In home use

[psd]

I'm looking for in-home security with a camera that i can set up behind my window, powered by the mains electricity, and with in built storage. I can't find anything 'standard' that works through glass, works at night, has local storage and which doesn't require a subscription. So I thought a dashcam might do, and I've seen lots of good reviews for the Viofo A119 V3 which costs about £100.0 in UK.

Is this a good idea in principal?
Is the Viofo A119 V3 the best solution?
What considerations & problems might I face?

Many thanks for any thoughts.

psd

 

[Harsh]

I'm looking for in-home security with a camera that i can set up behind my window, powered by the mains electricity, and with in built storage. I can't find anything 'standard' that works through glass, works at night, has local storage and which doesn't require a subscription. So I thought a dashcam might do, and I've seen lots of good reviews for the Viofo A119 V3 which costs about £100.0 in UK.

Is this a good idea in principal?
Is the Viofo A119 V3 the best solution?
What considerations & problems might I face?

Many thanks for any thoughts.

psd

It will be useless at night. The presence of IR LEDs is a must for night vision.

If you want to retain footage beyond 48 hours (256GB card), again it's a no go.

 

[EGS]

Dashcams benefit and depend from external light source unlike security cameras with night vision that use IR leds as @Harsh points out.
Is the inside of the window the only available place you have to install the camera? Could it be concealed inside a bird house outside your house or under your eve?
I made a bird house for one of my Security cameras and is working ok for me.
My setup is double benefited by the large led bulb light as they cover the whole yard (super bright) and the camera never switches to night vision, which in return i get full color recording at night. But if you don't want or can't use outdoor lighting, then your camera can use it's own IR leds and be able to see in complete darkness. Just make sure there is nothing near the lens that could reflect the IR light back to it.

 

[DT MI]

You can look at Wyze cameras (wyze.com). They may have something that will suit your needs. Don't know if they sell overseas though. They problem you'll have at night through glass would be reflections - either from the camera's light or from ambient lighting in the room. Wyze has just announced an outdoor camera so that might eliminate your need for shooting through a window.

 

[EGS]

You can look at Wyze cameras (wyze.com). They may have something that will suit your needs. Don't know if they sell overseas though. They problem you'll have at night through glass would be reflections - either from the camera's light or from ambient lighting in the room. Wyze has just announced an outdoor camera so that might eliminate your need for shooting through a window.

This one on top of the light pole is a wize cam v2 and I have 3 more of them around the house, but I have a really hard time recommending them unless you don't care about person detection as it is useless. But for the basic features is pretty good. A big plus is that you can insert an SD card for local recording and the ability to review and playback over the net from anywhere, something that can not be done from any affordable dashcam if any.

 

[DT MI]

This one on top of the light pole is a wize cam v2 and I have 3 more of them around the house, but I have a really hard time recommending them unless you don't care about person detection as it is useless. But for the basic features is pretty good. A big plus is that you can insert an SD card for local recording and the ability to review and playback over the net from anywhere, something that can not be done from any affordable dashcam if any.

Yeah, PD pretty much sucks. Fortunately I don't need that since basic motion detection serves my needs quite well. The biggest issue I have with Wyze is, at least in the past, their regression testing on new S/W and F/W features was almost totally lacking. More than once I've lost functionality when new releases were pushed out. It seems like they've got their act together recently - can only hope that's the case versus just being lucky.

 

[SawMaster]

Wyze and Nest have some security issues which can leave your cams "hackable". Not sure if that's really a big problem or not but I would want better if I really needed the protection. Wyze (old style) isn't waterproof but can work well tucked away somewhere that the rain can't get to it. You can tape over the built-in IR and add IR outdoor lighting, then it will "see" through glass OK unless the glass is being lit by another source. Real security takes cams meant for that use and hardwiring.

I gotta check it but I've got a G1W/s going under the porch roof, the parking lot fairly well illuminated by 2 street lights. LED is turned off (it's not IR anyway). Daytime footage is what you'd expect, nighttime footage is poor. If you use a dashcam for this you'll want the best low-light performance you can get, or a cam that does good with IR and a separate IR illuminator.

Phil

(Just updating this post. My G1W/s 'security cam' is still functioning well after at least 18 months of constant use in this role. It has seen air temps up to 32C (high 90's F) and down to freezing. It is as reliable as the card- one wore out- and does good with the Samsunng EVO Select 128GB card in it now.)

 

[psd]

Many thanks everyone ffor the feedback, and for the excellent pics EGS. I'm thinking of building similar with an independent light source!

 

[HonestReview]

Wyze and Nest have some security issues which can leave your cams "hackable". Not sure if that's really a big problem or not but I would want better if I really needed the protection. Wyze (old style) isn't waterproof but can work well tucked away somewhere that the rain can't get to it. You can tape over the built-in IR and add IR outdoor lighting, then it will "see" through glass OK unless the glass is being lit by another source. Real security takes cams meant for that use and hardwiring.

I gotta check it but I've got a G1W/s going under the porch roof, the parking lot fairly well illuminated by 2 street lights. LED is turned off (it's not IR anyway). Daytime footage is what you'd expect, nighttime footage is poor. If you use a dashcam for this you'll want the best low-light performance you can get, or a cam that does good with IR and a separate IR illuminator.

Phil

I think a lot of these "hackable issues" stem from people never changing the default password. It's like home routers that use Admin / Administrator or Admin / password, etc. Then you have those fine individuals that use passwords like 123456789. People plug these things in and then leave themselves up for lack of understanding or sheer carelessness.

 

[kamkar]

Yes people are very careless with their networking stuff it seem, i would not turn my IP cameras 180 so i could be in the footage, even if i have changed the PW on the cameras them self and they in turn are behind the NVR on which i have of course also changed the PW.
And dont get me started on wifi.

Now if i had a house the cameras i would put on it and my property would of course see me coming and going + messing around in the garden or whatever, and thats also okay.
But if i put cameras up on the inside, they would not be connected to any outgoing network thats for damn sure.

They also just announced a flaw in the UEFI secure boot framework, so it will just sit there in the bootloader and give almost total access to your system.
" However, once compromised, the system appears to operate as normal even though malware has complete access to the system and OS. The malicious code then resides in the bootloader, and thus will persist even after re-installing the operating system. The vulnerability (CVE-2020-10713) has been assigned a CVSS rating of 8.2, meaning attackers can exploit the vulnerability to gain near-total access to a device. "

 

[HonestReview]

Yes people are very careless with their networking stuff it seem, i would not turn my IP cameras 180 so i could be in the footage, even if i have changed the PW on the cameras them self and they in turn are behind the NVR on which i have of course also changed the PW.
And dont get me started on wifi.

Now if i had a house the cameras i would put on it and my property would of course see me coming and going + messing around in the garden or whatever, and thats also okay.
But if i put cameras up on the inside, they would not be connected to any outgoing network thats for damn sure.

They also just announced a flaw in the UEFI secure boot framework, so it will just sit there in the bootloader and give almost total access to your system.
" However, once compromised, the system appears to operate as normal even though malware has complete access to the system and OS. The malicious code then resides in the bootloader, and thus will persist even after re-installing the operating system. The vulnerability (CVE-2020-10713) has been assigned a CVSS rating of 8.2, meaning attackers can exploit the vulnerability to gain near-total access to a device. "

Well expect government agencies to employ backdoor root kits, gain admin access, and load malicious code into the Grub Bootloader. If they haven't done so already, then they now know there's a huge gaping hole in both Linux and Windows UEFI secure boot.

Encrypt your operating systems.... Best thing you can do I guess. Though as the article indicates, they can install a keylogger so not sure encryption would help in that instance. Ugh!

 

[EGS]

Many thanks everyone ffor the feedback, and for the excellent pics EGS. I'm thinking of building similar with an independent light source!

FYI, wize cam just announced they will now require a subscription for the person detection and cam plus feature.