COOAU 5MP 360° Solar Security Camera Outdoor Color Night
COOAU 5MP 360° Solar Security Camera Outdoor Color Night Vision, Rechargeable Battery Wireless CCTV Camera Systems,PTZ Camera,Motion Detection,4 Spotlight,Cloud storage,2.4GHz
From the brand
| Weight: | 8 g |
| Dimensions: | 16 x 15 x 10 cm; 8 g |
| Model: | Q01 |
| Part: | Q02 SP |
| Colour: | 5mp Solar Camera |
| Batteries Required: | Yes |
| Batteries Included: | Lithium Ion |
| Manufacture: | COOAU |
| Dimensions: | 16 x 15 x 10 cm; 8 g |
I am very impressed with the Q01 ptz camera and solar panel.
Worth every penny
I have contacted Cooau on a couple of occasions for advice on using the app properly.
Cooau customer service is from my experience very good.
I bought this to go in am outside shed to watch my mare who is due to foal. Impressed myself with setting it up. Clear pictures. Only downside is I have to charge it every other day as she obviously sets it off a lot spending time in the shed. My wi fi signal not great but it copes fine. Will be going on the house after. Impressed
Very easy to setup provided you can remember your WiFi password!
Particularly like the phone app , it tells you whether or not where you want to install the camera has a good signal ( 2.4ghz only, doesn’t support 5ghz ).
Paper template for the 3 drill holes, insert the provided raw plugs and screw the bracket to your chosen surface.
Clip the camera onto the bracket , turn on the camera power , open the Cloud Edge app and have a play , check picture quality and operate the pan, tilt, zoom function. Gentle taps on the direction arrows and the camera turns fairly smoothly and quickly.
SD or QHD image quality, picture is clear, light function turns the video into colour at night.
The USB connection is the c type, comes with a usb-c lead to charge the batteries.
Only found out after I’d bought this that you can buy a solar panel version. I’ve ordered a solar panel to connect to this which hopefully will mean I don’t have to take the camera down to charge up the batteries.
I bought a 128gb Kingston micro sd card, format the card in the app.
Detected my Mrs and sends messages to your phone when movement detected.
So far so good. For the price I’m very pleased.
**UPDATE** Bought a solar panel and installed near the camera, it now just stays fully charged. One thing I didn’t mention in my original review is that there doesn’t seem to be an app available to use on a windows pc. I contacted the manufacturer and they said, no, there is no pc app, just a mobile app.
First thing I had to do was charge up the camera indoors and install the app on your phone. I should point out that I was forced to use the CloudEdge app as the default COOAU app you were directed to in the instructions no longer exists on GooglePlay (if using an Android phone) The CloudEdge app appears to work though and does everything I would expect it to
Using the app you could then measure the wi-fi signal to your camera and you were advised to do this when selecting where you were going to install the camera outdoors. A strong wi-fi signal is required although where I have it installed I’m getting about 70% signal which is fine.
After initial set up on my phone by installing the app, I can connect to the camera live feed from my phone and even rotate the camera from the phone (PTZ) albeit quite slowly. Note this can be done from anywhere your phone has access to internet so doesn’t even have to be at home. As well as live footage you can view any footage recorded when the motion detector has been triggered.
The motion detector can be configured from the app and so far there has been a few cases (out of probably 50 or so) where it hasn’t picked up people in its range. By default, it is set up in the app to detect human sized objects only so I’ve tried switching this off to see if this improves the hit rate. In addition, you can change the sensitivity of the detector so I guess it may just be trial and error to find the sweet spot.
Battery life has been OK. I’ve lost about 15% in a week although I was probably looking at the footage more in the last week than I would do normally (footage is watched on the app using micro SD card in the camera). I would say 4 to 6 weeks it to be expected rather than the 4 to 6 months stated although the figure they’ve stated may be based on over 90% wifi signal at all times. The 4-6 weeks recharge is fine for me though and you can always buy the solar panel for it if you don’t want to have to recharge it ever
I currently have the footage being recorded to the micro SD card only although there is the (paid for) option to have it uploaded to the cloud if you want extra security from having additional copies and in case the camera itself gets stolen. I have put the camera out of most people’s reach, as advised.
At night the pictures are in black and white but the image is still good. Once motion is detected the in-built light will switch on and the image changes to colour. There is an option to have the light on all the time at night although I suspect this would drain the battery much quicke
Set up of the camera was very simple and straightforward. Unlike other cameras, there wasn’t even a requirement to connect the camera directly to the wi-fi router itself with an ethernet cable, which was a bonus.
To get started you need to download the Cooau Cam App on Android or ISO which took a few seconds. Once installed it was just a matter of following the on-screen instructions, which were simple and clear. I chose the option of connecting the camera to wi-fi by showing the camera lens itself a QR code that was generated on my smartphone within the Cooau app, i simple lifted my phone to the camera lens and after a couple of seconds the camera read the QR code and played a tune to acknowledge it had registered. It was all complete within a minute or two.
Once connected to the app and wi-fi all that is left is installing the camera to your wall or ceiling. Supplied in the box is a packet of screws and wall plugs and a drill screw guide (see attached images) to make installation a breeze. Don’t forget at this point to also install your micro SD card if required (maximum 128GB) before securing to a wall. It is best to ensure your sd card is a high quality, class 10, for maximum performance.
Once thing to note in terms of installation, a USB cable is only supplied inside the box and no wall plug. The USB cable is quite short, but can be easily extended using your own USB cable. A simple USB wall plug is required to complete power to the security camera, should you wish to have a constant direct power supply.
Once installed, the app itself is responsive and displays a clear HD image from the camera (see attached images). I love the fact this camera has ‘PTZ’ functionality – enabling you to rotate the camera left and right, up and down from the app itself.
One key feature about this security camera in particular is it has a built in battery, allowing you to monitor your property without a constant power cable. According to the manufacturer, upon a full charge, the battery can last 4 to 6 months, depending on usage and the amount of security alerts, although I am yet to confirm this. The app will alert you when the power has reduced to 20% automatically. This option is fantastic for those who do not have access to a constant power supply nearby and who can simply charge the device once and then leave it for a few months. The camera will still need to be connected to a wi-fi signal, regardless whether a constant power supply is provided or not.
Overall I am very happy with this camera and love the fact it includes two key features, PTZ functionality and an included battery for easier installation.