My new outdoor camera will not connect to our base station (Gen 3)

Hi astemdw,

Thanks for posting. I split your post out to its own thread so we can get some visibility for our community to chime in.

You do need to update your Base Station to more recent firmware to add support for the Outdoor Camera. But once that's done, the Outdoor Cam should have no trouble being added. Were you using the step-by-step guide on the SimpliSafe app? It might help to know what step in the process you were getting stuck on, as that would give us clues about the next step.
For example, after placing the battery in the Outdoor Cam and shutting the battery compartment, it should start to blink white. If not, then the camera may not be powered properly, or there might be a battery issue. So at that point a replacement camera would be a possible solution.

- Johnny M.
SimpliSafe Home Security

I am having the same problem. Have spent hours on the phone.  Redownloaded the app, took out all the batteries numerous times.   Have replaced the base unit and the camera and still cannot get connected.  Keypad says system is updated.  Simplisafe tells me it is not updated. Replacing the base unit made no difference. In fact it made it worse in that the system would not accept my pin. Is my only option to return the camera?

Hi pmshipp,

Before we do anything else, let's make sure that a couple of steps are taken care of with regard to that Base Station replacement:

• Shut down your OLD Base Station completely by unplugging and taking out a battery. This will make sure that it won't interfere with the rest of the system, especially the new Base Station.
  
• Head over to the SimpliSafe app, or your account online. In the side Menu, select Activate Service, then Transfer Monitoring. Follow the on-screen instructions and enter your NEW Base Station's serial number (it'll be the 8-digit code printed on the bottom). This will update your Monitoring account to listen for signals on the new Base, and ignore the old one.
  
• To ease transfer, the system PIN was reset to the default - 1234. You'll want to change it back to your preferred PIN on the Keypad Menu.
  
• Next, you'll want to make sure that your new Base Station is connected to WiFi, by navigating on the Keypad to Menu > System Settings > Diagnostics (it's all the way at the bottom).
  
• Finally, you can head to Check for Updates, and if WiFi is connected, the firmware update should not be available.

- Davey D.
Community Development Manager
SimpliSafe Home Security

Davey D -- Thank you for your response.  As I mentioned in my post, after connecting the new base station, the keypad would not recognize my pin.  I was using my old pin.  Evidently, I should have used 1234.  You should inform your techs who provide phone support that the pin reverts back to 1234.  This was obviously my problem but, despite hours on the phone with three different techs, no one said that my old pin would not work.  Unfortunately, I returned the camera because I could not get it installed.  Perhaps I could have if I had known that I was using the wrong pin.

Davey, your instructions are a bit confusing.  "Check for Updates, and if WiFi is connected, the firmware update should not be available" doesn't make sense.  Firmware updates if they exist should be available only if wifi is connected, not the opposite.  

I'll be receiving a replacement gen 3 base because when I try to add my outdoor camera, the android app says to Update Software, I try to, it says no update available, repeat ad nauseum.  Yes, base powered down about 4 minutes.  I'm not complaining, the tech worked real hard to help me, but as a former software developer I do find this odd, though I'm guessing it's in older gen 3 bases.  As to the reset pin, glad I found this here; I'm guessing that the one place you can see your master pin wouldn't work without an activated base, so perhaps you can ask that when replacement units are sent out, it be made very clear that your master pin has been reset.  It might be, of course - I'll find out in days.  But I'd also suggest that the Android app be enhanced to detect the update problem and advise the user to contact support.