Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | Since I just started playing with this yesterday, I don't fully understand all the details. Some of my observations may be incorrect.
The phone or tablet that is being used as the "camera" is allowed to go to sleep in the sense that its screen goes very dim. I'm don't know if this would be considered asleep or awake. I believe it would be using less power during this time..
I have my iPhone 6 as the dooryard camera mounted by a window in my house. That means that it is close enough to WIFI in the house to communicate with it. I have the iPhone 6 plugged into a wall charger. I am somewhat concerned about the constant charging which may be detrimental to the iPhone 6 battery. I used a small output charger rather than the higher output one that came with my iPad Pro.
The App suggests that a timer might be used. I have a very basic timer available with ON/OFF pegs. I plugged it in a wall outlet and then the charger to USB into the timer. I set it for the correct time and put an ON peg at 9 pm and an OFF peg at 11 pm for a trial. If 2 hours ON and 22 hours OFF doesn't maintain the battery I can extend the charging time. Later edit: I got a warning message on the viewer phone around Noon that the camera phone was at 49% charge. Looks like I need to go with maybe a 3 hours ON and 3 hours OFF cycle for the charger..
Yesterday as a test, I left the iPhone 6 ON and pointed out my window at home. I took my iPhone 8 and Onn Android tablet with me to the local Bar & Grill. They have public WIFI there. The Android tablet was also set up as a camera. The iPhone 8 was set up as a viewer.
I was able to use the iPhone 8 to view both the picture from the iPhone 6 at home and also the Onn Tablet sitting beside me. I could take a snapshot of what I was seeing or manually create a video of either. I could listen to either device for the sound in that area. I could talk through either device. I could push the Siren button to each device. I can have this setup to automatically make a video based on movement. In other words, if someone drives into my yard, a video of this will be created and I will be notified on the viewer device. The video is saved for seven days. The viewer will also alert me of a low battery status on any camera.
I did attempt to set up my Win 10 computer as another viewer. I was not successful. This is a bit risky as I was instructed to make some changes in Chrome. A second step was to enable something called H264 within Chrome. I was not able to find that. By making the changes to Chrome, I lost the cookies that I use for automated sign on which I believe I have now rebuilt. My Backspace patch was lost also.
I may explore this more as it would be quite handy to have that app on my taskbar which I could switch to at any time if I wanted to check my yard while at the computer.
The Ads are a bit irritating. For a fee ($16.99) I can have them turn the Ads off supposedly forever for all devices. I won't get any extra features but won't be bothered with Ads. For a different fee called Alfred Premium, I get extra features. This fee is yearly and is $ 29.99 at this time. Premium also cuts out the Ads. I chose to go with the Ad removal forever plan. I activated that this morning and I am no longer bothered with Ads.
Edited by tedbear 12/20/2021 12:37
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Using old Smartphone for surveillance/baby monitor etc.
