Reolink RLC-420-5MP IP Camera Review
The Reolink RLC-420-5MP ...
It is an external 'dome' camera with night vision capability and 5MP resolution.
First Impressions
The camera feels solid and well made.
Configuration & Setup
Power
The camera requires a 12V dc power supply or can use Power over Ethernet (PoE). For initial testing we used a 12V plug-in PSU.
Users
The first thing we did was change the default 'admin' user password, which was blank. We then created a 'guest' user for general access to the camera by our contextual smart home. We plan to use this camera in two way, to capture still images and video clips:
- Use the in-built motion detection to trigger image/video capture and FTP upload to our Home Control System.
- Use any of the sensors connected to our Home Control System (front door, letterbox, porch PIR, door bell, etc.) to trigger a request from our HCS to capture images/video and to store this locally.
Network
The camera uses an RJ45 Ethernet cable to connect to our home network. It comes with a waterproof cable cover and supports Power over Ethernet (PoE), which we plan to use.
We assigned our camera a fixed IP address and enbaled the NTP service, to ensure on teh onboard clock stays synchronised to local time. This is used in time stamping the captured footage and also in the filenames of captured media.
Installed Adobe Flash but still not able to see the image. Need to allow it in the Firefox menu bar.
FTP
We enabled FTP and configured it to upload to our Home Control System. IP cameras like this don't support SSL or TLS, which is a shame.
Installation
We plan to use this camera to upgrade our current porch camera.
T.B.C.
