Has anyone at SmartThings looked at the Homeboy cameras?
https://www.homeboy.com/
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This is nice! And with built-in battery it makes it better than foscam/dropcam! And it looks like they are coming up with monitoring support is 2015!!
@vishwanth : Cant say it takes much to be better than foscam or dropcam. Though they both hit a nitch market very well. 
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@darrylb… Well said.
Is anyone working on integration for these yet?
First impressions good. They tried real hard to make it easy to setup. It talks as soon as you connect to USB or press the button. Tells you to “start my app” which walks you through 15 second setup. Stupid simple from there.
Quality better than expected. Curious to see battery life for my implementation. Will start with IFTTT and test a bit over the weekend. It’s going to start with a trial above the front door with my Mimolite ST integrated doorbell.
Motion sends notification to phone in less than one second, at least some of the time. Still evaluating that. Click on notification to see instant still photo. Click on photo and wait a few seconds to play video. You can set video length per device in the app. Impressed by first impressions.
BTW, a similar option from Netgear coming in February already up for pre-order on Amazon. http://www.arlo.com/
Further evaluation, the low power WIFI range is not great. But still works outside my front door 20 feet from my router. Motion sensor is ultra sensitive, false alerts in static night porch lighting. Testing now with pet mode enabled. Strange sounds picked up in audio recording, but it works.
Some fun with IFTTT recipes:
-If door opens, record homeboy video
-If doorbell rings then record Homeboy video
-If Homeboy motion, turn on a light
-Use SmartThings motion sensors to trigger Homeboy video recording
-If Homeboy lost connection send Android notification
-If Homeboy detects motion then Ubi announcement
-Upload Homeboy video to Google Drive
@Ben, Wanted: SmartThings connected Smoke/CO detector devices (Z-Wave Smoke Alarm device type) should be added to available devices for IFTTT.
Any update on battery life?
I got one in November it sits unarmed most of the time and I still have not needed to recharge it. Standby is very good. I have put the camera into use, armed, I will see how battery life is armed.
The most significant impact to battery level reading is temperature. It’s been mostly warm (50’s day, 30’s nights) in recent months and mounted outside I am getting 6 weeks between charges. I expect longer in spring and summer.
Also, I have it in a new location and use the geofence based arming. It works reliably. Only arms when both of us have left home. The IFTTT integration has been great. I found the wireless signal strength is actually better than I first thought.
Overall, I’m surprised this camera is not more popular. It works as advertised and is better than similar attempts like Netgear Arlo. Each new version of the mobile app improves performance. I’m pretty satisfied overall.
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Why do you think it’s better than arlo?
IFTTT integration, can function like a SmartThings motion sensor and lots of other things with IFTTT. Videos upload by IFTTT to my Google drive folder with my other camera videos from BlueIris recordings. So one place to view all videos when away/traveling. On it’s own, 30 days of cloud video storage. Rechargeable battery vs Arlo’s throw away/replace batteries. Arlo requires a hub.
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Post edit - I kept my Homeboy outdoors for 5 months. Not well protected for rain/wind during part of the period just before it died. The camera is not advertised as water resistant or for outdoor use. Misuse is why it died. I’m thinking to order another one and take better care of it next time.
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Homeboy definitely looks interesting, but I choose to pursue Netgear Arlo primarily due to indoor/outdoor placement since of course Homeboy and Arlo are both battery powered and night vision. However Homeboy was tempting if you said it contains a rechargeable battery but then again, the Arlo’s can just be equipped with rechargeable batteries also but of course you have to actually remove them and place new ones in haha.
If only the Homeboy was indoor/outdoor but it does suck that there are quite a bit of options out there and they all have their advantages/disadvantages.
I only hope that somewhat soon within the coming months, Arlo can be integrated into SmartThings!
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Thanks for posting that, I was thinking of putting mine on the porch, but I guess I’ll wait for an outdoor version that won’t be susceptible to condensation buildup.
In all fairness to Homeboy, I had moved the camera over a few locations over the 5 months I had it mostly outside. For a period before it died I had it mounted in a less protected area to watch things while we were out of town. I think it rained hard with wind during that time. I moved into the garage but it was probably too late.
This was user error on my part. There is no mention of water resistance or outdoor use on the Homeboy website.
Homeboy’s support was really awesome by the way. Truly interested in making sure there was no defect with the camera. Enough so that I felt I should update the thread and admit guilt. Hopefully they launch on outdoor version to compete with Arlo this year. I won’t buy an Arlo because of lack of IFTTT. Also don’t like the fact Arlo lacks a rechargeable battery.
I’m curious to know if anyone’s been able to integrate their Homeboy into SmartThings. I’m using it with IFTTT and think it’s a great device. I’d highly recommend it, and will probably use it as my go-to camera system.
A couple minor complaints:
- You can’t livestream, so when trying to position it, you have to request a video capture, view it, adjust, request another video capture, etc.
- No audio.
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