Installing WYZE Cam outside - one approach

Event recording only.

Mark Brown

Sorry about all the edits to my previous post, I just wanted to point out the issues you are experiencing may be unrelated to the cold.

Very coincidental then, but I’m open to all ideas.

Mark Brown

Mine are outside, in the amazon cases with a little bit of overkill waterproofing (see previous post) and I’ve had zero issues with cold causing issues with operation. The cameras have been pelted with rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow… anything winter related and have had no issues. Getting hurricane force winds here in western NY later this weekend mixed with some snow so will see how that goes… as long as the power stays on!

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Maybe. Many factors to consider, like was the outdoor distance just far enough or just enough interference to cause problems. I went with continuous recording when I discovered the events only recording (V2) wasn’t tied to my sensitivity settings. My Events in the cloud worked great and then all of a sudden became intermittent. Re-adding the camera while next to the router and formatting the SD card in a Windows machine seemed to finally solve that. At least for now.

Did you see this? Looks like the IR control might be pulled from the next release.

I know. That’s what everyone else experiences too. I love these cameras and would really like to figure out what is causing my problem. If it was just one I’d chalk it up to something else, but I have 4, have rotated them around
indoor/outdoor locations, with repeatable results.

Even if I can’t resolve this, I’m still a huge fan and looking forward to NAS support and whatever other cool stuff happens.

Mark Brown

Yeah, I’d be rather upset if ir toggle was removed as it is the only way I have quality night vision with any of my cams. I have mine set for continuous record btw, alert zone is set for “important” areas however I wanted the capability of reviewing footage from everything in view if I noticed something out of place, not right or damaged.

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Just a thought… have you tried rebooting your wireless router? I had some strange buggy operation issues a while back and a quick hard router reboot (unplugged for a min and restore power) and all was good again.

LOL, I was waiting for that😉

Mark Brown

Unfortunately, power cycling the equipment does solve many issues. Especially those with extenders, routers and separate modems. :+1:

Sure does, My career involves traffic monitoring devices, cameras, electronics, routers, switches and modems… typically 9 out of 10 times a hard reset will bring everything back up to operational status. Crazy to think that with all the tech out there today someone would have to physically go out and reset something like that but I’m not complaining. That’s job security at its finest!

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Speaking of traffic monitoring devices, should I put this in as a #roadmap?

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Weird. My outdoor camera has survived -60 F windchill (-40 actual temp) this winter, and it’s just in one of those silicone sleeve things, completely exposed to the elements, bolted to a wall 2 stories in the air. Of course, it’s also only about 15 feet from the router, through the outside wall. Maybe the camera has a capacitor inside that looses some capacity when it’s frozen causing the wifi range to lower?

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I’m pretty sure that temp wouldn’t affect them… at least low temp situations. Higher summertime temps might be a different story… no expierence there yet. From personal experience with electronics and work related equipment the lower the temp the better… all of our equipment rooms are climate controlled and kept pretty chilly to say the least! As far as these little cams are concerned they crank out a fair amount of heat… enough that they stay unfrozen on the side of my house, hit them with an ir heat gun the last time the temp went down into the single digits and they all read above freezing so we’re talking a 30 degree temp differential! Pretty impressive and keeps the camera lense snow/frost free.

Doesn’t look pretty but a good idea.

Does the material that covers the IR lights really matter? Would black electrical tape work?

I tried black electrical tape on the outside of the camera’s box/enclosure, but it appeared that some of the light was reflecting inside the box.
I decided to disassemble the camera and used very small pieces of the same tape to wrap each LED, then reassembled it.
Not an elegant solution, but very effective.

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I tried black electrical tape, black duct tape. All didn’t work due to light reflection from the back of the tape. But this tape has little reflection. The interesting thing is automatic night mode still works even top light sensor is covered.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EH6IZ6Y/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My Pan cam is outside in NB. No problems at all. It’s been down to -25C.

No case but it’s under a deep soffit, about 30" back from the edge.

I’m with you on this. Most of these decently made small electronics are much more resilient than people think. I also would not suggest leaving them out in direct rainfall or tossing them into a pool and expect it to work lol, but I just recently swapped to Wyze and mounted a couple Pan Cams in the 12/13$ silicone ‘weatherproof’ casing on a swivel, only reason I got them bc I feel the silicone case itself wont do much of anything, however mounted the cameras under the edge of my eaves near the house.

I had no reservations doing this in the humid/ridiculously humid and wet and hot GA climate as I have had multiple older kid range phones mounted outside using Alfred for multiple years now! With no ill effects initially then after a few years the heat and humidity and constant power in those lithium batteries caused them to swell and burn out. But they lasted quite a long time IMO. I’m not rich but if I end up having to replace a 30$ camera down the road a decent amount of time(1 to 3 years) it wont be a big deal for the utility and price for performance. Bc you will end up spending way more for the housing and enclosure than the cameras themselves!

Besides, replacing the cameras every few years let’s you get the new models :ok_hand: