Looking for solar LTE camera with RTSP for Frigate

Hardware
,
1

I’m looking for a solar + LTE (4G/5G) camera that supports RTSP for use with Home Assistant / Frigate.

My use case:

  • currently off-grid → needs solar + LTE
  • motion detection is enough for now
  • later it will have wired internet, and I’d switch to LAN and use continuous RTSP streaming in Frigate

The problem:
I only keep finding cloud-locked LTE/solar cameras that work only through the manufacturer’s app and don’t expose RTSP/ONVIF.

I did find one LTE camera with an RJ45 port, but:

  • RJ45 alone doesn’t guarantee it isn’t cloud-dependent
  • it has no solar option
  • powering it from solar seems complicated (it uses internal 18650 cells but requires a 12V 2A input)

Basically I’m trying to avoid buying a device that becomes useless if the vendor cloud disappears, and I’d like something that can work locally later over LAN with RTSP.

Does anyone know a model (or setup) that fits this use case?

2

I have three Reolink cameras installed. Once set up you can switch off their internet access in HA. They continue to work locally with RTSP/ONVIF.

3

Could you please send a model name? I can’t find anything that is solar + LTE + LAN.

4

Reolink sells solar panels that plug into all Reolink cameras. However, it’s either LAN or mobile phone connection, not both.

For example the Reolink Go PT Ultra

But obviously you then need the cloud to access the camera.

5

Can you not use solar camera and separately connect them to cellular

Look at Ubiquiti nano station AC loco. This is backhaul WiFi ap with range of miles.

I would connect camera and AP to switch and power locally by solar. This would connect to central AP(there is Ubiquiti model with external antenna that is (I forget term) circular antenna . I would have cellular uplink there. You may also just have camera and cellular ap local

There are cellular modules for arduino so building a unit using esp32 is an option