The long and the short of it is, I’m looking for any suggestions for a Wyze Cam v3 alternative form factor for an inside camera that supports a native RSTP stream. This may be a big ask.
I’ve got a dozen Wyze Cam v3 deployed in indoors. The reason I have used the Wyze Cams for indoors is they are small and hardly noticeable. And running cat5 isn’t always feasible where cameras need to be placed. Price is a nice benny as well. They work fine when using the Wyze App/Cloud. However, I wanted to consume a direct RSTP feed from them and get away from the App/Cloud and use something like Frigate for motion detection and recording. I have two Coral USB TPUs passed through to the LXC Container where I run Frigate. I updated the firmware with the RTSP Firmware provided by Wyze. It works ok, but is a bit unreliable. I blocked all outbound/inbound traffic from/to the network/vlan where my cameras live. Still hitchy in Frigate. So I tried using the wz_mini_hack as another option to completely eliminate the Wyze App. Still no mojo. I’ve updated to the latest Frigate v1.12.1 trying both go2rtc for the re-stream and not, just a direct rstp stream. I’ve played around with the ffmpeg input args, etc. Oh, and I have a Ubiquiti Wifi network with 6 AC Pros all physically cabled to the core switch. My TrueNAS and Proxmox servers are both connected via 10G to the core. But my mileage seems to indicate my problem has only gotten worse with the v1.12.1. I’ve had a conversation with @NickM-27 who’s a sponsor/colaborator of the Frigate project and his opinion is that the root of the problem is the camera itself. So again, I’m hoping that someone has some experience solving this similar challenge.
@hassiopi Thank you for the suggestion. wyze-bridge doesn’t provide a direct stream from the camera but acts as a proxy. You still have to have your camera connected to the Wyze app/servers. So it doesn’t really address my concern and want.
I am still looking for any input for a reliable indoor wifi camera. I’ve tried to use the Wyze Bridge and it’s mess. It’s no more reliable than using the RTSP Firmware on the Wyze Cam, in fact my experience is worse. Anybody at all, please share your success with a wifi indoor camera.
Hi! Several months late to your post, but I’ve recently been looking to move off Wyze’s service completely as well and would rather keep the v3’s I own. I came across this guide that seems to suggest wz_mini_hacks works well. Is this not the case for you? I’ll probably work my way through it some time this week and report back if it helps!
I tried wz_mini_hacks but it didn’t resolve the issue for me. Admittedly, it’s been probably a year or more since I did. At that time I conversed with the developer of Frigate, Blake Blackshear, discussing what methods I had used to get a stream into Frigate and he straight up said the WyzeCam cameras just don’t have to resources to direct stream a RSTP feed.
So far I’ve tried the Wyze Cam Firmware to host a RSTP Stream, the wz_mini_hacks (though it’s been a year or so), and currently using Wyze Bridge. It’s been the most successful thus far but still unreliable with frequent “No frames have been receivedm check error logs” from Frigate. I am currently giving the Eufy C120 camera a spin. So far it’s better, but still not ideal.
Hey! Just thought I’d report back here…moved 3 of my Wyze Cam v3’s over to frigate using wz_mini_hacks and so far it’s been working flawlessly! I followed the guide exactly - it’s quite straightforward and I didn’t encounter any issues at all. I think the key is to first downgrade the official firmware before using wz_mini_hacks. Good luck!
Good to know wz_mini_hacks is working on your Wyze Cam V3’s. I have wyze-bridge RTSP + frigate running OK now on my V3, but I’m hesistant to move off wyze network completely because in case my raspberry pi 4 crashses when I’m away, I still have the option to use wyze app to access the cameras.
Will installing wz_mini_hacks prevent me from accessing the camera from the wyze app?
EDIT: looks like wz_mini_hacks runs on the SD card (rather than flashing the camera firmware), so I may give it a try!
Seems like you’ve already figured it out, but exactly! It isn’t flashing the firmware on your camera at all so just pulling the SD card will basically “revert” the cam to default operations.
I’ve not tried it, but seems like the cams should also work with the wyze app even with wz_mini_hacks.