Longest Cable

Cameras
1

What is the longest cable people have been successfully able to connect to your WyzeCam? Either a direct USB cable or thru a USB to Ethernet converter or any other means.

I’ve been thinking about putting one up in a tree with a good 100ft cable, not sure if the camera will like that or not.

2

Hmmm … are you wanting to use a lengthy USB extension cable or just an ordinary electrical extension cable, like the one I use to power my hedge trimmer?

3

I’m planning on a lengthly USB cable, electrical extension are too big diameter and when you start burying 120v wires – there’s other considerations that come into play.

4

Hello, I have alarm system wiring in my house for motion sensors and smoke detectors that weren’t be used. So I cut a USB wire in half and figured out which cable was Positive and Negative, spliced those in the wire in the ceiling and then connected it to my Echo and then took the other half of the USB cable and connected it to the other end of the wire at the alarm panel. I thing plugged it in to a USB power block. The Echo draws a lot more current than the WyzeCam and I don’t have any issues with it. The WyzeCam only draws about .25 to about .37 amps if I recall correctly. You may not have a problem. I am using just 4 conductor wire. You only need 2 wires, telephone wire would work, it is only 5.14 volts.

Just thinking sprinkler wire might be better since it is designed to be buried, I would try it first before going to all that work.

 

Hope that helps,

John

 

 

5

Max would be about 25 feet.

You do NOT want to run low voltage cable over long distances, the longer the cable is, the lower the output at the other end.

You must run high voltage to where you want it (outdoor extension cord), then hook up the USB power converter to that.

 

6

Hello, let me start by saying, I am NOT an expert. But I would start by measuring the voltage before you use put in the length of cable that you are using, then I would splice in the new cable and re-measure it. I’m not sure what the concern about low-voltage over long distances are, your sprinkler wire is longer that 25 feet. You need to be concerned about voltage drop but you can measure for that and making sure you can push the current that far.

again, not trying to argue and I am not an expert, the concern I have is first make sure you have the voltage you need about 5.14 volts and the concern is making sure you handle the current and I was measuring one camera from .25 amps to a peak of 3.7 or so. If you daisy chain a second camera off the first the amperage can jump to about .77 amps.

That is just my experience…

7

I am have the same situation as “John” has. I have an older security system with motion detectors and I have disabled the motion detectors and now I would like to hook up my Wyze cameras with the wires that are in the walls and all go to a central area. The wires in the walls are 22 gauge, 4 wires, and I want to splice into both ends of the power adapter cable. If John is still around, how did you splice into the power adapter wires? I will be using a separate adapter for each of the 4 cameras. Your advise is appreciated.

8

Hello Gbabaluk,

My pleasure, I assume you are ok with using a volt meter and such. We aren’t talking about anything sophisticated. Basically, find a USB power cable that you know works with the WyzeCam. You want to make sure it is working before you start so you aren’t trying to troubleshoot a bad cable.

  1. Take a working USB power cable (I would suggest minimum of 12 inches) and cut it in half
  2. Strip back the wire approximate 1 inch on each half, you may need more later depending on how you splice in you existing wiring
  3. Plug the power side (not the end that goes into the camera) into your power source, making sure that your 4 or 5 wires are touching each other.
  4. Using your volt meter confirm which two are the 5 volts, most likely it will be the red and black wire. You need to make sure you know which is positive and which one is negative
  5. Once you determine that, you can now pick two wire from your internal wiring to connect the USB positive and negative to. (of course, you must make sure you have disconnected the other end from your alarm panel or where ever it was connect to be fore you start this step)
  6. I would start with the power end of the cable (the part that plugs into the USB power block.
  7. Ensuring that the two wires on the camera end of the cable aren't touching, plug in the power in and use your volt meter to confirm that you have the right two wires and that you are getting 5 volts, also confirm which one is positive and which is negative.
  8. Once you confirmed you have power at the camera end, disconnect the power, splice in the cable that plugs into the camera
  9. Plug in the power end, then I would plug in the camera. That way you can watch the camera and make sure it powers up
I hope that helps. It is only 5 volts but you want to make sure that you don't have a short anywhere. I have been good up to about 75 feet but that has only been a guess.

I have 6 (3 inside and 3 outside) cameras and 2 Amazon Dots wired this way without any problems. I plan on adding about 5 more using this same method. 2 of my inside cameras are actually daisy chained off each other without any issues at all.

Please feel free to post again if you have any questions or if I can help with anything else. By the way, I get my cables from Monoprice, they are cheap and I can get short ones in either white or black…

Good luck,

John

Here is a link to a discussion I started a while ago regarding mounting options…

https://www.wyzecam.com/forums/topic/3d-printed-mounts-stl-files/

1 Like
9

Hi John:

Thank you very much for the information.

I am the son of an electrician(passed away a few years ago), I choose to become an IT person, and I have a volt meter and know how to use it.

The existing wires in the walls are 22 gauge and they contain 4 colored wires inside the shielded cable. What I was going to do is twist 2 together, so that I have 2 wires to use on both ends to ensure polarity. I am NOT sure what the twisting of 2 together will buy me???

I have USB cables that are 6 feet in length to give some flexibility. The longest distance that I have is about 30 feet within the house.

Question: What did you use to “secure” the splice? Thanks:

Gary

10

Hello Gary,

I’m sorry about your dad, I too am an IT person, old mainframe systems guy… anyway you can use anything you are comfortable with, wire nuts, solder, or stagger your connections and just use heat shrink tube or tape. It really just depends on how much room you have to hide the wires. My outside cameras, since I could hide the wires in the attic I soldered them and then used heat shrink to protect them.

Frankly, I don’t think you need to twist the wires together, 30 feet is not far at all. You can buy a 25 foot USB cable on Amazon and trust me it is very fine wire. You will see that when you cut the USB cables in half and strip those wires back, those are very fine… You just don’t want a short but its not like you have to worry about an arc between the two wires.

I hope that helps…

John

11

John,
How long is your usb cable on the daiseychained cameras?

Thanks

Sorry to be late to the post… I’m new here and to Wyzecams

12

Sorry for the delay in responding.
The cable for the daisy chained cameras are old 4 conductor wire that I ran when I built the house almost 30 years ago. I would estimate it is about 30 feet or so. Keep in mind, I basically cut a USB cable in half and spliced it to each end of the wire.
If you are going to run new wire, you may want to try it before you actually run it. For a single camera, I have been good to about 60 feet or so. Again using old wiring in the house.

Hope that helps. Please feel free to reach back out if I can help any further. I will try to be quicker.
Thanks,
John