My 2 new cams lost over 70% of their battery overnight. It is I am very frustrated that the ad says it will last 6 months, but as I read I have to set it to event only recording, don’t use the spotlight, or IR lights, and not have too many events. It remains to be seen what my battery life will be with all the promised features turned off. It is very frustrating that I expected to get months and only get hours out of the battery.
Welcome @newton2 , sorry to hear you are having this issue.
I have 3 Battery Cam Pro’s (BCP) deployed and have experienced great battery life. Just have a few questions:
- Do you use or have Cam Unlimited or Cam Plus?
- Seeing you have an iOS Device, can you provide the app version you are using
- Can you also provide the Firmware and Plugin version of your BCP?
I am posting my settings so you can compare them to yours:
Detection Settings
- Detection Zone: Off
- Detection Distance: 30ft
- Detection Sensitivity: 6
- Motion Tagging: On
Event Recording
- Motion: On
- All Events: Selected (I have Cam Plus)
- since I have Cam Plus, I also tagged Person, Pet, and other Motion
- I set my Notification to Person and Pet
- Recording Cooldown: 15 s
- Maximum Video Length: 2 min
Notifications
- Notifications; On
- Events to notify on: Person and Pet
- Low Battery: On
Advanced Settings
- I have an SD Card in place. I record on Events Only
- Night Vision Mode: Auto
- Power Savings: On
- Camera Status Light: Off
- Night Vision IR: On
- Time Stamp: On
- Wyze Logo: On
- Recording Resolution: 2K
- Record Sound: ON
With these settings, I aerage 4 to 5 months, but it will depend on the activity you have in the location.
I have recently purchased a SOlar Panel from Wyze, for one of my BCP’s and it maintains 98-100%. Excellent addition to the camera.
Yes
iOS app 2.50.7
I do not use cam + or unlimited
I thought the continuous recording to a sd card would be sufficient for my needs and not have my feeds has exposed to hackers.
All my firmwares are up to date according to the app.
Detection zones.
I need the detection zones to narrow out the plants and trees. And I need it on so I know when someone is in my driveway
Event recording
I do not have cam plus.
So without being able to continuous recording to the SD card I am at a loss and do not have access to the rest of the setting for length and cool down – another disappointment
Advanced Settings
SD events only – would rather be continuous so I can manually look before and after if there is an incident.
Night vision OFF – turned IR and NV off to conserve battery. If I get better battery life I will turn back on.
Power savings on
Status light off
Night Vision IR - off again will try if I get better battery life night is a black screen without it
Time stamp ON
Wyze logo off it may cover something I might need to see
Recording 2k
Sound not sure
I will see how long the battery lasts with the “dumbed down” settings and add what I want back in, I will be very unhappy if I cannot get the same battery life out of this as the older cube shape one I have to bring in to charge.
[Mod Edit] Personal Information Removed
Continuous recording on a Battery Camera will drain the battery quickly. If you want continuous recording, you could hook up a power supply or solar panel (maybe).
I would be glad to turn on Continuous Recording on my BCP which has the Solar Panel and see how long the Battery lasts. If you would like.
Sure if you are willing to test it . it will be an option besides extra batteries and frequent ladder climbs.
ON ANOTHER observation and suggestion the base mount is weak and not able to hold the cam in place during battery change out. I could not get it tight enough, and after changing the battery the aim changed. I will probably lock it down as tight as I can and epoxy it solid in the short term.
[Mod Edit] Removed Personal Informatioj
Having the IR on at night would be a great plus too to check with the solar panel.
[Mod Edit] Removed Personal Informatioj
Will do both for you. Will turn in continuous tonight and see what happens.
Also Note: I am a Forum Moderator and not a Wyze Employee. For suggestions and Wish Items, I would go here, search, and add it to the list or new a entry if one has not been found: Wishlist - Wyze Forum
Also, Please do not include personal information in your responses. This is a public forum and we try to ensure user information is not publically available.
EDIT
Sorry for the delay, I wanted to do some testing before posting. I did turn on Continuous recording and made sure the Solar Panel was functioning. Throughout the day, it seemed to be doing fine, although the battery percentage did not seem to increase. I then made sure I used a Fresh Battery and let it continually record overnight. THe Battery percent wen down to 55% and then seemed to go down to 31% later that morning. When the sun came up, it charged to 42% and then sat there without budging for the rest of the day.
So what this is indicating to me is the following:
- The Solar Panel is not enough to ensure the battery will charge while using continuous record.
- Once the sun goes down, there will be significant drain until the sun comes up. Wyze has indicated that you can expect about 10 hours of battery life when continuously recording and solely on battery. I recall reading this.
- You will need a regular power source if you plan to utilize continuous recording to SD Card.
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It seems solved! Buth my new cams are on event only now, IR is on and on auto and the batteries are holding.
When I received the cams I plugged the batteries in out of the box and left them until I had time to mount the cameras a couple days later. Having the recording to continuous apparently drains the battery in a matter of hours. Now that they have been recharged from a nearly depleted state they are working more as expected.
I will likely get at least one spare battery so I can just swap them out and not have to have the camera down for the long recharge time and not have to take a ladder out and climb twice.
The old cube shaped outdoor cam in inside my metal garage and is watching the door and an thermometer, it is dark so IR is on 24/7 it is holding like a champ. Despite it being 102f inside at mid day.
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