I have one of seven cameras that whether IR is on or not is completely black at night. It is mounted approximately 6 inches from another Wyze camera and is the only one having issues. It is mounted on the side of my garage in an after-market housing. The camera in question (south) and the one right next to it (north) show different areas of my yard. We have multiple motion activated lights in the backyard and the north camera picks up images with IR or without IR at night if the lights are triggered. The south camera shows only a full black frame with or without IR. The camera seems to work properly during the day. Both cameras are mounted under the eave of my garage to protect them in addition to having after-market housings.
We have attempted to view the Wyze app with both Android and iOS.
Why is this one camera doing this?
What model cam is the one that isn’t working?
The first question that comes to mind is are the IR lights energized on that cam? Under Advanced Settings, there are two tiers to Night Vision. First you turn night vision on, then separately you turn on the IR lights. On the V3 you also have a subset to that, where you choose either the ‘Far’ or ‘Near’ set of IR lights. On the affected camera, are the IR lights on, and if they are on and it’s a V3, have you tried the other IR setting (near or far)?
You said they are in an after-market enclosure. Are there any artifacts on screen, like a white fog? After-market enclosures are infamous for having little fins that extend in front of the camera’s face. These fins can reflect IR light back to the lens, typically causing a white fog to appear. The lens is sensitive to light, and will turn down the IR LEDs to compensate, reducing range. The solution to this is to put some black electrical tape on the inside of the fins to see if that helps with your fogging or range issues.
You said the picture is all-black, but if there happens to be a single bright white piece in that otherwise all-black image, then that can do the same thing – make the camera turn down the IR lights, reducing range. The solution there is to turn the camera away from the object that is reflecting IR light so well.
If none of these help you might try posting screen caps of the camera view and the camera’s Advanced Settings page.
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Camera is V2 - it’s almost like the camera’s sensors are less sensitive than they should be. Took the below photos this morning.
The top camera in this group overlaps the area for the malfunctioning one. You can see the same patio chair in both.
This last photo was was just taken.
Are the other two V3s? They would have far more sensitive starlight sensors, and thus can’t be directly compared with a V2.
Also, on the V2, I see the chairs faintly, but they seem to be illuminated from the other side of the chair. That makes it appear like the camera is not in IR mode, or if it is, the IR lights aren’t also turned on. Can you post a picture of the V2 camera’s Advance Settings page?
Also, if the lights are shown to be on there, then can you take a close look (and I mean CLOSE) at the front of the camera after dark tonight to see if any of the 4 IR lights surrounding the lens are lit? You should be able to see a very faint red glow. If you do, your face should also be bright white in the live feed, or clip you may receive. A bright white face would also indicate the lights are on, even if your eyes can’t see the red glow. Trying to determine if the lights are simply not turned on, or defective.
All of our cameras are v2.
I’m not sure how the chairs could be illuminated differently in one camera than the other when the coverage of these two cameras overlaps.
The circled portions of this last photo show where the camera views overlap.
Wow, all V2s. Okay. Something’s broke, lol.
You don’t have camera names shown, but am I to assume the following two pics show the same bad camera (first image top, second image middle)?
If so, something is very broke about the broke V2, all right. I would have jumped to maybe it isn’t switching out of night vision mode, but a daytime night vision mode pic should be FAR better than that black screen. So I can’t explain why those two photos are so different, but something appears to be terribly bad with that camera! I don’t think there is anything you can do but replace it.
I have the cameras the show the yard grouped. In the 3 frame shot - Yard over Gate over Deck
