Total Noob, Is this possible...if so how? (remote security camera installation)

Thread Starter

Kyle Couillard

Joined Oct 15, 2017
1
looking for some insight on the possibility of this working or not. I don't know much about electrical ratings or how to calculate them. Basically what I'm trying to to is install a ceiling mounted 360 degree motion censored camera that needs to be plugged in to work. My idea/hope was to be able to convert it into a battery operated unit. I copied the link to the product at the bottom of the post. The only electrical ratings I can find are from the ac/dc adapter which are

INPUT: 100-240 Vac 50/60 Hz 0.3a max
OUTPUT: 5V - 1600mA

Any insight would be appreciated, Thanks!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075STQPB9/?tag=rsreview-20
 

AlbertHall

Joined Jun 4, 2014
12,345
If the only power required is that adaptor then it is possible but you're gonna need a big battery. A car battery, assuming 100% efficient buck converter down to 5V, would last about 67 hours.
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
Yeah, that adapter is rated to 8W. Hopefully the average load is half that, maybe even less if motion is not detected and the camera is idle. Less say the load averages 5W. Five watt-hours at 5V, with no conversion losses, requires 5 W•h at 12V, which is 5/12 of an amp-hour. So you'll get 12/5 hours of operation per A•h of battery rating. A 20A•h battery would give 48 hours. That's very rough because we don't know the real average power consumption (the adapter has to be rated for more than the peak usage) and there will be 5-20% conversion losses.

Running AC to it might be a lot easier than horsing around with batteries. It's inevitable that the battery will go dead at the worst possible times.
 
Last edited:
Top