I’m trying to get better outdoor coverage on my property. Even with 2 bars reception my Battery Cam Pros are completely draining the battery in 48 hours with zero events recorded. Is there a fix for this?
By chance do you have the SD card set to “Continuous“? Usually it will drain the battery within 10 hours. If so set it to “Events Only”.
With no events recorded and the SD card set to “Events” only the battery should last months. For reference I have a pro that lasts 4 months. But there is only 1 event per day.
How old is the battery? The pro has only been out for ~2 1/2 years. If your unit is that old then it’s possible the battery is depleted.
How long does it take to recharge the battery. I haven’t experienced it with Wyze units but in the past when a phone battery was end of life it would discharge and charge in a very short period of time.
I have 3 pros surrounding our property. I did have one unit fail about 6 months ago. The symptom was odd. The unit would not go into low power mode. It always was drawing 2-3 watts. As a result the battery would drain in hours. It was covered under warranty and Wyze replaced it. I’m wondering if your seeing something similar. The only way to be sure is to put a USB tester on it (Drok $15) and see if it goes to a low power state (0.00v) and stays there.
Another possibility is there is a lot of movement, like a tree swaying in the wind. The camera is constantly waking up to see if it has work to do. To test this I would charge up the battery and place the unit in a room staring at a blank wall. Check it after a day or so.
Let us know what you find.
Batteries are various ages but several are brand new. Oldest is less than 6 months old. The unit does not have an SD card - at least I don’t think it does. The only thing I can think of is weak signal but the unit has 2 bars and a direct line of sight to my wifi extender/booster.
How many units are doing this?
2 of them. Both at various distances. The one worked all summer with the solar panel. I recently shut both down. I moved one to another location a little closer with direct line of sight and it shows 2 bars. I think the solar panel is bad but that doesn’t explain battery dying in 36 hours.
I wouldn’t worry about the bars. Wifi on this unit is very low power. It stays on 24/7 (at least the receiver. The unit will not respond to pings to save battery).
OK. So you have 2 units with the issue.
Just for sanity sake are you on the latest app and firmware production releases? (per the support web site)
If I can make suggestion. Charge one fully. Put it in a darkened room staring at a blank wall. Run it for your test period (2 days?).
If the battery drains in 2 days you a defective battery or camera. If the battery stays at 95% or greater then you have something in your environment that is keeping the unit from low power.
I will try this. I’ll have to start numbering my batteries. Thank you for the advice. I’ll report back. Camera number 3 that I own is working.
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It says I have the latest update when I check this on my phone. Periodically I get requests to update the firmware, which I always do.
2 cameras just drained 2 fully charged batteries overnight. I have 7 batteries total. Do you think it is possible my batteries are damaged from charging in cold weather? I am going to number my batteries and start swapping them to test this out. I moved my charger into my heated barn at 46 degrees so from now on I won’t charge below 46 degrees.
I’m no expert on lithium batteries, maybe knowledgeable. If you do some research on charging lithium batteries in freezing temps the consensus seems to be it can do permanent damage to the battery.
The low temp operating spec for the Battery Cam Pro is - 4°F. I have to believe that for Wyze to publish such a spec the camera must have a protection circuit that says “do not charge if below this temp”.
I have no way to prove or disprove this theory as freezing is a foreign word in the bay area and my better half would not like to see a camera sitting in the fridge freezer😁
Your testing with the heated barn seems reasonable.