Using a USB power pack to supply power

So has anyone used a USB power brick to give power to the cam? If so how long can you go with a single charge? I ask because the area I plan on putting my cam’s at don’t currently have any power receptacles close by so I figured I could keep the expenses down by using a simple USB power pack.

This shows what you need.

The camera will work fine powered from a USB power brick. I’ve done that when scouting locations for the cameras, before deciding exactly where to mount them. However, I have not run it for more than 1/2 hour that way.

How long it will last depends on whether you are recording to the microSD card, whether you have motion detection enabled, how often there’s motion, whether you have night vision on or off, etc. There will be much variability.

But to get a rough estimate, my best guess is that the cameras use about 300-500 mA of power. So for a typical 20,000 mAH battery, you would get between 40 and 66 hours on a charge.The supplied power block is rated at 1000 mA, so we know that the camera doesn’t use more than that. So worst case, on a 20,000 mAH battery, you’d get at least 20 hours.

You can also get inexpensive longer USB cables to reach an outlet, such as these:

https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=103&cp_id=10303&cs_id=1030307&p_id=13939&seq=1&format=2

UPDATE: I just noticed there’s a FAQ on this in the support section which says:

A 10000mAh power bank will power the Wyze Cam for ~16 hours. A 20000mAh power bank will power the Wyze Cam for ~33 hours.
 
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I went ahead and ordered a couple of these cables as I think 15 foot should make it to the nearest outlet.

 

Thank you!

Hi… A lot of these “UPS solutions” seem focussed on “shutting down the computer when there is a power glitch”. I’m not interested in that functionality, because all of my power glitches are less than a second long. The last thing I want is for some “helpful” software to shut down the machine just because the power went out for an instant.

printed circuit board

I think they are referring to battery packs not ups power

Hi, I’ve just started using a Wyze Cam, and found this conversation, because I’ve considered the same. I wonder if the time referenced was ever observed/tested by anyone here? Is there actual average data to reference?

From anecdotal user experience, it seems like the camera uses 500-600mA on average, but that varies a bit depending if IR illuminators are on at night, whether it powers a Sense Bridge, etc. So a 1200-1500mAh battery should last you about a day.

There’s an official support article that indicates usage around 600-625mAh, but actual usage would depend on several factors

https://support.wyzecam.com/hc/en-us/articles/360031128132-How-much-power-do-the-Wyze-cams-use-