I knew I saw it somewhere.
You’ve got to run a wire to it to power it anyway.
Battery cams just aren’t practical except in the most limited sense. You can’t do continuous recording and must set a high threshold for record on activity. At the end of the day, you’ve got to have wired power to make a camera useful.
Given that you will have wires going to your camera, that power should be something that is meant to run significant distances. USB - which was intended to provide data and power on a desktop, was never intended to do that.
If you do POE for power, you can still do WiFi for data connectivity, and that could be an option, but why bother when you’ve already got the wires there.
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I just don’t see the point to dual USB or rechargeable battery.
If I’m going to wire USB to the thing, then who cares about the battery. I suppose there is a very limited use case for recording during a power outage, but they are just so infrequent in this country that we really are out of the corners. I guess maybe if I put a solar panel on it and the battery runs at night. But if I’m going to put a solar panel at each camera I might as well put a solar panel and a battery. And I image that the percentage of cameras that will be solar powered is very low.
If I’m not going to wire USB power or solar power to the thing, then I have to periodically recharge it with a USB charger. So, I’m temporarily hooking up USB power to charge or I’m taking them down and bringing the camera to the charger. I just don’t see any appeal in that.
For the vast majority of users, it seems like the rechargeable battery and charging circuit is a hardware burden that most people won’t use.
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I have no preference on how the cam is powered, but I fully understand your concerns. I hope you find something that fits your exact situation.
I believe the maximum recommended feet for any USB cable is 16ft…which is not optimal when we’re talking about running them in an attic to every corner of the house.
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If the camera will be wired for power I assume it will be attached to a building. In that case the WyzeCam v2 in an enclosure has proven to be a very effective “outdoor” cam. The outdoor cam has to bring something to the table besides weatherproofing to make it sufficiently different from the v2, and battery power was a very popular request.
For example, the best vantage point to cover my entire back yard is the swingset in the corner, but I don’t have (and wouldn’t want to run) power to it. As it is, I have a v2 cam in the window of my shed that works for now, but a battery-powered cam that requires no enclosure is perfect.
Some users have also run v2 cams from USB power banks, but in my experience I get a day or two out of a large (20AH) bank so it’s just not worth it with the constant recharging. If the outdoor cam battery lasts a week or two (long enough to cover a vacation) that would be acceptable for my use.
It is a pain to have to reset the cams enclosed in the weatherproof cases. I have one that keeps going offline and can’t come back on unless I take it down, out of the case and start all over again. BIG PIA
THIS.
USB Specifications state a maximum cable length of 5 metres or 16 feet approx.
Beyond that you need amplification as the losses are so high. Add on the cost of a USB amplifier and you negate the cost of a POE switch, then the cost of a high quality USB cable of considerable length, USB cable is expensive - a high quality charging cable for my dashcam recently cost me $16 for 5 metres (!), plus for longer runs you may need further amplifiers, USB cable is prone to interference, is not usually weatherproof or designed to be used outdoors, and you have a whole host of problems associated to using USB for outdoor cameras, not least of which is price even if you ignore the physical difficulties.
POE on the other hand is cheap, easy to terminate. Has small plugs. Is designed for and can handle long runs. Comes in many flavours from basic indoor cables to fully armoured cables, and has many weatherproof variants,
There is no ideal cheap solution to an outdoor physical connection. But POE is about as cheap and reliable as it comes which is why professional systems use POE.
At the end of the day, if it has a memory card, the choice is yours whether you buy a POE switch and cable or simply keep it cheap and record to SD card instead. One thing that is certain, USB will cost a lot more and perform not as well.
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The max length for data on a USB cable (without a repeater) is 16ft.
If you’re doing power only, you are only limited by the voltage drop which is determined by the current draw and the resistance of the cable. If you take some of room used by the data conductors and instead use bigger cable for the power, you can go further. You can find 25ft USB power only cables without too much trouble. But the problem is you’re starting out at +5V and can only tolerate so much drop before the device at the end won’t work because the input voltage is too low.
POE by contrast can be up to +48VDC and since there is a wide input range power converter at the end you can tolerate a lot of drop (and since the current will be less for the same power delivery, you’re going to have less drop for the same power). POE can go to 100 meters (328ft) with no trouble on a light load like these cameras.
You’re basically looking at the difference between something that was designed to deliver power on your desktop versus something that was designed to deliver power over football field distances.
Not to mention that custom length ethernet cables are cheap and relatively easy to make.
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time frame for this camera
Last letter from WYZE said that they were still shooting for this year and it does say it is in testing, So I am thinking sometime before Christmas
As TheEggMan states, PoE is very good. I use it for non-Wyze cameras today. I think the longest run I have is 250 feet. There are no issues with power or signal (camera uses Ethernet for both data and power). Texas POE sells a cheap PoE-Ethernet-to-USB converter: PoE to USB-C — POE Texas I haven’t had a reason to test this, but thought I’d share anyway.
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Use Case for Outdoor Camera: I have a friend who has ~20 rental properties. He is looking at cameras for the outside of the building. He doesn’t want to do an enclosure as it wouldn’t look as professional as an outdoor camera (and it is one more thing to buy/install/deal with). He wants an out-of-the box solution that is inexpensive in case someone steals them making Wyze the perfect solution for him.
Hopefully it’s near release, the worst part about Wyze is waiting for the products to become available to order. 
I’m ordering 3 right away when they become available.
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I’m hoping there will be black and white variants as neither colour blends well against all surfaces.
That said, the biggest decision maker for me will still be picture quality. Quality is everything. If the picture quality isn’t there, then there’s not much point in having a camera for security purposes. I’m sure a lower PQ might suffice for some wildlife uses, but poor PQ isn’t going to catch the guy that just stole your tv. My hope is maybe Wyze can get something built around eg a Sony IMX 335 sensor, so there’s great quality day and night.
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Are you any closer to finishing the outdoor version? I see you last posted about in Nov 2018.
They are currently in testing and hope to have something out before the end of the year
Thank you Jason. Any idea as to the price of those models?
Best regards,
Chris Munns
I have no idea unfortunately. I don’t work for them or really have any insights, I just follow closely with what they do.
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Outdoor cam with POE would be killer. I have Cat V to many locations outside and limited wifi in most of those locations. Even if I have to run Cat V to other locations, that would kill two birds (connectivity and power) with one stone (cable).
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