Mike Reyher
Like most folks that travel with a camper or RV we end up spots where the security is unknown or even known to be pretty sketch whether at a trailhead or a national park parking lot simply stopping in town to grab a bite to eat. It would be nice to be able to keep an eye on our van or even our campsite when we are out and about being explorers or tourists. This implies security cameras and there are a lot of good ones one the market. We’ve tried a couple and in this post we are going to let you know what we have learned and what we’ve settled on.
Of course to make all this work we need a persistent Internet connection and we already have that for being able to work from the road and stay connected to keep an eye on our home (and our cats and that is documented in this post.
Next Generation Internet Connectivity for Working from the RoadWe have Wyzecams all over our home in Texas and we really like them for that use case so we tried them in the van and they worked well mounted inside the van but in order to extend security to the perimeter outside the van I could not devise a way to mount the Wyze cameras and get them the USB wired power that they require.
So I began to look at battery powered cameras that are suitable for mounting on the outside skin of our van. A friend we camp with told me about the Blink cameras she has at her house and that she is happy with them and coincidentally Costco had a bundle deal for $149 so I picked it up and started figuring them out.
So what you see above is the bundle with 4 Blink Outdoor cameras and a Blink Mini. The Blink Mini works a lot like the Wyze cams in that they get their power from USB, have on-board WiFi to connect to your router. Simple and straightforward. The Blink Outdoor cameras don’t connect directly to the router and need the Blink Sync Module to connect, send motion alerts and video clips to the Internet.
The sync module has WiFi and makes the connection to your router and then the Blink Cloud. The sync module also has a USB port for a thumb drive where it can store clips and images that you can access with the app. We’ll talk more about this when we get to the subscription issue below.
Setup is pretty straightforward and much like other app controlled devices where you download the app, set up an account, plug things in and use the app to tell the sync module about your WiFi network.
The Blink Outdoor cameras are each powered by two Lithium AA batteries that are installed by removing the back of the camera. Word on the street is that they can last over two years in normal use. I’m thinking battery life depends on how often they are triggered to upload a video clip.
How the Blink Cameras are Different
We should talk now about how this system differs from most home security cameras like the Wyzecams. The Blink outdoor units are are really motions sensors with a camera that turns on when triggered by motion. In addition the system can be armed or disarmed by the app or on a preset schedule. Our system is set to arm every night at 10pm. We can arm it at any time if we are going to be away from the van and want to be notified of any motion inside and outside. The system only records clips and reports motion if it is armed. This is a big difference you have to get used to but it’s actually pretty brilliant and is what makes it able to work on batteries and have outstanding battery life. As it turns out is very compatible with our needs for keeping an eye on our van. When at home the system arms at 10 pm and will send any clips of motion around or inside the van which is perfect. When we are camping we can arm just the outside cameras to keep an eye on the perimeter and our campsite. I get a notification on my phone of any movement. We can selectively set each camera on or off if we are at a festival and don’t want to be bothered with normal activity close by.
Mounting the outside cameras
One of the top reasons this Blink Outdoor cameras are a good fit for vans or RVs is that they are battery powered and this means no wires which means no new holes have to be made to get them to work. That being said the mounts that come with the outdoor cameras is not really appropriate for mounting on a moving vehicle. They are susceptible to being knocked out of place with while driving and susceptible to tampering.
So we needed to come up with some other way to fix the cameras to the skin of the van that would put up with 70 or 80 mph drives down the highway and be a little more tamper proof. Enter Etsy and 3 printed solutions.
I found this on Etsy and it allows the Blink Outdoor Camera to be surface mounted with VHB tape as well as allowing the camera to be removed for replacing the batteries. It also comes in black so it will blend in with our van.
To subscribe or not to subscribe…
All systems have pros and cons and one of the cons for Blink is that a subscription plan is needed to get all of the features of the cameras and app. Technically you can store clips on the sync module by adding USB storage and retrieve them with the app but in my experience it is unreliable at best. I tried to make it workable without a subscription but it was spotty and unreliable so we bit the bullet and got a subscription. You can evaluate and compare the current Blink plans here.
Resources
Subscriptions FAQ — Blink Support
Blink Outdoor (4th Generation) 5 camera system.