You can enable the alarm using the key fob or app. When it turns on, a clear voice from the Hub lets you know that the alarm is on. Following the beeping, you’re given enough time to get out of the house before the alarm is finally alarmed. Its overall appeal is slightly let down by connection speed issues, which make accessing the camera’s live feed and stored recordings a bit of a faff. I can’t help but wish Y-Cam would open the Evo up and let me tie it to my home NAS Drive, or a separate cloud storage provider.

The Y-Cam Evo is one of the smallest and most discreet cameras I’ve reviewed. The main camera is a minuscule 2-inch white cube. The setup process requires next to no physical effort. All you have to do is screw the main camera unit onto a bundled stand and connect it to the mains using a Micro USB cable and transformer. It can then either be set freestanding on a bit of furniture, or attached to a wall using screws/rawl plugs, which are all included in the box. The Evo’s stand is also magnetic, which makes it easy to attach it to metal surfaces. Our User Manual is an essential read to get the most out of your Y-cam and learn about all of its extended features. See and hear your world in all its glory with our high quality camera loaded with fantastic colour representation, crisp night vision and fantastic audio clarity. For an interference issue look at what other wireless traffic is in the area and what other devices may be causing interference such as cordless phones, microwave ovens etc. Ways to combat interference:Upgrading to Plus is well-worth it. Home broadband isn’t hugely reliable and you’d be surprised at how often your Hub loses connection. With mobile data, you know that your home will remain protected and that you’ll definitely get alerts. And, once you’ve upgraded, you get the 30-days of cloud storage from your cameras, which largely negates the fact that Y-Cam withdrew its free cloud storage offering. Unlike other cloud cameras that charge monthly fees, every HomeMonitor camera stores unlimited recorded clips in to your online account for the last 7 days - no subscriptions required! The process didn’t go smoothly for me. The pre-release software I initially tested had a weird bug that meant the camera wouldn’t complete the final stage of the setup process when connecting to the Y-Cam cloud. The bug has since been fixed via a software update, which means consumers won’t have to worry about it. The only reason I mention it is because it let me experience one of the best features of Y-Cam products – the company’s stellar customer service. Unlike webcams or other internet cameras, HomeMonitor™ works completely independently and doesn’t require your computer to be left on to work - saving energy and money.

Only HomeMonitor™ allows you to truly connect you to what is important on all your favourite gadgets including iPhone, iPad, Android smartphones and tablets plus now your TV through Roku and AirPlay. If you have a Y-cam Protect Alarm system, access to this will not be affected. If you had cameras as well, then these will not be accessible. You will have access to the video clips based on your plan type if applicable. The small rectangular key fob looks great and is nice and light, so you won’t notice it on your keyring if you carry it around all day. As of a more recent update, Y-Cam Evo cameras can now be integrated into the system; when an alarm is triggered, the cameras are set to start recording for up to 15 minutes, or until the siren is deactivated. This requires a Plus subscription.The night mode was a little more hit and miss. Faces caught with the camera in night-cam mode have a grainy quality and won’t be much help to police unless the thief was insanely close to the Evo – though being fair to Y-Cam, this is true of all the home-monitoring cameras I’ve tested. If you had no active recording plan active on your camera(s), then you will no longer be able to access your Y-cam account. Motion detection is all well and good, but what if something happens in a few seconds, will the HomeMonitor be able to record that? The people at Y-cam have thought of this and have made a camera that is constantly recording on a 10-second loop. If any movement is detected then the HomeMonitor HD sends the footage directly to the cloud, including a few seconds before the trigger event.

The Y-cam Plus subscription provides a whole host of additional benefits to help you monitor and secure your home. With a Y-cam Plus subscription, the integrated sim card is activated and will ensure that your alarm remains connected when your internet is down and will also send text and phone call alarm notifications. Y-cam Plus will record 30 days of alarm and video activity logs and fully managed 30 days video storage when using Y-cam indoor or outdoor cameras. For this guide, we will assume that the camera is configured and you can access the live image when it is connected to the network with an Ethernet cable (wired connection).Every motion detected by HomeMonitor is immediately stored in your account ready for you to view and review whenever you need to, from wherever you are. You’ll obviously need a mount to place the camera in the appropriate position and the HomeMonitor HD duly obliges with a sturdy metal L-shaped one. Two screws hold it to your wall – two 1-inch screws are provided, but you’ll need your own wall plugs – and a ball joint allows you to rotate it to the optimal position. The camera and mount together are light, so the supplied screws are more than adequate.

The Y-cam Plus subscription provides a whole host of additional benefits to help you monitor and secure your home. Y-cam Plus will record 30 days of video activity logs and fully managed 30 days video storage when using Y-cam indoor or outdoor cameras. This older version of MultiLive supports Mac systems from operating system 10.4 (Tiger) and upwards. Supports up to 8 cameras. Y-Cam has made a few tweaks to improve image quality – you can see the difference in the screengrabs below. We’re also told that a firmware update for all Outdoor HD cameras is on the way. This will include a much more sophisticated detection algorithm – hopefully much like the I found the Y-Cam customer service staff to be incredibly helpful and happy to talk through any potential issues. Y-Cam Evo – Software and Recording The HomeMonitor Indoor HD isn’t really about providing the sharpest picture clarity for video, or creating a perfect mug shot of a burglar. Instead it is an eye on your home, a sentinel that informs you of what is happening in your house – who’s coming in and out.Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions. Read our editorial mission & see how we test. Bullet HD, Bullet HD 1080, Bullet Range, Cube 1080p, Cube 720p, Cube HD 1080, Cube VGA, Dome Range, HD720, Other If a window/door sensor is triggered, the Hub starts to beep, giving you enough time to deactivate it if you’ve just entered the home. Motion sensors trigger the alarm immediately. The Hub is exceptionally loud, playing a siren that cycles between low- and high-frequency sounds. You also get a warning in-app, so you know that your alarm has gone off no matter where you are in the world. The external siren is even louder, attracting attention outside your home, too. Brilliantly, as it’s solar powered, you don’t have to worry about the batteries running flat. This is a problem if you have pets. A dog or cat can easily set off the motion sensor. To combat this, the HomeMonitor enables you to select “detection zones” – rectangles you can drag to cover the areas you’re most concerned with. For example, if you have it point at your front door you can choose for it to trigger only when something at least two-feet high comes in, while at the same time having another zone covering a front window. Useful stuff, unless you live close to a gang of limbo-dancing thieves. As an example, our Netgear router is set to WEP 64bit strength using a HEX key "ABCDE12345" in the "1" position.