disappointed with Uniview Smart Wireless Cube Camera C1L-2WN-G - missing something?

[jp83]

I couldn't find a lot about this Uniview Smart Wireless Cube Camera C1L-2WN-G but hoped it'd be good enough coming from the ipcamtalk store. I'm just looking for as discrete as possible (small, hopefully white, cube-ish), wifi camera for an indoor location that works well with Blue Iris. I have and prefer PoE elsewhere, but it's just not happening in this location that provides a good vantage of what I need. Anyways, maybe I'm missing something, but there's a couple issues I've encountered trying to set this up, I'm hopefully looking for help on.

1. It will not connect to my hidden "XXX-IoT" wifi network. I connected via wire to setup so I can see what it's doing. It will connect to my primary "XXX" SSID. I thought maybe it didn't like the dash, however it will connect to my "XXX-Guest" network, so the only thing I can think of is it must be the fact that it's hidden. I really want it to be on THAT firewalled network and shouldn't have to change my setup to accommodate.

2. I can't find a setting to disable the blue led. Again it needs to be discrete and that's the first thing my wife noticed and complained about when I held it up.

3. I researched going into it, but would love for the smart motion detection to be available in home assistant if anybody has that going.

I checked to see if there was a firmware update and doesn't appear to be on website or cloud update check.


Any other thoughts before I look into returning it? Better alternatives? I'm thinking a used Wyze Cam v2 may be a better option and much cheaper. For the price I'd hoped for more. I wish there was a wifi version of the Dahua IPC-K42A like there used to be, maybe I'll have to go up more for the Hikvision one.

 

[TonyR]

If you like the Uniview's form factor but can't get it to work with Blue Iris, consider the Tapo C110 by TP-LINK.
Full disclosure up front: it is cloud-based but will stream to BI, is 1080p / 2K, is wireless only, has an SD card and provides 2 way audio. BTW, it's only $25 on amazon!

I streamed to Blue Iris with it here ==>> Blue Iris Compatibility

 

[jp83]

Blue Iris support isn't the problem, it works fine on my primary wifi, just not the hidden ssid network. I don't want a cloud only option. Thanks though.

 

[TonyR]

Then consider converting that IPC-K42A to wireless.

I've had great success using a more powerful and sensitive wireless radio at the camera end, plugged into the cam's Ethernet port.

The idea is to use the camera's wired (Ethernet/RJ-45) port plugged into a TP-LINK TL-WR802N Nano Router configured in "client" mode. You have power near the camera so this device would be placed near the camera or inside, powered up with it's included 5VDC adapter and an Ethernet cable run to the camera.

With your PC you log into the TP-LINK and set it up to use "client" mode, have it survey to locate the SSID (broadcast name) of your home's Wi-Fi, put in your home's Wi-Fi password and save it.

Once it reboots you move it over to the camera's RJ-45 port and it will access your home's Wi-Fi via the camera's Ethernet port. I have used this TP-LINK device to allow a dozen or more devices (laser printers, cameras, older xBoxes) that do not have wireless to connect to Wi-Fi with their Ethernet port.

Here's the instructions ==>> How to Configure the Client Mode on TL-WR802N/TL-WR810N