Anyone have experience with these that also tried rong cameras for pros/cons of either? I’ve had ring cameras for years and with more and more app updates the response time is now very slow. They also now tend to shut down during very cold weather which they didn’t do in the past
I have a few of these set up outside my home. It doesn’t snow here so I don’t know about it freezing up, but It’s in the 100°s in the summer and the cameras do just fine. It’s been around 40° and no freeze up. I can talk and hear on all of the cameras clearly. I adjust the settings in the app to each camera- on a windy day if I have the motion detecting settings on the higher side I get too many notifications and it kills the battery faster, so Iput it on low and the movement has to be closer to the camera to pick it up. I’ve had no problems and I’ve had mine for 2+ years
I have 3 outside. No issues. Battery life of course depends on how often motion detection is triggered. I purchased the power cord for one camera and its really long and works fine. Also, i have a couple of the indoor mini cameras (not like these) that i have in covered areas outside. They respond just a little quicker than these. I have one in an attic window looking over driveway. I have an outdoor light on the driveway. Turn the night vision off when looking through glass.
I know, got a little off track. But if you view your cameras often then its an option, especially with covered areas (working for a year or so without issue outside and no batteries).
I’ve had a half dozen of these Outdoor cameras for 4 or 5 months now, and they’ve been working fine. On cold mornings, sometimes the heat pump unit outside will set off the motion sensing when they go into “defrost” mode and blow a small cloud of warm, moist air, but I could probably just set the camera to not watch that area for motion view the app. It’s not a frequent enough event to bother with (unlike the wandering neighborhood cats and raccoons.)
I did buy a 3-pack of solar external power packs (don’t remember the brand, but not Blink), so two of my cameras now have “unlimited” external power rather then relying on the internal Lithium AA batteries. I’ve been too lazy to put up the third solar panel (they have 3 or 4 meter long power cords), but I’ll get around to it when it gets warm enough to want to pull out the ladder again.
Overall, I’ve been happy with the Blink cameras.
One warning, although you CAN use the Blink cameras without a subscription plan (you just need to plug a USB thumb drive into the Sync Module), the access time to see your video clips is longer (maybe 5 to 10 seconds) then with the cloud-based subscription plan. It works, but it feels like it takes extra long, just to convince you that you’d rather pay them money for faster clip access.
Without the subscription, besides being “free” of charge, all your videos are stored on your own thumb drive, so from a privacy point of view, that’s probably better.
We have a bunch of these in our barn. We use the AA batteries to power. The batteries last about 8-9 months. We are not recording. Very happy with these cameras! We live in a cold climate and have not had any issues.
I invested in the solar panel for my outdoor blink that I have to keep an eye on our horses. I dont think it does much. As for the camera, it needs a strong wifi signal otherwise it wont connect. Ive had to delete the camera off our dashboard so many times it was getting ridiculous. But it seems as soon as I bought a subscription plan and stopped using the sync module all our issues seemed to not happen any more.
Our cold (negative 40) South Dakota winters dont really bother it. My kids think its funny that it can capture the steam when the pony toots.
I have a number of these & upon reading your post just had a curiosity question. Do you not need a sync module at all if you have a subscription plan? If not, I guess the cameras all connect directly to your Wi-Fi?
Hello. I also have a number of these cameras & have been mostly happy with them. After reading your post I just thought that I would share an accessory that I have been very happy with. It is a mount for the indoor cameras that sticks by adhesive to the inside of windows & is completely sealed off around the edges so there is never a risk of shadows or glare on the glass causing false motion activation or picture interference. I only have experience with the straight forward viewing mounts but they have since come out with angled viewing mounts which I would assume would be great for looking down at your driveway as you had mentioned.
Teccle ( Pack of 2 ) Window Mount for Blink Mini, Through Window Use Blink Mini Camera, No Need to Run Wiring Outdoors (White/Pack of 2) https://a.co/d/eap0dwO
Been using Blink indoor & outdoor cameras for several years along with a Ring doorbell on one door and a Blink doorbell on the other. Blink outperforms ring in every way. Never an issue. Just purchased a wireless Blink floodlight cam. Works great. P
I bought 2 extra set…and they only shipped me 1 set…try to contact customer service but no one has respond yet…maybe they have a 1800 number I can call
As noted in the top banner on the main site and the forums:
Due to the holiday season, we are experiencing high volume of Customer Service requests so please allow 24-48 hours for a response.
(Please note: I don’t work for Woot, I just volunteer to help out here on the forums.)
Nope, The Blink cameras just hookup to your wifi if you pay the subscription plan. No Sync 2 module needed.
I have owned Blink Doorbell Camera & 2-Mini White indoor Camera (NOT Wireless) have them on Sync 2 Modula and Local Storage USB 256mb and all is well for past 12 months with the occasional backup failed or having to reset and reconnect to App and my Wifi, could be on my ISP side though. I just bought 3 above deals x 2 Outdoor Blink cameras on this $49 WOOT!
I’m Curious about 3 things?
- If I want to hook up my Outdoor Blink Cameras to the Small Solar Panel Charger; I believe I would need to replace the 2 included AA Lithium Batteries with 2 AA Lithium-ION Batteries- Correct? Can anyone reply that has done this Solar Lithium-ion setup with these cameras?
- To the 2 commenters on this thread regarding: He is using small Solar Panel Chargers to keep his outdoor blink camera/s charged: What Wattage and size of solar panels did you buy? and did you use Lithium Ion (Rechargeable) AA batteries instead of the included Regular Lithium AA Batteries? ok last question, I promise
- Regarding Woot’s above offer: The Main/First extended paragraph in the description on Woot, Toward the end of the description it states Snyc2module is sold separately. However, on down lower in the what’s included specs it says that the Sncy2module is included with this WOOT, and another comment I read stated that the Mounts were also included with this set of outdoor blink camera too! if the Snyc2module and the Swivel mounts are also included that really SWEEEETENS this WOOT Deal! Just for the outdoor Blink camera x 2 as Refurb from Mothership Amazon they were around the $85 range Black Friday Cyber Monday when I almost flipped the Switch… and that was $85 just for Refurbished Outdoor camera x 2, No Mounts, NO Sync 2 module… just the Cameras. Thanks to all wooters who reply and help me out!
Happy New Year everyone!
You DO need a Sync Module, as well as WiFi, to use the Outdoor Gen 3 cameras. Since the cameras are trying to conserve power, they only make WiFi connections when they are transferring data, and use the sync module to communicate with the Blink app when in “standby” mode.
From the “Blink Outdoor and Indoor Camera (3rd Gen) Setup Guide”, it says (in part):
…
Note: The Outdoor and Indoor (3rd Gen) camera does require a Sync Module (sold separately or purchased in a bundle) and also connects to your home’s Wi-Fi network.
…
Wandering through the FAQs, it also says:
The Sync Module is required for Blink Outdoor and Indoor cameras, and optional for the Blink Wired Floodlight, Blink Video Doorbell and BIink Mini. Having a Sync Module with your doorbell improves battery life significantly.
I unfortunately would not recommend for the colder climate areas. We are in Omaha Nebraska and our outdoor cameras have not worked for the past month and did the same thing last year. If it gets too cold, they just won’t connect to the wifi so they can record or go into live mode at all. This spring we will be switching back to Ring or other devices.
Have you tried the optional plug? I wonder if in extreme cold that the batteries cant provide the necessary power.
So Woot, can you weigh in…is the sync module included in this deal?
I bought third-party solar panels made for the Blink Outdoor-3 camera from the mothership. The installation directions said to take out the internal batteries from the camera, since the solar modules include their own rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries. The solar panel behaves as if it’s an external power supply for the Blink camera. The official solar panel from Blink says to leave the Lithium AA batteries in place as a “backup” to the solar panel batteries.
In either case, the external (USB) connection does NOT charge the internal batteries. The engineering folks for the third-party solar modules said they recommend taking out the batteries so they don’t end up leaking after being left unused in the camera for potentially years.
I’ve got one camera with the batteries still in, and one camera without internal batteries, and both work fine. In the device general settings both just say the “external power status” is “good”.