Discovered this a while ago but just tested it and can confirm it works. Only issue is, battery life of the camera takes a huge hit... HUUUUGE HIT.
Tested twice. First time it died in 18 hours. Second time was 12 hours. Bought a Wasserstein solar panel for it hoping that would help but it died overnight. Set the panel up to soak in the morning sun at 1700 hours the previous evening. Didn’t even make it to the morning which leads me to believe the solar panel won’t help at all.
I believe the problem is that HomeKit is relying on a constant stream which is eating the battery instead of an on/off state as required by motion detection. This mod fools the camera and HomeKit into thinking it a wired setup so it’s using a constant stream unlike the Arlos which have native wire free support. Battery level won’t show in the Logi app either since it thinks it’s getting constant AC power.
Anyways, it works just like the wired cameras and if you have some of these and are bummed that you can’t use in HomeKit, you can always plug in the battery for constant power and have the same benefits as the wired version. Actual camera module is the same across the board. All that changes is the mount type.
If anyone has any ideas as to how to possibly improve battery life, perhaps connecting to a smart outlet and switching on/off as necessary by your location or whatever, let’s hear ‘em! Only have 12-18 hours to work with lol. Been trying to brainstorm for the past couple days and already wasted money on the solar panel. My next try is to remove the tape and see if it remains in the HomeKit app and maybe that will allow it to use the on/off state to preserve battery. Have to wait as the battery is currently on the charger
Here’s the mod, provided by Reddit user Arandazz. Just tape the two pins on the battery as shown:
Tested twice. First time it died in 18 hours. Second time was 12 hours. Bought a Wasserstein solar panel for it hoping that would help but it died overnight. Set the panel up to soak in the morning sun at 1700 hours the previous evening. Didn’t even make it to the morning which leads me to believe the solar panel won’t help at all.
I believe the problem is that HomeKit is relying on a constant stream which is eating the battery instead of an on/off state as required by motion detection. This mod fools the camera and HomeKit into thinking it a wired setup so it’s using a constant stream unlike the Arlos which have native wire free support. Battery level won’t show in the Logi app either since it thinks it’s getting constant AC power.
Anyways, it works just like the wired cameras and if you have some of these and are bummed that you can’t use in HomeKit, you can always plug in the battery for constant power and have the same benefits as the wired version. Actual camera module is the same across the board. All that changes is the mount type.
If anyone has any ideas as to how to possibly improve battery life, perhaps connecting to a smart outlet and switching on/off as necessary by your location or whatever, let’s hear ‘em! Only have 12-18 hours to work with lol. Been trying to brainstorm for the past couple days and already wasted money on the solar panel. My next try is to remove the tape and see if it remains in the HomeKit app and maybe that will allow it to use the on/off state to preserve battery. Have to wait as the battery is currently on the charger
Here’s the mod, provided by Reddit user Arandazz. Just tape the two pins on the battery as shown:
