Uninterruptible Power Supply

Missed some storm footage when the Wyze Cam v2 I had pointed out the window lost power several times. To make matters worse, the camera freaked out and was unresponsive until I got back home and unplugged it, and plugged it back in.

So got an idea… I have this cheap cellphone charger sitting it my junk drawer. It’s the kind you find by the registers is stores ranging from PepBoys to Bed, Bath, and Beyond. The NiCad battery is practically useless to charge a cellphone but it should be able to power the Wyze Cam for a few minutes til the power comes back on. Super cheapo UPS!

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Are you sure that the constant usage of pass-through charging isn’t a fire hazard?

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You can buy USB UPS based on 18650 batteries on amazon, I live in the Dominican republic and our power cuts all the time and that screws up our SD cards as they are recording all the time and interupting a write to SD card is fatal ti the card.

I’ve used a similar power bank for testing, but just be aware that it can get very hot very quickly. The circuit has no protection or regulation, so it’s not something I would leave in place permanently.

Here is the link to the 5V ups

4 in 1 Board 5V UPS for Raspberry pi 18650 Battery Charging 3.7V Step up to DC 5V 9V 12V with Protection (12V Output)

Fire risk? That’s a danger with everything I do electrical. :slight_smile:. But yeah, I guess there’s a small risk but so far so good. Probably less of a risk than a lithium battery setup. I’m a bit more worried about the NiMH batteries popping and leaking or something like that. I could buy a cheap, proper UPS but didn’t want to spend the money right now. Although, it may be a good idea to buy one and use it here in the house and move this sketchy setup to my Wyze Cam Pan I have mounted on a tree in the backyard.

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To cycle it on or off i use a 5$ SonOff wifi switch.

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