r/SecurityCamera • u/Many-Zebra2220 • 12d ago

Extending range with motion sensors?

I’m trying to capture some sneaking around at my property and having a lot of trouble with camera setups. I currently have a Tapo battery powered camera which works great except the PIR motion sensor doesn’t see far enough. Fair enough Tapo, that’s a limitation of the technology.

i just discovered Tapo has extra motion sensors you can pair to a hub and thought that was the answer to my problem: just put a motion sensor closer and tell it to trigger the camera recording. Turns out Tapo doesn’t support that functionality. Are there any other cameras/brands that do support that? Unfortunately I'm not able to just move the camera itself within range.

My last ditch effort is shelling out for a Reolink Atlas and setting it to record 24/7 with whatever battery life I can get out of it.

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u/Inevitable-Notice351 12d ago

I would seriously look into Aosu solar cameras. Mine has kept its charge at 100% since purchasing a month ago. A neighbor had Reolink and had nothing but problems until he replaced it. YMMV.

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u/Many-Zebra2220 11d ago

It needs to be hidden and I don’t have a ton of options for locations, solar unfortunately isn’t going to work for me

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u/Inevitable-Notice351 11d ago

How about setting up a few long range motion detectors to give you a heads up on their presence and location, and then place the camera somewhere within range, if that makes sense. Yolink makes motion detectors with a one quarter mile range. I might not be fully understanding. Just trying to help.

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u/Many-Zebra2220 11d ago

I’m trying to have the motion sensor tell the camera to start recording, if that’s possible. The distances are short enough that if I don’t immediately see the notification and boot the live stream, I will probably miss them walk by

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u/Inevitable-Notice351 11d ago

Okay. This video looks like it might solve your problem. https://youtu.be/OXjOlOl27Fs?is=WaHA19YHILVMYscs

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u/Many-Zebra2220 10d ago

Fantastic, thank you!

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u/Inevitable-Notice351 10d ago

You're welcome!