Introduction
Now that I’ve ramped up my reselling and UPS drops off and picks up packages at least 2-3 times a week, I’ve been getting antsy about leaving my packages outside my house. Plus, there were a couple of times where USPS picked up a package for Fedex Ground, and I wasn’t sure who picked it up. It just makes it easier for me to see my boxes being dropped off and picked up.
Camera options
Due to my unique situation and laziness, I wanted a battery operated security camera. I know everyone loves Dropcam, but I didn’t want to have to run a power cable outside. I also didn’t have a window near my front door where I could leave the camera inside. I also didn’t want to pay any kind of monthly/yearly subscription fee. The only one that I found that met both criteria was the Homeboy camera. I also do have the iSmartAlarm iKeepHD camera, an old Foscam camera, as well as a Closeli camera, so this isn’t my first and only camera. By the way, this review was not paid for/endorsed/approved by Homeboy; I’m writing this as a user and don’t care if you buy it or not.
Preorder for $189
I actually preordered the camera a year ago, and it took about 6 months for it to arrive. I’m not sure about the current wait times. The camera is $189 now (I think I paid $149 a year ago.) The camera is actually a production camera; the ‘preorder’ means they are backordered, not that it hasn’t come out yet.
Physical Impressions
The camera is the size of a small peach. The magnet seems to be pretty strong, and battery life does last a while (I haven’t fully tested if it’ll last 3 months yet.) Because it’s so portable, if the camera runs out of battery, just remove it, charge it overnight, and then put it back into its base the next day. The bottom of the base has a strip of tape as well as a place to screw it into a wall. I forget if the screw is included.
The app
I have the iOS app for the camear. Some things to note about the camera though:
- The camera doesn’t record a continuous feed.
- There seems to be a 1-2 second delay from when it detects motion to when it starts to record.
- There is no speaker on the camera, so you can’t scream at a burglar on the app.
- It records for about 5 seconds, depending on the amount of motion
- The quality of the feed is 720p, so good enough to detect faces…sorta.
- You can save the feed to your phone.
The app also has location detection, meaning when I am at home, it can disable the camera. When I drive away from my house, the camera is ‘armed’ and then will detect motion or sound and record. When I’m near my house, it ‘unarms’ itself.
The camera has a night mode where it turns on the lights. I’ve disabled that because a) I have a motion detected porch light and b) I don’t want people to know I have a camera at night. I can’t make out faces at night, but if I get an alert at night when I’m at home, you know I will be watching the video to see who it is and then decide to react (maybe call my neighbor to check on my house.)
Video Quality
Here is a 15 second video clip that the camera recorded – video clip. You can see the Fedex guy dropping off the package on top of my outbound packages, then realizing those boxes were outgoing, and moved the package. Thank goodness!
Risks
The camera was meant to be used indoors. However, I leave it outdoors. That means anyone can come by and take it. I see this as a ‘canary in the coalmine’ meaning if someone takes my camera, this will alert me to watch out for my packages next time. I’m willing to lose a $150 camera and not lose a $1,000 outbound UPS package. You know what I mean.
Initially I bought a plastic globe thinking I’d put it in there before mounting it on my porch, but I didn’t want the camera to move around inside the orb, so now it’s ‘naked’ outside. In Seattle, it may get below freezing maybe for 1 week out of the year. So far, it hasn’t gotten to that point. I may move the camera inside when it gets that cold, but I haven’t decided yet. So far, it’s been working great even in the mid 30’s. The rain and moisture hasn’t affected the camera quality at all.
Conclusion
So far, I love the camera. I love that it’s portable, durable, and long-lasting. The app works great. I can’t think of any gripes. Maybe if they let me adjust how long to record a security video. I do get false alarms once a day, which may be caused by leaves blowing onto my porch, but it’s not like I get a false alarm per hour. It’s manageable. Maybe decrease the sensitivity? But like I said, these are all minor drawbacks; I’ve been happy thus far with the camera and I’d recommend it to you.