IPhone as SECURITY CAM... Safe or FIRE hazard?

[SumpChump]

My pal Rick who fixes iPhones on the side says that he uses an app called "AtHome" to turn his extra iPhones into web cams when he goes to Vegas (single guy lifestyle)

He plugs them into a power block, sets them up on an end table, puts a digital thermometer nearby and frames his living room as a wide shot view. Then he leaves them for 4 or more days! He says he can black iut the rear screen and the just keep a feeding video.

Isnt that a fire hazard?

 

[eljefino]

With the thermometer, he seems to think so.

Does the app only trigger the camera when it's activated/ someone's looking?

Why would apple (or anyone) engineer a thing that if run 100% for an indefinite time would overheat and catch fire?

 

[SumpChump]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
With the thermometer, he seems to think so.

Does the app only trigger the camera when it's activated/ someone's looking?

Why would apple (or anyone) engineer a thing that if run 100% for an indefinite time would overheat and catch fire?


The thermometer is to measure the house temp. To see if the furnace went out.

The app streams constantly.

He mentioned the engineering thing also. And I am not quite sure that they DID engineer an iPhone thermally to be left in at 100% wifi streaming for 100+hours straight.

 

[itguy08]

Why would it be an issue? They are on all the time anyway. I can count on one hand the #'s of times I've turned my phone off in the last 5 years. Usually airplane mode or silent is all that is needed.

The only issue I could see would be if the battery or charging circuit failed and the battery exploded. But the same could be said for anything plugged into an outlet. Something could fail and catch fire.

 

[SumpChump]

Originally Posted By: itguy08
Why would it be an issue? They are on all the time anyway. I can count on one hand the #'s of times I've turned my phone off in the last 5 years. Usually airplane mode or silent is all that is needed.

The only issue I could see would be if the battery or charging circuit failed and the battery exploded. But the same could be said for anything plugged into an outlet. Something could fail and catch fire.


Oh I was thinking the constant and heavy wifi transmission load might overheat it after 5days.

 

[spackard]

It'll heat up to max temp in about an hour.

In my experience a Samsung Galaxy II doing nav duty on a dashboard on a hot summer is a lot worse. The phone starts warning about high temps and stops charging the battery.

Googling, looks like an iPhone will shut itself off (after warnings) if it gets too hot. Sometimes it might even be because it thought it was hot.

 

[Rand]

Originally Posted By: SumpChump

Oh I was thinking the constant and heavy wifi transmission load might overheat it after 5days.



the load from capturing/recording the video would be much heavier than the "wifi transmission load"

 

[SumpChump]

Originally Posted By: Rand
Originally Posted By: SumpChump

Oh I was thinking the constant and heavy wifi transmission load might overheat it after 5days.



the load from capturing/recording the video would be much heavier than the "wifi transmission load"


Hmm so it is under two loads. I bet they get hot hot. I better warn him. 24 hour a day video capture yeesh, load.

 

[Vern_in_IL]

If I run the youtube app for two hours, my phone is [censored] hot...and unstable.

 

[sicko]

I don't think it's any more of a threat than leaving your phone plugged in charging. If the temperature gets too hot, the phone will shut itself down. People have being doing this with old smart phones for years. I remember reading about people doing it 7+ years ago, and I've never heard a story of someone's phone exploding because of doing this.

 

[JHZR2]

I've run Youtube streaming for hours (listening to various things while driving), under charge continuously and it doesn't get the slightest bit warm.

I can't imagine that transmit is that much more energy intensive than receive. But the computational overhead of the camera making video may take a lot. If the screen is turned off, a major load is removed.

Here's the thing. If you're not using the processing power or battery, I can't imagine that the power to make and transmit video on a phone is much different from that of any other security cam. Thermal mass and surface area may be though.

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: SumpChump
Originally Posted By: itguy08
Why would it be an issue? They are on all the time anyway. I can count on one hand the #'s of times I've turned my phone off in the last 5 years. Usually airplane mode or silent is all that is needed.

The only issue I could see would be if the battery or charging circuit failed and the battery exploded. But the same could be said for anything plugged into an outlet. Something could fail and catch fire.


Oh I was thinking the constant and heavy wifi transmission load might overheat it after 5days.
You are correct, transmitters in the Gig frequency range are not particularly efficient, 50% would be good.

 

[Andrew1972]

Google Hangouts(video chat) on my iPhone 4s made it VERY hot. I'd never leave it running like that.

On my iPhone6 it barely gets warm running same app although it munches data and battery at a high rate.

 

[BearZDefect]

I don't know the answer but consider:

- Our phones may always be "on" but they are asleep, running in a very low power state. This is not the same as running processor cores actively.

- Viewing Youtube is decoding streaming video, which is designed to be easy and power efficient on the CPU/GPU.
If you are capturing video with the camera and encoding it for transmission I suspect there is much more processing involved.

And there is the continuously busy wifi transmission as SumpChump pointed out.

But if the unit has a metal case for heat dissipation and has free airflow around it, I imagine it would be fine. Of course it would have to be plugged into a power supply.