Outdoor wireless camera recommendations

Go with ring... They have solar options too so you never have to worry about the battery

What cameras are you using with sighthound? Can you see them in the dashboard?
Thanks

All of my cameras are Amcrest 3MP ONVIF cameras.

[EDIT] Actually, I also have an ONVIF Hikvision video doorbell that's also being monitored by SightHound.

I haven't tried anything with the dashboard yet but SightHound has the ability to execute a webhook on motion detection. I'm not sure what I'll do with this yet but it opens some interesting possibilities.


webhook2

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Nah, not really interested in a cloud solution that forces me to pay Ring $100 a year forever. I much prefer having 24/7 video (not just motion detected video) recorded and saved locally.

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Based on the quote I just got, it would be several years of cloud storage fess (which blink has none) to cover the cost of running cable. The cost to install a wired 4 camera system was over $5k, and the way it would be installed because of how the house is constructed would have the cameras placed in a manner that would make them somewhat less than useful.

Blink's cloud is free.

As I indicated in my previous reply: " I much prefer having 24/7 video (not just motion detected video) recorded and saved locally."

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Oh, don't get me wrong, I would too. I definitely see several drawbacks to motion detected video. But in my current house, having it wired after the fact is cost-prohibitive, especially considering the cameras would end up being mounted at such a height as to make them practically useless for actually identifying anything or person in particular.

Based on my experience:
motion detection is always a problem with cams: the weather, the time of the day, the insects, the shadows, etc. I solved that kind of problems with my home and for my customers: NVR with 24/7 recording and auto delete when the HD is full. In case of real problems, we can always see in the past and save the files.
I managed to use ispy (I think BI can do the same) to harvest some cams and ftp pics every X minutes to 2 different directories: public (mostly outside of useless for intruders like my french drain) and private (mostly inside). That's it. The purpose of my cams is to have proofs in case of intruders or keep interesting pics (birds, fishes, various animals in my garden) and timed pics into my dashboard.



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Late reply but found this thread doing a search for Blink. I have several Blink XT cameras that I got for a great black friday deal.

I totally agree I wouldn't go wireless if I had to do it over again.. too many little sacrifices that have to be made to save batteries. But, it is pretty reliable and app notifications are good. I have an IFTTT setup that arms the system when I leave the house.

Anyway, what I wanted to share was a little project I found on github: GitHub - MattTW/BlinkMonitorProtocol: Unofficial documentation for the Blink Wire-Free HD Home Monitoring & Alert System

It is really intriguing to me.. basically, an app or driver could be written to capture a screenshot from the camera every so often (though if you do it frequently I imagine the battery wouldn't last).

At least I'm considering adding support for it in my Android app (shameless plug - [BETA] Android app for wall mounted tablets). Even if it's not possible to get an up-to-date image in the dashboard it'd be cool if you clicked on the dashboard tile and it could open up the live video stream in a popup window..

I'm using tinyCam to host my cameras (see other posts I've made in the subject) and it provides a webserver that then serves out video that can be displayed in a standard dashboard image time on HE (or indeed an iframe in a more custom dashboard, which is what I'm doing). It's definitely not ideal for battery cams but for WiFi cams with a power supply it's perfect. I can leave them running 24x7 and have them display live video on my dashboard in little circles. I have it so that if I click on the image then it pops up a larger window with the video stream at a higher resolution. It's really cool. Plus it supports object detection too! (in the example below it is recognising a "person" and I put a little icon next to the image to reflect that. It also does vehicle, face and pet detection as well as the normal motion sensing of course). I think you could maybe add something like this to your dashboard!

Anyway it might give you some ideas :smile:

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After many reviews I gave into BlinkXt2 system. I was super excited but after hours of playing I couldn't get the position/Motion sensitivity right I ended up with too many notifications or it triggering too late.
I also wanted one for the baby monitoring, but found the picture worse than my Neos (whze) cam.
I sold it on within 4 days of purchase.

Personally I don't think wireless cams are ever real contenders for security cameras. They are a bit gimmicky. They offer great consumer requirements (ease of use, great UI, easy installation) which Poe cameras don't really have yet, but In terms of security I'd go with POE...someone just needs to make lovely colourful app and NVR operating system

I agree wired is better.

That said, my Arlo Pro 3 cameras + solar panels have been working VERY well. Yes, I can't do much in terms of 3rd party integration, and yes I pay a monthly fee, but for taking video when they are supposed to they work perfectly for my needs.

With the solar panels I don't have to worry about battery either (well, maybe 1x every 5 years when the rechargeable dies).

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Which cameras are you using?

My beef with Arlo is distance, you cannot extend the range beyond the hub.

I've started using Reolink, they have lots of options to fit just about any use case. Indoor/outdoor/wired/wire free/cloud/local...

Just got this one, but it's not installed yet.

I have a Samsung smartcam (but it's pretty rubbish) and a set of Arlos (which are very good, but battery only and so no good for always-on monitoring which is what I want to do now that I've set up tinyCam and my new dashboard). So I'm thinking to buy some powered cams maybe Wyze (given they are crazy good value for money). My problem is I'm based in Asia and its almost impossible to buy them by import at a fair price. Actually I can run the Arlo's powered too (they take a USB power feed) so maybe that will work out (but it means permanently charging the batteries which is probably not ideal). So.... kinda undecided which way to go right now. I'm definitely interested in good resolution, discrete, outdoor quality cameras that I can connect up to tinyCam.

True, which is why I have 2 Arlo hubs - 1 on each side of the house.

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I can’t get my ring cameras to pair with Hubitat. I’ve installed the device driver.

The Ring Camera drivers are not system drivers and as such not supported by HE, you might want to post over on that thread..