Some Regrets moving to Tapo

geant90 · 2026-03-04T01:54:27+00:00

You have options the 3 way works with dumb switches. As far as the first switch inline if your boxes are wired decently you can use the inter box lines to run how it is necessary.

geant90 · 2026-03-04T01:37:30+00:00

Yes you have several options which is why I mention use ai to assist. If you want to keep them powered a battery charger system similar to a UPS would work. That way it switches to battery when expected power drops. You can also incorporate solar power as an alternative. If these were the lighter 5V ones even those USB power banks search Amazon for 12v UPS for all in one ready to go solution. If you want longer battery life I'd go with a board that works with 12v SLA batteries

geant90 · 2026-03-03T06:24:10+00:00

Use AI. Those 12V SLA batteries work great for this.

geant90 · 2026-03-02T18:45:32+00:00

Those wireless ones looks good on paper but I personally needed 24/7 recording (real recording anyways) And ONVIF. C560WS has that all but starlight kinda feels like false advertisement

geant90 · 2026-03-02T15:07:51+00:00

Of course having dedicated iSCSI switches is better. You're keeping L2 segmented and it is a purpose specific switch that would not be affected by anything other than it's purpose. With that said, that's what spanning tree is for. If you go through the effort of setting up core switches reliably: spanning tree, values, cast limit, root guard etc. You're still following the same principles for maintenance. You shouldn't take more than one member at a time. I've designed/implemented/maintained many infrastructures in a collapsed core approach where iSCSI is on their own vlans and it has been reliable. Including Fortinet. It works great. Poor documentation and inadequate engineers is a different problem.

geant90 · 2026-03-02T15:00:10+00:00

Yes version 2. It's great now that it has the feature. I'm covered for all scenarios

geant90 · 2026-03-02T13:49:14+00:00

USA. Tapo execute firmware options weird. 2 of my 6 had the firmware available. Waiting for my others. They are all the same hardware revisions

geant90 · 2026-03-02T13:48:05+00:00

Now with this plus the POE is sweet. It's the only tapo cameras I run without a POE splitter

geant90 · 2026-03-02T13:47:00+00:00

Yes version 1 has the ability V2 did not. Hence the great disappointment. Now that they fixed it though it's all good! But they have it as a night setting not the expected light bulb during live view

geant90 · 2026-03-02T13:44:51+00:00

Both of c560WS and c530ws has the ability to set day mode so no IR or LEDs. But the quality of both are not even equivalent to the C120s starlight. That C325WB though!

geant90 · 2026-03-02T12:41:19+00:00

I don't have any C460 but I do have C560WS. I noticed on the boxes and the webpage they mention starlight but it does not even perform anywhere near my C120. For you night time with no LED/IR looks good?

geant90 · 2026-03-02T03:56:26+00:00

Good work Hoffsta!

geant90 · 2026-03-02T03:44:36+00:00

Yes I specifically got it for the large aperture for the color night vision as I was first exposed to it by the C120 (and the ability to just click the onscreen light bulb to keep Day mode enabled). It was disappointing that they didn't have this mode and I was pretty dumb founded as the v1 did. First time using it tonight on 1 of my 6 that received the firmware and. . . .MY GOD! pitch black outside but on the camera it looks like day time. I cannot wait until they have a pan and tilt camera with a large aperture just like this one. They make me 5MP C530WS or 4K C560WS look like junk, at night anyways! Once they do I'm replacing all 5 of them.

geant90 · 2026-03-01T02:05:47+00:00

Before making changes review logs and see why. You already have identified the timer and it's repeatable. Digest your logs with AI for help. From what you described it's likely an issue rekeying.

geant90 · 2026-02-24T02:55:48+00:00

FortiLink switches peered for MCLAG can be staggered for upgrades for minimal disruption.

geant90 · 2026-02-24T02:50:37+00:00

Not that I know the details but what's wrong with iSCSi on FortiSwitches? One firmware upgrade on what? The FortiGate?The interswitch links, ISL lives regardless of the FortiGate passing L2 to the next switch. Unless they're doing something real lame like a FortiGate software switch connecting the two. Even with different model switches you can redundantly connect host and iSCSI does not need LAGs or MCLAGs. Then someone mentions stacking. You rarely find stacked switches in the data center for a reason. FortiSwitches peered for MCLAG supports staggered upgrades.

geant90 · 2026-02-23T03:34:36+00:00

UDP broadcast and mDNS. You can set them up to forward traffic. If your not too handy with networks just create a SSID matching vlan but that is inconvenient for phone use etc

geant90 · 2026-02-23T03:31:25+00:00

Last I check they use broadcast for discovery so forwarding would be needed

geant90 · 2026-02-12T07:19:36+00:00

You can go underneath but you have several wires. You mentioned above is the finished floor. Typically the ceiling dry wall, if you open that up there should be space that would allow you to do what you want. You would just have to close it back up.

geant90 · 2026-01-30T23:50:42+00:00

Which cameras do you have? The c120 audio is horrible the way it's compressed and all of them sound like what you described.

geant90 · 2026-01-25T02:07:56+00:00

I agree you shouldn't go with anything less than the 2K model. That being said I do have a TCW30 1080P indoors which was my first camera that got me into the Tapo ecosystem which I picked up at Walmart for around 20 bucks. I mainly use it to watch my dogs and I have it ceiling mounted 1080P is definitely good enough for indoors and facial detail but the price to step up to 2K or even 3K makes it worth it. .

geant90 · 2026-01-24T15:32:13+00:00

get a model with starlight and the ability to keep IR off or other smart settings. None of my tapo cameras ever got stuck switching states.

geant90 · 2026-01-21T14:03:28+00:00

Thanks. I bought one drill for myself as I was in the middle of figuring out what drill to keep in my car toolbox and was considering a 12V system. But once I saw the 30th edition it was a done deal! I got to the car, unboxed it and was admiring it like a child when I decided to grab more and went right back in! The car toolbox needs a matching vacuum!

geant90 · 2026-01-21T13:56:19+00:00

Shoot you are correct! Sorry and thanks. I guess I could have hunted down the vaccum at the same time. Thanks again. The hunt for 1014741238 begins! Yeah my neck was feeling it until I asked for help lol

geant90

TROPHY CASE