Hi fellow Wyze users!
I’m thinking of getting the Solar Cam Pan 2K for my front wall, but I’m on the fence about the solar panel reliability. My setup will face the street, and my current doorbell registers around 140 events a day.
On top of that, we get long stretches of overcast and rainy days during winter.
Before buying, I’d love to know: How has the battery/solar combo performed for you under high motion traffic and low sunlight? Does the solar panel keep up, or are you manually charging it often?
I don’t have that cam but it sounds like a recipe for having to charge it manually quite a bit. Do you have a window near where you want to mount it? The flat cable that comes with the standard pan cams can go through the bottom or top of a double hung window no problem.
The battery/solar cams have trade offs and have to have lower sensitivity and other power saving features, where the wired cams can be set as aggressively as you like.
I have Panv3s and I can close and lock the window with the wire in it with no issues and no damage to the wire.
Unfortunately, a window isn’t an option for me. Construction styles here are different: the front is a solid concrete perimeter wall with a garage gate facing the sidewalk, so there are no windows facing the street.
My only power source nearby is the exterior light fixture on the wall. Given what you said about sensitivity and aggressive detection settings, a wired setup is definitely sounding like a better idea, maybe the Cam Floodlight v2 could be a better option?
I haven’t used the floodlight cams, they have mixed reviews but several here have and love them, but they aren’t pan/tilt cams so not sure how important that feature is. If the existing floodlight has power all day (is on a light and motion sensor) they make adapters that will give you an AC output from where the bulb connects (and can still keep the bulb in). Might be an option if you just want to add a camera.
There are versions that give a USB output too which would be a bit more streamlined, just make sure to get one that has 2amp output minimum if you want a pan cam Amazon.com : usb light socket
At 140 events a day the pan motor is what empties these faster than the camera itself, so even a well-aimed panel usually needs a manual top-up through a long overcast stretch. If that porch socket is switched by a dusk sensor, a floodlight cam or bulb cam will go dead in daylight too, so check that the fixture stays powered around the clock before you buy around it.
Thanks a lot for the advice; I was actually thinking of disabling motion tracking and leaving it fixed in one position, since my house front allows for it and my current doorbell already gives me a view of half of it.