With the announcement of Lowes shutting down Iris at the end of March, I’ve begun my transition into the SmartThings ecosystem. I currently own 4 Iris Wifi cameras (3 outdoor and 1 indoor).
I’ve heard that SmartThings is pretty flexible and I’ve been trying to figure out if there was an official way, or unofficial way, of getting these cameras that I already have mounted around my house working with the SmartThings ecosystem.
So in order to use this I would need to setup a server in my home that is constantly running? There’s no way to connect the cameras directly to the SmartThings hub?
The SmartThings v2 Hub was originally capable of handling video stream data from a select few models of cameras a few years ago. Samsung has pretty much killed off what little support there was.
My recommendation, take the Lowes $ and considering buying a few $20 Wyze Cameras as replacements. They can be integrated with ST via IFTTT (to turn the cameras on and off based on whether or not you’re home, for example.) For watching the video feeds, you need to either use the Wyze app on your phone/tablet, or use TinyCam to be able to use the feed on a dashboard.
I’m actually getting a substantial amount back from my incompatible devices. (Over $900) So i’m not completely against splurging on some nicer camera options. I was just trying to minimize work and waste as much as possible. lol.
Is there a better option you would recommend over Wyze cameras via IFTTT if cost wasn’t as much of a concern? I’d prefer cameras that work well at night, are 1080P minimum, can live outdoors, and can be triggered to record based on movement. ALl my cameras are have outlets available to them, so no need for batteries.
If Wyze is still your recommendation, that’s fine. I’ll look into them.
I completely understand the desire to use what you already have. Hopefully come creative genius will figure something out.
As for what is the best option - I really don’t know. I held off on buying cameras for a very long time, as none of them seemed to meet all of my requirements - low cost, high definition, no monthly/annual costs, etc… Then the folks at Wyze came along. While they still don’t offer an outdoor camera (it’s in the works), they checked off all of my other items on my wish list. So for $20 I bought one in Nov 2017. Then I bought a few more after they added IFTTT support to control certain aspects of the camera. The fact that it offers free video clip storage in the cloud for 14 days, as well a local SD card storage, really helped push me over the edge.
Are the Wyze Cams the best money can buy? No. Are they the best 1080p cameras that $20 can buy? Definitely! Wyze is seen as a smart camera market disruptive force, that will hopefully drive folks like Nest and Arlo to consider dropping their prices to compete.
And if all of that wasn’t enough to at least try a Wyze Camera, one of the founders has an adorable daughter whose singing will melt your heart! How could you not want to support a nice small business owner like her?!!!
hahaha. That’s great. Thanks for the response. I might give those a shot. I really only have 1 that is located directly in the elements. The other is on my porch under and under-hang fairly far from any water.
I’ll have to familiarize myself with the IFTTT process and what that means for everyday use.
In all seriousness, though, please check out the official list of what cameras and doorbells are supported officially by SmartThings. You might find a few devices in the list that will get you started with a more tightly integrated solution.
Interesting story… I recently bought my first Iris hub a few weeks ago when they were on sale for $27 locally. I bought it to upgrade the firmware on a bunch of awesome Iris Water sensors, Motion sensors, and Outlets. I will say I was very impressed with how polished the whole Iris ecosystem seems to be. Device pairing and removal was so easy, with excellent feedback. I also really liked that you could use a web app to perform management tasks versus a smartphone app. Once I updated all of the firmware, and paired all of my devices to my Hubitat Elevation hub where everything runs locally. I love it! SmartThings and Wink are definitely the closest to the Iris experience (IMHO), however I am a maker-type and lobe the fact that Hubitat runs everything locally for reliability and performance. It’s not for everyone (yet!)
Goof luck on your migration!
P.S. Lowes is sending me a $100 visa card for my $27 Iris hub! As my dad always says - “Rather be lucky than good any day!”
Wyze has a very active customer community where you can read up on real-world use cases and issues.
For ~$25 shipped from Amazon, you don’t have much to lose. Definitely get a 32GB microSD card for it as well. If it doesn’t work out, you can always return it to Amazon.
The Arlo cameras are pretty good and the Pro 2 Camara’d can pretty much go anywhere.
They are officially supported by ST too. I have 3 arlo q camera and 2 of the arlo pro 2 wire free. One of the best thing theses cameras provide is 7 days free cloud storage. I would suggest these.
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tgauchat
(ActionTiles.com co-founder Terry @ActionTiles; GitHub: @cosmicpuppy)
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It is inevitable that Wyze will eventually sell an outdoor camera. Just depends on how long you want to wait.
I bought 2 Wyze cams. They’ll be here tomorrow. Free 1 day shipping through Amazon. Can’t beat it. haha. Also bought 2 of the little weather proof enclosures. Going to see how well one lasts in the elements on my garage.
I went with the Arlo 2s as well. I’ve had them up in a very gusty windstorm outside on the basic magnetic mount and they didn’t budge. The motion sensing is great, the night vision is great, the video quality is great and the 7 day free cloud storage for motion triggered videos is great. My only complaint is that I can’t use my base station to record continuous video, even when they’re connected to a power supply. No option to store and view the videos from my station instead of the cloud. You can use a USB stick to backup motion triggered videos, but you have to pay to keep continuous video.
Glad to see Im not the only one in this predicament.
I am looking to also replace my iris cameras with arlo. I also replaced my old ADT alarm system with konnected and integrated with smartthings so now I have complete automation and security. I plan to use the cameras to set off automation rules. Anyone had any success there or is there another camera they can suggest. I also got a nice gift card from Lowes so cost is not such a major item.
The arlo’s will work pretty well as audio or motion sensors. Just remeber they need to be turned on to do so. You may want to take a look at Arlopilot as an app to help manage the camaras. Figuring out the best way to manage them between smartthings and the arlo cloud can be a little tricky based on whatever your use case is, but well worth the flexibility once you figure it out.
One thing that would help with guidance is to know if you are using the classic app at all. Some iris refugees are stearing clear of it since we know it will eventually go away (could be years till it happens though).
How do you have the Wyze cameras set up? I am ready to pull the trigger on 2 of them, but need to make sure I can record from them to the cloud when I need to…
