Guides
Solar 4G camera guides
Most solar 4G camera problems come from three things: a SIM or band that does not match the network, a panel too small or shaded for the site, and a camera mounted where it cannot see what matters. These guides cover each one, for installers, resellers and farm owners in Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana.
SIM card for a solar 4G camera
Match 4G bands to your network, prepare the SIM, and estimate monthly data use with a worked example.
Solar panel and battery size
Daily energy use, peak sun hours and cloudy-day reserve, with the numbers for 3 W and 5 W panels.
How to install a solar 4G camera
The order installers follow: test the SIM and signal, pair on the ground, mount, angle the panel and fix against theft.
Solar camera for farm security
Where to put cameras on a farm: gates, boreholes, stores and fuel, with power and SIM planning.
Cameras against livestock theft
Watching kraals, bomas and grazing land at night, including 4G trail cameras far from the house.
The short answers
- Which SIM? A Nano data SIM from a network whose 4G bands the camera supports, with the PIN removed and a data bundle loaded. Alerts and short clips use roughly 4 to 5 GB a month in our worked example; live view adds most of the rest.
- Which panel? One that puts back each day what the camera uses. In the worked example a 5 W panel covers a typical farm camera with margin; 3 W suits a wall in full sun with few events.
- Which battery? Enough for two to three days without sun. A 7,800 mAh pack is about 29 Wh, or roughly two and a half days of the example use.
- Where to mount? About 3 to 4 m up, close enough to the gate or door to read a face, with the panel unshaded and tilted 10 to 20 degrees.
Where to start
If you are planning a first solar 4G camera, read the guides in this order. Start with the SIM card guide, because a camera that cannot reach the network is useless however good the picture is. Then check the panel and battery size for how the camera will be used, and finish with the installation guide before you go on site.
Resellers can use the same guides to answer the questions buyers ask most: which network works, how long the battery lasts, and why a camera shows offline. The figures in each guide are either sourced, with the date we checked them, or marked as worked examples you should redo with your own numbers.
For a site-by-site plan, the farm security guide and the livestock theft guide show where each camera goes. For country details, see the pages for Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana, and for the cameras themselves, the solar 4G camera range. Back to solar 4G cameras.