Greetings friends, and welcome back to Grand Adventure!
I'm your host Marc Guido, and today we're going to share
the latest security camera system we're using from Wyze to help stay safe while RVing,
so stick around!
We've been using various battery cameras like this model from Hiseeu for years,
to keep tabs on what's going on outside our RV when we can't see for ourselves.
This approach, though, was somewhat disjointed as it was spread across multiple brands and apps,
so back in June we opted to shift everything we're utilizing over to the Wyze ecosystem.
Why Wyze? Dependability, for one thing.
For another, quality.
Finally, price.
Wyze is available at many different retailers, from online sources like Amazon
to brick-and-mortar stores like Best Buy and Home Depot.
Wireless battery power is a prerequisite for our outdoor cameras
as we don't want to drill any holes or run wires.
Know that this video is NOT sponsored in any way.
We went out and bought these Wyze cameras just like everyone else.
We've actually been a Wyze customer for years.
Before we went full-time we kept this first generation Wyze Cam Pan pointed
at the driveway in our sticks-and-bricks home.
Now it sits on the shelf in our fifth wheel's bedroom,
while we've recently added Version 2 of this camera to our living room area
even though Wyze has now released a weatherproof version 3.
You can remotely pan and zoom these cameras,
allowing us to see what Zoe's up to while we're out and about
if we have to leave her behind.
This camera follows motion automatically
as the activity creating the motion moves around in the RV.
All Wyze cameras use smart AI to alert you to activity that you want to be alerted to,
while ignoring that activity that you don't want to be told about.
For example, we've set our outdoor cameras to ignore any motion from Zoe,
while promptly alerting us to a person or vehicle approaching the RV
in a notification zone that we specify.
Many of these advanced features require a subscription to Wyze cloud,
which costs $1.99 per camera per month, or $14.99 per camera per year.
From our perspective, that's a small price to pay for peace of mind
and remote storage of our security video.
These cameras will still record to a microSD
card in the event that you don't have Internet at your campsite,
but our Pepwave MAX Transit Duo ensures that we always have Internet,
whether provided by cell carriers or satellite via Starlink,
with automatic failover should one Internet source go down.
These are the relatively new Version 2 of the waterproof Wyze Cam Outdoor cameras
that we added to complete our system back in June 2022,
so we've had plenty of time to evaluate their effectiveness.
Let's see what's in the box.
First we'll open the Starter Bundle.
If these are your first Wyze outdoor cameras, you'll need to purchase a starter bundle
to include the Base Station that connects your outdoor cameras to the network.
Honestly, we don't fully appreciate the purpose of having a separate Base Station for connectivity,
instead of allowing the cameras themselves to simply connect to the network directly
like all of the other Wyze cameras.
Realize that the Base Station is an essential component for these outdoor cameras,
and you can connect up to four outdoor cameras to the base station.
Here we have the camera itself,
which is contained within a small cube that carries an IP65 weather rating.
That cube attaches to the mounting bracket via a strong magnet
that allows the camera to be moved into virtually any position.
It has a 130-degree field of view, two-way audio and 1080p HD color night vision.
This is the aforementioned base station,
which we've connected to our router via an Ethernet cable plugged into this LAN port
for maximum speed and reliability.
This device we've actually hidden within our RV,
so that anyone breaking in can't quickly move to disconnect it.
There's a power supply for the Base Station,
some mounting hardware
and a microUSB cable for charging the cameras.
Depending on how many events the camera records,
we've found that the charge in these cameras lasts for months before needing a recharge.
And of course a Quick Start Guide.
Here's our second Wyze Cam Outdoor.
The only difference between this package and the Starter Bundle
is the Wyze Base Station and its power supply.
Beneath a water resistant rubber cover,
here are the controls on each camera,
including the microUSB charging port and a power switch,
although you can also power the cameras on and off from within the smartphone app.
We'll plug this in to fully charge the camera before we start using it.
I mentioned the magnetic attachment of the camera to the mount.
These are really, really strong,
yet they allow you to remove the cameras from the side of the RV for travel.
How strong?
Strong enough to withstand highway driving if you forget to remove them,
as we did for a couple of hours driving across Northern California last summer.
These allow you to rotate and pivot the camera with ease to any position you want.
The base station needs always-on AC power,
which our inverter delivers even while boondocking.
The Base Station also includes a microSD card slot for uninterrupted local recording.
You can access multiple cameras without Internet by utilizing Travel Mode.
Instead of drilling holes into the side of our RV,
we're using outdoor 3M Command Strips to attach the camera mounts to the side of our RV.
These were installed back in June, seven months and roughly 6,000 towing miles ago
and have held without issue.
If you want an even stronger bond, you can use 3M VHB tape.
These mounts fold down flush for travel,
and simply pull out to hold the camera when you deploy it.
There's one more Wyze camera that we've added to our system,
and that's this nifty Wyze Video Doorbell Pro.
This camera includes a fisheye view
and remains on the side of our RV next to our entry door, even while traveling --
although you could remove it for travel if you prefer.
A press of the doorbell button not only rings on our mobile device,
but also on this wireless remote doorbell chime.
Available configurable AI alerts include pets, people, vehicles and packages.
The Wyze smartphone app allows us access to all four of our cameras in one location.
It's here that you set up cloud services,
notifications and alerts, detection zones, and more.
You can set rules and schedules for automated routines.
We can also access our cameras via the Google Nest Hub display
that we keep on our nightstand in the bedroom, or Amazon's Alexa.
But how well do these cameras work?
In a single phrase, they work exceptionally well.
Version 2 of the Wyze Cam Outdoor,
version two of our indoor Wyze Cam Pan, and the Wyze Video Doorbell Pro
all utilize what Wyze calls their starlight sensor.
If there's even the slightest bit of ambient light available,
these outdoor cams display night vision in full color,
reverting to infrared black-and-white only when there's zero ambient light around.
Passive infrared sensors recognize body heat signatures to reduce false alerts
from things like tree branches waving in the wind,
so you're alerted to everything that you need to be,
and left alone for anything routine.
Our inside cameras let us keep tabs on Zoe, too.
We've been absolutely thrilled with these security cameras from Wyze.
In fact, we're so happy with them that we've placed them in our Grand Adventure Shop on Amazon.
Now we only place things that we use in our RV lives ourselves
and feel comfortable recommending to you, our Grand Adventurers,
in our Grand Adventure Shop on Amazon.
You won't find lots of extraneous items.
You won't find 30 different generators on there.
You will only find the things that we have tried and we use and love ourselves.
We'll put a link to these Wyze cameras right here on
the screen and down below in the video description
in our Grand Adventure Shop on Amazon if you would like to go check them out for yourself.
Understand that Grand Adventure does receive a small commission on each purchase
that you make through the Grand Adventure Shop on Amazon.
It doesn't cost you any more to shop Amazon that way,
but Grand Adventure does receive a small commission
that helps us to bring you more and better videos each and every week.
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