Having had the garage raided, thinking of putting an camera up inside the garage.
Garage is at the bottom of the garden and Wi-Fi is pretty ropey/non existent down there and running a network cable down there, is a chore I like to avoid.
ideally it would be a something like PIR trigged recording, though probably recording away from the camera itself (there power in the garage).
Ideas/thoughts?
Look at Blink. It will depend on how far away your garage is. I have a few running across the garden, driveway and house and it works well for my needs.
We got one of these to monitor a stable when my daughter's horse was recovering from major surgery – it seems to do all the things you need (including offsite recording, although that comes with a subscription cost).
We've got some tapo solar powered cameras (They also do mains powered ones) covering our (unpowered) shed/garage. They record locally but you can pay a monthly fee for cloud backup. They certainly work when I forget to switch them off and the alarm sounds and/or I get an alert on my phone.
Lots of customisation on the app so you can set them to react how you want to a person, animal or general movement. They can ignore it, record, alert your phone, sound an alarm or any combination of the above. You can set zones to be ignored as well.
Your problem with any system will be network connection. You need something, either a mesh system or WiFi extender, cable, or a 4g SIM router in the garage. You just can't save recordings away from the camera without a way of getting the data to your HD/the cloud.
I’d be putting the camera up outside the garage or putting two up (one in and one out). Inside camera is just going to show you some balaclava’d scrotes nicking your stuff. Once they’re in a camera isn’t going to put them off. The outside one may act as a deterrent…
This might fit the bill, you can record to an SD card although obviously having a Wi-Fi connection would help as you would get alerts.
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/2153852
What does a camera achieve - is it one that wakes you up via a phone notification?
Having had the garage raided,
They will be back again just putting a camera up will make no difference . I wouldn’t be putting bikes in again
If you have no option just make it as noisy as you can
Can you not use a power line adapter for an internet signal if you have power in the garage?
I have a few Blink cameras dotted about. Most are battery operated, but have a mains one plugged into the shed - you get the option of an led light on the mains one.
Wifi is via a power line adaptor plugged into the garden office sockets.
Notifications aren't loud though and I only generally see any movements the next morning.
*Note - the bedroom is not in use and is for cat purposes when we go away 😂
I have a Lorex camera in the garage. Quite old but mains and did run via a wifi mains extender but since working from home we have mesh system so connects to the extender
Most will have zoning and sensitivity settings. Ours does have a light, IR and an alarm. It also alerts me via my phone. It's not as sophisticated as the new ones and does get occasionally triggered by a big bug flying past the front of the camera.
Sorry to hear the garage was done. It's been attempted twice on ours, one was a lengthy process of carefully removing glass from the side window (but it's barred from inside) then some scallies tried to open the up and over but it had some heavy duty locks on and made a big noise when they tried to get in. Each time though I beefed up the security.
As above a camera isn't likely to do much good other than providing you a front row seat to watch your stuff get knicked. You'd be better with some kind of alarm. Either a garage alarm or a bike-specific. I've got a Knog Scout on mine. It's got a movement sensor and is loud enough to give anyone second thoughts. Also trackable in an airtag kind of way.
As above a camera isn't likely to do much good other than providing you a front row seat to watch your stuff get knicked. You'd be better with some kind of alarm. Either a garage alarm or a bike-specific. I've got a Knog Scout on mine. It's got a movement sensor and is loud enough to give anyone second thoughts. Also trackable in an airtag kind of way.
or as many are now - a camera With an alarm .... i know ours are bloody loud.
I assume OP you have bike insurance for where they aren't put off by the cameras? The cameras are an extra on top of it, if not, I'd just be getting quotes from your home insurance or other providers.
Cameras are great, for watching your bike(s) disappear down the street. I've got a lovely vid of two lads riding my bikes down the road. So do my neighbours. It was dark, and raining.
Make sure your insurance is adequate. Cameras won't stop a determined toe-rag.
What does a camera achieve
It adds 'camera' to the list of stolen items on the claim 🙂
For something workable...
If you can't get it to connect to WIFi to work you can get a 4G router and connect it via that. Then you can get alerts when the camera is triggered so that you can actually do something rather than find out about the theft later
Recording to an SD card is moot if they swipe the camera so again being internet connected means you can have it upload to online storage.
Tape over the red LEDs on any equipment so that you're not drawing attention to their presence
occasionally triggered by a big bug flying past the front of the camera.
IF you have it set to alert your phone something you'll get is a lot of false alarms when its dark in the shed - the cameras have their own IR light source around the lens and any bit of dust floating past the lens, let alone spiders and flies will trigger the camera so your phone will ping all night with false alarms. What I've done with my workshop cameras is turned off the night vision and installed a PIR triggered light in the room. The light is far less sensitive and only switches on if something human-sized and that in turn then triggers the camera.
In the same respect its worth making the space quite light-fast, as particularly in low sun you can have the cameras triggered by anything outside casting a shadow
I have 9 security lights, 3 cameras I use blink and a alarm system linked to my workshop and 2 sheds and a locked gate to get into that area.
IF you have it set to alert your phone something you'll get is a lot of false alarms when its dark in the shed
That's not necessarily the case. I've got a Tapo C325WB camera looking out into the garden and at the garage and the night vision is truly amazing.The video reviews on YouTube really don't do the night vision justice, it's effectively as good as daylight.
You can set it to alert for everything, or just vehicles, just animals, just people, etc.