Thanks again… I’ll give all that a try. Was really hopeful Wyze would notice all the comments on the latest release of their app and do something about it. But I think at this point it looks like they are only working on selling their new outdoor cam.
Take care…
Did you uninstall the existing version?of the app first?
It sounds like you may have been trying to update rather that installing new.
No I did not. I have the current version of the Wyze app on my phone now. I am trying to install the version it replaced. v2.10.80
Uninstall the current version first.
I can give that a try. Will I lose all settings to cameras, bulbs, and sensors?
Nope your settings are stored in the cloud. So when you reinstall the app and login they will all come back.
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Good to know. Thank you!
Back to the topic of Outdoor Cam Disappointment.
Based on accumulating disapointment I’ve recently purchased both:
Yi Outdoor plug-in wifi cameras
…and
Kami
I found the “compare & contrast” relative to Wyze surprising:
Different:
-
Each of these Yi and Kami (really the same company, both made by Yi) outdoor cameras support WiFi (+1 for Yi/Kami)
-
Neither has “smart” person detection (+1 for Wyze)
-
6-second “events” stored in “free” cloud (12 seconds for Wyze) (+1 for Wyze)
-
Address:
– Yi: 1450 Bellevue Way SE, Bellevue, WA 98004
–Wyze: 3933 Lake Washington Blvd NE Suite 350, Kirkland, WA 98033
– 3.5mi, 10 mins in moderate traffic (not so different)
Same:
- All use Xaomi hardware
- All have a surprisingly similar setup and operational App UI
– Setup: easy to use across the board
– Operational App UI: after some exploring to find specific functions, all OK, but none are great - Clumsy tools to grab stored video from microSD card
This is my first experience with outdoor cameras. Are bugs attracted to infrared light?
Kami (Battery + WiFi outdoor): Scary Bug Closeup
Yi: (Plugin + WiFi outdoor): is that a snowstorm in July? No! it’s a Bug Swarm Storm!
Next: Try the Yi-Hack firmware on the Yi Plugin, WiFi outdoor camera.
Will Yi allow user record to SD card after 6 sec for 5 to 10 min or user select time frame? It is awinner (+19
@cf7 Yi and Wyze are the same in this regard for the plug-in versions. The battery operated versions do not support continuous video recording (CVR).
For both Yi and Wyze I have motion events “on” with with CVR to the local SD card. I use the events as a manual index to know what timestamp to go to in playback mode.
With CVR you have as much saved before&after the timestamp as you want. Press the “record” button while in playback mode to get the video segment of interest into an album. A clumsy process but that’s as good as it gets as far as I know.
[Update 2020/09/09: As previously noted. the Kami Outdoor Wirefree camera without a Cloud Access license only allows 6-second alert clips. The advantage for Wyze is that you can download 12-second HD (1920x1080) event clips. With Kami all you get is a 6-second SD (640x360) clip. It’s a deal breaker for me.]
YES YES YES…SOLAR!
I have been reading through and cannot find how far away the outdoor camera can be from the base?
I have acreage and it’s about a 1500 ft to the road gate.
I saw the feature to take it with you places so would I need to do that as a constant at home in order for it to work or can it handle 1500 ft?
I hesitate on a battery bc I live in an old oak grove in the boonies and if a fire started it would be a disaster.
Thanks ahead of time for info or to send me to where this is a current topic.
@Sassi Welcome to the Wyze community! This support article will give you a general idea of the distance limits between the outdoor cam and the base.
https://support.wyzecam.com/hc/en-us/articles/360038031831-Travel-Mode
Solar is battery. All the solar panel does is recharge the battery.
Thank you for info.
I know that it’s a battery I’m saying that unless I can get a fireproof box for it I can’t use it. It says it only goes 300 feet.
So if I found a fireproof box I could use travel mode at my house and not be limited to 300 ft?
Agree about the Fireproof box . We live in a Fire prone area. 700 homes were lost in the 20018 Woolsey fire. We also are not willing to put anything combustable on outside of home. Has anyone fabricated a metal housing?
Better yet skip the Plastic one altogether and make it our of a non metalic prieproof material like the ip68 our citiy uses its also water and bullet proof but cost more then the Camera. https://www.dotworkz.com/d-series-ip68-camera-housing/
EyeCube: Solar with Battery, WiFi
nice but still not fireproof so could not use attached to a home around here. Also the nail hole hanger looks like a awatward way to fasten the camera,. people would be hitting with a hammer to close to camera and solar not good.
Just as an observation, a keyhole is a pervasive and time tested method to fasten things about anywhere. You can find those on the back of even some enterprise grade equipment and (if you look closely) firearms. (They call the “key hole” mounting system for firearms keymod usually.) I don’t have mine yet so I can’t see it, I hope they included two or more holes, at least for lateral stability.
Off this specific topic - I haven’t yet seen addressed how charging is handled. Is it set so by default it does not charge the battery to a full 100% capacity, and is there an alarm for when it reaches around 30%? So far from what I’m seeing from most sources lithium batteries should not be charged to a full 100% but should be charged about no more than 80% and not allowed to discharge more than 25%. And frequent top ups to 80% are better than full charging cycles. Considering the battery is not user replaceable I think this makes it a fairly important thing, and seems like something that could be addressed with a firmware update if it is not already implemented. I’m not seeing this done with phones (and it confuses me a lot as to why it’s not). The only place I’ve personally seen this addressed is with two Lenovo laptops I own where you can toggle this in settings so that the batteries never charge more than 80%.
I have 4- cameras outside in the little bird houses for over 2-years here in Texas. I have a friend who has a dry storage lot and I talked him in to using them also with the bird house. Never have an issue and has save him lots of $$$$$$$.
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Hi…Thanks for info. Are they more then 300 ft from inside box?