In this issue, I will show you how to easily set up an outdoor camera with lighting in a location where there is no easy access to power.
The problem:
A friend of mine does not have a peephole in the front door of his rental home, so he can’t add a Ring Peephole camera. In addition, his doorbell button is in a location where a doorbell camera would not have a good view of the front door. He does have an outdoor light near the front door and three other garage lights, all controlled with a single switch.
While outdoor security cameras give a great view of what’s happening outside your home, many installation issues exist.
First, you need to find a place to mount them, and secondly, find a way to power them. While battery-powered cameras are available, you must take the battery out when it needs to be charged or rig up a solar panel.
While powered cameras remove the battery charging need, you will still need to find a way to get them power, typically from an outdoor power outlet that may not be near where you want to mount the camera.
Outdoor wired cameras that receive power over the video cable are even harder to install, as you must make a hole in the house for the cable and connect them back to an indoor device that also needs power.
The solution:
The Wyze Lamp Socket Power Adapter can be screwed into an existing outdoor lamp to provide power for an attached WYZE Cam v3 with Color Night Vision. This provides power to the camera and also control of the existing light bulb(s).
In addition to providing camera control of the light bulb when motion is detected, the Wyze app can control the light bulb for dusk-dawn control or other time-of-day functions. In addition, you can add a total of 5 Wyze socket power adapters to control other outdoor lights. This is all done with just the Wyze smartphone app… no bridge is needed.
Please note that 30 watts is the maximum bulb wattage supported for a bulb in the socket, well within the limit for most LED bulbs. There is no need to use a smart bulb.
Note, since the switch controlling power to the front door light must be left on, I suggest adding a MvToe Magnetic Switch and Outlet (Wall switch cover)
Installation:
· Install the Wyze Mobile app
· Create the account & login
Note: Although this requires a lot of steps, the Wyze app has some great in-app guided instructions to help you complete the setup, but the screenshots shown here may change with version updates. Wyze includes “show me how” details in their app:
Add lamp socket
Set up connection
Install lamp socket
Connect camera
Connect network
Tap “Next” on these next steps.
Note: If you have a mesh network where both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks have the same name, you may need to turn off the 5Ghz network at your router temporarily.
Complete set up
Whew! Now it’s time to set up any automation such as dusk-dawn lighting or motion-detected lighting
You can configure the lamp socket settings here:
You can select dusk-dawn lighting control or motion/sound control of the lights.
Note: This is only for lighting control. Settings for the camera, such as motion recording, are covered here:
Needed devices:
Disclosure: Some of the links below are Amazon affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.
· Smart Phone (iPhone or Android)
· Wyze Lamp Socket Power Adapter for Wyze Cam v3 (add additional ones for extra lights)
· WYZE Cam v3 with Color Night Vision, Wired 1080p HD Indoor/Outdoor Video Camera
· MvToe Magnetic Switch and Outlet (Wall switch cover)
· Optional- SD card (local video playback)
· Optional- TP-Link N300 Wi-Fi Extender (if Wi-Fi is too weak at the lamp sockets) https://a.co/d/dHzOZ6O
Frank, I appreciate your no-nonsense approach to problem solving. Thank you!