Piper – Comes in Black or White
Piper is a Wi-Fi enabled home security device with many features that are rolled into one small device. The main feature being a 180 degree HD video camera that keeps an “eye” on things. Get it…. “Eye”? It is because it looks like a big fish eye. But it also monitors the levels of the light, sounds, and motion as well as reports the current temperature and humidity levels.
You can even set modes of operation such as Home Mode and Away Modes, and it can send you alerts via Push, Text, E-Mails and even call you.
Of course all of this is done by an app on your phone or tablet. The app also is what you use to look in your your RV/Coach with real time video and what is used to playback the recorded event videos. You see, when an alert takes place, it will start a recording and send that video off site to a cloud server where it is stored. This is great, then it can be accessed from anywhere and if a thief takes or even smashed the video, hopefully you will still have something. You can also of course download the video to give to the police or insurance company or just use it on social media if you so choose. Hey, you never know, you may catch your dog or cat doing something funny while you were away.
If you so see fit, you can add accessories to Piper such as setting up door and window sensors so that Piper sends you an alert and takes action if there is a security breach. Oh…You can also do automation items for you such as turning of lights or even appliances. Note however, I am not aware of any 12 volt accessories as this device, like the RING Doorbell, was made to be used in a home. So the plug in automation items as 110V items.
BTW…All of this, cloud storage and alert services…well they are FREE. You just buy the Piper.
Now Remember…This is a Wi-Fi enabled device. So it is not much good to you unless you have Wi-Fi in your coach or RV. In cases of using these types of Wi-Fi devices, you are much advised to also be running your own internal Wi-Fi network. You can find more information on that subject in this blog post of ours. This way your devices like the Piper or the Ring Doorbell can always be connected to your own network. In turn, your network is connected to the Internet via the RV parks Wi-Fi or your own HotSpot/JetPack.
So all in all, good things do come in small packages. Not only can you monitor your coach or RV while you are away, even being able to “look in” on it, it will alert you and can be set to even sound an internal 105db siren. If you have pets…I would highly suggest turning off that siren option as 105db inside a confined space is very, very loud. Your pets would not be very happy to say the least.
Like you have come to expect, here is a short video talk I did on Piper…
Piper can be found here on AMAZON.
great idea!! But I like the wireless doorbell better .Thanks for the great info. Art & Deb Kerchinske
Yup, it has worked great thus far. We surely love being able to check in on the coach. Both devices surely serve two different purposes.
Cool idea. I would want one. Especially if I had an rv like yours. I think it’s no different than needing security for a ranch like mine. ( see I DO check out your blog)
Great stuff. Are you and Brenda still using the Rogue Wave as your primary or have you moved to the less expensive one you linked above?
Hi…We do still use it for I have it wired to the top of the coach. But when I need better distance or a better connection, I use the NanoStation.
I plan to get a NanoStation as well. I watched your video on how to connect it yesterday and plan to purchase the system via Amazon soon. Lucky for me, I use a Mac computer so it should be easy for me to follow along with your instructions.
We use simplisafe at home. It works on cell that is included. Adding a 2 do unit to motorhome. 110 volt system with built in battery back up. Edward
Yes, I have heard of them also. The down side is the monthly charge to use it. The positive side is that it does not require Wi-Fi.
Thanks for sharing this info with us David and Brenda. I can see myself getting a Piper in the future. I was in Las Vegas last week for 3 days and would have loved to have the Piper watching over my rig while I was out and about.
I was going to send you an email and ask what security system you recommend – missed this post somehow but saw it in the recent post. Thanks for testing and writing about technology!
You more than welcome. Remember it needs internet access to work.
Hi David we are looking at this Piper also. We don’t think it’ll be a problem running it through the hotspot powered by Verizon and when we’re in a campground or resort just switch it to their Wi-Fi, if it’s any good.
My question for you is how many gigabytes (via the hotspot) do you think it uses a month?
Hi…I am sorry, I am not sure how much it would use. As far as hooking it to an RV park, you likely will not be able to to that unless you are running your own network inside your RV that is attached to the RV Parks Wi-Fi network. I say that for most RV parks require you to log in or “agree” and there is no way to do that with the Piper.
Hey David! You don’t know how much you have helped us in the past and I want to say “Thank You” for the knowledge and always Great information! We are looking at the Piper also. One of my main reasons for buying it, of course, for security, but also a big concern for me is that we have our fur babies with us and I’m always afraid of the AC going out while we are out. We are newbies to the Full Time world and don’t know all the ways of protecting them. I feel that this would be one way of doing that. We are confident that if you guys recommend a product, its probably worth looking into. I understand that we must have WiFi, which we do. Any other ideas to protect our babies, please let us know……… Thanks again for all your great information!
Hi…Glad we can be of help. If you have cats, I would not worry to much as they LOVE the heat and will lay in direct sunlight for hours. :) If you have a dog(s) then you will want to see if your inverter has an auto gen start that you can set. You would want to set it to use Thermo, or Contact, or Line, or whatever it has on yours and Enable it. What this does is it will start the generator automatically if power is lost at the RV park and the thermostat is calling for A/C. Thus the gen starts and A/C is restored. The auto gen can also start based on voltage and I would set that for 12v. You need to be sure that auto gen is ENABLED though before you go out for if you manually start or stop then gen, auto gen start is then DISABLED. Maybe I need to do a video on it. :) Hope this helps.