that is better than buying cr123a batteries every month for my Arlo cameras
As a suggestion, I’d suggest considering rechargeable batteries for your Arlo cameras. (Amazon has a pretty wide range of choices.)
Exactly. There may be a second Outdoor Cam that doesn’t have battery power, but they needed to pick one thing first.
And drilling a 7/16" hole through a house isn’t ideal for many people (to start with- you need a long 7/16" bit and that doesn’t come in most sets. And a USB cable can be unplugged from a camera as easily as a power cable could be unplugged (plus USB could be cut without any risk at all).
Personally my preference for an on house/building would be for PoE, but I have a 900’ driveway and having a wireless, battery-powered device would let me monitor that easily. Running a cable wouldn’t be feasible. So should my use case trump yours? Your’s isn’t any more valid than mine, and clearly they looked at the market and found areas where they could make a mark. $50 PoE cameras are not hard to find. Now, if there was a small housing with a solar charger I’d be very interested, but again, many people won’t be able to get great light access. Its all tradeoffs, and the camera engineers can only do so much at one time.
(and yes, SmartPost is just the worst way to deliver anything. Assuming they actually deliver.)
Considering the MAX range of the wireless cam is 500 feet I am not sure how your use case is even going to work?
I have a 300’ direct burial line that feeds PoE+ down (with an extractor) and then can put the camera another 200’ down from there and point the camera down the driveway, And that is a straight shot to the road. Once I get my unit I’ll get it tuned.
But even without that line, if I can put the unit halfway down the driveway it can capture the rest of the way. Security up the driveway is at least as important to me. I had someone dump in my year a whole tree they chopped down and cut up-not near the house, so house cameras wouldn’t have seen it. Now I have to move it. I’ve also had people walk dogs on the back side-even though I can see them walking I can’t get pictures-a camera 200’ closer would be much better, and would get them even when I don’t see them.
That works. I’ve bought a couple of “refurbished” T-Mobile cell phones from eBay. I never activated them.
If you take the battery out you can leave them plugged into a charger and screen-cast to most late model TV’s
You can also use them as IP cams. See Youtube.
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There are a number of common themes running through this discussion. Here’s my take:
Every use case requires a balance of: feature, function / reliability / security / ease of use / cost
-
Indoor: Home / Garage / Basement: Fixed view
- Environment: Power, WiFi, temp&humidity all good
- I’m happy with Wyze Cam V2
-
Indoor: Home / Garage / Basement: Multiview
- Environment: Power, WiFi, temp&humidity all good
- I find the Wyze Cam Pan unusable (5-clicks) to switch from one position to another.
- sunk cost: I keep it in hopes that Wyze will implement Pan position presets similar to Foscam, Tenvis, Amcrest, rest of world.
- Alternate Wyze family solution: Two Wyze Cam V2s (back to back)
-
Outdoors: Hidden Driveway position
- Environment: NO power, Plenty of WiFi(70%) 200ft from closest location for Wyze Outdoor Hub
- Location tests well with Wyze Cam V2 + battery
- No Wyze family solution
- Many options: (less secure for off-site access, not as easy to configure or use, cost, yet another interface unify with TinyCam(?))
Kami
Kamtron
Reolink
-
Outdoors: Shed / out-building
- Environment: Power, Plenty of WiFi(80%) 100ft from closest location for Wyze Outdoor Hub
- Location tests well with WyzeCam V2
- Unofficial Wyze family solution: Wyze Cam V2 + “bird house” cover
- Many options: (less secure for off-site access, not as easy to configure or use, cost, yet another interface unify with TinyCam(?))
AMICCOM
Kami
Yi
-
Outdoors: Within 50ft of Wyze Cam Outdoor Hub
- Environment: Indoor Hub requires power and ethernet connection
- Does not fit in my “top 4” above (I have no camera positions within 50ft of a possible wired-hub location)
-
Anywhere: Standalone
- Environment: where-ever, no power, no nothing
- Less than GO Pro for a lot less
- Not on my list of needs/wants
5 & 6 are clear winners for Wyze Cam Outdoors. I’m sure there are others that I have not considered.
For me, Wyze Cam V2 still has the best combination of feature, function / reliability / security / ease of use / cost
Suggestions for future enhancements
- A. Waterproof Wyze Cam V2 (works for #4 above) Provides continuous recording to SD card.
- B. Plug-in Wyze Cam Outdoor with WiFi + official support for a 3rd party solar panel (works for #3 above). No continuous recording when battery charge percentage drops below user defined threshold.
- C. Did I mention Cam Pan Presets?
Just for fun, let’s review: High-end POE camera:
- UNIFI Protect G4-PRO Camera at Amazon $435.44
-
UniFi Protect G4-PRO Camera at Ubiquiti Descrption $449 (and since this thread focuses on disappointment: I can’t afford it and it is not available in black
)
- +DVR + wireless bridge + solar charging controller + batteries + solar panel = off the charts cost, non-trivial setup, but hey! you can read license plates in the dark!
Helps me realize I can get a lot done with a few Wyze Cams.
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That should work. Be interested in hearing your experience. At 200 feet my existing V2’s can sort of tell the difference between a dog and a person! 
The new cam has the same sensor I believe as the V2’s or near enough the same to not matter.
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I’m actually leaning towards some sort of tablet, for the screen size, as my parents’ vision isn’t what it used to be.
There are new tablets available real cheap, but the sizes start at close to phone size. An example is the walmart brand Onn tablets at 7 inches for $40 or similar for an amazon fire tablet. This is the part I still have to figure out.
I’ve kind of got going further on this on hold, since they are pending roof repair or replacement due to 25 year old asphalt shingles coming loose on a hot clear day due to a possible dust devil. I will probably be mounting to the eaves, and don’t want to do that right before the roof work, in case eaves need work too.
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Tablets work well. I’ve had two wall mounted tablets as camera monitors for my entrance / driveway camera going 24/7 for years. I used them with other brand WiFi cams even before Wyze cams were sold, but now I have mostly all Wyze. I’ve changed the tablets a couple times over the years, currently I have one 3 year old 8" Samsung Galaxy Tab A on the kitchen wall and a 10" nine year old HP Touchpad on the living room wall. The HP shipped with Web OS, but I installed Android on it. Both tablets just use the Wyze app to display the outdoor mounted Wyze V2 Camera 24/7 and also play a notification tone when our main door opens that has a contact sensor. It’s nice just glancing over from the couch and being able to see my whole front yard and who’s coming. We have a licensed Family Daycare at our house so people come every day.
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Anyone got their Battery Outdoor cam yet?
Not ideal, but you could add smart plugs and have them turn off and on remotely. You could even schedule it every few days to do that. That way it wouldn’t overload the batteries and you wouldn’t have to do anything but have it switch on to charge when needed.
I have had Blink cameras for outside and so the whole recharge and short video clips thing is normal to me. If I had the ability to run cords I would have done that already and would have put Wyze cameras in. But the areas I have mine don’t have electricity anywhere close. I wish the Wyze cameras didn’t have the base unit. That’s the one thing I like about the indoor cameras is they just connect and work. The base unit on the Blinks seems to be the weak link in the system.
On a side note, I have had several iPhone batteries expand and push the phone apart over the years. I have one for work to test things and I used to leave them plugged in all the time. The current one stays off and unplugged until I need it. The last one pushed the screen out about a quarter of an inch.
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That’s actually the approach I am using. iOS 14 adds new automation triggers as well as expands some existing ones.
I have a trigger that fires when the battery drops below 40% and in turn causes a plug to turn on. A companion trigger fires when the battery exceeds 70% charge and causes the plug to turn off.
Modern batteries are life span limited by charging cycles. They last longest when properly cycled. See this article for a great write up.
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When I tested with the wyze app, it seemed to work, for hours even, but at some point after some hours it goes back to it’s main screen. I haven’t had that issue with tinycam, I’ve had it going for probably over 12 hours and it just keeps going. I also can see multiple cameras live at once on tinycam.
Now I’m thinking I need to keep an eye out for a really good deal on a reasonably large screen tablet
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So you’re the guy that’s always bidding against me!
Actually not, because I don’t think I’ve ever intentionally bought a T-Mobile phone - I mostly look for cheap and with removable battery.
But my question is, is there a specific advantage to T-Mobile devices? It’s always interesting to see just how differently the various carriers set up otherwise identical devices, so maybe I’m missing something cool?
I thought T-Mobile got bought?
Yeah, Sprint bought them, or they bough Sprint, not sure which. 
But isn’t one GSM and the other CDMA? I could at least understand an ATT + T-Mobile merger. Maybe 5G makes all that irrelevant?
Sprint I believe was primarily CDMA while T-Mobile was GSM of late. From what I read T-Mobile bought Sprint and the CDMA network will gradually fade away over the next few years.
Which I think is a good thing. Verizon also operated a large CDMA network and one hopes it will go away as well.
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If anyone is really curious about CDMA, GSM, 1G,2G (Red Fish, Blue Fish) here’s a fairly short read. CDMA vs. GSM: What's the Difference? | PCMag
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