Hidden V3s

@ShardlowM you have inspired me to consider attempting to find a porch light that I can integrate a V3 into for my front porch (would of preferred Wyze take this idea up)

At Home Depot I see a porch light with a GFC power outlet that has a ‘box’ that attaches to the wall that houses that outlet. I’m hoping the box has enough space above the outlet to allow it to house a V3 much like you have done in your first pic.

1-Light Matte Black Aluminum Hardwired Outdoor Wall Lantern Sconce with Seeded Glass and Built-In GFCI Outlets

Here’s my rough idea of what it would look like:

image

Not the best attempt to paste a picture of the front of the v3, but it gets my point across.

Might have to order this to see if there is any space in the ‘box’ to hide the camera, then figure out the best way to cut a hole in the side, and install the camera and of course waterproof it.

This works well for my front door, as the porch light is to the right of the door down a very short 'hallway", and thus this would point towards the street for my scenario.

I love the idea of a GFC outlet as well for Christmas lights, etc, as there are no outlets near this location.

IF Wyze were to create something like this they could create four’bays’ to ‘hide’ a v3 in, one to the right, one to the left and one facing ‘forward’ and/or one facing down to see delivered packages. (I wouldn’t expect to put more than one or two V3 cams in the box) Then to come up with a solution to power the V3 Cam from the existing power within the box.

Adding a GFC outlet as well would be a great feature as well

Another idea that could be ‘modified’ to hide a cam in:

Dusk to Dawn Sensor Outdoor Wall Lanterns with Built-in GFCI Outlet, Matte Black Outdoor Porch Lights Wall Lamp, Anti-Rust Exterior Wall Light Fixture, Waterproof Wall Sconce for Garage Front Door

SJ

Hello @nixhome2020
Maybe something like this three-cameras array that I made could be adapted to your light?
TM 5 ed

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It is a good idea to buy one to see if the camera will fit inside. Also, I see that it is made of aluminium which will make cutting the hole for the camera quite difficult. I used a light made of plastic which was much easier to cut with a fret saw and then do the final shaping of the hole with abrasive paper.

My camera is a friction fit into the hole and can be pushed out if I need to access the reset button or the SD card. It is quite a tight fit and has proved to be waterproof - no rain water had got into the lamp.

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Sans armament, I hope. Cuz, suspicion is still not a crime. Don’t be shooting any photon torpedoes, being my point here.

I am in the UK - so we cannot shoot anything here :slight_smile:

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Coming from anyone else this would be clear cartoon parody. Coming from @victormaletic you can bet he’s already got working prototypes in the workshop.

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the Next Wyze product… once they tie this into the Wyze eco system:

SJ

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I like the idea of a Wyze Car being deployed to drive the perimeter of my house to ‘scare off’ all the Rats and Mice that make their way out at night. and perhaps the occasional gopher in the back yard, when one of my Wyze Cam’s detects a 'Pet" in it’s view.

Perhaps Wyze can change it’s AI to detect Rats, Mice and Gophers, and then make a rule to deploy a Wyze Car on a mission of friendship to the vermin in the DMZ around my house.

SJ

You don’t need Wyze for that - my cat patrols my (his!!) property perimeter several times a night.

When we moved here the garden had a large population of mice and quite a few rats. (We live near a cattle farm) - three years later we rarely see a rodent, and if we do they are usually on the patio minus their heads!

Ok - it took a while to stop him bringing live ones in through his cat flap but it is possible to train a cat to not do that.

Hello Everyone.
This post is an expansion of my earlier post 10.
Many of us putting up cameras do so as a security component of our families well being. One component is security screens. Another component is guns.

After my scary incident with a back window screen break-in to my house, while I was home 10 years ago, I needed to make my house more secure. I initially put up bars over the back windows as a temporary measure. I don’t like the looks of them. The pictures below show security screens for doors and windows that I found at NX STAGE SECURITY out of Modesto CA 95357.

This is a close-up of a screen corner. The mesh is 1/16" thick and punched with 1/8" Ø holes. You will injure your hands trying to cut through it with a large knife.
The mesh material is one single piece, If a would-be intruder tried to sled-hammer back a section of the screen from its inner frame attachment and slide it to the side, it wouldn’t work, the screen is not in sections. He would need power tools to defeat the screen.

With every window and door covered with these screens, I have no qualms about leaving windows and doors open.

The screens do not interfere much with viewing through the windows from the inside or outside of the house.

The following two pictures show GunVault SV500 that can be obtained from amazon.

If the perimeter security is breached then self-defense is needed. I chose handguns for this. The next pictures show how I deployed some of them.
All of the deployments have a 3/8" Ø stainless steel plastic coated cable attached to them that terminates under the floor in the crawl space or through the wall into a void space. So a nightstand can’t be simply picked up and removed from the house with the gun attached to it.


I can punch in the safe code by braille, no need to see the key pad.


This is also a braille operation.


This is a false bottom box that is lifted off the gun safe.


Here the safe is accessed and opened. This safe is a GunVault SV1000s obtainable from amazon.

This last picture shows an American Security DV652 under the bed safe opened. This is an under-bed long gun safe used for my shotgun. It is bolted through the floor into the crawl space with special anchorages that engage the floor beams. I am not relying on the strength of the flooring sheathing,

The first three safes shown have a 4 button keypad with the same custom code for each. I settled on a single-finger keystroke sequence, One finger hits the four keys in a sequence of your choice. I earlier used a two-finger sequence. I learned the hard way this is not a good idea for me. While I had the back door and windows of my house wide open because I was adding extra latches to my NX STAGE SECURITY screens and unknown to me a car thief was jumping over backyard fences to evade chasing police. He jumped into my backyard and made his way into my house. I heard him in the hallway and was going to greet him thinking he was a neighbor checking on my progress. When I saw him he had turned his back to me and headed back down the hall. I quickly retreated into my bedroom to get my handgun from the night table safe. I didn’t know how many strangers were in the house. I couldn’t get into the safe because the two-finger code was too hard to get right on the first several tries. I was locked out for 30 seconds. I was too nervous, After settling down I opened the safe and retrieved the gun, and went into the hallway. The intruder was jumping over my back fence and heading away. Why the u-turn? He was apparently looking for a way to a street, but there was a police cruiser parked in front of my house waiting for him to appear. They did catch him, and I replaced all safe codes with single-finger ones.

Now the under-bed safe will not accept a simple 4-key code. It must be 6 numbers or more. So I would use a code like 141421356 or 314159265 that I find easy to remember because they are the square root of two and the value of PI to eight decimal places. Easly looked up on a smartphone.
I also use this concept in passwords.

Hope this was useful information?

I like that tri-bracket. Is that just off the shelf L-Brackets bolted to a U-Bracket?

Hello All and @danny33
The following pictures detail the evolution of the three-camera bracket. When I built the first single-camera bracket, I had no thoughts of expanding it. But as I found the need to add more cameras, more rt. angled connection plates with camera support plates were added. Had I known a three-camera was to be built from the start, the fabrication holes would have been more carefully placed.
I would not have used the more elegant U bracket because they are hard to fabricate with a common vise and hammer, hence I used the 90° angle on 90° angle. Looking back though I could have ordered a short-length U angle, But I already scrap to use.

In this first picture, I have already combined a 90° connection plate with a camera plate to convert an L-bracket single-camera support to a two-camera 90° apart bracket. There is another connection and support plate ready to make a three-camera support.

This last picture is a view through all three cameras.
Capture 1 3 ed

Let me know what you think?

Victor

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Thanks for the reply victormaletic - I now have (another) weekend project!

I finally purchased a porch light to attempt to mount a V3 in for my front door:

The Enclosure that mounts to the side of the house is more than large enough to accommodate a Wyze Cam V3:

For my application, this light works perfectly for my front door as it will mount to the side wall to the left of my door. (Outlets face the front door. The opposite side of the enclosure from the outlets is where the enclosure will be modified to allow for mounting the V3 inside the case facing the street)

This is where I’ll mount the V3:

V3 outside the enclosure:

Showing where I want to mount the V3:

I’m assuming from the pic of a v3 skin at:

That I should be able to drill a hole for the lens, Status Lights and a few holes to accommodate the IR lights:

image

If I only had a template for the Lens hole, IR Lights, status light and Microphone.

SJ

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@nixhome2020

Take a look in this thread.

I posted some ideas and photos of how I used my porch light. Might give you some ideas.
Hard to find, so scroll down to Aug '21. My newspaper box, and porch light.

I extended the camera’s stand, and so it was flat like the face, and used double sided tape to stick a piece of steel inside my non-steel porch light. Then a flat/stick magnet allowed me to push/hold the camera in position and use the magnet to adjust where the camera lens peeks out best through the 5/8" hole.

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Hello Sam_Bam,
Thank you for the ideas from your other post. I recall seeing that in the past, as the inspiration for finding a porch light that I might be able to do something similar with.

I think I’ll go the route you did and just go with the 5/8" hole for the lens, as I don’t need the indicator light lit up drawing attention to it, and I don’t need the microphone either, so no hole their either.

Not sure if I need the IR lights or not, it looks like you did not drill holes for them. I’ll go without holes for them for now, and if needed drill for them later if needed.

I’ve a non working v3 that I have disassembled and will use the housing for a template for the 5/8 hole.

Upon disassembly of that non-working V3, I noticed the motherboard has 8 IR lights. Interesting that the picture I posted of the V3 with the Slickwraps do not have openings for D9, D10, D11 & D12 in yellow in the pic below:

Hopefully I have a working solution soon. I need to figure out the best way to splice the end of an extension cord to provide power to the Wyze Power Adapter for the V3. That should be simple to add it to the splice/wirenuts that will connect the light and external outlet to the home wiring.

SJ

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You are welcome. Pleased to have been any help. No, I didn’t bother with lights or mic. I still pick up sounds and sound detection is turned on. But don’t care if its conversations. I also have the same setup on the alley separating the house. I have a V3 Pro due in, and am going to saw the “street” cam out for the V3 Pro. Least bit of light is enough. When its completely dark, I don’t see much, but with any extra non cam light, there’s plenty of light.

I am cheap. I am not going to pay for a skin. I oft wrap mine in blue painter’s tape and paint them. Each to peel and repaint when I need to relocate one.

I finally completed my project, while I like the finished product, I wasn’t happy with what I can see with the camera due to it’s location being close to the wall, and my front door area limiting what I can see with the camera at this location.

I should of planned this out better. Had I known this would be the outcome, I might not of taken the time to do this.

This is what I started with:

I initially was going to mount low in the ‘box’

I opted to move the camera up to the middle/center of the box, and was going to use the Wyze Window Mount sideways and use the adhesive to mount the camera at this location, but I drilled the 5/8" such that it not lined up properly for the lens hole (to close to the inside edge of the ‘box’ (used a non functioning v3 camera case to attempt to drill in the right spot by drilling a hole in the back of that v3 case, later realized I could just use the front of the camera with the frame as a template.)

5/8" hole drilled in the side of the box that will face the street:

Camera in place aligned with the drilled hole for the lens:

Camera held in place with metal bracket held in place below camera with round adhesive ring that came with camera (couldn’t use the large round wyze metal ‘washer’ here as it did not fit.

The black piece between the camera and the power receptacle was a random item in my junk drawer that fit nicely to wedge in there and hold the camera in place.

Extension cord (brown wires) connected to Wyze Power Brick, ready to connect all the wires to make this thing functional:

Finished product mounted at the front door. Camera Lens looks like a sensor to turn the light on at night.

image

and after all that, the location of this was no ideal for the view that the camera has:

and, after all that, I end up with this view from the camera:

Posting as a ‘lesson learned’ that perhaps I should of taken the camera out to this 'location and held it in place to view what the camera would see at this location.

Either way, I now have two outlets at the porch light now to plug Christmas lights into now :slight_smile:

SJ

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I give you A++ for effort and creativity. I think considering where you needed to mount the light, that it came out very good. I too learn more each time. Sometimes we need to remember, anything is better than nothing. You had no recorded/remote view before you started. Now, you do, - both. You made that happen. And I predict, you are not done. You have the opportunity to tweak it and I bet you are going to find a way. Buuuttttt, even if you don’t, you have made a difference. And eased your own mind.

I applaud you.

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Agreed. A cool effort and you just have to tilt and wedge the camera slightly in the housing to get a better view.

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