I know this is a Hubitat forum but I thought someone here might have some insight on my questions.
Just a little background. I have 2 UAP AC LR access points connected via ethernet to my UDM PRO using Starlink as my ISP. One is on the west side of the house and one on the east. These AP's serve the entire house and work very well. I also have 1 UAP AC LR in my barn about 60ft away from the house. This AP is meshed to the AP on the west side of the house. I get about 15 down and 20 up from the barn AP. I have a fire tv, an iMac, a garage door opener and a G5 Instant camera on the outside of the barn connected to this AP.
I just received an Unifi Device Bridge. I was going to connect a G5 Flex camera to the bridge inside the barn and connect it to the Barn AP to monitor inside the barn. I got to thinking. The Barn AP is already loaded and doesn't have that much bandwidth anyway. What I was thinking of doing is to install the device bridge outside the barn under the overhang where it will not get wet and then connect a Flex mini to it and run an ethernet cable to the Barn AP and hardwire it to the device bridge. Also run a cable to the G5 Flex (I have a POE adapter that I can use). Seeing the device bridge is on the outside of the barn it should get a better signal to the house west AP than the barn AP which is inside the barn. The barn is metal siding.
My question to you is will this work better with the device bridge on the outside of the barn with everything inside the barn running through the barn AP. Or should I just use the device bridge for the camera only. Thanks for any assistance.
I do not have DIRECT experience with the Bridge, but my brother is running something very similar to what you are doing. He uses their bridge from his house to the workshop located in their back yard. Once there it is connected to a switch that then distributes the connection to the many things he has in there including cameras.
With a Flex mini being so cheap, connecting the bridge to it gives you more options. If you directly connected it to the camera it would be tougher if you decide to expand things in the future. Instead, you will have a line coming to a central (I assume) spot for a switch. Yes, you will only have 3 ports on it available (bridge and camera each using one) AND you will have to run lines... but you can always expand it if needed. You will have space if you want to connect another camera for a different angle (or inside the barn) or maybe some other sensor or device. You could also connect an AP in the barn if you wanted more wireless devices around it easier. Or someday you may want a PoE camera and you would be able to put a different switch in that can support that.
Long story short... I would go with connecting the bridge to a switch (of some form).
I have two APs (UAP-nanoHD, U7 Pro) in the house and one in my workshop. The ones in the house use a wired backhaul and the workshop (AC Pro) is meshed with U7 Pro.
The workshop AP is connected to a USW-Lite-8 PoE switch. I also have a G6 Bullet connected to the switch.
From time to time the camera would lockup in the Protect view and it would often get 8-10 seconds out of sync with the other cameras. I ended up manually setting the WiFi channels and REDUCED the power on the AP radios. Since then the camera connection has been solid.
My situation isn't identical to yours but it is similar enough. Check your radios and see if you are getting a lot of congestion and retries.
