Tapo App - Cameras connecting to multiple wi-fi access points (SSID's)
I probably have done 100 or more Smart Home setup programs like this, but I am having problems adding cameras to Tapo App version 3.4.510 when I have a network with two wi-fi access points.
For this discussion lets assume I have just two Tapo cameras. A Tapo C120 and a Tapo C325WB. I have a home with a main router and a wi-fi extender. The router and extender is hard wired with CAT5e. For the sake of this discussion lets call the SSID's 'Front' and 'Garden'. I want to connect C325WB to SSID Front and connect C120 to SSID Garden.
I can get C325WB to SSID Front just fine. When I attempt to setup C120 to SSID Garden, the setup goes OK until it freezes right at then last step of 'Pairing'. The C120 camera will not install.
If I try to connect the C120 to the same SSID Front as the C325WB then it finishes the setup OK.
Can someone please tell me how I can get one Tapo camera connected to SSID Front and the other Tapo camera to SSID Garden.
P.S. I have connected multiple Wyze cameras with the Wyze app to different SSID's and it works just fine. I sure hope that the Tapo App can accomplish the same.
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@Jep85742 I agree with your analysis. Thanks again.
No I have not found any WiFi cameras and associated Alex skill to be able to announce "Pet Detected".
For now I will stick with BlueIris and the associated AI that can detect and announce pet detected through the BlueIris, which then sends an MQTT message to a Raspberry Pie which in turn has wired speakers throughout my home. Where there is a will there is a way! I was just searching for an easier way.
Thanks again.
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You should have no problem doing what you are trying to do. The cameras do not need to be on the same network or even the same subnet. Given the popularity of IoT networks, this is actually relatively common. The second SSID/network only needs to be connected to the internet during setup.
Do you have any other odd behaviors that happen to devices connected to the Access Point?
Do you have any addressing or security settings on the AP or Router that could be interfering? (Whitelist, Blacklist, StaticIP, IP Reservations)
Since the camera can connect to your primary network, I would start by attempting to upgrade the camera's firmware if an update is available.
You should also compare the wireless settings for the extender's Wi-Fi to those of your router. For example, the extender may be using an older security setting that is not as well supported by the camera - but there should be no problem as the cameras are quite flexible in their compatibility.
Lastly, check to ensure your phone is connecting to the right SSID and provide the correct password. It could be possible that your phone is reconnecting to the other SSID after it disconnects from the camera.
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@Riley_S Thank you for your response.
Update: Somehow the glitch went away and I now have two cameras connected to 2 different SSID's. Don't know what solved it. Perhaps using yet another SSID ( I have 8), or deleting both cameras and adding them again in reverse order, or the C120 install is a bit temperamental. This install took over 6 hours of trial and error. I haven't seen a camera install go this bad in many years. I have performed 100's of this type of install and this was the worst experience in some time.
I have 18 other cameras at my home. I decided to try the new C120 to see if it would do smart detect of my dogs. It does great, but I was hoping it would ask Alex to announce pet movement. Sadly the Alexa skill does not see a pet detection event, only "Person" and general "Motion". Maybe that will be added someday. For the time being I can catch my dog digging in a forbidden garden. She is a Husky breed. To be expected.
Again thank you for response. It gave me the incentive to try this again. I was just about ready to call it quits, something I rarely do.
In case anyone wants to read what I did to finally make the two acces points work...
I checked the firmware on both cameras. Both are up to date. I checked the version of the Tapo App. It is up to date.
The extender and router are using same security protocols. I have told my phone to forget or delete all connections except the one I am trying to connect the camera to. I know how sometimes these install programs get messed up if the phone does not reconnect to the same SSID.
When the camera is going through the install the app finds the camera and connects, then says connected to network. The final step of pairing ends with "Paring Failed" and light on camera is yellow. Check the phone is connected to proper connection. Try pairing again. Still fails. I think I will delete both cameras and install the cameras in reverse order to see if that works.
So now installing C120 first to main router SSID. Wifi connected. Connecting to your network... OK. Pairing your Tapo device... Pairing failed.
Yikes! I had this camera connected and working to this access point before! Why failing now?
Try another SSID with C120. WiFi connected OK. Connecting to Network. Pairing complete. Hmmm Something wrong with one of my SSID's (I have 8 total) Never had problem using this access point before. Hmmmm. Camera works OK now.
Now try connecting my C325WB. Tapo_Cam_4186. Found device. Connect to different SSID than C120. Connecting to network...Okay. Pairing OK.
OMG! Sucess!
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Glad you were able to get it working!
From the sound of it, it was a rooted in a setting for your phone's Wi-Fi connection. After the setup, the phone will shut down its setup wi-fi and connect to the main wi-fi. At this point, your phone will try to connect to the device over your network to finalize and verify the configuration. Sometimes, even just disabling the auto-reconnect feature on your phone can help.
Your phone, while connected to different APs, is still on the same network overall and should be able to communicate - however, there may also have been a feature on one of the SSIDs you removed from your phone that could cause a short lapse in connection, such as fast roaming or beamforming.
I need to look at the Alexa voice announcements a bit more to see what is supported; however, it does seem to be limited primarily to only person and motion events when it comes to smart cameras. Have you seen other voice announcements from cameras that I can forward as requests to our team if possible?
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@Jep85742 I agree with your analysis. Thanks again.
No I have not found any WiFi cameras and associated Alex skill to be able to announce "Pet Detected".
For now I will stick with BlueIris and the associated AI that can detect and announce pet detected through the BlueIris, which then sends an MQTT message to a Raspberry Pie which in turn has wired speakers throughout my home. Where there is a will there is a way! I was just searching for an easier way.
Thanks again.
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You could look towards some of the more comprehensive Smart Home platforms out there like Home Assistant, it may be able to simplify your life, especially when it comes to MQTT and TTS, or by using a blueiris-like plugin to analyze the RTSP stream from one device(frigate).
I think that you currently have the best way of doing this in a legitimate manner. You could use an unused smart plug to follow the Pet Detected state, and then create automations in Alexa based on the state of that plug for TTS. Less than perfect, but does let you potentially remove the need for mqtt. With the custom notification feature, it may also be possible to configure a custom notification and automate that using an app like Tasker or a platform that lets you see recent notifications.
I do have to ask since I am currently working on a whole-home audio solution for music and a private voice assistant in my home: how did you / what did you use to wire your home and process the audio? Did you choose to use conventional speakers or a platform like Sonos?
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I have used conventional powered speakers simply wired from the Raspberry Pie output. This gives decent quality but running wires all over is just a pain. I am not outputting Hi fidelity, I am only voicing output like "Person detected on driveway", "Beam break triggered", "Irrigation started in garden box", "Garage door is open".
Recently I switched to FM broadcasting so I can put low cost radios in whatever location I want. I have also used the Alexa devices to voice alerts of various types.
I haven't found a way to interface my NVR or Raspberry Pie to command Alexa to speak. I even had a speaker connected to Raspberry and talking to a nearby Alexa, thereby commanding Alex to announce to other locations.
Whole home HiFi speakers is a whole level of high quality sound and my impression is that it gets really expensive. I've added distributed HDMI wires to my home to display the NVR video. Don't know it that could help with HiFi sound. Again that is running a lot of wire. I have never looked at Sonos. Maybe I will.
I've done the outlet trick and Alexa routines. Rather than an outlet I modified window sensors to trip Alexa routines. That worked really well and is a very low power method. I don't mind using MQTT. I've used that in many ESP-32 sensors around the house. I did some programming in a former life.
I am curious as to what hardware/software are you using to interpret your voice assistant?
It all has been a lot of fun, sometimes frustrating and sometimes even useful.
Good luck and have fun!
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