I have multiple cams in my crawl space (rat problem). I have a wired cam and a battery cam pro that both will flash (like a blast of light) like they are picking up motion. But they don’t record anything. The other cam (wired) will pick up the blast of light from way on the other end of the crawl space. I’m completely confused. I’ve reset the cams. Restarted them. Moved them a little. And it keeps happening. Obviously worried about what’s causing the flash of light to happen (God knows what kinda animal or bug is triggering it) but also don’t understand why it’s not recording or why it’s even doing the burst of light thing.
Most of the cams have some filtering in the software to try and not trigger an event when there is just a light change, so that may be in play here.
Are you using them in night mode with IR on? What appears to be a burst of light may be a bug or spec of dust floating in front of the cam and reflecting the light back (or could even be a rat’s eye reflecting the light from far away). If you want events to trigger you can try increasing the detection sensitivity, see if that helps.
But the question is if it isn’t recording, how do you know it is happening - are you seeing it on live view?
One other possible thought. If the batteries are either low or end of life, when the spotlight comes on (which uses a lot more power than the camera), the battery voltage drops enough that the camera crashes.
Welcome to the Forum, @aromintz!
That’s one of the questions I have, too. You might have better results getting help if you can answer some questions:
- What’s your goal? What are you trying to achieve with the cameras?
- Which wired camera model(s) are you using? (Regular Cam v3 doesn’t have a spotlight, but Cam v4 and Cam OG do, for instance.)
- Are you recording to microSD? If so, then are you recording continuously or events only?
If you can fill in some of those blanks and also answer @dave27’s question about IR, then other Forum members might be able to provide some helpful settings suggestions for you to try.
Yeah title says battery cam 3, tag says battery cam pro. I’m assuming it is a battery cam but not really sure since there is no battery cam 3? Maybe running a v3 off a battery pack? Need clarification on that too.
Yeah, I kinda glossed over the “cam3” in the title. My guess is that @aromintz is using a regular Cam 3 (mentioned “other cam (wired)”) at one end of the space and a Battery Cam Pro at the other, but I also wondered about the possibility of spotlights vs. IR, which is why I tried to ask some pointed follow-up questions.
If that’s the case then we know what the burst of light may be (could be spotlight, could be the IR lights confusing each other causing each other to toggle night mode on and off). Yeah, definitely more info needed…
Actually having re-read OP post, I’m suspecting that may be exactly what it is, the IR lights turning on and off, and the cams will generally ignore that and not record it as an event.
@aromintz if your cams are aimed at each other, you need to account for the IR lights and spotlights, you may have to set only one to have the IR lights on and the rest to just be in night mode without IR lights. “Auto” night mode may not work for you as sometimes the IR light from one cam will cause others to go out of night mode.
I think this approach might have the potential to be problematic if the cameras continue to be aimed at one another. I say that because of my own experience when I first installed Video Doorbell v2.
Long prior to getting the doorbell camera, I had mounted another camera outside to provide coverage for the porch and front of the house, and this (non-Wyze) camera has its own automatic night vision mode and IR settings. When I got the Video Doorbell v2 and installed it, I initially configured it with Night Vision Mode set to Auto. The problem with that was that from the doorbell camera’s perspective, the older camera’s IR looked like a spotlight shining right at the camera, and the older camera’s view looked like the doorbell was shining a spotlight right back at it, so they were both kind of washing each other’s images out. Because I have adequate exterior lighting for the Video Doorbell v2’s starlight sensor, I set its Night Vision Mode to Off, and that solved the problem for both cameras.
In a video I recently posted, you can still see the IR of the older camera mounted under the eave even with the doorbell’s color night vision, but the glare is not nearly as severe as when the doorbell’s IR-based night vision is On. You can also see the IR from the neighbor’s garage camera across the street.
This is why I asked the first question I did: Knowing @aromintz’s ultimate goal should guide the solution.
Yup I agree, I know some here who use the external IR illuminators to eliminate the bug problem end up having their cams refuse to go into night mode (or flip in and out of it). Depends on the wavelength of the IR light. Pointing cams directly at each other can also confuse them, though likely not at the distances we’re talking about here. So OP probably needs to do some thoughts on placement and which cams (if any) use the IR lights. Trial and error.
If they are in an attic or crawlspace that never has enough light for color night vision, setting them all to night mode “on” and picking one or two cams that aren’t shining right at each other to have the IR lights enabled on might work. Or an external IR light (with all the cams set to night mode on and IR lights off). The latter being the better solution as it keeps bugs and dust from triggering the cams, but obviously more involved and an extra cost.
Thanks for all the replies. And sorry for not providing more detail in my explanation (can’t stand when people do that at work. And here I am doing it. Uggh).
I have 4 cameras in the crawl space (which is always dark). 2 battery cam pros. And 2 wire wyze cam 3s.
The way I’ve captured the “splash of light” is that the wyze cam 3 in the front of the craw space sees the burst of light (from the other cameras). And records it. But the cameras that are going off don’t record the flash.
The reason I say cameras. Plural. Is I’ve now gotten both the wired cam 3 and the battery cam pro to do it. Which to me is wild. I turned off the wired one (to narrow things down) and the cam pro did the same thing. (And the cam pro wasn’t in the crawl space when this all started. I put it in there to have another set of eyes down there).
It happened again today around 6pm.
As a new user I can’t upload videos. But I’ve saved the recordings. It’s definitely the cam like flashing bright light like an exaggerated old school camera flash.
All the cams have night vision set to auto. And the cam pros have spotlight setting to come on at sunset (I just realized that was even a setting). That shouldn’t apply in the craw space though right? Since it’s always dark?
Also these cams (outside of the last one I put in. To troubleshoot) have been down there for at least a month. And this never happened.
I do have them recording sound as a motion. That’s the only variable I didn’t include in my description And detection settings are all set to be very sensitive.
Thanks again everyone.
I think it would, but I’m just speculating, because I don’t have a Battery Cam Pro. The reason I think it could happen is because my understanding of Wyze’s “sunrise” and “sunset” settings for devices (not just cameras) is that these are determined by the time and location of your phone. I’m not sure if the darkness/light availability at the camera’s location figures into that, but I don’t have a way to test that directly. Maybe someone with a Battery Cam Pro will see this and provide some input.
If this is causing the spotlight setting to turn on, and you have night vision on all the cameras set to Auto, then even a momentary flash from the spotlight might cause the other cameras’ night vision to toggle off and on, right?
How is it that you have recordings? I haven’t seen where you said if you’re using Wyze servers (Cam Plus) and/or local (microSD) recordings, and if you’re using microSD cards, then are you capturing events only or doing continuous recording? I’m wondering if having continuous recording would help figure out what this light phenomenon is, because that would give some “pre-roll” leading up to an actual event.
I’m still confused about what’s happening here or what your goal is with the cameras, so I’m not sure what the problem is that we’re trying to solve, but if you’re saying that the crawlspace is always dark, then I think my first inclination would be to set Night Vision Mode to On so that the cameras are giving a more consistent view and unlikely to toggle in and out of that mode, and I’d also probably want to aim them so that you’re not pointing one camera’s IR lights directly at another camera’s lens. Then again, I don’t have a good concept of the physical space nor your needs here.
It is based on time, not a light sensor, so yes it still applies.
Since no event is recorded, I’m guessing you’re just seeing the camera go in and out of night mode (which will cause a brief bright full screen wash). Or possibly the IR lights on another camera going on/off when it switches in and out of night mode, which will cause a similar wash and recalibration on the other cameras when they adjust to it. No event would be recorded in either case typically.
You may need to play around with a single camera to get familiar with what each thing looks like. Set one to continuous recording, put it in a dark room, toggle night vision on and off, you’ll see the effect of that. Then toggle another camera’s IR lights on and off, see the effect of that. But generally speaking, you’re going to probably need to come up with a strategy of whether you want night vision always on (with no spotlight) or always off (with spotlights on the cams that support it). In your setup, auto is probably going to be a problem.
The only way you’d be able to use a mix of night vision, spotlight, etc would be if the cameras are not overlooking the same space or even getting more illumination when the other cameras turn on a spotlight or IR lights.
Thanks for the reply
I will try turning it from auto to night mode.
Re the goal. Well ultimate goal is to get rid of rats. But I digress. The concerning thing here is I can’t figure out what is causing the burst of flash. Would love to know if it’s a rat or a spider or something else or a flaw in the way I have the cams set up. If I could determine that it’s nothing and it’s just a side effect of the way I have them set up but there’s nothing to worry about in terms of rats, then I’m good
The cam that is capturing the burst is like 50 feet away from the other cams. So they are not facing each other.
Re the time of day, it’s intermittent. So it’s not like it happens at what should be sunset or sunrise each day. I don’t think it’s that.
I’m gonna try setting them to night mode.
Really appreciate the input.
Sorry. I don’t have the card. So the recordings are going to the cloud. 20 seconds at a time. I guess I could increase the recording time.
You’re welcome. I hope it’s helpful. I also like @dave27’s suggestions, especially…
…and…
So I think setting Night Vision Mode to On is a good start for figuring this out.
The IR can cycle on and off at any time, especially if another camera has its IR lights on (or a spotlight comes on, etc). Even just slight changes in ambient light can cause it.
I really think what you’re dealing with is just the cameras confusing each other.
I would start by setting them all to night vision and IR lights = on (not auto) and spotlight = off. Leave it for a couple of days, if you still see bursts of light, then it is something else, maybe the rats stole a flashlight . But I suspect they will stop. As long as there isn’t a ton of light in the area during the day, night vision should work fine 24 hours a day.
Then it is a matter of deciding if that black and white image is good enough for you, or if you want to attempt to use the spotlight on the cams that support it, in which case it gets a bit more complex with placing the cameras and tweaking the settings so they don’t interfere with each other.
Oops, guess I was late to the game on my reply.
Nah, it’s all good. I appreciate the information you’re providing, and I think this is the answer:
Although….
Or maybe they’re not rats at all! Maybe they’re some kind of mutant bioluminescent freaks! Must…capture…on…microSD….
Rats have been known to associate with mutant turtles.
Of course there’s always just the simple and boring explanation of ghosts.
Here is an example.