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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 n

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.

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.