I would like suggestions on wifi cameras for in house.

Bobalos

Bobalos

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we bought 2 wifi camera's for monitoring my wifes 95 year old mother.  they seem to work OK, however only one person can log in @ one time & since we tried to get my BIL to log in now its all hosed up & it wont let anyone log in. 

does anyone have any suggestions for super simple, super basic wifi camera's that they would recommend.  we dont want to have recording or alarms or anything like that.  just want to be able to log in & look around to make sure she is doing OK. 

I know cost & features & reliability are directly related, but we are trying to keep cost withing reason. 

She does have a wifi network.  its all indoors in her small 600 ft condo.  traditional wood studs and drywall walls.  we are looking for 2 cameras maybe 3.

 
I did the same for my mom. Told her it was for burglars but really its to make sure shes up and moving. 

If the room can benefit from panning side to side, get the Wyze cam PAN V2. Looks to be on sale right now. 

If you dont want a pan feature get the Wyze cam V3. 

For any Wyze cam make sure to install a cheap micro SD card. It will allow you to view back a couple days, even if wifi was to turn off. It does plug into a 110 outlet, so if house power goes out so does the camera.

They do run off 5v USB power. So you could run them off a 12v battery pretty easy. Just like charging a cell phone. Ive got 3 cameras on my toyhauler running off the battery. That could work inside of a home if you had a little emergency battery power cube that is plugged into the outlet. The camera would run off the battery that is constantly being recharged. Then if power goes out the camera is still working for a couple days off the power cube thing. You could probably run all 3 cameras off it. You can buy 25' long cords for the cameras. Its just a regular USB to micro USB cord like a samsung phone. Only issue is sometimes the rubber coating on the connector is too big, so you need to shave it down a bit to fit into the camera. Amazon sells some that "work with Wyze" and those where skinny enough to fit without modification.

https://www.amazon.com/Indoor-Camera-Vision-Compatible-Assistant/dp/B09DRCFF81/ref=sr_1_3?crid=20WHHK6IHRSWL&keywords=wyze%2Bpan%2Bcam&qid=1652647342&sprefix=wyze%2Bpan%2Bcam%2Caps%2C307&sr=8-3&th=1

 
@wopachop, do you have to pay for a "service"? 

do you think you could mount that to a wall? 

thanks

Bob

 
I have Ring. I know your not wanting more then cameras to check on your mom, but Ring does have just cameras that would allow more then one user to access. They make a indoor camera that’s 120v but it’s only $59. They also have battery powered indoor/outdoor cameras (called Stick up camera) $99.
 

Also another really nice feature is the two way talk. So if you needed to you could speak to your mom through the camera. If you saw she fell you could tell her someone is on the way and she could tell you if she was hurt. 
 

The nice part of Ring is the cloud access  and they continue to add more things and updates. A nice feature that could be helpful for your mom is Ring works with some Schlege & Kwikset keyless locks, so you could unlock the door if you needed a neighbor or paramedics to get in and check on her if you can’t get there.  
 

I’d just suggest checking out Ring to and see what they have to offer,  and see if it might work for you? They have allot of stuff and continue to add more. 
 

https://ring.com/

 
Yup its totally free service. You dont really need to pay if you have an SD card installed. 

At anytime you can click LIVE VIEW....and of course see live views. 

Also at any time you can VIEW PLAYBACK....that will allow you to go back several days. It overwrites itself so dont take too long for that feature. 

The V3 has a magnetic base. That comes in handy. Or there is a hole for a screw. Dont even need to hit a stud. Drywall screw into bare drywall is fine.

The Pan Cam V2 i think normally sits on a shelf. The bottom base can be secured using the little 1/4 female threaded insert. Just like a go pro has. But it works just fine sitting there freely. 

If you setup a camera in the corner of a room, the pan feature might be useless. They have a really wide field of view. 

 
I have a couple Wyze cam V3, they work pretty good for the price, I found that you can have multiple people view the camera but only the original profile that set the cam up can do the play back. Put in a SD card and its all a free service. 

 
If you decide to power the cameras off a battery cube type thing i just realized the cameras would still record but you would lose wifi and the ability to see a live view. 

You could solve that by using a cell phone hotspot or a verizon jetpack type of device for wifi. Plug the jetpack into the battery cube and the cameras will have power and wifi during a power outage.

 
Might find lots of weird uses for cameras. Heres an older Wyze v2 i stick underneath the trailer this time of year when mice come out of their burrow and want to setup camp in my generator. 

Or worse my ceiling space. Had one die in there. Had another still active and waited for the camera to catch him leaving the trailer at night. Gave me 10 seconds to run out and stuff a rag in the access hole. Sealed it up with foam and wire mesh later on. 

Had a lady hire me to setup rat traps in her attic. I suggested buying a $35 wyze cam to monitor activity. She never bought one. They would work awesome in an attic to catch the exact second a rodent finds a way inside. I would have let her borrow one for a couple weeks if i thought ahead.

20220515_143653.jpg

 
Whichever brand you get i would recommend a hardwired camera. 

Theyre cheaper and have better features. 

Plus i believe the wireless battery powered cameras are in standby mode. They do not record to an SD card 24/7. 

 
wopachop said:
Whichever brand you get i would recommend a hardwired camera. 

Theyre cheaper and have better features. 

Plus i believe the wireless battery powered cameras are in standby mode. They do not record to an SD card 24/7. 
Click to expand...
"hard wired" with regards to power source or a cable that goes to the router? 

 
Regards to the power source. 

Ring and Wyze offer some models that are battery powered. 

 
Bobalos said:
"hard wired" with regards to power source or a cable that goes to the router? 
Click to expand...
Hard wired are typically two connectors on one wire -  the power source and the video, that feed back to the controller/hard drive, power supply, battery backup, etc. That controller then interfaces with the wifi as opposed to each camera. Pulling wire is much more of a pain to install but no battery issues or multiple components with separate wifi connections. Much more permanent that the other options. I'm on my second 8+ camera setup and more than happy now that the cable pulling is done. Ring is way easier and less invasive but they make up for that with a subscription fee as I recall.

 
Bobalos said:
"hard wired" with regards to power source or a cable that goes to the router? 
Click to expand...
Hardwired could mean both power and video. But in the case of Ring or Wyze they mean just power cable. They both work off the wifi. On my house my Ring cameras are 120v plug in just so I don’t have to worry about charging battery’s, plus like mentioned powered cameras typically have a few more features. No I do have one camera in the back that is on battery, but it does not get triggered as often, was not near power so battery powered was the best for that location. 

 
I’m planning to install Ubiquity/Unifi camera system which is POE but should be a much more secure system. Unfortunately still have to run Cat6 cable to each camera. 

 
I have Wyze cams.  Happy with them.

Fun to send my chick a video of her drunk azz stumbling down the hallway after a night out with her friends...LOL

 
Late to the party, but...

We just got 2 RING wireless.  Mounted on either side of the house. Wife ordered 2 extra batteries (not sure why) but then we noticed the unit accepts 2 batteries if you want.  The description never mentioned it nor does the manual.  But it bumps the run time to "up-to" 12 months.

Picture is very clear, mic picks up voices very clear.  Has lights, alarm and audio output. 

So far (3 days in) only complaint is the montion sensor seems to not be really far.  Still playing with the setup.

Haven't verified much on the night vision yet.  

 
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