Where to mount cameras?

I’m making a plan where to put cameras around the outside of a rectangular house. Any useful rules of fun e.g. camera will cover up to X feet away from camera. I’m assuming the capture area is a pie slice shape with the point of the pie slice starting at the camera. Thank you.

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John, not sure what cam you are planning on mounting. I have CamV3.

That CamV3 has a 130° field of view ‘pie slice’ from the cam. It can see about as far as I can. The detection settings can be tweaked for motion from 0 to 100% to customize the amount of motion in the frame that will trigger an event.

My suggestion, do not mount them too high. Out of reach might be great for security, but your ability to see faces and recognize objects decreases the higher you go

Hope this helps! Be safe and well!

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If the cameras are to be used to keep watch over your house and record the activity of people as it relates to your house and property, I would mount them high enough to keep them out of easy reach, certainly not at eye level or lower unless they were hidden or disguised in some fashion or even inside the house looking out through a window. A camera mounted high at the left corner of your house and aimed across its front face towards the right corner of your house has a blind spot under and near it, likewise for a camera mounted high at the right house corner. The left mounted camera can cover the right mounted camera’s blind spot and the right mounted camera will likewise cover the left camera’s blind spot. So, these two cameras are helping each other to provide you with the full picture for that wall.

One or more intermediate cameras could provide closer coverage of important doors or windows.

Apply these considerations to the back and side walls of your house, keep in mind that you my want to assign cameras to cover parking areas or other locations. At two to three cameras per wall, their numbers can add up fast. After encountering a teenager in the master bedroom going through my wife’s jewelry box, I opted for many cameras.

Some people may opt for the Pan Cam to cut down on the number of cameras needed to cover an area. My preference is for fixed aim cameras, even if more are needed to cover an area.

When setting up your camera’s locations, consider doing them with live view so their aims can be tweaked to your needs.

A corner of my neighbor’s house had a nice view of my front entrance and bay window, were as my house had a good view of his vehicles, I bought my neighbor a Wyse V2 (this was a while back) and mounted it so it could see my front entrance and bay window. He assigned me viewing right for that camera. I put up and extra camera looking at his vehicles and assigned him viewing rights.

Below are some pictures of camera setups that provide extended coverage.
This is a v3 looking out through the window.

These are a variety of outside mounted cameras.

Neighbors sharing views.

Hope this helps?

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Thank you. Very helpful.

What a great setup. I am particularly interested in what you did with the Filler Plate and Square Tube Glare Shield. I want to mount it as you did on a window, but I didn’t know where to find what I needed until I saw your post. Did you make it yourself, or purchase it? As I would love to purchase it for my windows. Thank you for sharing such great ideas.

Hello, @shesays.
Thank you for your kind :heart:ed reply.
An easy way to get more information on some items that I may have posted is to type a keyword or two in the search box.
Example: I typed in square tube and received 10 posts I wrote covering the topic.
When I typed in filler plate, 8 hits came up.
Some of the results are replies to my posts and others are my original posts with all of the associated details.
For your inquiry check out: Print a Look-Through-Window at Selected View Angles w Back Light Shield for V3 Camera.
In this post will be a link to 0 Master Square Tube Glare Shield Folder. This master folder link will take you to other support folders and files that will make everything you see in the post available to you.
Concerning the window-mounted custom aimed Sq Tube Glare Shield holder, you would have to decide what part of the window’s view do you want to focus on? Rt and down, Lt and down, Rt and up, Lt and up, or single angle, or no angle. and then print the associated subfolder from which you would pick the Sq Tube Shield with custom the aim angles wanted.
One of the folders inside the Master Sq Tube Glare Shield Folder is a folder containing support files for the paper transit, Filler Plate, Cord Anchors, etc. All of the files are available to download at no cost. The files for the 3D plastic items are STL files. To view them on your computer, download a free STL file viewer. Before sending this post, I tested the links and found them to work.

In this post, I also describe the field-of-view restriction that can be expected with Sq Tube holders aimed at various angles, with a cardboard model.
Every camera support shown in this post whether it is metal, wood, or plastic, I made or had printed. The 3D prints were printed at my public library at no charge to me. I just emailed them the STL file/s I wanted to be printed. Maybe your public library makes 3D prints available at no or little cost to you?
Below are pictures of what the view through shielded and non-shielded window-mounted V3s looks like. The sq. tube shield mount is a 25° down 20° right version. Smaller angles result in smaller to no field-of-view restriction.

This last picture shows a store bought steel plate (strongtie TP37) that I folded to make a simple window mount. The camera’s built-in carriage and magnet hold it in place.

The downside of public library 3D printing is that some prints are rough due to operator inexperience and may require some scraping on your part with a kitchen knife to remove roughies on the inside surface so the camera will slide in properly. Mostly the prints are fine.

Till later, Victor

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Oh my goodness, thank you so much for all the information. You are so kind to make this available to all. I am excited to get started on this. Have a wonderful week Stay safe & healthy.

Hello everyone, @shesays @SlabSlayer @john.morrison @Customer @robinrific @Omgitstony .
I have edited post# 6, I revised some of the wording, expanded the subject, and added more explanatory pictures. Let me know what you think.

Victor.

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Victor, you are clearly the undisputed, uncontested world champion of cam mounting design and fabrication! Standing ovation! :clap:

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Very kind :heart:ed comments, I do try different approaches.

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You’ll never get anything but slavish praise from me either (and that’s not in my nature). You always go above and beyond and it’s appreciated.

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I really enjoy this section of the forum. There’s always so many wonderful and clever ideas from members. I visit just for the read even when I don’t have a project. Getting the ideas (and storing them in my head) inspires me for projects. Such great ideas already mentioned.

Once in a while, a Wyze camera will appear to be offline, or the image will not come up. Needs to have power unplugged and plugged back in. I am lazy, I don’t want to walk to the camera just to restart it. So, I am big on adding WiFi plugs between power and the adapter. There’s plenty to choose from. I like it when my plug is next to my Wyze camera in the app. Makes clicking the restart so simple.

Some times the geography interferes where multiple adapters, so I must resort to something other than 2-3 adapters plugged into a multiple outlet block and then add a WiFi plug. Maybe its me, but I don’t have the very best luck with the power adapter that comes with the camera. I try to use on that is more than 1 amp each. So, I found higher performing multi-USB port adapters on Amazon. And still add a WiFi plug to turn them off/on.

I’ve one location, where I power 4 Wyze cams and an Echo Dot inside a porch light. Instead of multiple adapters, I am using a 6 port power brick, with a short power cable, velcro’d to the inside of the light. No one has a clue. And two of the four cameras are also inside.

My point is, ask yourself. Will you be able to easily restart the cameras? Do you want to make sure any extended cable length will still deliver enough power to the camera? Did I remember to put the SD Media card in the camera before I climbed down? Shucks, nope.

Please come back and share any issues you had and how you solved them. Its contributes to improvements we can make to our own.

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Hello @Sam_Bam and others.
To power cycle, my exterior cameras, I utilize that each of them is powered by an old analog security video system. The old system is 12 volt and a stepdown voltage /power splitter is used to power these cameras. I did also upgrade the old power adaptors with higher capacity ones.

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Of course power cycling a Wyze camera means I have to go under the desk and pull the appropriate power adapter.

Many Wyze camera users don’t have this option, but if you do, pulling a power adaptor is easier than climbing a ladder.

Victor.

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