I have a recently-purchased Wyze cam v2 and have it configured for home use currently. It fits my needs perfectly from my home perspective.
I’ve had a few issues with items disappearing at work, however, and I was curious if this cam would solve the mystery of who it is. The problem I have is that the wireless SSIDs here at work are locked down and authenticated - one is for authenticated laptops; one is for mobile devices that are authenticated through the network and by signing up for the company program; and one is for guest accounts (of which I can add users to).
I know these devices can take a micro SD card. My thought is that if I use an SD card for unlimited viewing, it will simply always record a full day. If that’s the case, I would have to scrub hours of video to find the 10 second thief - not something I want to put on my radar for obvious reasons.
Is it possible to have motion detection (even if it dumps it to the SD card) while not being connected to the company’s wifi? Since you have to authenticate, I thought maybe I could spoof the MAC and authenticate that way, then see if it’ll connect.
@Vol,
In theory, you can set the camera up at home on your personal WiFi network and configure it to record to the microSD card. Choose Record events only, and it will then only record video to the SDcard when motion is detected. Set the Detection zone to whatever is appropriate to capture the alleged thief. The camera will then record video in 1-minute ‘chunks’, saving to the SDcard any minute in which motion was detected. Once the camera is configured for local recording, you can relocate the camera from home to the office and connect it to power. It will power up, and start recording to the SD card when motion is detected.
I say ‘in theory’ because there is a known bug in the camera firmware. The camera will stop recording after about 1.5 hours if it is not connected to a WiFi network. It’s not supposed to stop, but that’s what it does. The bug has been acknowledged by @WyzeTao at Wyze, but the ETA for a bug fix is unknown.
More information on the topic along with a workaround can be found in this thread:
One caution on the above recipe - there are reports of SD cards becoming damaged in the cameras, sometimes permanently. Some have suggested that this might happen if power is disconnected from the camera at the instant that it is writing video data to the SD card. To guard against this, it might be best to put the camera in a quiet place (i.e., where it is not seeing any motion), wait at least a minute, then pull the power. That will reduce the likelihood that it will be writing to the card when it loses power.
If you’re keen to put the camera into ‘full service’ at the office (and you won’t jeopardize your employment by deploying hidden surveillance technology), there are ways to get the camera on-line that accommodate the company’s authentication procedure.
The MAC address is printed on the bottom of the camera, if that’s all you need to add it to the guest network. You will need your phone connected to that network as well.
If web based interaction is needed to set up the authentication, then the solution below for SSIDs with a landing page may work for you:
Excellent info, Kyphos. Thank you. I may give that a try, but I’m also interested in this (and, no, my job will not be in jeopardy for leveraging this method):
Thanks, Loki. It’s not just the MAC that’s needed but really is the landing page. I have to create a guest account then log in with the credentials created. I can do that, but there’s not a way to do that on the cam itself.
I’m interested in your link that you provided, but it’s broken… :o(
Sorry about that. Apparently they are redoing a bunch of the support site and have lost the page. We’ll send out a search party. I’ll also see if I can find a copy to post directly here.
Excellent info. I don’t remember what it’s called, but if I connect the GL.iNet to our network, isn’t there a chance it could create a spanning tree or loopback or something like that? Ultimately I’m guessing someone in IT will track it down and disable it or at least ask what I’m doing. I just want to ensure I’m not going to “take down the network” by connecting this. No fear of losing my job; just a concern about lack of knowledge.
Also, this isn’t something that would always need to stay connected, is it? I’m guessing once it’s authenticated to the portal page that I can then disconnect it and the laptop.
I think it’s safe. Not sure what kind of device it identifies itself as for IT to read. Might even be something you can change in the settings.
As for disconnecting and reconnecting: no, it doesn’t need to stay connected. When you turn it off, it will, of course, disappear and the camera will go offline. When you power it back up, it will auto-connect to the guest network (it remembers previous networks). You will probably have to link to it from a computer/phone and get past the portal page again, then you’ll be back in business. The Wyze cam will remember the GL.iNet’s SSID and reconnect automatically.