I love my Wyze products and have been using them for years.
My wife’s work has been having problems with vandalism. The locations are often at the far ends of their property. I doubt there would be Wi-Fi signal so far from main buildings. Not sure Wi-Fi extenders would help.
I have suggested a Waze Outdoor Cam v3, with SD card and Solar Panels for charging and power. I have explained they would need to retrieve the SD card should there be another incident of vandalism for manual review.
Would this be a good solution for her company? Thank you in advance.
Welcome to the Wyze User Community Forum @Onebusyman!
Some clarification questions first…
You tagged your post as “Cam V3 Spotlight” but mentioned a Wyze Outdoor Cam V3 which isn’t currently a model Wyze offers. Can you please clarify which cam you are referencing?
Wyze Cam V3, plugs into a power outlet, not compatible with the solar panel.
Wyze Cam Outdoor (either V1 or V2), battery operated and connects wirelessly to a Wyze Base Station, compatible with the solar panel to recharge the batteries.
Thank you, so the recommendation would be to purchase a Wyze Cam Outdoor V2 that would then plug into the solar panel to recharge the batteries and power the camera. I do not believe they have 110 power that far out to set up a Wyze Base Station. They understand they will have to rely on retrieving the SD card and manually searching for activity. Would that be a recommendation I can give them? They are a non-profit and have little money, so I want the recommendation to work first time out.
Thank you for your review and assistance.
The Wyze Cam Outdoor connects to the Base Station and the Base Station to the WiFi. So, if they were able to get the Base Station in WiFi range and the cam within Base Station range, I think it would work. Otherwise I believe it has to be in Travel Mode when remote. But, I don’t work with Wyze Cam Outdoor, so I am going to tag in some Wyze Cam Outdoor experts to give you better advice than I can.
@Onebusyman I like my battery powered Version one WYZE Outdoor Cams but I would not use them in the location you described for a few reasons. You need the base to set them up and a Wi-Fi signal from them to get notifications of recorded events. After the camera was set up you would need to set it up for scheduled event recording for 30 days at a time to record motion only to the SD in the camera to record events up to 5 min. in duration for each event or you could use Cam plus but would need Wi-Fi for that also. The PIR range of detection is maybe 20-25 feet at best to detect persons and the need for the object to stay in motion, range and view. I would find another solution. There are some folks here that have used large batteries like 12 volt marine batteries, with a regulator to reduce the power to 5 Volts and a solar panel to charge the battery. It is a complicated process. @bryonhu has some post of various ways of powering a powered V3 camera and I’ll see if I can find one or two.
Appreciate the advice and the assistance. What seems simple is turning out to be not so simple. But I do like the pros and cons of what would work and what would not work. Reading specs looks Outdoor Cam V1 and V2 both work with solar panels, and batteries. Because of the remoteness of the vandalism/trash dumping; they are willing to accept it may be a few days before the Maintenace ground crew can check the area and retrieve SD cards. They can saturate the area with camaras on solar panels and other hidden cams to capture license plates, faces, vehicle, all things they don’t have now. Costing them $$$ to clean up this trash. Fortunately, it is infrequent, and they suspect same individual with knowledge of the area. Also have to go with the camo sleaves to better hide the cameras. Again, would this work? Thank you for your help.
If the proposed camera location is outside of regular wifi range , then it may also be outside of the range of the base station when it is installed. Because if you install the base at the closest building, then the camera in its location may not be able to reach the base station, and if you were to somehow have power at the remote location and have the base station there, it may not be able to communicate with the regular wifi network.
Is having a network connection important? I am a fan of the WCOs but your use case is looking to me more of a trail camera situation. The same cameras that folks use to capture wildlife in remote locations. Let it go for a few days and then check the card for events that were captured. Also is the location that the cameras will be placed easily accessible? If this area is frequented hit with vandalism and mischief, then you must think about the possibility of the cameras being tampered with/stolen/damaged.
I know you said that money is tight, and i hope you and they find a good solution and resolution to this. In commercial settings, i like recommending more higher end systems like corded higher megapixel camera system with a central secured storage with battery backup. Maybe investing more money now will help in the long run.
Does the law enforcement agency in this area do any sort of crime prevention assessment of properties? Maybe they could or you could come up with ideas to prevent this from happening. Have you thought about motion controlled solar powered lights to pepper this area to light it up like a Christmas tree when motion is detected? Gating the area somehow during off hours? Putting up “Smile your on Camera/Area is monitored by cameras” signs everywhere (even if you don’t have cameras installed yet).
Give me a day. I have one of the Version One WCO that I just charged up and I move it around to various places. I will set it up in the Travel mode and see if I can get it to do scheduled event recording to the SD in the Camera. I do not have a solar panel so it will be a one day trial.
**** I have it set up in Travel Mode and scheduled event recording to the SD in the camera, we’ll see how it goes if the squirrels don’t steal the cam or knock over.
That is what I don’t like about Travel Mode. You can’t tell what it is doing unless you are in range of the cams own Wi-Fi signal, then you have to switch your phone to that network/ no remote viewing.
I appreciate the suggestions and they are valid. The signs are a very good idea that I think they can do right away. Police have been called out to take reports, the dumpers have been very careful not to include personal trash. Like they are cleaning out a barn, farmland of rusted out car-tractor parts, tires of course, not too many household items for the most part.
I think the idea of trail cams might actually be the best solution for them.
I appreciate your effort to make a trial go it. Gotta watch those sneaky squirrels. I’m going to read up on “Travel Mode” something new to me. Thank you for the big assist and great suggestions.
Well it didn’t last long because a squirrel found the cam and my phones Wi-Fi security would not let me connect back to the camera because I did not add an “Optional” cam network password or turn the VPN for the phone on. It does record all motion to the card in travel mode. I’ll add a password to the cam network and try some more without the damn squirrel.
I moved the camera for the to play with tonight. I really don’t know if travel mode will turn on the IR lights at night, This is the first time I got past the first 10 minutes of using travel mode.
DOA. My Travel mode/schedule event recording experiment sent my camera battery to 0% overnight and the SD card has 203 .mp4 and .jpg files on it. In fact it even recorded me picking up the camera and bringing it inside to try and revive it. It seems to be charging because it has gone up to 7% in the last 20 minutes. I don’t think I was supposed to do both Travel Mode and scheduled event recording motion only at the same time? It is not like there are a lot off directions for doing this. I have been doing scheduled event recording motion only for years with the same camera and it does wear the battery a little faster than just regular cloud recording but no much, recharge is required after about 5 -6 weeks doing cloud and scheduled event recording at the same time. Back to my old ways.
Let’s face it. Not even does their 2 factor log in work correctly!
I am done with this company! The doorbell never ever synced!
The Solar is an epic fail! And the flood light camera combo !!! The flood light always stays on!!
I have contacted support and tried all the FAQs!
WYZE is cheap
Don’t buy a headache!!!
Good luck in round 2.
