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I was hopeful about this to replace my Ubiquiti cameras, but I really want something that is going to be PoE. Nest really seems to be all about WiFi, so I shou

I was hopeful about this to replace my Ubiquiti cameras, but I really want something that is going to be PoE. Nest really seems to be all about WiFi, so I shouldn't be surprised, but am I the only one that doesn't want cameras on WiFi? I put up some Ubiquiti cameras last year, we live on a pretty quiet street but we had some kids pulling shenanigans (a car window was shot out with a BB gun, our Little Free Library bench was drug out into the street, change being stolen from cars). Since the cameras, nothing has happened, so that's a plus. But the Ubiquity recorder device makes the system nearly unusable. For some reason, recordings usually stop while there is still motion going on, so I end up with a lot of little 15-30 second videos that show only the start of whatever is going on. I've fiddled with it a lot and had no luck.

SomeHacker44 9y ago
This is disappointing to read. I just bought an outdoor Ubiquiti camera and their little VCR-cassette sized device and in my indoor evaluations it worked very nicely. I was going to put it up outdoors, but maybe I should just skip that plan and go with a traditional Nest. The indoor ones I have work very well, despite being on WiFi. I do have a solid WiFi at home, though, with two Ubiquiti AP-AC-HDs, unfortunately stuck to a DOCSIS 3.0 modem with only 20Mbps upstream (despite 300Mbps down).
- linsomniac 9y ago
  I'd love to hear if anyone has different experience. I also did a small evaluation before I started pulling shielded Cat-5 for the cameras, but it really wasn't until I ran for weeks or months that I had problems. I really should contact support and see what they say. We have WiFi problems sometimes, it just seems like I'll have fewer problems if I run wired. At work we have a Nest and it seems to be pretty good, though it's a much more consumer level thing. Which probably is good.
- benjohnson 9y ago
  My opinion: We install Unifi camera systems for a living - the crazy amount tiny little files and MongoDB basically require that the Unifi Video Controller have an SSD for reliable usage - that precludes the Unifi branded Unifi Controller that has a spinning drive. Our recommendation: A Intel (Intel Brand) Atom NUC with an SSD and 8GB of RAM. Installing Linux and the Unifi server on it takes about 20 minutes and you're left with a more manageable machine. I would also admit that the Unifi Video Controller hasn't been rock-solid until about a year ago - current releases now go forever without issue.
  - linsomniac 9y ago
    I've been thinking about just imaging the Unifi video box hard drive to an SSD and then putting that back in place, hoping the SSD would help improve performance and longevity enough to make it more reliable. I have thought about setting it up as a virtual instance inside a more general purpose "home server", but currently I don't have anything but laptops/chromebooks at home and kind of what to keep it that way. :-) Thanks for the pointers. I haven't had the Unifi system for a year yet, so I must be running the more reliable software. I did do an install of the Unifi software on a Ubuntu virtual machine for initial testing, and I agree that it was super easy. So I assume that if you are installing these systems, that you are more or less happy with them? I was optimistic about it, like the cameras and the promise of the controller software, but wish it was more reliable. Have you seen the thing where it stops recording in the middle of motion?
    - benjohnson 9y ago
      Yes - before the 3.x branch got stable - the controller would do all sorts of stupid things - like stop recording at all. At the same time the controller has gotten more stable, we finally bit the bullet and jumped to SSDs for all our installs - I think that helps with long term reliability. I had a hunch that the controller doesn't deal with SATA timeouts while a spinning hard-drive reallocates sectors. But I really have no evidence of such a theory.
rbritton 9y ago
Do you have their NVR, or did you install it on your own hardware? I have used both and had different experiences. With the NVR, I have had no problems, but with my own hardware I had the problem you describe if it was up too long. I was able to work around it by scheduling a daily cron to restart their process.
- linsomniac 9y ago
  I did both. The camera arrived before the NVR, so I set up a test VM and installed the software and it seemed to work ok in minimal testing, but I really only ran it a few days. I've been having problems with their hardware box, but I also haven't contacted their support to see if there is something I'm overlooking. I went through running PoE (also got their PoE switch, so this is all their gear), and I figure that if this hardware doesn't work, I can switch to different PoE gear. Maybe I should try scheduling a regular reboot? I've wondered if I was running into it just having problems running out of space and having to do maintenance that interfered with recordings, and if a SSD would help. Haven't gone that route yet though.
  - rbritton 9y ago
    Mine never actually ran out of space, so there shouldn't have been any real maintenance done. The behavior I encountered only started after being up more than a week or so, and its timing was pretty inconsistent. The regular reboot "fixed" whatever the problem was, though.
    - linsomniac 9y ago
      Mine hasn't "run out" of space either, but it tends to be using the vast majority of the available space on it, and performance in filesystems tents to drop when you get above 90% full... Maybe I should see if I can reduce the space it keeps free.
ad_hominem 9y ago
I've had pretty poor experiences with Ubiquiti's home networking gear (an EdgeRouter PoE and two UniFi access points). I'm actually in the process of putting the stuff up on eBay and replacing it all with a regular Linksys router, which is unfortunate because my whole goal was to setup something a bit more industrial grade than the typical consumer gear. Their marketing is slick but I think the internals of their products leave something to be desired (in my experience).
- linsomniac 9y ago
  Good to know. I've been tempted to try their networking gear, the cameras were a kind of dry run before maybe trying the networking. But, honestly, the Google Wifi and OnHub have been working really well. We are in a challenging environment for some reason (neighbors with a bad cordless phone or something?). I've added a few wireless mesh nodes and hope to wire them at some point here.

SomeHacker44 9y ago

This is disappointing to read. I just bought an outdoor Ubiquiti camera and their little VCR-cassette sized device and in my indoor evaluations it worked very nicely. I was going to put it up outdoors, but maybe I should just skip that plan and go with a traditional Nest. The indoor ones I have work very well, despite being on WiFi. I do have a solid WiFi at home, though, with two Ubiquiti AP-AC-HDs, unfortunately stuck to a DOCSIS 3.0 modem with only 20Mbps upstream (despite 300Mbps down).

linsomniac 9y ago
I'd love to hear if anyone has different experience. I also did a small evaluation before I started pulling shielded Cat-5 for the cameras, but it really wasn't until I ran for weeks or months that I had problems. I really should contact support and see what they say. We have WiFi problems sometimes, it just seems like I'll have fewer problems if I run wired. At work we have a Nest and it seems to be pretty good, though it's a much more consumer level thing. Which probably is good.
benjohnson 9y ago
My opinion: We install Unifi camera systems for a living - the crazy amount tiny little files and MongoDB basically require that the Unifi Video Controller have an SSD for reliable usage - that precludes the Unifi branded Unifi Controller that has a spinning drive. Our recommendation: A Intel (Intel Brand) Atom NUC with an SSD and 8GB of RAM. Installing Linux and the Unifi server on it takes about 20 minutes and you're left with a more manageable machine. I would also admit that the Unifi Video Controller hasn't been rock-solid until about a year ago - current releases now go forever without issue.
- linsomniac 9y ago
  I've been thinking about just imaging the Unifi video box hard drive to an SSD and then putting that back in place, hoping the SSD would help improve performance and longevity enough to make it more reliable. I have thought about setting it up as a virtual instance inside a more general purpose "home server", but currently I don't have anything but laptops/chromebooks at home and kind of what to keep it that way. :-) Thanks for the pointers. I haven't had the Unifi system for a year yet, so I must be running the more reliable software. I did do an install of the Unifi software on a Ubuntu virtual machine for initial testing, and I agree that it was super easy. So I assume that if you are installing these systems, that you are more or less happy with them? I was optimistic about it, like the cameras and the promise of the controller software, but wish it was more reliable. Have you seen the thing where it stops recording in the middle of motion?
  - benjohnson 9y ago
    Yes - before the 3.x branch got stable - the controller would do all sorts of stupid things - like stop recording at all. At the same time the controller has gotten more stable, we finally bit the bullet and jumped to SSDs for all our installs - I think that helps with long term reliability. I had a hunch that the controller doesn't deal with SATA timeouts while a spinning hard-drive reallocates sectors. But I really have no evidence of such a theory.

rbritton 9y ago

Do you have their NVR, or did you install it on your own hardware? I have used both and had different experiences. With the NVR, I have had no problems, but with my own hardware I had the problem you describe if it was up too long. I was able to work around it by scheduling a daily cron to restart their process.

linsomniac 9y ago
I did both. The camera arrived before the NVR, so I set up a test VM and installed the software and it seemed to work ok in minimal testing, but I really only ran it a few days. I've been having problems with their hardware box, but I also haven't contacted their support to see if there is something I'm overlooking. I went through running PoE (also got their PoE switch, so this is all their gear), and I figure that if this hardware doesn't work, I can switch to different PoE gear. Maybe I should try scheduling a regular reboot? I've wondered if I was running into it just having problems running out of space and having to do maintenance that interfered with recordings, and if a SSD would help. Haven't gone that route yet though.
- rbritton 9y ago
  Mine never actually ran out of space, so there shouldn't have been any real maintenance done. The behavior I encountered only started after being up more than a week or so, and its timing was pretty inconsistent. The regular reboot "fixed" whatever the problem was, though.
  - linsomniac 9y ago
    Mine hasn't "run out" of space either, but it tends to be using the vast majority of the available space on it, and performance in filesystems tents to drop when you get above 90% full... Maybe I should see if I can reduce the space it keeps free.

ad_hominem 9y ago

I've had pretty poor experiences with Ubiquiti's home networking gear (an EdgeRouter PoE and two UniFi access points). I'm actually in the process of putting the stuff up on eBay and replacing it all with a regular Linksys router, which is unfortunate because my whole goal was to setup something a bit more industrial grade than the typical consumer gear. Their marketing is slick but I think the internals of their products leave something to be desired (in my experience).

linsomniac 9y ago
Good to know. I've been tempted to try their networking gear, the cameras were a kind of dry run before maybe trying the networking. But, honestly, the Google Wifi and OnHub have been working really well. We are in a challenging environment for some reason (neighbors with a bad cordless phone or something?). I've added a few wireless mesh nodes and hope to wire them at some point here.