I need a camera to record an area that doesn’t have wifi coverage.
I have a verizon prepaid hotspot. How much data does the regular cam use on a schedule? Like does it call home alot?
Can I set the cam to record over night with out wifi then turn the hotspot on in the morning to let it download?
Thanks
Operation of Wyzecams without internet connectivity is problematic.
When the camera boots up (i.e., when power is applied), it must have internet access with which to connect to WyzeHQ. If not, it won’t start up. If you have a Verizon hotspot, you can power up the phone and allow it to connect to WyzeHQ over the hotspot’s internet connection. Having done so, you can configure the camera to record to a microSD card (either continuously, or only when it detects ‘motion’), and then remove the hotspot.
At a later time (next morning, next day, next week), you can reactivate the hotspot, connect it to the camera, and view any recordings that were saved on the SDcard.
Details of the vagaries of Wyzecam operation when off-line (i.e., no internet connection) can be found here. Be warned - it’s a long thread.
There’s no such thing as a recording “schedule”. You can either configure it to record to the microSD card continuously (7x24), or whenever it detects ‘motion’. Note that motion-triggered recordings are stored in increments of 1 minute.
It’s rumored that Wyze is working to improve the functionality to better support ‘off-line’ operation. ETA for such improvements is unknown.
Like kryphos said, operation of Wyzecams without internet connectivity is problematic. They must have Internet connectivity at boot. His is a good response – all true, except maybe the point that you can’t limit recording to the SD card. You can, using scheduled shortcuts to shut down and turn on the camera.
That said, how much data the cam requires is highly variable, but I probably could come up with a spreadsheet that estimates it if you like. Calling home is minimal (“calling home” being server initialization, then re-authorization of the feed for viewing). You or a shared user watching the live feed, and alert updates are far more significant bandwidth users.
Absolutely, as kryphos aid, it’s called an SD card. Totally manual operation, though. You manually request playback, it happens. If you don’t want to watch hours and hours, then you need to switch to ‘events-only’ recording.