Baby monitor with 2 cameras but one screen - a question!

[BertieBotts]

We have an audio only monitor for our three year old, but it's really giving up the ghost and I'm not sure I trust it any more. He still wakes up a good few times a month in the night, but his bedroom is fairly far from ours and we can't hear him with both doors closed so we do still need a monitor.

Was just going to buy an additional one for using with the new baby due in a couple of weeks, but I've come across some models which have multiple cameras/microphone but just one screen and receiver module. Seems like it makes more sense in terms of practicality, but now I have a question about it:

Would this work to place one camera in toddler's bedroom, and one camera in our bedroom for the baby, bring the parent unit into living room in the evening but then move the parent unit into our bedroom when we go to bed? ie, can I just then turn off that camera/mic (so it doesn't feed back) and leave the other one running? Or is that going to totally mess up the settings?

I know for example if I turn off the audio monitor transmitter unit it causes the receiver to bleep constantly that the transmitter isn't connected. But that's a model that only has one transmitter. I have never used one which has multiple and don't know how they work.

bump

Hmm I can’t speak for all models. But the one I had, you would have to change to “single camera mode” to avoid the bleeping from the second camera being turned off. And then the next evening you’d have to change back to “two camera mode”. Which is a bit of a faff especially as it sometimes takes a couple of goes to “find” the second camera.

Argh that's annoying. It was just a sudden thought I had. Thanks - I know not all models will be the same but I thought they may be similar.

Ah hang on. I’ve just remembered that as well as switching from two camera mode to one camera mode, it was possible to just switch which camera was showing (ie have it only showing camera 1 or only showing camera 2, rather than flipping back and forth between the two). That was much quicker and less of a faff. I wonder if that would be enough to avoid the feedback issue, ie if when you go to bed you change it to just show the toddler? Not sure…

Sorry probably adding layers of confusion rather than helping here…

I’ve got another on the way. Going to buy a cheap camera I can view on my phone/iPad for the toddler (£30ish on Amazon) and use our baby monitor for the baby.

Yes but the monitor I have is worn out so I need to replace it. I could buy two audio monitors or get one with two cameras for the same price.

I had a sudden thought to download the manual and check what it says! It seems you can turn off the movement sensor and voice sensor for one camera at a time so possibly that would work.

No direct experience but I have a campark one that allows a split screen because of two cameras. I see no reason why each camera couldnt be in a different room.

Yes, I know the two cameras can be in different rooms (isn't that the whole point?)

The question is, I want to leave one camera in my own bedroom for the 3/6 month old baby (whenever we start to do "bedtime"). Then when I come to bed, bring the receiver into my bedroom so I can hear the 3yo.

Normally if you bring the receiver right up to the transmitter it causes horrible feedback, so I want to know if this will be a problem or if they tend to have a workaround built in.

Cant you just switch off the camera that'll be in your room? You can switch it off at the wall. If you're in there surely theres no need for it?

The feedback may not be an issue if you’re not right up close. I think my feedback only kicked in if the parent unit was within about 1m of the camera.

That's what I'm hoping to do Letsallscream but I then had this sudden thought will it start bleeping at me to tell me that "camera 1" is disconnected or whatever?

If I turn off the transmitter to our current audio one it bleeps at you constantly. But that might be because it's a single unit.

I think I probably would be within 1m of the camera, thinking about where we charge the current one and where the baby's cot will be. Just due to where the plug sockets are in the room.

Oh I see. On mine you can set it to pick up one or two cameras. So when you go to bed, could you set it to only pick up the camera you need? That way it wont be trying to find the one thats in your room, and telling you that theres no signal.

I'd just buy one.

Baby will be sleeping next to you for the first 6 months anyways, and by then, plus the time until baby gets here, the 3yo will he older and able to come get you if you need.

Or you can put the monitor on the landing outside both their rooms (when baby moves into their own room), and just keep the parent part with you

Yes hopefully that will work.

I think I'm just going to have to order it and try it out and if it dosn't work for what I want to do, send it back!

I'm not likely to stick to the 6 month baby by side at all times guidance. I know MN is very anxious about it, but I'm not. It wasn't around when I had my 13yo and I didn't follow it with DS2 either. We will start putting them to bed in the evening when it feels right which will probably be at some point before 6 months, and that will be in our bedroom. Longest stretch of sleep will be with us but I'm OK with that slightly elevated risk.

We live in a flat so the landing idea doesn't really work. Problem is our bedroom and DS2's bedroom are at opposite corners of the flat and the walls are really thick. Baby will be going in with toddler eventually but probably not before a year or two depending on how they sleep!

I can't remember the brand of ours (I thought Babymoov but had a quick google and didn't recognise any), but we could do this no problem. It was a one button thing to toggle between camera 1, camera 2 and dual screen. So when DH would come up to bed he would just switch to DD1's camera before coming into our room. Not a problem at all.

Ah perfect, you're the third person to mention a setting like that!