360 Continuous Rotation Mod for V2

Was curious, I went to school for computer-aided drafting and design long ago. I have used a lot of CAD programs and those just didn’t look familiar

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Couldn’t hurt. The only way to hurt them is no antenna (or so I’ve been told).

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Sketchup isn’t a real CAD, more like a modeling program, but is simple and intuitive. Things can get a little screwy with it, but I have used it (the design at least) to cut with on simple things, just wouldn’t design and spec out anything complexe with it.

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Yes but firing up AutoCad is probably overkill to just sketch something out like this lol

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Think I ran into some DBI witchcraft while testing the external antenna. And I post this here just because people are buying stuff based on it I think. And they probably still should IMO. But while the external antenna showed to be much better, to the tune of around 100KB/s and frame rate by 1-4 fps, the dd-wrt readings says different. Now I’ve got the regular wifi (54G) in the metal building for the first test (red). Cams either side by side or one above the other stuck to the side of a heating oil drum. Wifi is roughly 30’ feet away. And for the second test (blue), I connected them to another 54g temporarily outside the metal building in Tupperware 15’ feet away (and under the metal building and about 15’ below the cams). In both the stock antenna wins. But the difference changes from 3% to 11% when the wifi is closer and below. And anyone who’s looked at antenna spectrums knows that the higher the DBI, the flatter/more narrow the radius is.

All that said, the external antenna is clearly the more stable signal with generally more than double the KB/s than stock. btw, both read 95% in the wyze app for the inside the building wifi, yet both read 79% in the wyze app connected to the outside Tupperware wifi.

and fyi, That third one on the bottom is a cam inside the metal building.

Wyze Cam Antennea Test markup

I’ve had nothing but troubles with connectivity and the WAP54G and WRT54Gv1 and v2 devices. Both had intermittent signal degradation based on clients connected (couldn’t get past 3 cameras on one AP). I’d be curious on an 802.11n AP and the signal results if you ever get to it. I setup my cam infrastructure to only support 802.11n and I’ve not had any range issues with my current setup, but I would like to possibly extend the distance in the future…

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I haven’t had any probs with mine, but I run dd-wrt firmware on all of them. I only have two left and they’re only used as AP’s with the output jacked up from 71 to 100mw. I use to run one at 250mw with a fan and heatsinks on it, but couldn’t really tell a difference most times. So I unplugged the fan and lowered it to 100. But it’s been running continuously for over a decade now. And I bought it used on ebay for less than $20 bucks, so no complaints here.

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Looks like plenty of room for ext antenna on the pan cam. But would really like to try a wider angle lens in one.

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I can’t speak specifically about Wyze, but one reason for a lock tab is to know rough orientation of the camera. If it spins freely, the computer (internal or external) can lose orientation, meaning it’s not sure what direction it’s facing. With the lock tab, the computer (internal or external) can reacquire orientation or “re-calibrate” by pushing the camera in one direction or the other until “stop” is reached. If the computer times how long it takes going all the way “left” and then all the way “right” and also assuming a known linear/non-linear function, the computer can direct the camera to a desired view and if needed, it can embed that direction in the recorded video. The gauges on my 2018 vehicle do the same thing on car startup, the computer pushes all needles to max, then min, then to the appropriate value.

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Welcome, and I should of put it in the title because you’re not the first. But I’m speaking about the V2, not the pan cam.

In fact, I just added it to the title.

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Thanks for the welcome. I was simply addressing one other possible explanation for a lock tab on a rotating camera (since the original post asked, “why” not “how”). Other’s have already mentioned the lock tab may be present, in some devices, to avoid tangling wires. Great job on the mod, those in the robotics community are often modifying steppers to remove the lock tab for the same reason as you, to achieve continuous rotation. I apologize if I was out of line regarding this forum’s etiquette.

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Couldn’t help myself, I popped a 2.1mm lens into a pan cam. The good news, the stock lens in a pancam is also 17mm wide. The bad news, while the 2.1 lens fits the opening perfectly without any alterations, it does stick out further than the stock lens. So much so that my clear pan cam outdoor cover will only let the lens look down (no vertical panning at all, but I can fix that I think). The semi bad news, the stock pan lens, when put into a V2 cam offers the exact same field of view, and is very tight screwing in (to the point I had to use pliers to focus it). In the pic below, the wide lens isn’t quite in focus yet. But its almost too lose a fit, so the aforementioned lens protrusion will allow for adjustment (hopefully when it’s not raining).

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Looks good. You go figured out how to take the lens out with removing the rubber gasket? Or still take it all apart?

Still taking it apart. But the pan cam is much easier than it looks. Two screws in the back, and you’re in. Pop the bottom out, release the one flat ribbon cable and the bottom and motor are free enough to move out of the way so you can get a screwdriver on the two screws holding the camera and vertical pan mech. Pop the camera out of the mount, unplug the blue IR LED plug, remove the two outer screws on the circuit board, and the cover and LEDs come right off. Plus unlike the V2 cams, the lens isn’t superglued. I think it’s hot glue, and I still used tape and pliers, but just to break it lose. Peeled the remnants off with my fingernail.

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Side Note, or rather a warning, Do Not try to use the lens out of a Pan Cam in a V2 cam. I had to use pliers to screw it is enough to achieve focus. And then nearly destroy that lens getting it back out. It’s still useable, but not pretty.

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Here is pan tilt kits

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Wouldn’t you be better off with a clover leaf?

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I guess that depends. But the great thing is that now I can easily pop on and test any type antenna design I want.

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pan cam ext antenna
v2 cam ext ant hat

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Love it dude. Made a big difference?