‎SimpliSafe Wireless Outdoor Security Camera: Advanced security from the outside in | SimpliSafe Support Home
 
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5.7K Messages

Tuesday, August 31st, 2021 1:22 PM

SimpliSafe Wireless Outdoor Security Camera: Advanced security from the outside in

Folks,

This is a big one. We know you've all been clamoring for a particular missing piece in our lineup, and now it's finally here. We are delighted to announce that the SimpliSafe Wireless Outdoor Security Camera is available RIGHT NOW!

The Outdoor Camera is feature packed, with everything you need to make your award-winning SimpliSafe system even better. Here's what you can expect when you get yours:

  • Easy setup, with no wiring or special skills needed. Just download the app, screw in the magnetic mount, and place the camera.
  • An ultra-wide 140¬∫ field of view, with 1080p HD resolution, for a clear view of details from up to 15 feet away.
  • Instant alerts via the app. And thanks to Smart Person Detection you'll know right away as soon as someone sets foot on your property (available on select monitoring plans).
  • Motion-activated spotlight lets you see who's there in color, even at night!
  • Dual antennas to keep the camera connected to WiFi, no matter where you have it installed.
  • Removable battery that lasts for up to 3 to 6 months on a single charge -- and recharges in just about 5 hours.
  • 2-way audio, AND a built-in 80dB siren, so you can really get the message to unwanted guests!
  • IP65 dust and water resistance, to withstand weather extremes. It can keep going through snow and rain, and temps between -20¬∫F to 113¬∫F.


For an in-depth look, check out our product page, here.

You might also be interested in some great accessories for the Outdoor Camera, like the Extra Battery and an extra-long 25ft Power Cable if you still want to keep your cam plugged in. We've even got a Solar Panel attachment, and an alternate mounting bracket, coming soon!

The SimpliSafe team is very proud of this latest addition to our lineup, and we know you're gonna love it. In the meantime, you probably have a lot of burning questions. Let me know here and I'll answer 'em!

Captain

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6.2K Messages

3 years ago

@Johnny M  nice post that summarizes this exciting product, but alas, soon to be eternally buried in the forums with no search tool and no google site search. The beaten horse is not anywhere near dead yet!. :-)

2 Messages

Nice post about the camera, here are the issues I have with it.

1. When I use the light option I get a glare on the lens and is almost impossible to see anything.
2. I want to see cars coming up my driveway and it does not sense them.
3. If you have the camera mounting a distance for a wider view the video is very grainy.
4. May batteries are lasting about 4 to 5 weeks.
5. This is a big problem, the camera can be mounted upside down, and the app has the option to rotate 180 degrees, but I see nothing to adjust if you mount at 45
   degrees or any other angle. I was going to put it on the side of my house or in a tree, that will not work.
6. If you mount it where the person is 10 or 20 feet away and walk straight at it the view is perfect.

742 Messages

3 years ago

@Johnny M

I see it's listed on Amazon already but shows as "currently unavailable". Any idea when it will be listed there so I can avoid the (between $10 and $40) shipping fees that you all charge?

Alternately, any coupons available for us to use on your site to wipe out shipping (or a bigger discount) since we've been waiting since this was announced in January of 2018? :)

Community Admin

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5.7K Messages

3 years ago

Hi Worthing,

I would refer you to our Sales team at 800-548-9508. They can work out a deal for you!

As for retail release, I can't give specific details right now. But our partners will have units available soon.

- Johnny M.
SimpliSafe Home Security

742 Messages

I would refer you to our Sales team at 800-548-9508. They can work out a deal for you!


It's almost 2022 and I have to call someone and haggle over a camera price like it's a used car? :)  No way to just throw out some limited use (or even single use,  to existing customers) coupons codes for us?

Note: I'll call tomorrow but my question still stands.
Question, since I'm not satisfied with the deep sleep slow awakening. When someone comes to my front door all I get on the recording is their backside walking away.

Will adding the solar charger to the outside camera cancel the necessity of waking up to record?

Thanks.

Reggie

739 Messages

3 years ago

I would not mind adding this to my system, but I am curious about the Internet upload speed recommendation. I have hardwired cameras (minus my Deep Sentinel). I am interested to know if the SimpliSafe outdoor camera will be reliable if I add it. While I love the human surveillance aspect of the previous company's camera mention, moving away from the yearly subscription is enticing (especially given I work from my home office; thus, I usually am at my residence).

Thank you for being a part of the forums, Johnny. It is greatly appreciated.

72 Messages

@shiherlis​ Please, read my comment above about the new Simplisafe outdoor camera and another person's comment about the Simplisafe doorbell.  SLUGGISH in waking up to record and SLUGGISH to wake up for live view.

742 Messages

3 years ago

@Shiherlis

Per https://support.simplisafe.com/hc/en-us/articles/360035379652-How-much-internet-speed-do-I-need-for-my-camera- they're recommending 2Mbps for 1080p.

I personally disagree with this recommendation. Virtually everyone else, including Netflix, recommends 5Mbps for a 1080p stream. I know that there's some compression involved and all that but I still think that 5Mbps per camera is a solid estimate to allow for the unknown. If your networking equipment allows for prioritizing specific devices I also strongly recommend prioritizing your cameras so you don't lose footage due to other network activity.

739 Messages

Thank you for the link and take, Worthing.

1 Message

3 years ago

Whats the motion detect range on the camera?

Community Admin

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71 Messages

3 years ago

Hi @scoppel!

The Outdoor Camera's built-in Motion Sensor can catch intruders up to 30ft away.

- Harriet C.
SimpliSafe Home Security

72 Messages

@harriet_c​  My Sim plisse outdoor camera is extremely sluggish in waking to to record or to live view.  I have 1G service, so that is not an issue.  Objects and people are recorded only as they are leaving the frame of view.  I still use one of your indoor cameras with weather sleeve for outdoors, and I replaced another indoor camera with weather sleeve with your new outdoor camera.  Live view on those cameras is much, much quicker.  Also, the videos from those indoor cameras started before people and cars actually appeared and then recorded them until they left the frame of view.  I'm extremely disappointed with your outdoor camera except for one single thing . . . it has great night time color videos . . . but objects are already virtually out of view on videos due to extremely slow wake up speed of the camera.  :-(

742 Messages

3 years ago

@Harriet C,

Is that day, night or both? Also you mentioned "intruders" so like the indoor motion detectors is it fair to say it will detect people sized (or larger) objects and not pets? Or will it catch everything?

Community Admin

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71 Messages

3 years ago

@Worthing,

Both day and night! Also, our Outdoor Camera features intelligent motion detection, which analyzes the scene to distinguish the different shapes of humans, animals, and cars. So you can decide if you want motion alerts for only humans, or for any type of movement within view.

- Harriet C.
SimpliSafe Home Security

175 Messages

3 years ago

Best buying showing delivery by the 8th my store pick up would be the 14th.... Free shipping so looks like you should be able to order from them now!!!!!

175 Messages

Now Best Buy shows in store pick up (in 8 days) but delivery to home not available.....

4 Messages

3 years ago

Is the power supply just a normal micro USB jack? I currently have indoor cameras with the outdoor kits installed and wondering if I can just plug the camera into the same cord. Thanks.

72 Messages

@jakimura​ The new outdoor camera needs its own power cord.  It will not accept the same power cord as the indoor cameras.  I'm also very disappointed in the new outdoor camera as it is extremely sluggish in waking up.  This means what I see in the videos is that people and other objects are virtually leaving the view area once the camera wakes up.  As for surveillance this is bad news.  I have no idea who walked by or drove by as I only see them for about .25 of a second before they are out of view due to physical structures (a fence and on the other side of the frame the edge of my garage).  The indoor cameras I used with weather sleeves for outdoor use worked much better.  Videos show the view a second before the car or person entered the field of view and continued to record until they left; not so with the new outdoor camera.

5 Messages

Oh my gosh, the outdoor camera drives me insane. I purchased the power cord thinking it would help with the "waking" of the camera.

It does NOT help at all. In fact, the power cord is worthless. It is not needed. 

The power cord does NOT charge the battery

The camera does NOT work while the battery is out (being charged) 

Therefore, the power cord is never needed!

Here's what happened today. Someone left my house, the camera recorded 22 seconds. While backing out, there was a collision with another vehicle. It wasn't recorded. Customer service says "only records while there is motion" THE VEHICLE was MOVING!  I have it set to all zones, and high sensitivity. 

Simplisafe has really dropped the ball on this outdoor camera. There should be settings where we can choose how long we want the video to record. I'm okay charging the battery more often. I NEED it when I NEED it. 22 seconds is never enough time to give enough information. 

I have so much money invested with all the other devices, it's crazy to think about switching.

Seriously, UPDATE this camera or stop selling it. AND, stop offering the power cord. It's useless! I'm sending it back to get a refund. 

11 Messages

3 years ago

I am a new user of the simplisafe system. I have set up up the system and it all seems to work and function correctly Inside the house. When I trigger the alarm, the indoor cameras automatically record. I can manage and view all of these cameras either live or following recording using the android version of simplisafe.

HOWEVER -

I have just received and installed the outdoor camera and I am in contact with tech support because it has serious issues.

Firstly, I cannot use live view of the camera on my android mobile. The application tries to connect and the application ultimately crashes.

For this reason, I cannot set any motion detection zones.

The outdoor camera does detect people going past it and does record. However, it is slow to react and by the time it has reacted and sent notification the person at the front door would be more than likely to have left.

In a desperate attempt to get anything working I have downloaded the simplisafe app to my IPad (I don't have an iPhone). The live view application works on this device. I tried to speak to my partner - who I placed outside right in front of the camera but she received no discernible audio output. the application does not allow you to manually trigger the siren on the outdoor camera.

I have deliberately set off an alarm to test the siren function of the outside camera - NOTHING.

On all of the recordings made by the outside camera the audio pickup is very very quiet. You cannot clearly discern conversation even when you stand in front of the camera and shout at it. Again, I triggered the alarm, and on the outdoor camera recording you can just about hear the siren which  is less than 12 feet way.

As I said, I have reported all of this, and I am awaiting technical support. Currently, I am concerned that the camera audio functions are not operating correctly and there maybe a hardware fault.
I have just received and installed the outdoor camera also, the camera successfully installed, but after going back in to the app I now can no longer see either the outside camera or either of my two internal cameras.

Captain

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6.2K Messages

@johnreevesphotos  can you see the cameras on the website dashboard?

2 Messages

Outdoor Camera issues / feature set. (from the UK)

I have to second most of these failures. I too are experiencing these short falls in promised feature set. Also, when the battery needs charging, it seems to say it is at full charge in 30 mins or so, and when you re-install it, the app says the camera needs recharging. Can I get some advice on this issue, otherwise the outdoor c camera is useless, these are not cheap!!

I expect better quality and a level of customer success that doesn't mean I have to use forums to try and get movement on resolving issues.

When can we have a search option in the forums!!!

Captain

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6.2K Messages

@jameswalker.home first the easy one. The new forums they are working on (announced in a different thread) will have a search tool. Exactly when that new forum will be available....by end of year?

I have two outdoor cameras, one in the front and one in the back.  Always planned from the start both would be used with the AC adapter only.  To experiment, however, one in the front is AC and the one in the back is battery.  So far the battery powered one in the back, at approximately 3 weeks,  is at 42%.  Is this battery going to last 3-6 months with the current firmware: no and needs to be improved.  I will report back when it dies. Note using night vision with alerts, and is working well for me.  The front camera, with spotlight option on, is working fine, especially without the restraint of the battery.

SS needs to improve battery efficiency greatly but other features work for me as advertised.  (And yes, Worthing, as far as I can tell from my experience with both cameras and testing defined by me. :-)

11 Messages

3 years ago

Further to my previous post -

On two occasions yesterday, the outdoor camera singularly failed in its motion detection.

For the first incident, it failed to record my partner exiting the house, locking the front door, and going to work. I know this because I said goodbye through our front window.

The second incident was later in the morning when our window cleaner was standing cleaning the same window. I came to the door to talk to him and to let him know that he would in future be monitored by the system. EXCEPT HE WASNT, AND NEITHER WAS I.

In addition to these failures to detect, we also had two motion detection incidents for which there is a minute of blank video.

The camera is within a strong Wi-Fi signal area where I have no problems with any other equipment.

As best I can ascertain, this camera (and the indoor ones) have difficulty reporting anything if they cannot immediately connect to the Wi-Fi for whatever reason these cameras fail to do so. A number of times, when first connecting to a live feed on the internal cameras, I get a message saying that connection failed. It usually takes at least one manual retry to connect. Sometimes 3 or 4.

I currently assess the outdoor camera to be an "if I am lucky' event recorder rather than anything I can rely on.

When I purchased the simplisafe system I was aware that they had no "outside awareness' included. The outdoor camera became available in the U.K. the morning after I purchased the system - so I decided to give it a try.

Thus far, it is extremely limited in value. I am currently reviewing my options and may need to install a different outdoor monitoring solution than Simplisafe. I have a suspicion I will end up either throwing the device in the bin, or demanding my money back.

For now, I am waiting to hear from tech support.

(Having downloaded the simplisafe app to my IPad, I have now set motion capture zones. Let us see if this helps the camera work better. I somehow doubt it).

3 Messages

I'm having similar problems. Also, the motion activity zones don't seem to matter when motion is set to 'all' (i.e. not people), so it gets cars going by on the street when I clearly have the street greyed-out. Also, when set to 'all' motion, it again picks up cars and people that are in the grey zone but completely missed the mailman walking straight up to my camera. If this doesn't improve, I'm returning this thing. It's apparently too new and needs a lot of bugs worked out.

175 Messages

3 years ago

Are you upping the camera limit per account? Some of us already have 9 cameras plus a doorbell so we're at the current 10 camera limit. I'd like to add a couple of these to my hard wired constant outdoor set up.... But can't with the current limitations...

175 Messages

3 years ago

Are you upping the camera limit per account? Some of us already have 9 cameras plus a doorbell so we're at the current 10 camera limit. I'd like to add a couple of these to my hard wired constant outdoor set up.... But can't with the current limitations...
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