Re-purpose older V2 cameras

I’m a very happy Wyze user. I have more than a dozen cameras in use - mainly V4s, and a few V3s, and a flood light pro. I have a couple of spare V3s available and even a new V4 still in the box. Here’s the question: what to do with five older V2 cameras that I just reset and tested and all are working great? Sure, I could stick them up somewhere and use them, but I have V3s and a V4 available if I wanted to use more cameras. I’m looking for some other ways I can use them, or what else to do with them. Any ideas?

Think out of the box on camera usage. You can come up with lots of ways to use them. Here’s a few of my odd ones:

Two inside and two outside cameras for my gun locker.

A camera (with the magnifying lens that lets you focus at a couple inches) looking at a battery charger.

A camera looking at my weather station

A camera looking at a piece of amateur radio digital equipment.

A camera inside my mailbox so I can see if there is mail.

A camera watching a display panel that gets used with my Christmas light show during off season storage.

All of those are V2 cameras.

I always consider donations to help a good cause and get a tax write-off.

Donate to a women’s shelter or homeless shelter to help with their security.

Check with a high school computer science or robotics class if they want your cameras.

I’ve converted one for use to inspect my gutters by using a paint roller frame attached to a paint roller extension pole and utilizing a USB power bank. I have a phone holder for a bicycle attached to the pole so I can monitor what it sees, plus have an SD card installed. Works pretty well.

From last year. Yep, gutters need cleaned out and they were.

LOL I have a lot of similar hacks to inspect and sometimes even attempt to remotely fix a clog, but unfortunately with my house I usually have to get out the 36 foot fiberglass ladder and make my back angry.

The gutter cleaners around here have drones for inspecting, I just know when rain is pouring over the edge that it’s time to do something.

I had stainless steel micromesh screens with aluminum frames put on my gutters a few years ago. I only have two straight run gutters one front and one back, total 116 feet. That :cow: :poop:Company LeafFilter gave me $3,600 estimate to install new guards, the gutters were one yeaar old. I got better guards and paid $800.00 for removing the old pastic guards I had, installing the new guards including material, labor and tax. The guards work great, no issues for years. The stainless guards I got were from GutterGlove. I love them and no more ladders for me.
laughing

I put them on my garage gutters, and they do work well, but fine dust and dirt still gets through and every few years I have to blast them with the hose to wash it all into the downspout. Amazing how much can build up.

Somehow the downspout still gets clogged with stuff every now and then, bits and pieces that fall through the mesh, but it is right under a huge maple tree. Luckily that one can be done on a small step ladder. Last year I ground down the sharp points of the screws around the downspouts hoping that would help them catch and clog less, but that theory didn’t pan out. I may toss the mesh strainers in the downspouts this year.

I have cans of snowplow lubricant but even though it is supposed to be water repellant I’m guessing it wouldn’t last a full year. In my case it is mostly the “helicopter” seeds from the maple trees that clog them up.

Back in 2013 or 2015, one of the big snow years in new england, the snowblown pile on my front yard was so high I could just use a standard rake with a board zip-tied onto it to both clear off the really deep parts of my roof and get the ice out of the gutters. Actually to get some of the further parts I banged the rake handle into a piece of EMT conduit to give me another 10 feet. It ended up snapping off inside the conduit but got most of it before that happened.

I have a long sprayer pole with an angle nozzel on it to wash the dust out of the gutters while standing on the ground. I get wet but it’s better than me on a ladder. I used a 6 foot step ladder leaned against the house to mount all my cameras, :upside_down_face:

Does everyone have lots of trees near your roof? I have no trees on my property. I had new gutters installed 9 years ago and have not had to clean them. Sediment does not seem to collect now that my downspouts are curved.

My backyard has a multi- trunk (4 trunk) Black Walnut tree 15 feet from the house which I have to get trimmed every two years to keep it away from the house (Expensive). Back neighbor yard has four large Oak trees, I get all their leaves. On the other side of the back fence corner is a large pine tree which is growing over the fence and pine needles everywhere. :grimacing:

Yeah my house’s gutters are about 30 feet off the ground. While I have done things out of the 2nd floor and attic windows when it is urgent, most of the downspouts are out of reach. I do have one of those U shaped telescoping hose attachments, once or twice I’ve tied a rope to it so I can pull it up from a window and use it to try and clear soemthing out.

Yep, huge probably 100+ year old maple trees. Even though the branches aren’t over my house, the “twirly” seeds travel pretty far and end up all over the roof, then in the gutters.

When I redo my roof I want to put on the larger gutters and downspouts, I think that would resolve most of it (and probably eliminate the need for a couple of my downspouts that are in lousy locations).