solar powered remote 4G time-lapse camera, we build your hardware into a steel cabinet, which is IP66 rated for external use. Above is an image of the backplate of the cabinet. 8MP 4K Ultra HD Time-Lapse Camera power draw (max) - 8 Watts 12MP 4K+ Ultra HD Time-Lapse Camera power draw (max) - 15 Watts For non-solar powered applications, the 8MP 4K camera is the most popular system anyway, and with it being the lowest power draw, it's perfect for your off-grid project.
1 – One set of cables goes to the “BATTERY” output on your solar charge controller, the ring ends go to the battery terminals.
2 – One set of cables goes to the “LOAD” output on the solar charge controller
3 – Your solar panel wires into the “PV” output on the solar charge controller.
4 – The Time-Lapse cameras plugs into the “OUT” port on the POE injector.
The Solar charge controller and solar panel are not supplied by Burgess Technologies.
You would need to put your 12V battery at the bottom of the cabinet
1 x 90-110ah 12v battery, here is a link to one other customers have used
Mounting the solar time-lapse camera
The solar powered time-lapse camera is attached to a pole mount, and it also includes a 20 meter outdoor data cable, this means the camera can be up to 20 meters away from the solar enclosure. However, if you need it to be further away, we can include an outdoor cat5e data cable up to 100 meters in length. As shown in the image above (backplate image) there is a 12V DC Poe injector included. Once you mount the camera to a pole, you run the cable back to the OUT port on the POE injector. There are also cable ties and steel straps included to fix the camera to the pole.
Time-Lapse & Video Surveillance
The camera is pre-set to capture images instantly, as soon as power is received. Furthermore, the camera can be used for CCTV purposes, you can record live video, set up virtual trip wires if you want to secure the site, you can receive motion alerts if someone is on the site. You can view live video on mobile apps. The captured 4K Ultra HD images are sent off site to a cloud server we host. From this we build your portal, which allows you and your client to monitor site progression through images on our own built remote web-portal.
Solar Time Lapse Recap
There is always a little more on the setup when you need to use solar power, if there is power on site, the networking hardware ships in a much smaller 4G ABS box, which is a true quick set up plug-and-play system. As noted in the post, the 4G time-lapse system can run off 110v power and off-site generators, and don't forget the camera can be some distance (100 meters) from the main power source.