Hello and Thank you for your post. I am a disabled senior and I can’t walk around too well anymore. That’s why we have cameras (to see who’s coming t our door or on our property). We have a large piece of property and I have a couple of outdoor WYZE Pan Cam V3’s outside but they always loose signal. I was thinking of adding an outdoor WIFI extender or reconfigure an old router or something to get our WIFI signal reach out further but don’t know how. IIf I can figure that out, then I would have to figure out how to power the cameras and I’m wondering if this might work, or something like it. I must admit I’m OLD and technology is my friend so I need my son’s help - but he’s always busy. So If you folks here have any suggestions - PLEASE let me know!
If your cams already have power then this wouldn’t do anything for you. But putting an extender/repeater (or an old router that supports that mode) should take care of what you need. If you can find a spot in your house that has a good signal to feed the extender, and also where the extender can reach the cams, then that’s pretty easy to set up.
If not, then look at TP Link outdoor rated access points (they make directional long range ones and omnidirectional ones that cover all angles). They have ones that can be powered with POE, or you can just run their cord to an outlet with a weatherproof cover. They’re very cost effective too. Hardwiring it using ethernet (for both data and power) will ensure you have good bandwidth too, since it won’t be cutting it in half like wireless extenders do.
You could also repurpose an old router or AP but if it doesn’t support repeater mode, you’d need to get an ethernet cable between that and your main router. Then you can just put it in a window or somewhere that gives good signal to the cams. Again, hardwired is better, if you have that option.
Thanks. The 2 cameras I do have outside have power but they always loose signal so I have to get some kind of outdoor WIFI signal extender or repeater out there - do you know of any? Also, I want to add a few cameras further out from the house so that’s why I was looking at the POE thing. If I can, maybe add some kind of outdoor WIFI repeater or extender for the signal, and then maybe some kind of POE hook-up if that will solve my problem?? Thoughts? Suggestions?
Split it up into two things
For powering the cams, if you don’t have an AC outlet nearby, and can run ethernet cable, then this solution (or a similar one from other brands) would work for you. If you don’t use a weatherproof one (this one isn’t) then you need to put it in a weatherproof box. The part that supplies the power into the ethernet cable can go indoors and doesn’t have to be weather proof. The number of cams you need to power, how much each cam draws, and how far apart they are determines which PoE products will work best.
For data (wifi), some form of repeater or access point will take care of that. A hard wired one (again using ethernet cable) will be best. Outdoor better than indoor. The distance to the cams and how many different directions they are in will determine which product is best. There are many brands out there but I’ve found the TP Link outdoor stuff to be very cost effective and works well. They have both omnidirectional (shorter range, but covers 360 degrees) and directional (longer range, but needs to be pointed in the general direction of the cams) versions.
How far do you think I can run the Ethernet cable and still be able to power the WYZE Cam’s? And does it matter if I use cat 5, or 6, or 7 or ethernet cable? In the meantime I looking for some (hopefully inexpensive ) outdoor POE to USB C adapters (that have a good rating). And if you have any suggestions for any outdoor WIFI signal extenders or repeaters (again hopefully inexpensive but with good ratings ), please let me know. Oh, don’t IFI extenders really cut the signal down for everyone on the WIFI network? Or is that repeaters?
PoE will work up to about 330 feet over ethernet cabling.
Cable type doesn’t matter for power only, even old CAT5 will work fine, in fact it is often larger gauge wire than some of the newer cable types so technically it is even better for power.
Note you don’t have to use a POE to USB-C. POE to USB-A (regular USB like the one in the original post) will work fine, then you just use the cable included with the camera to make the connection from USB-A to USB-C or Micro USB, whichever the cam has. The USB C POE adapters are a lot more expensive and offer no benefit for the cams.
A repeater and extender are the same thing, and when you run them wireless (which both of those names imply), they do cut the speed/throughput in half (but not the signal). However with these cams and their relatively low bandwidth needs, that probably isn’t an issue. But if you can hard wire it back to your router (in which case it would be an access point rather than a repeater/extender) it will not cut the speed in half and will generally be more reliable.
The choice of a model or brand will depend on the things I had mentioned before, distance to the cams and how “wide” the coverage area needs to be. But TP Link makes good, inexpensive ones and has various models that will cover most scenarios. Of course if you have a spot in the house, ideally near a window, that will cover the area the cams are mounted at, you could probably just repurpose an old router or something and keep it inside.
Wyze users have wired a better antenna to V3s on to the camera box. What is the v3 data power output to the v3 native antenna? With a quality soldering, How far would that v3 data signal travel in an Ethernet or coax cable to A- a directional antenna or toB- an Ethernet connection?
This is for power only. It has nothing to do with the data, wifi, or antenna (even a modified antenna). Attempting to connect the antenna to the ethernet cable will kill your signal and probably burn out the wifi radio.
I believe there was a v3 hack to get data over USB but this also won’t help with that, the distance limit for that would still be about 15 feet.