My application for a splitter was to run two outdoor Wyze cams from a single power source that needed a 20 foot plus cable run between the cams and the power adapter. I had an outdoor Wyze Cam v3 already installed and working with a single power cable (and single hole in the outside wall) running about 20 feet from the outdoor cam to the Wyze supplied indoor power adapter. I wanted to add outdoors a Wyze Cam Pan v3 about 10 feet from the Wyze Cam v3. My plan was to place the usb splitter by the Wyze Cam v3 and then run a 10 foot power line to the Wyze Cam Pan v3 thus avoiding another hole in the outdoor wall and a long cable run.
Each cam would run as expected on either leg of the splitter with only one cam attached to the splitter. However, when each cam was attached to each leg of the splitter (i.e., both cams attached) the Wyze Cam Pan v3 would not run and the spotlight of the Wyze Cam v3 did not work properly.
I tried three usb micro splitters from Amazon (e.g., this one) and all exhibited the same issues. I have placed this information in the reviews of each splitter on the relevant Amazon page. I eventually had to run separate power lines to each cam but I was able to split the power at the indoor power adapter with a usb-a splitter and some usb-a to usb micro adapters. At least I am able to use just one smart switch to recycle power on both cams.
I think trying to power a V3 5V/1A and a Pan 5V/2A from 20-30 feet of cable is asking a lot if you used one of the provided WYZE power adapters for both cams, probably not the splitters fault.
Not sure I agree since now I have used a usb-a splitter, there are no problems with using a single 2amp.5V adapter for both cams; the cam pan v3 has a 33 foot cable and the cam v3 a 20 foot one. I think I remember seeing in this forum (e.g. this that the current used by the cam V3 is less than .8 amp max, 0,5 amp steady state. Good quality cables should not have significant voltage drop over 30 feet or so. However, I suspect the usb mico splitters use some very narrow gauge wire somewhere internally and a result cause some voltage drop causing the problem.
Your 20-30 foot runs are enough to drop the voltage enough so a splitter dividing the limited resources would then fail. Both the V3 Pan and the V3 are on the edge at that distance. Read this Tips and Tricks I wrote up (look to post 2 for the testing).
Look for other excellent options to successfully run that distance in the replies.
Thanks for the links and associated tips. If only cables (including splitters) on Amazon and other places would list the gauge of wire used then calculating voltage drops would be much easier. Similarly, it would be useful if Wyze published the minimum voltage required at the cam, and the range of output of the power adapter. With the right information the whole cable length issue so often discussed is data driven. I found this – voltage drop as function of distance and wire gauge – that some may find useful.
Unfortunately most USB cables are TINY wire size. If you really need to run a long run to a splitter, I would get solder on connectors and use 16 or 18 AWG zip cord. Ideally in your case, at the camera end I would solder two (or three for future proof) USB females directly connected to the zip cord rather than using a USB splitter. Also ideally at the power source end, I would likely use a 5 volt power supply rather than a USB wall wart.
Even better than all that would be to run 12 to 24 volts over something like zip cord from your power source and locally drop that to 5 volts at or close to each camera.
USB spec BTW is 5.0 volts plus or minus 0.25 volts. Don’t know how much further the Wyze cameras will operate below 4.75 volts.
