You will never get continuous recording on the size of battery and recharge speed of the panel. Electronic Math’s will never add up on that one. Everyone tries but it’s as simple as the camera is not built (or spec’d) for that. Events only is the way to go for these.
I had that particular camera (birdfeeder) setup to the 1 min cooldown. Simply because of so many birds.
All my other BCP’s are set to 5 min video with no cooldown. They have TEMU solar panels (about $4 each) that work great and keep them charged. Some days I get about 5 or 6 events (animals) but other than that… not much.
I have the cameras tuned for distance and sensitivity as needed. I use Detection Zones if they are looking at trees or bushes that blow in the wind to exclude that as well.
If I could swing it… I would have V4’s for all my outdoor cameras (best camera Wyze makes). This would solve all the issues with power and continuous recording.
But as it stands, the BCP’s are great for spots where power isn’t available, but WiFi is.
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@Thanatos63,
@Earl.Automation is spot on.
The following is only for a bird Feeder solution. YMMV.
I’ve spent way to much time and disposable income trying to get a v4, on hand solar panels and power banks to run without intervention for a long time. The best I ever got was a week.
About a month ago I put the v4 aside and replaced it with a WBCP. With the camera set to events only I expected it to stay at 96 - 100%. It did.
I ran this way for a week or so and had non stop birds. I was happy and so was better half.
But not one to leave well enough alone I wanted to see the birds land on the bird feeder perch. The only way would be to run the camera in continuous mode.
I was not in the mood to revisit external batteries or power banks.
Then I started exploring what if I turned the camera off for certain times a day. Since this was a bird Feeder and not mission critical I turn off the camera from 9pm until 4am. Also from 10am until 2pm.
Unlike powered cameras that do not really turn off when turned off the WBCP actually has a low power mode when turned off. I have not measured the power in this condition but it works.
Bottom line. The bird Feeder has been running in continuous mode for over a week. By noon it is at 100%. By end of day it’s at 80%.
I am now able to catch the birds flying in.
P. S. Full disclosure. I did replace the little 5watt wyze solar panel with a 4 panel array (it claims 30 watts. I’ve measured 10 watts).
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