Exactly , plus trying to replace all things outside that need batteries this year with solar and all IOT devices with FOG mesh network devices for better security. We canot alway count on our internet connection or power. so want systems to work off of slar pannels and home security to not relay on internet or electrict from the grid. we have multple backhauls to intetnet over DTN protocal with LORA and even cell sometines. but nothing needs real time internet will process all locally so latency is no longer an issue. will use our own FOG AI for computer vision with Yolo etc.
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Adding my whine to the list of the disappointed. The compromises to support a 5200 mAh battery (2x2600??) are too many for me. (no wifi, no continuous recording, etcâŚ). I have great wifi (unifi mesh) coverage outside, but really no convenient place to position the Wyze outdoor hub)
Nevertheless, itâs time to move forward.
Thanks to @angus.black for the âdeep cycle batteryâ and voltage regulator suggestion, My first pass for positioning and âsignal quality range checkingâ was to attach a WyzeCam V2 to a Ankar PowerCore 20100. Iâll do some battery drain tests and likely get a 12Ah UPS battery and a birdhouse cover (per @tomdadian 's suggestion)
@sodcam mentioned TinyCam. In my opinion the best single UI for camera aggregation. @alexey.vasilyev was extremely responsive when he added support for the Wyze move to TOPT 2FA (He had a beta within a week and released code within a month)
Iâm also investigating Yi Outdoor plug-in wifi cameras + the Yi-hack. If anyone has experience with these cameras, it may be time for a new thread. Note: the Yi-Hack firmware is supported by the TinyCam viewer.
Iâll find another solution for âOutdoor WyzeCam V2â (aka outdoor, plug-in wifi camera). My prior disappoint remains: No presets on WyzeCam Pan. (A feature request since December 2018) Please provide your upvote. I believe that fixing this would be a weekend project for one of the Wyze Software Engineers.
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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L57GCYY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_vELopwhZGSp4I This seems to work well for me.
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Thatâs a bit sweeping of a claim, isnât it? There are in fact many battery powered devices that are meant for exactly this.:
Your smoke alarms, UPSes, ventilators, some USB charger packs, laptops and phones.
This isnât the 1980âs any more, and NiCads are no longer the rage they once were.
Itâs not inherently bad to keep something plugged in al the time just because it has a battery. And in some cases itâs handy. If you might need it to work when the power is out.
I have some wyze cams set up to video record injuries in an electrical room. When someone has an accident, it very likely will cut power to the area, so the wyzecam needs a battery to keep recording.
If your security threat model includes the bad guy being able to cut power to the house before committing a crime that might matter too. And with the 2020 electrical code requiring a readily accessible external shutoff handle outside every dwelling, thatâs quite easy for a bad guy to do.
That said. Any camera you donât plan on physically relocating often, ought to have a power cable going to it. Itâs just stupid to require people to physically touch their cameras over and over forever as is the case with any battery-only device. It is disrespectful to the end user by wasting their time.
I wonât be buying outdoor cam because I can only think of a couple very edge cases where I might need a temporary camera in some location.
They might make an OK wildlife cam maybe, where Iâm hundreds of meters from an outlet. Or on someone elseâ property where I donât want to be responsible for installing electrical service. Very edge case.
Iâm a little disappointed this was their announcement after as much hype as I felt from the leadup. I was hoping for the damn doorbell. My Ring hasnât worked right for months. Or maybe a âwe finally fixed all of our bugsâ announcement. But I guess Iâll keep dreaming.
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Well now youâre changing the dynamics of the situation on which I commented. No one said anything about needing a 20-foot extension ladder to access a camera, let alone about having installed a dedicated AC plug specifically for the camera. Thatâs a whole different premise.
As for whether the choice of couriers is âniggling,â waiting 3 days vs. waiting 20 days for delivery of security equipment doesnât strike me as âniggling.â But to each his own.
Actually the devices you are referring to are not battery powered. The are powered by mains power with battery backups.
Such devices only use the batteries in the absence of mains power. The batteries are not the primary source of power.
Devices setup to use their batteries as the primary source of power utilize a very different charging design. The difference is why you should not leave such devices plugged into mains power.
Iâm not ignoring it, because that was not part of the original post on which I commented. The original post mentioned â3 camsâ. That complaint is completely different from a complaint about having 15-20 different things needing periodic battery maintenance.
I donno there bub. Youâre stretching really pretty thin.
I know for a fact that my UPSes will not start, at all, without batteries installed. UPSes are near universally battery powered. And if you think laptops and phones are âmains powered with battery backupsâ, I want some of what youâre smoking. It must be good.
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Ok again, apples and oranges. A true UPS is constantly supplying power by design from the batteries. Again, they have a specially designed circuit to recharge the batteries from the mains via a trickle charge. They therefor canât and wonât run without batteries.
This is NOT what happens when you plug your cell phone, tablet, or the Wyze outdoor camera in.
Now that Wyze is getting all this feedback on their Outdoor cam, shouldnât they now just add the weatherproofing to new versions of the WyzeCam and PanCam and sell them as additional models? Clearly there is enough demand that prompted them to develop the Outdoor model, soâŚ
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They got the branding wrong. Itâs not an outdoor cam. (Itâs a portable waterproof cam) Great if thatâs what youâre looking for. But they knew customers were already using the indoor cam outdoors, and rather than addressing the outdoor related deficiencies with it, they made something altogether new. wah wahhhhh.
Of all the complaints Iâve had about using indoor cams outdoors, âIt doesnât have a batteryâ isnât one of them. I have basically no problem at all plugging in my cams for power.
And I have one HUGE problem with PIR motion detection. Thatâs what my RING doorbell has and it false alarms like crazy because of it.
I also have a HUGE problem with cameras that are on standby until after a PIR event. BY DEFINITION the video will always start late. Great for checking out the sexy calves and glutes on the UPS delivery man. Not so much for catching a package thief. All you will get is a video of the package not being there.
PIR motion sucks, and should only be uses IN COMBINATION WITH frame analysis motion detection.
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PIR sucks because:
it canât really support motion zones or ignoring a selected area of the scene
large fluctuations in overall light (passig clouds) can set it off
large vehicles set it off at a great distance (trash trucks, ups)
delay in video actication. NO pre-record!
Video motion sucks and PIR has a benefit with:
blowing leaves/trash
moving shadows and moving light on the ground
snow and bugs
But AI can fix all of the things that video mothion detection sucks with.
Dearest Wyze:
Give me a cam with both. Make millions of them and sell them cheap. Use crowdsourced feedback on what the motion depicts to teach your AI how to effectively use both sensors to optimize detection of relevant events. Power it via AC. And make your money selling that AI, or a retarded version of it, to Nest/Ring/Arlo. Wyzeâ always being better!
Forget the battery powered cam idea. I donât want to have to buy new batteries every year either. Thatâs stupid. Maybe resell-rebrand a weatherproof version of RAVPowerâs USB UPS battery backs. Theyâve got more mah than your little battery ever will. And they will take the heat when the batteries start exploding. You have enough fire guilt on your plate with the SD card debacle.
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âChanging dynamicsâ or âdifferent premiseâ, call it what you want but that location is the one that catches anything coming in our driveway and is where I was hoping to put an âoutdoorâ camera that wonât get 25-50 false notifications per day.
Boy people will find anything to complain about SMH. Keep up the great work Wyze.
âPro tipâ for aiming a remote camera on the first try.
Get out your smart phone and turn on the front facing camera. Then place it flat against the face of the camera you are aiming/positioning. Whatever you can see on the screen, the camera you are trying to adjust likely can too. (If you can get the smart phone lens positioned close to the lens of the camera you are aiming, itâll provide a more accurate FOV.)
PS. This wasnât really the device I expected either. Iâve bought one, weâll use it, but the design is seriously âflawedâ on several fronts. It doesnât seem like it was as well designed or thought out as the previous cameras.
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Have to agree with this, I still ordered one to try it out, but Iâll just keep running wires to my normal cams for the set it and forget it security they offer.
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Battery Cameras Only good for a quick snapshot anything else youâre useless any brand,
The best battery camera on the market by far is blink because it has a power option also
Battery products are absolutely useless for monitoring any type of property for movement
I have used indoor cameras outside for years and years never have an issue
They are great especially blink for snapshots youâll get a minimum of six months battery .
I do not recommend a Wyze outdoor camera at all
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Thank you for the "camera aiming " tip! It seems when I try to aim an indoor or outdoor camera Iâm juggling my phone so I can see the view in the app while trying to deal with that adjustment thingy on the mount. And, many times Iâm on a wobbly ladder. Also, if you are having a problem with an infrared remote you wonât be able to see the signal light up when you press a button, but if you turn your phones camera on and aim it at the business end of the remote, you will see the led in the remote light up when you press the button. I would imagine this would also be a way to test the infrared on a Wyze or other camera.
Iâm trying to figure out a way I could kinda hard-wire the outdoor camera into one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Household-Appliances-Compatible-Assistant/dp/B07PWX8689/ref=pb_allspark_session_sims_desktop_328_5/132-4014372-5783854?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07PWX8689&pd_rd_r=54eb5b70-e499-4e8d-87e2-2ce122674e30&pd_rd_w=0buXZ&pd_rd_wg=EbJpC&pf_rd_p=b4f7b0e0-9829-4c13-ba2d-476d670e1a97&pf_rd_r=K05FVWXJ4E504J4VJHJP&psc=1&refRID=K05FVWXJ4E504J4VJHJP
I could tuck it up in the soffit or even the attic to keep the connections out of the weather. I could use a smart plug and either way, Iâd have to add a receptacle. Does anybody know if the outdoor camâs app shows battery condition? If so, I could run it through Alexa somehow so when the battery gets low, the switch, or plug, turns on. I may have to put some sort of a timer in the mix to turn the switch or plug off.
I think this new outdoor camera was designed fairly well with two exceptionsâŚit seems they didnât take in account that many people mount outdoor cameras out of reach, for obvious reasons and for those people getting to the camera to either take it down to charge it or charge it in place. Thatâs at least two trips up and down a ladder. The other exception, I believe the lack of a replaceable battery pack had more to do with them trying to keep the camera small. Maybe adding the PIR hardware takes up considerable space? As far as designing it to be constantly plugged into AC so it can charge the battery when it gets low, if they wanted to do that, why bother with a battery at all? It had to be more work to design what they did that it would have been to design a weatherproof housing for a V2. I realize not everybody will have a problem charging the battery when itâs needed or a battery powered camera is their only option because of physical and environmental factors, so for those people, go for it. Whether I go for it or not will depend on whether the app sees a low battery and if so, will Alexa be able to use that info and turn on a switch.
People are WYZEâs best customers. They get to voice their opinions.
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The current V2 cameras are triggered by changes in sunlight sunlight.
The current V2 cameras are triggered by leaves blowing.
The current V2 cameras are triggered by spider webs blowing around the lens.
The current V2 cameras have a sensitivity setting for video AND sound which works.
PIR is the security standard.
Possibly a Lorex color camera into a $200 system will make you happierâŚ