3 units of Tapo C420

Tapo Smart Hub H200

2 units of Tapo A201 Solar Panel and 

1 unit of Tapo A200 Solar Panel.

 

I am using it for 1 year now and I am not satisfied. The overall issue is, "Tapo C420 smart camera is NOT smart enough", reasons are: 

 

 

 

1. Motion Detection using the PIR sensor is not effective 

- Cannot detect motions in all directions

- There should be an option to dectect motion via pixel changes or use both PIR and pixel changes"

2. Late recording of the motion/event

3. Recording is cut early while the motion/event is still in the field of view

4. No additional special feature if Solar Panel or external power source is connected (Solar panel is Not cheap)

- For the Solar panel, there should be a special features to maximize the use of the camera, such as "continuous recording while the solar panel receives power from the sun", at night, "continuous recording until 50% battery and then which to motion detection"

- For external power source, the camera should function just like any another non-battery powered camera, with "continuous recording option"

5. Latest Firmware is not available to all of my Tapo C420.

- One of my C420 firmware is 1.4.1, the other is still at 1.3.1 and no bew firmware available to the out-dated camera.

6. Tapo smart Hub H200, what else inside here?

 

" Expensive, not too smart, limited features, firmware 

 

The only advantage of this setup are:

1. Wireless setup

- but still has limited range (based on experience) 

2. recordings are stored in a separate (in the hub)

- in the event of stolen camera, you can still review the recordings, ONLY if the moment your camera was stolen has been recorded (since the event or motions are late recorded based on experience)

 

Please note that all remarks here are based on my experience and use case

 

I have 2 units of other brand/vendor of smart camera, which is doing what I expect them to do. Motion detection is very effective and efficient. I hope Tapo is the smae since they are expensive.

 

If can only trade this setup to a better one, I will 😅

 

The very purpose of this post is to make the aforementioned devices work as intended (for security) and hopefully TP-Link will going to improve the features or firmware of the devices.