Thanks, very much.
dph
If you go to the official youtube video, someone asks him the same thing and he provides the Amazon link to the exact Antenna he used in the comments.
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Got it. Thanks, much.
dph
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I would guess this voids any warranties
Does this help to be able to to connect through a metal building? I bought one of the kits but I can not connect through my building. If it does not have you any idea how to connect an external antenna to the base station so I can run to the outside to be able to connect to the camera?
Thanks PR
@rives Yes, it would void warranty. 
Yes @p.restivo , you can run a coaxial cable to an outside antenna. 
Keep the length short to prevent too much signal loss in coax. Link to some ideas:
It’s only a 25 dollar camera, who cares…
Just to follow up, I did use this video to open up my V3 and see if I could fix my non-functioning V3, and it turns out, that my guess was correct. The small drop knocked the power plug loose. I just had to plug it back in and it started to work again! This video helped me be able to open it up to fix it! Thanks @Big_monkey for posting this! You just saved me from paying for a $25 replacement and frustration thinking that I accidentally broke a brand new device.
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If this antenna has an 8 dBi gain we may expect about 13 dB improvement in the range. It is about 20 times! However, this antenna looks to be vertical, hence has an omnidirectional radiation pattern. In this case, it simply cannot be 8 dBi but only about 2 dBi. Secondly, probably a patch antenna will be the better choice. It is small enough to be placed inside the camera case, therefore, will not affect installation at all. Patch antenna of this size for 2.45 GHz may have the gain of at least 5 dBi to 8 dBi. For installation of patch antenna inside the camera case connecting cable and SMA connector are not necessary and antenna may be soldered directly to the board. Wyze can easily implement this improvement into its design. It should not increase the cost of the camera.
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That statement would hold some value if you only owned one camera but many of the usual out here have 10, 15 and some have even more than that multiply that by the $25 and the hours of frustration trying to get them to work and people do care and rightly so and it’s too damn bad that Wyze doesn’t seem to care
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I’m glad that what I posted was able to help you that’s always my intention to help people sometimes my replies are a little rough around the edges I apologize for that
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I have 15 at my home and 17 each at 2 other locations. If you want to add an external antenna I would not worry about the warranty on a $25 product, or I would not bother to make modifications and buy a different more expensive product. Instead however, buy a $35 mesh wifi 2.4 extender at amazon and plug it in halfway to your cameras with the weak signals. If it is a very long run with no outlets nearby, simply use a 50 ft standard power cord and plug the extender into the end of that.
The very best solution on the V3 would be for wyze to have an extended antenna fabricated into the body of the external stub usb pigtail that is affixed to it. We would all get at least another 50 ft of solid range
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A patch antenna would not be a good idea for Wyze to implement. You’re assuming the back of the camera is pointed toward the access point it’s trying to reach and that’s likely not true in many instances. Wyze has to do what’s best for the largest number of users and an omni is the right choice.
Also, the vertical polarization doesn’t matter the omni linked above. It’ll function almost exactly the same if it’s horizontal or vertical polarization.
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I agree that omnidirectional antenna is more universal but I disagree with the statement that vertical and horizontal are the same. For camera horizontal polarization may be much better for two reasons:
- Magnetic field component penetrates walls and other obstacles better than the vertical electrical component.
- Horizontal polarization is usually less susceptible to the industrial and man-made interferences that mostly vertical polarized.
The patch antenna has not a sharp directivity. For the camera, the most important direction for the antenna is to the backside. Making the antenna able to slightly move for about 30 degrees in both directions makes it practically universal. 20-times range extension worth such a small improvement.
Are you trying to say that horizontal is magnetic and vertical is electrical?
Patch antennas do have a much more directed radiation pattern than omnis. Using my own deployment as an example, only two of mine could utilize a patch antenna and have a performance improvement.
You have a substantial investment in cameras and therefore being able to improve their range for very little investment still puts you way ahead in the money game
By my experience horizontal is magnetic. At least more often than not. I am using this property of magnetic component to penetrate walls a lot and successfully. Patch antenna has relatively wide diagram. I use them a lot without fine tuning. Also, for 2.45 GHz this antenna may be made small enough to be placed inside the camera case. In any possible way this antenna will be much better than surrogate antenna that used inside the camera today. Moreover, I can easily design a loop antenna that is much cheaper than patch and will provide up to 5 dBi. With back reflector in probably will have about 8 dBi and can be design to have 50 Ohm impedance with at least -20 dB S11.
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By the way, if you want to experiment, the first measure with VNA what output impedance the camera circuit has at the antenna terminal. Then design an antenna that will match well with this impedance. It is easy to do.
Oh I definitely agree there is plenty of space in the camera housing and a much better antenna would be easy.
This is all very interesting topic it would be nice if you two gentlemen would be kind enough to share how that can be done and if we could do it ourselves
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