Wifi camera for temporary installation

TechBill

Known around here
Nov 1, 2014
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First please read the whole post before jumping on me about using wifi cameras and my home camera setup are all Dahua starlight cameras.

I buy and sell properties which happens to be in not so great area so I am looking for temporary wifi cameras that I can slap on just to check in to see if someone have attempt to break in (damaged doors or windows), or if squatters made a home in it but I am not trying to "better secured" the property. I don't want to use brand name camera or install wiring to set up permanent ip cameras so it will have to be one of those cheapo wifi camera with a sd card slot and a power adapter.

I am posting to see if anyone using a cheapo wifi camera for temporary uses that works out good for you, if so then what brand and your experience with it.

So far in my hunt for a cheapo camera, I found this one that seem to have not too bad of a review, I know it's a long shot asking on this forum but have any of you tried this one out?

https://www.amazon.com/SY2L-Wireles...644&sr=1-52&keywords=wireless+security+camera
 
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Hi TechBill! Are these houses empty as in: nobody lives in there? Then I would still suggest to take the "brick&mortar" method: put in the middle of the hallway a wired cam fixed to a large concrete brick. If somebody comes in through the front door, you won't have any better viewing angle that from the bottom up with that cam. If nobody lives in the house, nobody will worry about the 50 meter of cables running around to key vantage points. If someone breaks in and they don't find anything valuable, they might also steal your wifi cams, so that cost is lost anyhow. Having stuck these wired cams on a 15kg concrete brick will for sure not help the critters to steal all of them. But at least you have a setup that you can "take away" and install in another house bit more easier (than having to fix/drill cheap wifi cams in the walls). I've seen some indoor cams (A35 Dahua?) which wasn't that expensive, and you'll get at least a high-res snapshot from the cam when somebody gets in.

Just my 2 cents :)
CC
 
Would you even have WiFi in the house to use with the cameras? Shouldn’t you be looking at some sort of 3G or 4G link up for the cameras?
 
Would you even have WiFi in the house to use with the cameras? Shouldn’t you be looking at some sort of 3G or 4G link up for the cameras?

Yes, I have access to wifi to all the properties but one.
 
Hi TechBill! Are these houses empty as in: nobody lives in there? Then I would still suggest to take the "brick&mortar" method: put in the middle of the hallway a wired cam fixed to a large concrete brick. If somebody comes in through the front door, you won't have any better viewing angle that from the bottom up with that cam. If nobody lives in the house, nobody will worry about the 50 meter of cables running around to key vantage points. If someone breaks in and they don't find anything valuable, they might also steal your wifi cams, so that cost is lost anyhow. Having stuck these wired cams on a 15kg concrete brick will for sure not help the critters to steal all of them. But at least you have a setup that you can "take away" and install in another house bit more easier (than having to fix/drill cheap wifi cams in the walls). I've seen some indoor cams (A35 Dahua?) which wasn't that expensive, and you'll get at least a high-res snapshot from the cam when somebody gets in.

Just my 2 cents :)
CC

All are empty properties.

I only have wifi access so there are no Ethernet ports to plug it in and I plan to put it up as high I can that only way to damage it is to throw something at it but hopefully I get an alert before someone make an attempt to damage it. However, if someone do managed to damage or steal the camera then hopefully I will get a good photo shot via email for the police and go buy another one to put it back in. That why I want a cheapo one since the chance of it being damage or stolen before I am aware is highly possible.

I will disguise it as much as possible making it look like part of the building but the issue I will have is trying to hide the power cord from the camera to the power adapter on the outlet. I may just poke a hole in the ceiling to run the cord through it and plug it in the attic.
 
I will disguise it as much as possible making it look like part of the building but the issue I will have is trying to hide the power cord from the camera to the power adapter on the outlet. I may just poke a hole in the ceiling to run the cord through it and plug it in the attic.

And for especially the last point I feared: then your "temporary" cams are damaging the property, leaving a scar to the building :) But I like your idea!
 
And for especially the last point I feared: then your "temporary" cams are damaging the property, leaving a scar to the building :) But I like your idea!

Properties are either run down or upper fixer so no worries there :)
 
I went ahead and purchased the camera from Amazon which I linked in the first post above. I read up all the reviews on it and it seem to be a decent camera at its price range.
 
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Wyze is perfect for your use case. 30 second setup, and just works. $27

https://amzn.to/2RSSrdR

After discovering there an open source firmware and outdoor case for it, I went ahead and ordered the pan version of the Wyze camera to see if it something that will work for my needs. Thank for sharing about this camera.
 
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