Security Camera Recommendations

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Security Camera Recommendations

1 | 2 | 3

190 posts

Master Geek

#2279445 19-Jul-2019 09:24

MurrayM:
Thanks for the Wyze recommendation. I've had a look and they look pretty good. I see they're available on TradeMe for about $80 if I want to get one quickly.

A few questions:

I'm heading off overseas for a month. I see people are recommending putting in an SD card. Will it store a months worth of motion detected footage on an SD card? - YES BUT DEPENDS ON HOW MUCH MOTION IS DETECTED

How good is the 14-day cloud storage? I assume I can log into it and view any clip and download any that I want to save for later use? Other than the 14-day limit, is there any size limit? - ONLY STORES THE FIRST 12 SEC IN THE CLOUD THEN A 5 MINUTE COOLDOWN, YES YOU CAN SAVE TO YOUR CAMERA ROLL

I see there's 2 USB ports on the back. I guess one is power and what's the other used for? - CONNECT TO A WYZE SENSE WHICH COMMS TO THE SENSOR AND OPEN/CLOSE UNITS OVER A FREQ THAT ISNT WIFI, JUST NEED 1 WYZE SENSE ON 1 CAMERA PER HOME GENERALLY

Can I have the app on two different phones (mine and my partners) and we can both control the camera and view video? EITHER JUST USE THE SAME WYZE ACCOUNT , OR ON DIFFERENT ACCOUNTS YOU CAN SHARE CAMERAS, NOT SURE ON CONTROL FROM THE SECOND ACCOUNT

How does the smoke detector work? - LISTENS FOR SMOKE DETECTOR SOUND

Is access to the cloud storage all through the app or can I use my PC (eg a website that I can log into to view my videos)? OFFICIALLY APP ONLY , BUT I USE CHROME AND ARC WELDER EXTENSION, THEN INSTALL THE ANDROID APK, SO EFFECTIVELY VIEW AND CONTROL THE ANDROID APP ON MY PC, WORKS WELL

@jonathan18 I see you had some problems with motion detection initially. Has it got any better? I'm thinking of having a camera in the corner of my lounge looking over the room and towards the front door which is a ranch-slider. There are trees outside that will blow in the wind, is this likely to set off the motion detection all the time? -YOU CAN SET DETECTION ZONES, BUT I THINK THE SENSOR YOU CAN BUY USES DIFFERENT TECH TO DETECT MOVEMENT, CAMERA IS PIXELS CHANGING , SENSOR MIGHT BE HEAT

Have a look on Reddit and the Wyze site has a support community also.

My only comment is , like all cameras of this type, HD isnt really similar to HD on a TV , check youtube out for examples.

MurrayM

2455 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2279455 19-Jul-2019 09:42

Thanks @ben28

I've found the Reddit community and have been reading things there, lots of useful info.

ben28

190 posts

Master Geek

#2279462 19-Jul-2019 09:50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upvN5sKbGdc

8 minutes review just up on Youtube for anyone else interested

jonathan18

7413 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#2279466 19-Jul-2019 09:56

Given the price, it's not a big issue if you end up replacing a Wyze with something else - what do they sell for on TM?

Apologies for not responding re your earlier question. Yeah, they continue to be somewhat frustrating with over-detection of motion from trees, shadows etc, but this tends to be more of a problem in bad weather. Fiddling with the sensitivity and setting a detection zone manages to limit this to an acceptable level. Also, I hope once they get their "AI"-based person-detection settings working more accurately (it's been part of their beta testing for a bit - you're able to opt in to this programme if you like) that may be good enough to limit alerts solely to those (at the moment it's fairly hit and miss).

The other good thing would be if they allowed users to draw detection zones in a more subtle way than a simple rectangle - eg, to mark exclusion areas.

Overall, I think if you'd asked me a month ago if I recommend Wyze cameras I'd had probably said no, based on the number of issues I was having, but given how most have been resolved, and that they're continuing to add features and associated products (Wyze Sense, now their bulbs are also for sale - hopefully they'll do a coloured one soon too) I think they're worth a go - nothing comes close to offering this value for money. I've read they're also working on an outside camera too, which would be good. I've got both of ours outside using brackets and a protective cover from Amazon, which works fine.

Let us know how you get on, and sing out if you've got any questions.

MurrayM

2455 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2279488 19-Jul-2019 10:27

jonathan18:

Given the price, it's not a big issue if you end up replacing a Wyze with something else - what do they sell for on TM?

That's my thinking too, if it doesn't work out then I haven't lost too much. I did a Buy Now for $69. Well above what I could have paid if I was more patient and ordered from America but I'm in a bit of a rush to get one up and running before I leave for a month-long holiday. I read plenty of reviews and comments on Reddit and I'm fairly confident that this is one of the best cameras for my price range (short of a DIY Raspberry Pi solution).

Thanks for everyone's help!

redfiat

57 posts

Master Geek

#2280954 21-Jul-2019 20:25

hass.io / home assistant also supports motion eye, so you can centralise your lights, security, presence etc all on the one platform.

https://www.home-assistant.io/

MurrayM

2455 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2283226 25-Jul-2019 08:42

Gor my Wyze camera the other day and set it all up last night. Seems to be working really well, today will be the first day I leave it on all day watching the lounge.

Next step is to get the app set up on my partners phone (not sure if I'll just log into her app with the same login as I used for my Wyze account, or if I'll set up a new account for her and use the Share option).

After that I need to set it up so I can use my Google Home to tell the camera to turn on and off as we come and go from the house.

Lenovo

Shop now for Lenovo laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

jonathan18

7413 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#2283259 25-Jul-2019 09:34

@MurrayM - I think you'll be sadly disappointed with the degree of Google Home integration - AFAIK it extends to be being able to view 'live' (and I use that word with conditions!) streams of your cameras on the screen of the Google Home Hub.

Even then, there's a huge delay of about 20 seconds, so it's not live (my son was playing with it yesterday - running outside then back in, and had heaps of time before he could see himself on the 'live' feed!)

So no ability to do anything other than 'show x camera' or 'stop'. I also read somewhere the streaming automatically stops after 10 minutes (haven't tested to be able to verify this).

Here's a short summary:

Further, Wyze says that there’s high latency with this integration which can’t be fixed without a huge overhaul. Users also can’t see Wyze camera feeds through the Google Home app at this time. There’s no 2-way audio or pan/tilt support either. Still, these cameras give users a way to keep a better eye on their homes for a low cost, so it’s a win from my perspective.

https://9to5google.com/2019/05/29/wyze-google-assistant-camera-support/

I would note that, based on Wyze's willingness to expand the flexibility and features of their products, I imagine and hope this is a first step towards better integration, as the current 'integration' is not much more than a gimmick in terms of its usefulness, especially with that delay.

jonathan18

7413 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#2283260 25-Jul-2019 09:37

Here's a long thread dealing with Google Home/Assistant integration, which may have some more of the details: https://forums.wyzecam.com/t/google-home-assistant-integration/6750/538

MurrayM

2455 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2283326 25-Jul-2019 11:43

jonathan18:

@MurrayM - I think you'll be sadly disappointed with the degree of Google Home integration - AFAIK it extends to be being able to view 'live' (and I use that word with conditions!) streams of your cameras on the screen of the Google Home Hub.

All I want to be able to do is tell the camera to turn itself on or off via my Google Home Mini (I see this is possible using IFTTT). Don't really want to be able to view anything.

gcorgnet

1078 posts

Uber Geek

#2283392 25-Jul-2019 12:44

MurrayM:

All I want to be able to do is tell the camera to turn itself on or off via my Google Home Mini (I see this is possible using IFTTT). Don't really want to be able to view anything.

I am using IFTTT with Wyze (by way of Home Assistant) and it seems to work pretty reliably. That way, my Wyze cams can be armed and disarmed as required when people come and go. Seems pretty solid so far.

jonathan18

7413 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#2283397 25-Jul-2019 12:57

If only the 'shortcuts' that the Wyze app provides for could be similarly controlled by Google Home, thereby allowing multiple settings to be adjusted at once (and getting over that significant limitation of IFTTT).

For example, I have a shortcut set for the time we get home that turns off the rear camera and stops notifications on the front camera (which records 24/7); I'd much rather I could simply perform this very shortcut via voice command, rather than go through some complex means to enable IFTTT to carry out more than one action with a single voice command.

(Edit - unless there are easy ways that someone can explain to be able to carry out more than one action on these cameras with a single voice command?)

The scope of multiple actions could increase significantly should Wyze get around to expanding the variables that can be controlled via its shortcuts (eg, enable/disable panning).

MurrayM

2455 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2283462 25-Jul-2019 14:07

jonathan18:

(Edit - unless there are easy ways that someone can explain to be able to carry out more than one action on these cameras with a single voice command?)

I'm sure I read somewhere on the IFTTT site that it was possible to create applets that could do multiple actions, eg IF <this> THEN <that> AND <that too>. But I haven't tried creating an applet yet so I don't know what's involved, I've just used a couple that someone else had created.

dafman

3925 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2284623 27-Jul-2019 16:38

Ok, I've found this thread very useful and have decided to replace my ageing D-link security camera with Wyze.

I can't get over how cheap these are for functionality provided and with no ongoing costs! My only concern is that the company's ongoing viability requires them to keep selling cameras to maintain a revenue stream to provide their server services. That said, if they do go under, we haven't invested a lot in the first place.

The only thing I can't decide is whether to go for fixed or pan and scan - what have people been buying and any feedback on the relative merits of either?

Also - where's the best place to purchase from? I'm picking Amazon, but any other better options?

vectran

59 posts

Master Geek

#2284627 27-Jul-2019 16:57

Just purchased two direct from Amazon shipped to NZ for $92 ($46 NZD each).

Seems a bit cheaper/faster than the Youshop option.

1 | 2 | 3