Conformal Coating - Is a coating used by pcb manufacturers to waterproof and protect pcb circuitry from environmental conditions. It comes in various flavors (Urethane, Acrylic, Silicone). You can buy this stuff on amazon for cheap and waterproof circuitry.
Silastic - trademark name for a silicone elastomer. Basically just a silicone sealant. Any should work but you can find marine sealant for cheap on amazon.
Use conformal coating to coat everything with circuitry inside the camera. Re-seal the case using Silastic trying to ensure the case is as waterproof as possible. Basically make the electronics as waterproof as possible then make the case as waterproof as possible.
Would like an exterior camera that i can mount under eaves. Must be weather tough, battery powered, would like it to have live stream and motion triggered options, Night vision. Since it is mounted on house , I am hoping my router signal is strong enough. I would definitely be willing to pay in the range of $50-$75.
If i ran WYZE I would pursue flocksafety.com type of cameras with less options and then I would definitely pay a lot more …
I used a product called Plasti Dip. I created a wooden block a smidge under the size of the camera. Then I dipped the block into molten candle wax a few times to build up a coating. The wax brought up the block to be about the right dimensions. I then just dipped the block into the Plasti Dip a few times to build up a few layers. Once the Plasti Dip was set up (2 days to make sure) I dunked the block into warm water to melt the wax and the “Camera cover” just slid off. I cut the hole for the lens and eased the cover over the camera.
The wax was important because the Plasti Dip would have sunk into the wood and made it impossible to remove. If I were to start over, I would maybe have started with the Plasti Dip spray and perhaps made my form using wax rather than wood. Other than the wait for the product to set up it was pretty quick.
My consulting rate is $125 per hour. I would guess about 2 hours to make and pack for shipping. Do you want my paypal information or how will you be paying?
They aren’t hard to make. The material is less than $10 and available in most hardware/building supply stores.
A problem with inductive charging through a window would be that many windows are at low levels (first floor) and it would be dead simple to walk up and pull it from the window. These would require a much more secure mount than that in my opinion.
Also, who wants a power cord running up there window… Standard weatherization and an outdoor cable (POE would be a good option, I would expect you to include a standard power cable and either provide or make available for purchase an adapter for POE using my own ethernet cable or sell an add-on kit that includes all of that.
Surprised someone has not suggested a Redneck waterproofing with a Ziploc bag and twist tie.
The little silicone sleeve on the Arlo cams are a slick accessory. If you want to run it off a battery just get a little battery pack of C or D size cells NiMh: 4 = 4.8V wire it into an old micro USB cable and you are ready to go.
Alternatively, you could buy a 6V deep cycle sealed lead acid battery (think little lawn tractor) put a resistor in series to drop it to 5V and go to town splicing the cable like above.
Take the typical running current of the camera and divide that into the amp hours or miliamp hours will give you the run time in hours of the fully charged pack/battery.
Just make a cheap silicone glove or housing. If you did do the battery route make it rechargeable with the option of a solar panel like Reolink did on their Argus v2.
Adafruit has a $10 kit that would require an enclosure. Note that the full 500mA transfer occurs with 3mm of separation.
Inductive charging can be added fairly easily, though bulky given the effect that coil size and separation distance has on efficiency. You would still need power inside the window to only have one pane of glass separating the coils.
Routing PoE through the soffit would be easier, less obtrusive, and that’s where we want the cameras anyway.
I used a plastic (laundry detergent) container to house my Wyze Cam, setting the cam back a couple inches from the opening, facing East at a downward angle Fully protected from the N, W & S, I wanted to see what animal was digging a hole under the back deck, got a great clip of a skunk entering the hole, followed hot on its heels by the young house cat! (cat did get a light spraying). Has been active since early March, no problems with Michigan weather in that time.
Separate weatherproof housing or sleeve to keep camera cheap
Solar + Battery add-on (separated to be able to put solar in the sun and keep battery away from the sun's heat)
Central storage unit (network attached) to replace internal SD cards
I have some blink cameras as well and although they work OK, having just battery power is annoying and I like the constant connection from the Wyze camera so much better.
IMHO, POE would be way to expensive. Having the above parts separated would keep the cost of the camera down and would let you customize it for use and improve the placement options.
I just 3d printed a thru door adapter, I will insert a piece of Acrylic with a small hole to allow sound. have to drill a 2" hole in the door to replace the peep hole.
I don’t think it would be useful to have Wyze do anything with battery or solar power because there are thousands of existing options for that. I’m powering one from a car jump pack/USB power pack right now. Adding solar or whatever is just as simple and easy to find. PoE to USB is also cheap and easy, I have a few of those adapters and they were under $10 each. I’m going to use them to replace my old Foscams with Wyzecams. There’s already ethernet to all of the camera locations.
A waterproof case, like a Gopro, would be useful. I am going to put one of my cameras by my front door, which is outdoors, but well protected, so I don’t think I need protection there. But I’d also like to put one under the eaves in the back and that’s not good protection at all.
Paul that’s actually pretty cool. It’s been since January and I have a few questions for you. First, were you able to install this in your door? My second question is how are you powering the wyze cam?
For me… I would like an outdoor camera, battery powered, detect motion only, or turn it on manually, close to the router, under a porch, not exposed directly to the elements. If it needs power that would work, but battery would be best…
I also just put a camera in the window today for my back yard, I am sure I will need a way to kill the light source as well. until then black tape will cover the IR source. Thanks as well for making a camera that is affordable… Now only if you would make a box to give me HDMI out into a monitor…
