As I mentioned yesterday, once you start down the path of home automation it is hard to stop. The one positive note (which is also a source of frustration) is that vendor’s support for HomeKit has been drawn out over an extended period of time which allows my bank account to replenish itself before the next wave of devices arrive to drain it again.
The latest trek through the home automation aisle had me looking for security cameras. We live in a relatively safe neighborhood but that doesn’t mean we have been immune to possible break-ins or things being stolen.
The brazen attitudes of some of these would-be thieves made me think that perhaps it was time to look at something so that I could keep an eye on the house. Initially I had planned to look at the Ring offerings or maybe jump in with both feet and pick up a SimpliSafe alarm system. In both cases the companies have promised HomeKit compatibility but after over a year of empty promises neither seem any closer to delivering something that works within the Apple ecosystem.
I have decided that I am only going to support companies and products that work in HomeKit. It is just too much of a hassle trying to manage multiple different solutions with multiple different apps. There is a downside to this HomeKit commitment, in some areas there are not a lot of choices hence you are limited in features and more importantly in price.
With regards to security cameras, the one I kept hearing about the most was the Logitech Circle 2. These cameras are HomeKit compatible and come in either wired or wireless configurations. There are also several different mount types to help you find the right place to install these whether indoor or outdoor.
After much research I went with the Logitech Circle 2 Wired Combo Kit. This kit includes two wired cameras capable of 1080P color resolution and a window mount that allows the camera to be mounted to the inside of a window facing outdoors.
The reason I went with the wired version is that you must have wired cameras to do continuous recording. The wireless models only record when movement occurs. That might have been fine, but I wanted the ability to look in on the house when away and see what was happening at the moment.
Wired and wireless probably need some level of explanation. With wired, the camera has a mount with a USB cable attached. The cameras still connect via wi-fi so you don’t have to run Ethernet to each camera location. The wireless model also use wi-fi for communication but they have a battery so you do not need to place them near an electrical outlet.
Installation of the Circle 2 cameras are pretty straight forward. The cameras come with a mounting plate held on with two screws. The camera snaps into the mounting plate. You then plug the camera into a USB charging plug and plug that into the wall. Logitech does include an outdoor accessory kit that puts the charging port in a weatherproof box that then has a 15 foot electrical cord making the whole thing weatherproof.
To connect the cameras to HomeKit you will enter the 8-digit code from the camera into the Logitech Circle app after turning on HomeKit under Smart Home Integrations. Be forewarned, if you are installing more than one camera, each camera has its own individual HomeKit code. If you mix up the booklets then you will get an error if you enter the code from the other camera.
If you happen to lose the booklet with the HomeKit code in it, the code is also included on the lip of the camera but that requires removing it from its mounting bracket and peeling back the rubber surrounding the camera which is kind of a hassle.
When you install the camera and add it to HomeKit you can set it in the Home app to either be on the home screen or only show on the room you have placed the camera in. The Circle 2 app is more robust than what you have in the Home app but that kind of defeats the purpose of it being HomeKit compatible if you are just using a separate app for the cameras.
Overall the cameras function very well. I am not sure I believe the cameras are continuously monitoring and recording, there seems to be gaps. You can set notifications so that you get a popup telling you if a camera has been triggered by movement. They are rather touchy, so you end up getting a lot of notifications, and I mean a lot.
Logitech gives you the ability to look at video over the previous 24 hours. If you want more than that requires you to subscribe to their Circle Safe program. I subscribed but will warn you it can get expensive. The Circle Safe subscription allows you to purchase it on a per camera basis or a family plan that covers up to 5 cameras. There is no add on if you happen to have six cameras.
You also can only set up movement zones if you are using their Circle Safe program and even those have not been as reliable as you would hope. The cameras themselves are pretty good although I have had individual cameras go off-line more regularly than I would have expected which means I have to unplug them and plug them back in to reset.
If you have to change the wi-fi network where the Circle 2 camera is connected it is basically a reset of the camera and going through set-up again. Not really as user friendly as you would have hoped.
I love the camera resolution and it does have a microphone built in so you can pull up sound with the video which is a plus. The Circle Safe program is expensive for what you get. For 5 cameras you will pay $17.99 a month for the premium package which includes 31 days of cloud storage, motion zones, and person detection. If you want just a single camera it is $9.99 a month. There is a basic program too that gives you 14 days of cloud storage, but you cannot create person detection or motion zones. The basic program is $6.99 a month for 5 cameras or $3.99 for a single camera.
For now these do what I need but I have to believe that as more vendors start supporting HomeKit for security cameras that the Logitech service offering will have to change to be more competitive in both price and what you get.
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