Hey Mark, just giving you another update. I believe I last fully charged the batteries (until all lights on the charger turned green) on the 2nd or maybe the 1st, so it’s been about 8 or 9 days give or take. Since this last charge cycle I have made it a point to always hit the arrow in the top left corner whenever viewing a camera, which I’ve only clicked on the camera maybe four times and live-viewed for maybe three or four seconds, and as of today the battery status bar just ticked down from three to two bars (it was on three out of four possible bars as of yesterday). I’ve actually had less triggered alerts on average over the last week so it’s not that I’m getting way more events being recorded, and I still have everything set to 10 second recordings and the “Low” alert setting. Maybe it is mining me some bitcoin? I haven’t tried touching it to see if it feels warm but every time I have taken it out of the mount when it reports that it’s about to die it’s never felt warm to the touch but maybe internally it’s overheating or something, I just haven’t felt anything that would be cause for concern when handling it.
Hey Dustin, thank you so much for taking the time to test the camera again and monitor your app usage. I really appreciate it. It looks like there is either something up with the camera hardware or the batteries.
I’m going to send you a private message to get some contact information. Then I’ll send you an email so we can start the process of sending you out a replacement camera.
Btw your bitcoin comment had me 
Hi Mark,
We are loving our Kami Outdoor cameras. We have one in the front and in the back. The one in the back has recently given us a low battery warning. We obtained our cameras via Alder Security. I don’t believe they left us with a battery charger for either camera. Therefore, I am asking will a regular charger work to recharge the batteries. At the same time, we need replacement batteries to put in place of the ones being charged. Do we need the Kami “brand”? If so, where can we order them and a charger (looked on the store site, but no luck, unless we order a camera). If we don’t need Kami, what rechargeable brand do you recommend?
Thank you for your attention to and assistance in this matter. I look forward to a reply.
Sincerely,
Cara Magee-Johnston
@CLaW_3
Hello Clara, 
Thank you for joining the forum! So glad you’re enjoying your Kami Wire-Free Outdoor cameras!
It is a bummer that Alder didn’t provide a charger though. Unfortunately you won’t be able to use just any old charger. You’ll need a one that is capable of charging 18650 cells. If you type 18650 charger into Amazon you’ll see a whole bunch. Normally when you purchase a Kami Wire-Free Outdoor camera you get a XTAR brand charger in the box and they are a reputable charger manufacturer so that might be a good place to start.
As far as a second set of batteries goes, I would recommend just sticking with the ones that came with the cameras if it’s possible to have a camera offline for a 4 or 5 hours while the batteries are charging.This is because 18650 batteries need to be stored carefully if they are not going to be used for extended periods of time. If you did want one extra set to rotate between all the cameras this would probably be ok but you would need a charger where you could check the voltage of the spare set.
We are currently working on adding a battery listing to our Amazon Store, however they might not be available for a few months. In the meantime if you want a link to batteries from another vendor that we have vetted, please let me know and I will send you a private message.
@CLaW_3
Hey Clara, I spoke with my team and they suggested that you get in touch with Alder regarding the charger. They should be able to supply you with one. I’m guessing they just forgot to give it to you.
What is the assumed battery life before charging. I have charged my unit twice now and have not been able to keep the batteries charged for more than 2 weeks. If I have to mount/unmount on a semi monthly basis to charge then the unit is of no value. Are there some settings I am unaware of that drain the batteries more than others
Hi @AVP, thanks for joining the forum. The expected battery life is under normal conditions (mounted outdoors) is somewhere in the range of 2 to 6 months. There are a lot of factors that influence the battery life but 2 weeks is definitely not normal. I will send you a private message to get your contact details so we can look into replacing the camera for you.
In the meantime, can you please let me know what version of the app you are running?
The mount needs to be improved. There are three rotating methods all in line with each other so they counteract and it is nearly impossible to get a good mount and then make adjustments. 1) The entire device mount is a 3 notch plate that must rotate clockwise to lock in place. 2) Next, the adjustment collar rotates clockwise or counter clockwise to loosen and tighten this un-mounts the device plate as adjustments are being made. 3) Lastly, the camera attaches to the mounting and adjusting system with a threaded screw that also loosens counter clockwise and tightens clockwise. This can counter act against the other two systems. It is really a poor design. only one of the three should even consider a rotating lock. The others should have click in latches with button release, or an arm to tighten, or an alan key with screw nut. Anything but the current configuration.
Hi… New to the Kami Wireless. Everything about it seems great except two let downs.
- no human detection/activity zones
- an option for 24/7 recording to the cloud like with wired (I have 4 Yi outdoor cameras, 2 Yi Home 1080 indoor with 4 more on the way that should be here today, and 2 Yi Dome 1080). I understand the battery life implications, but the choice to turn it on or off would be nice. Right now the only way to get cloud recordings is to turn on motion detection which of course sends notifications. Sometimes you don’t want notifications but want to make sure things are being caught on camera, just in case.
I @noahtodd, I believe they are working on a better mount for the next version of the Kami Wire-Free. Thank very for the feedback! 
Hey @DarkGift, thanks for the feedback! I agree, human detection and activity zones would be great. But from what I understand, 24/7 recording would drain the battery in a matter of days.
I get that, but if we had the choice to turn it on or off at least we’d know what we were getting into and that could be our call whether we wanna keep charging or not. Just an idea.
Maybe there could be a warning when switching it on that says ‘this setting will impact battery life’ or something.
Exactly. Giving the user more choice is always the best route.
I saw in this thread (back in April) that activity zones are coming for the wireless outdoor camera. That’s great news because I’m getting a lot of Alerts of people walking on the sidewalk in front of my house. Is there any ETA on this? 2020 or 2021?
Hey there @cmat, this may have been considered in the past, but as of the most up to date information I have, it looks like the current version of the Kami Wire-Free Outdoor Camera will be not be getting an activity zone.
Thanks for the quick reply. This is rather disappointing, especially considering that the product page lists the following “Designated activity zones in select camera models”. Granted, it says select camera models, but it would be easy to make it way more clear to future buyers that this specific camera will not have this feature (ref: https://www.yitechnology.com/kami-wirefree).
I feel a bit cheated at this point. 
Hey @cmat that section of the webpage is talking about the Kami Home app, rather than the Wire-Free camera. It also mentions advanced AI detection of humans, etc., which the Kami Wire-Free also cannot do.
I’ve noted that you have requested this feature to be added, but I don’t want you to get your hopes up as adding this feature would require a firmware rewrite, and it is more likely that the product team are focusing on a new iteration of this camera.
I would assume since the wire free outdoor camera uses a pir instead of a motion detection algorithm that detecting areas would not be an option as motion is only detected in the view of the pir.
This is highly disappointing.
I literally just bought these for the activity zones as my indoor Yi’s have this feature. Once I installed the wire free outdoors cams I found out the hard way that there was a downgrade to yi’s features. Now I read you aren’t offering support to correct a feature which was clearly liked, wanted & advertised (at least for a lil bit)…