Dockside Camera

I plan to use an old iPhone as a wifi hotspot that is always on the boat. That way the wifi connection would be the same wherever we take the boat. If I were to use my home marina wifi, it would only work there, and not when you visit other marinas unless you update the wifi connection there.

Ive read about people using Wyze cams and blink cams. Just wondering what else folks are using and how they like them. I'd even take feedback on both those brands! :)
 
I plan to use an old iPhone as a wifi hotspot that is always on the boat. That way the wifi connection would be the same wherever we take the boat. If I were to use my home marina wifi, it would only work there, and not when you visit other marinas unless you update the wifi connection there.

Ive read about people using Wyze cams and blink cams. Just wondering what else folks are using and how they like them. I'd even take feedback on both those brands! :)

I tried Blink on the boat but prefer Wyze as they pan and tilt. I added a separate cellular hot spot on the boat, just for the cameras for that reason. When we transient, the cameras work as normal. Motion detection with instant alerts to my cell phone as well as recording 24/7 onto a built in MicroSD card.
 
I plan to use an old iPhone as a wifi hotspot that is always on the boat. That way the wifi connection would be the same wherever we take the boat. If I were to use my home marina wifi, it would only work there, and not when you visit other marinas unless you update the wifi connection there.

Ive read about people using Wyze cams and blink cams. Just wondering what else folks are using and how they like them. I'd even take feedback on both those brands! :)
I have a couple Wyze cams. Some Cam v2, and a PanCam. Both are good. They are for indoor use, but I have them in some rubber "cases" and they are mounted outdoors (under short roof overhangs). They are doing very well - no issues. Have not had to reboot or anything.

My sister has a bunch of Wyze cams installed at her lake house in upstate NY. They are all going strong for several years. One thing that's cool about Wyze is it supports IFTTT (If This Then That). You can use this service to define what actions will happen if Wyze products detect something. For example, I have a couple of Wyze plugs where I use IFTTT to turn plugs on at sunset. I also use a geofence so that I don't get bombarded with camera notices when I'm home - only when away. This would be useful on the boat.
 
I tried Blink on the boat but prefer Wyze as they pan and tilt. I added a separate cellular hot spot on the boat, just for the cameras for that reason. When we transient, the cameras work as normal. Motion detection with instant alerts to my cell phone as well as recording 24/7 onto a built in MicroSD card.

So for the Wyze alerts, can you go to their app an see what happened, or only an alert that something did happen? Obviously everything is recorded to the microSD card, but just wondering how you see what happened.

At home I have Arlo cams. With that, when motion triggers the cam, the video is stored to the cloud so that you can review it remotely from their app. You can also have it store to a USB stick in the base station. I would have gone Arlo for the boat, but I don't have a way to get a lan connection for the base station.
 
So for the Wyze alerts, can you go to their app an see what happened, or only an alert that something did happen? Obviously everything is recorded to the microSD card, but just wondering how you see what happened.

At home I have Arlo cams. With that, when motion triggers the cam, the video is stored to the cloud so that you can review it remotely from their app. You can also have it store to a USB stick in the base station. I would have gone Arlo for the boat, but I don't have a way to get a lan connection for the base station.

I looked at the PanCam and that requires a 110v connection right? Do the other Wyze cams? (Clearly I need to do more research... was just looking to see what folks are using and working well to create a short list).
 
I looked at the PanCam and that requires a 110v connection right? Do the other Wyze cams? (Clearly I need to do more research... was just looking to see what folks are using and working well to create a short list).

Correct, a 110v connection. But it's really just a micro usb adapter, so you can run it off your 12v system if you're comfortable with that. It's worth it IMO for the pan / tilt capabilities vs Blink which runs on batteries but can't move around.

It'll trigger a notification with the video stored in the cloud and you can view it live (99.9% sure. It's been a few months). I went further and added the microSD cards which gives me about two weeks of 24/7 recording, in case I want to check before and after the motion recording.

I have Blink and Foscams at home but opted for the Wyze Cam Pans on the boat. They work very well and you can also djust the motion sensitivity.
 
I looked at the PanCam and that requires a 110v connection right? Do the other Wyze cams? (Clearly I need to do more research... was just looking to see what folks are using and working well to create a short list).
As FC said, the pan cam and most of the their cams need a constant power source. Either a standard USB, or a 110 adapter.

The exception is the Wyze Outdoor cam. It uses a rechargeable battery that can last a few months, IIRC. It’s sensors are a bit different to preserve battery life and prevent false detections outdoors.

By default you can get short video from the cloud. Using an sd card allows longer storage and saves clips if the WiFi goes down. You can also subscribe to their cloud service for more cloud storage and longer clips.
 
Thanks Brad... Are the Wyze Outdoor cams photos/videos of poorer quality? The Wyze cam prices are definitely more attractive than the newer Blink outdoor cams.
 
Thanks Brad... Are the Wyze Outdoor cams photos/videos of poorer quality? The Wyze cam prices are definitely more attractive than the newer Blink outdoor cams.
From what I understand, no. All the Wyze cams record in 1080p (full HD).

Wyze cams are cheap, and almost too good to be true. But they really seem to be good quality. Somehow they've just made a good product at a low cost. Wyze is pretty up front that they keep adjusting their biz model to what works. Part of the reason the hardware is cheap is they are trying to get subscribers to their CamPlus cloud service.

FYI, the newest Wyze cam, the Cam v3 looks pretty great. Still cheap, but the sensor is much better, and can see at night IN COLOR! That's really huge. You can usually only get that function on much, MUCH higher end cameras. It's also pretty water resistant, and has a bunch of other upgrades. The only downside is that Wyze' production capacity is severely constrained by the global semicon shortage. It's costing them more to make, and because it's a low-margin product they are only selling the Cam v3 bundled with the Cam Plus subscription. I give them credit for being quite upfront about it.

Each of the Wyze cams are good, and have some trade offs. It's kinda hard to pick one.
 
I have two Wyze cams that I use around the house. One to keep an eye on the dog house, just because, and the other is in the bilge on a digital thermometer.
I really like them, they're both the original models.
They have great video quality, and really good night vision.
 
From what I understand, no. All the Wyze cams record in 1080p (full HD).

Wyze cams are cheap, and almost too good to be true. But they really seem to be good quality. Somehow they've just made a good product at a low cost. Wyze is pretty up front that they keep adjusting their biz model to what works. Part of the reason the hardware is cheap is they are trying to get subscribers to their CamPlus cloud service.

FYI, the newest Wyze cam, the Cam v3 looks pretty great. Still cheap, but the sensor is much better, and can see at night IN COLOR! That's really huge. You can usually only get that function on much, MUCH higher end cameras. It's also pretty water resistant, and has a bunch of other upgrades. The only downside is that Wyze' production capacity is severely constrained by the global semicon shortage. It's costing them more to make, and because it's a low-margin product they are only selling the Cam v3 bundled with the Cam Plus subscription. I give them credit for being quite upfront about it.

Each of the Wyze cams are good, and have some trade offs. It's kinda hard to pick one.

That v3 looks amazing! If they offer it in the cam pan I'll have to upgrade.
 
Ive been looking at the Blink cams. Which ones did you use specifically? I was thinking to leave an old iPhone on the boat to use as a wifi hotspot for internet. Any images you could share to give an idea of quality? Also do you get motion triggers with the boat moving in the slip?

Jim, I got the XT2 which are waterproof and have the 2-way talk function. The video quality is one of the Ps (720, or 1080, would have to look it up). The video quality is great.

The iphone as a hot spot works fine. You would just associate the camera base to it. The cams talk then to the base. Each base can support up to 10 cameras. I have a base at home for the home cameras and one on the boat for those. I forget the limit of bases you can have per account.

For motion triggers the app has a nice feature that allows you to create "activity zones". These are areas you want to check for motion and block other areas that are in the field of view of the video.

Also as a nice little bonus is each cam has a thermometer built it that you can set "alert zones" for. Ex: the one in my cabin has triggers for freezing.
 

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