I received my Wyze Outdoor Cam a week ago, set up was easy and I had it running within minutes. I have seen a number of post about how disappointed folks are that the WOC requires the Base Station and it has to be plugged directly into the Ethernet port. Well, really, don’t folks read before they purchase? This was clearly called out.
I put the WOC out in my side yard to cover the side door to our garage and the garbage can area. My first impressions are that it has a wonderful wide range and I think the picture quality is outstanding. 7 minutes after I left the area and went back into the house we got a visitor to the side yard!
I didn’t want to attach the cam to my landscaping so I purchased a cedar birdhouse from Lowe’s for $10. I hung it from a hook and within minutes we had our first visitor.
After a week of getting hits because the WOC and birdhouse were being blown, I moved the birdhouse to a stationary post that I put in a planter. I’m pleased with the results.
I was a bit concerned the first day, the WOC needed to be re-charged. What, why would I get less than a day on the battery? Well, I had the WOC pulled up on my iPad and watched it…big battery drain as it is not designed to send a constant signal for viewing. Once I stopped broadcasting the WOC my battery life improved to less than 9% in a week. I figure it will improve a little more now that the swinging birdhouse it not triggering motion.
I have also read folks are having trouble with notifications. I did have that issue at first and read on one of the threads here that you have to have notifications turned on for ALL your Wyze cameras. I tried it and suddenly the WOC started sending notification. I don’t know if that is true but it fixed my issue. I have since turned off the cameras that I don’t want notifications on all the time and the WOC is still sending notifications,
So back to the birdhouse. It has a side door that swing up and down to access the inside of the birdhouse. I want better access so I just swung the door back and forth until it broke the pins holding it (about 50 swings). Once I had the side open, I used scrap lumber to create the deck I wanted and placed a small piece of molding on the far side of the deck as a guide for how far inside the camera needs to sit. Not pretty but it was what I had on hand and it works for me. I can easily get the camera in and out for charging. We also drilled out a bigger opening - 2" so the lens had full view and it also stopped me from seeing the sides of the hole. I used a black sharpie to “paint” the front white part of the WOC so that no white shows. Also you can see the lens clearly in the bird house but I don’t get a lot of foot traffic in my side yard and don’t expect it to be an issue. When I move the birdhouse from it’s swinging hook to the post, I just screwed the birdhouse floor directly to the 4x4 post I put in a planter.
So far I am happy with the product and I am considering adding another WOC .
