Outdoor camera disassembly

Had a WOC fail and Wyze replaced it.

Could not find any information on how to take it apart so I went in and only managed to break 2 small clips holding the battery cover down.

The lens can be focused just like the v3.

There is one screw that can be difficult to remove. It is down inside the camera. The printed circuit boards are attached to a carrier which slides out of the housing once this screw is removed. Don’t use a Philips screwdriver with a pointed end. The drive is very shallow compared to the other screws, so a nice pointy Philips screwdriver will bottom out and the head will be damaged

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A friend used to call these Jesus! clips. Also -pins -nutz and -washers.

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To this day, this is still the only documented tear down of this camera I could find. Your pics gave me the information and courage I needed to do the antenna modification to this model and refocusing the lens for < 25 cm. I’m pleased to report that the new antenna is working better than ever and I managed to do this without breaking any parts (squeezing the case a little bypasses the clips).

With that in mind, I have 5 more cameras to do this to and I have the video architecture to create a youtube video. Now that I’m confident I can do this without fowling it up, I’ll create a youtube video for the teardown of this camera.

Thanks for posting this. Without it, I’d be too afraid to crack it open.

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I figured “broke is broke”.

You are welcome.

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i had to rip mine apart when water got in it somehow and it wouldnt charge anymore. pretty sure water got all the wate inside the battery. still troubleshooting. hoping i put the black wires back in the right spot on the battery side




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I didn’t know that Wyze would allow break-downs of their hardware, otherwise I would have posted my breakdown. LOL

Thanks for your post. I too broke down my Wyze Outdoor cam v1 because the battery died (after only 2 weeks of use!).

Here is my interpretation of the battery circuitry.

I was going to replace the battery, but the only suitable replacements cost about 1/3 the price of a new v2 outdoor. So, I decided that I am going to bypass the battery and power the camera directly to the 5vdc USB cable.

I haven’t spent very much time on this project yet, but applying 7vdc to the severed battery terminals doesn’t work, nor does applying 5vdc to the black/red wires (severed from the battery charging circuit). My guess is that the camera is expecting a batter status signal from the charging circuit via the yellow/white wires.

I’ve only spent less than 1 hour on this, but I’d be interested in learning anything about this circuit and if anyone has already successfully hacked this camera circuit. :slight_smile:

Shawn

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I know this is an old thread, but I guess in today’s terms, it’s an old camera. I’ve got an outdoor V1 that has been running flawlessly on a solar panel for a long time, but something finally got into the charging connector and fried the power board.
I seriously doubt that Wyze is going to sell me parts even if they had them, so I’m looking for somebody out there that’s got a trashed or decommission V1 camera that would to sell me the power board. I have a hard time throwing away a camera that works perfectly except I can’t charge the battery.

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@stevem36

Send me a PM.

I’d be happy to send you my v1, but the EXACT SAME ISSUE happened to me too.

My guess is the battery failed and shorted the same circuit that handles power.

I don’t recall the exact area of the circuit failure because it occurred nearly a year ago.

I tried to bypass the charging circuit but failed to get the camera working again. :frowning:

You/I are no the only two that have encountered this problem. I wonder how common this is?

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My outdoor cam plus which was used only indoors too has stopped charging, bought in 2020

Hi Steve,

Were you able to get a replacement power board and get this working again?

My situation is different. I had water entering the camera backside and looks like it damaged the power board. I dont see any other damage to the camera. While removing the power board, my power sliding switch got damaged. I am also wondering if replacing this gets the camera working again.

Thanks.

Hi,
Unfortunately, not. Another forum member was kind enough to send me an outdoor camera that had some other issues that I could use parts from, but Wyze had made a mid run production change, and the power boards no longer had the same connector on them. I got tired of playing with it and threw the whole thing out since they are no longer willing to sell the add-on camera to go with the base station. Frankly, with all of the connectivity issues I’m having with my other eight Wyze camera models I think I’m going to scrap all of them and purchase another brand. I can’t trust my families security to cameras that will not stay online.

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Appreciate your reply, Steve. My experience with Wyze has been good especially for their V1, V2, and V3. I have over 30 cameras :-)(over the last 6 years) and they typically have good products. However, the outdoor cameras have had issues with one of them having water seepage and probably damaging the power board. And yes, they go offline sometimes and I am trying to understand whether this is a WiFi issue or a base connectivity issue.

I also have a few indoor Eufys which appear more reliable(just a data point for you).

Thanks

I had an outdoor camera incur some water damage through the charging port as well. I figured out long ago that most all designers of small devices hide the screws holding it together underneath stickers, labels, and in this case, silicone. I managed to get mine apart in good order and saw the corrosion on a power terminal. It is still in a pile on my work bench because I haven’t had the time to work on it. That was a few months ago. Since then an update push bricked all of my base stations so I can’t use any of my OD cameras anyway.
Thought I’d share.