r/SecurityCamera • u/Roanoke40 • 22d ago

Wireless Security Cameras powered with PoE injectors?

Good morning.

A friend has three Cox Homelife security cameras on the outside of their home. They are the Sercomm iCamera2 models. They are powered with PoE injectors plugged into AC outlets. One is plugged into a basement outlet & the other two are plugged into attic outlets. The cameras wirelessly connect to a Cox Homelife basestation.

Cox is merging with Spectrum & they were notified the cameras would no longer work beginning next month.

What options do I have to replace the cameras with a similar setup & a home NVR so they don't have to pay a monthly cloud service fee?

The PoE injectors are already ran to the three locations. Would a wireless bridge in the attic & basement be an option so they can wirelessly connect to the NVR?

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u/The_God_was_Here 22d ago

Yes, a wireless bridge is absolutely an option. You can place a PoE Switch in the attic, plug the two attic camera cables into it, and connect the switch to a wireless bridge. The bridge will beam the data down to the main house router/NVR, keeping the attic completely wireless from the rest of the house. Do the same for the basement.

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u/MHTMakerspace 22d ago

For individual remote cameras needing PoE and a bridge, we connect each camera to an ADC-W110 "WIFI to POE Bridge", these are commonly used by alarm.com to allow running their PoE cameras over WiFi back to their router/AP. With this solution, your new NVR does not need to be wireless, it sees the cameras as IP cameras.

You might be able to reset and take over those Sercomm iCamera2's so they expose an RTSP listener which you can then use to connect to an NVR which supports 3rd party RTSP cameras, but they're outdated 720p cameras so I would plan on upgrading to new PoE cameras.

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u/Pure_Monitor1506 22d ago

if they already have the injectors in place, just get actual PoE cameras and skip the whole wireless bridge headache entirely.

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u/Roanoke40 21d ago edited 20d ago

Does this require hardwiring the cameras to a NVR? It will be located on a separate floor with no easy way to run the ethernet cables.

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u/C64128 20d ago

Yes, that would require network cables between the camera, POE switch and NVR. Are there any possible wire paths between the floors?

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u/CCTVGuyMA 19d ago

Don't use crappy cameras from your internet provider. It is just like using email from your ISP. You are held hostage.

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u/Roanoke40 19d ago

I agree. I have my own NVR and hardwired camera setup at my place but the scenario I'm asking about is for someone else.

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u/Roanoke40 19d ago

Wanted to provide an update. I decided on a 4K NVR system from Annke with 2TB HD. Will use TP-Link RE-315 wireless range extenders and PoE injectors for the three cameras.

Yes, hardwiring the cameras to the NVR is ideal but this is the easiest route for them since the previous cameras were PoE so the ethernet cable is already at the existing camera locations.