A Wireless Security Camera System - Why I Switched

When I first went and installed a camera I didn't use a wireless security camera system. At the time they were pretty expensive so I went for a cabled system. Cleverly, I'd installed in a tree and the cable was very hard to see from a distance. By people. Birds and squirrels loved it. They loved to chew it too. Since I couldn't learn how to splice the thing, I kept having to get new cable. Oh, I almost forgot. Squirrels seemed to like to jump on the wire and eventually it would snap. Then there was all the digging to hide the cable. I hated messing up the yard.

Maybe you wouldn't have the same problems with the wild life that I did but finally I switched to a wireless security camera system. My next poorly executed piece of work was forgetting to securely fasten the camera to the mounts. Duh. Yes indeed someone stole my security camera. The upside was an entertaining, if short, 20 second video of the theft and a valuable, but expensive, lesson about following all the installation procedures. And double checking them afterwards.

Off to the store to get a new camera. Now, this one was installed correctly and while I suppose it isn't 100% theft-proof, it's a lot harder to steal when it's mounted properly. I still have this one. The flexibility of a wireless security camera system is one of its great pluses. No more cables, no more digging up the yard and a lot more placement options.

Is it perfect? Well, no. Remembering to keep monitoring the batteries and replace them before they're discharged can be a hassle. The functioning of the camera can be affected by weather, particularly rain but sometimes even high humidity can cause flickering. 

Transmissions can also be affected by other wireless devices like wireless network routers and wireless network cards, cell phones and even the radio controllers used for remote controlled cars and airplanes. However, usually these haven't turned out to be serious problems for my wireless security camera system - except maybe the batteries because I still sometimes forget and the system dies while I'm away or asleep.

Still, I have to say it's a great improvement over a wired system. One of the other great things about a wireless system is how easy it is to add a new camera to the system. With the wired setup I never wanted to add another camera even though I wanted some more coverage. It was just too much work. Now with the availability of deals like the tiny XCom wireless cameras and others, it's not only simple to extend my wireless security camera system but it isn't even particularly expensive. And the squirrels will just have to find something else to jump on and chew.

photo credit: Nebojsa Mladjenovic via photopin cc