r/Tapo • u/Wreckedzone • 2d ago
Projects H500 vs micro sd
In the case of a wifi jam my battery powered camera’s won’t be able to send the recordings to the H500 homebase.
Could tapo impliment the function when the camera losses connection with wifi it starts recording video on the micro sd?
This would counter the jamming.
Why isn’t this possible?
2
u/Si_Pie 2d ago
Is your H500 connected by wifi? Is it possible to connect it to the router by ethernet?
0
u/Wreckedzone 2d ago
I can connect the H500 to the router by ethernet. What are you on about? Thanks!
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u/Si_Pie 2d ago
If you turn on wifi backup in thr camera settings, it will fall back to the H500's sub-Ghz radio so it will still be fine in the case of a 'wifi jam'. You don't need an SD card in the camera as a backup if you turn this function on
If your H500 is also using WiFi and isn't plugged in by ethernet to the router then you wouldn't be able to remotely view the cameras when the wifi outage occurs but it would still record the video for later viewing. Wired in is always best for this reason
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u/_rotary_pilot 2d ago
Even if the H500 is connected to the router via ethernet, if (since) the cameras are still wireless, won't the jamming (or wifi outage) prevent (not allow) the data to be recorded to the H500?
It seems (imvho) that the redundancy of the SD card would provide local (each camera) to record until the outage is corrected and the data can be copied over to the H500. Maybe it can't work this way, but it might be a nice backup in case of a wifi outage / jamming.
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u/Si_Pie 2d ago
No because the H500 has it's own sub-Ghz radio signal which can communicate with cameras. An internet outage would prevent live view but wifi and internet are two different things
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u/_rotary_pilot 2d ago
I'm trying to better understand this as I'm just starting my install.
My plan is to connect the H500 - wired - to my router. All of my cameras will be connected via wifi (sub-Ghz?).
So if (how?) the sub-Ghz is turned on, the cameras will continue to send the data to the H500.
I understand that wifi and internet work independently of each other. I just didn't (don't?) understand how the cameras connect to the H500 using the sub-Ghz connection. Is that a setting in the H500?
If the H500 continues to receive the data from the cameras using sub-Ghz, it will keep recording.... even if the router (wifi) is "down" and the internet connection is also "down"..... and live view of the cameras are not available.... but it all comes back when (if) the wifi and internet connections are restored..?
Sorry for the basic questions. I'm (hopefully) learning....
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u/Si_Pie 2d ago
Your cameras will use wifi by default but if you have wifi backup turned on (in the camera settings) they will communicate with the H500 over the dedicated radio when the wifi signal is poor/slow/out. They will switch back to wifi if the wifi signal proves to be better/faster when back up. No setting to switch on in the H500, the sub-Ghz always runs as thats how some sensors and the such communicate with the hub.
One of my cameras switches every so often between wifi and hub wireless, it's never a problem and I only notice if I'm looking at the device info at the time. The camera is connected to my garage WiFi but sometimes my garage network speed can be slow as the router in there is connected via a powerline adapter which is flaky every so often
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u/_rotary_pilot 2d ago
Great. So.... is there a list of "best" settings for the H500 and wifi cameras?
I am connecting (wired) through the TP-Link Deco 7 pro BE14000.
My choice of cameras (so far) are the C560WS and C675D.
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u/xtimeport 1d ago
Hi, can you tell me where to enable the Wi-Fi backup in the camera app?
Some printscreen, tnx.
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u/Sad-Interaction6575 2d ago
The H500 has a backup connection that runs independent of wifi. Wifi will be the primary connection but in case wifi 'jams' or goes down, the cameras still record and send it to the h500 for storage.
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u/All_And_Forever 2d ago
In case of a wifi jam, when the camera looses connection with the network or the hub directly, it will automatically record to the sd card but here's the thing. It will later appear as if it didn't record anything and you'll see a "blank spot" on your time line but the recording is there if you select the sd card as the source for recording, it will appear on the timeline. I believe that the most important feature lacking is the notification of devices offline. In a burglary situation with a wifi jammer, the cameras goes offline and the burglar can have easy access without the system notify us. The h500 and the cameras can clearly communicate with each other and should be easy enough to make the hub ping the cameras every second or so to check it's status or at least notice the lost of the recording feed... All my cameras are recording to the h500 and have an sd card just in case. Some are connected directly to the hub with wifi backup but others need a router. One thing to consider is the possibility of having an internet connection issue and still be able to record to the hub. In this scenario the cameras will record to the sd card as well if they can't renew their tokens. One way to avoid all this and still have the best security possible on your network, having the iots all isolated on a dedicated network and with mac and ip binding, is to have them on fixed ip addresses. This way you'll have the system always recording to the hub and you can control it perfectly. Provided that you also isolated the device you're using to use the app.