Aosu D1 Classic Owner Shares Setup Tips and Real-World Notes

This review is for the Aosu SolarCam D1 Classic 2-camera kit with H1L HomeBase. First, be sure to plan for camera mounting locations that get enough sunlight. My two cameras installed two weeks ago have been maintaining 100% charge every day, except on consecutive cloudy / rainy days when they have dropped to 80 or 90%. Hard to know how the storage performance will hold up as years pass. Some miscellaneous notes: 1) Mounting height: Try not to mount the camera too low, because the up and down tilt motion is straight across, 0-degrees horizontal at its highest, and points straight down at its lowest. 2) Flatness of the camera mounting bases: The mounting bases need to stay flat. Initially I fastened the screws too tightly on wood fence posts, which distorted the flatness and prevented the snap-lock action from holding the cameras securely. After backing off the three mounting screws slightly, the problem went away. 3) Grab and run theft risk: Later I might drill in an additional screw to physically secure each camera to its mounting base. The current design makes it easy to slide the camera on and off the base, which can be convenient for installation. But if theft is a concern for you, I would definitely add an additional screw. 4) Storage volume: The 32GB storage of the HomeBase unit can't be expanded. That works for me because my back yard doesn't trigger many motion-activated recordings, maybe 10 or 15 daily (yard work, playing with dog). For my two cameras, this will be enough for six months of footage. It then loops back to overwrite the oldest recordings. An SD card slot for memory expansion would have been a helpful feature, especially for other users that might have more cameras or more motion-triggered activity. 5) HomeBase is hard-wired to your network. The cameras are wireless, but keep in mind that the central HomeBase unit is connected to the internet by a physical RJ45 network cable jack. The signal range between the HomeBase and the cameras is definitely stronger than regular wifi. The Aosu app currently reports 48% and 52% signal for my two cameras, which is apparently good because live viewing and controlling the pan-tilt has worked correctly -- while I was 17,000 kilometers away, south of the equator on a ship in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Btw the date/time stamp on the recorded images also maintain accuracy regardless of what time zone you are located in while viewing through the Aosu app. 6) Motion detection: The D1 Classic model has basic "person" shape recognition, and seven levels of motion detection sensitivity. You can leave it on automatic, or manually adjust the settings yourself. These settings will also obviously affect memory and battery consumption. Generally speaking, a) Intelligence: Other models including the Aosu P1 Max series do offer higher levels of shape recognition and "AI Surveillance"-enhanced processing, but at higher price points. "Cross Camera Tracking" on the D1 Classic generates notifications of consecutive motion events of multiple cameras. My setup is with only two cameras, so this feature might be more interesting if you have three or four cameras. b) False triggering and missed (non-) triggering: This is apparently still a universal challenge for all camera makes and models in this product space. Typical false trigger causes are rain and snow; spider webs; shadows of passing clouds, and trees or leaves blowing in the wind. c) Unreliable information on "professional" reviews, articles: There is some utterly wrong information on various technology blog websites. Maybe because Aosu has such a wide range of camera models, each with different combinations of features, that the blog writers lose track of what they are writing about. So just be aware that any reports of 128GB or 256GB SD card expansion, or 2.4/5G wifi connectivity for example, might apply to other specific Aosu camera models, but not necessarily the D1 Classic. ____________________ The attached photos are of my night-time installation that only took a few minutes per camera, and finally three snapshots that show the effects of illumination on the picture quality: 1) with no illumination (except moonlight) 2) with camera's IR infrared illumination (black & white) 3) with camera's LED floodlight illumination (color)