I recommended Wyze to a friend. He purchased several Version 4 cams. 2 out of five are very unreliable because of WiFi connections issues (flashing blue LED on cameras). I have a communications electronics background and checked the WiFi signal at each location. I read on Wyze somewhere that a WiFi signal of -75 dbm or better should work. I am reading -66 dbm & -63 dbm at these locations. I also swapped a couple of the cams around, but no joy. So I loaned him a couple of version 2 cams and they are working.
Are these Version 4 cams bad, or does this versions WiFi communications just suck?
V2 cams use a base station, perhaps the base has been placed closer to the cams than the router was with the v4?
With your comms background I’m assuming you know that signal strength at the cams is not a good indicator since A) the signal has to get back from the weaker wifi in the cams to the router - so you need to look at signal strength at the router too and B) signal quality is just as important, if not more important, than strength. If there is no bandwidth available or a lot of noise (as is often the case with 2.4ghz) the strength is meaningless.
I’ve never had a v2 but my OG, v4, and Panv3s all have pretty similar wifi performance and I’ve been surprised how well they work in a couple fringe areas (one of which fluctuates between -70 and -75 at the router). However my wifi is very heavily tuned and tweaked to squeeze what I can out of the 2.4ghz band.
Or the other option is just that since the cams connecting to the base station works much better than the ones connecting direct to the router, the router may just have lousy wifi (which is often the case with ISP supplied devices).
These are V2 indoor cams, just using temporarily for testing.. So no base station at his place. But they are working. Not so for the V4 cams at these locations.
I do have a base-station at my place. I have asked Wyze for the signal specification. These version 4 cams are clearly not working at -70 dbm. Maybe he got a bad batch. Or maybe, V4 cams are more sensitive to noise. Will try changing channels.
Your post is tagged with v2 outdoor. What v2 indoor? Panv2?
Are the cams mounted in the same spot? Is the router Wifi6 or newer (the v4 supports Wifi6 on 2.4ghz which in theory should actually improve things but depending which features are enabled, can actually cause issues).
v4 also needs more bandwidth than Panv2 (assuming that’s what you’re talking about). Again, get RSSI out of your head, it is mostly meaningless and is just a starting point, and you need to check the signal at the router too as that’s likely lower than the one at the cam. I’m assuming you’re also measuring the signal at the cam using a laptop or cell phone which is not a good comparison.
These are V2 indoor cams, just using temporarily for testing.. So no base station at his place. But they are working. Not so for the V4 cams at the same locations.
I do have a base-station at my place. I have asked Wyze for the signal specification. These version 4 cams are clearly not working at -70 dbm. Maybe he got a bad batch. Or maybe, V4 cams are more sensitive to noise. Will try changing channels.
Thanks, I changed the tag to V1/V2 cams. His router doesn’t support WiFi 6 unfortunately. Yeah, the signal may not be getting back to the router. So the V2 cams maybe transmitting at a little higher power. Will try to measure that too.
I mean I hate to say it but the tech when that cam was made was more robust (and expensive). But it could also just be the larger size allowed a better antenna. The price of an IOT 2.4ghz chip is probably under $1 these days and who knows what antenna (possibly even an SMT one) is being paired with it.
Not supporting 6+ isn’t necessarily a bad thing, actually potentially rules out a couple things. Though it could also potentially get slightly better signal to the v4s since they support it.
Like I said my earliest cam is the Panv3 (or maybe the OG, they’re around the same time) and I also have a v4, all seem about the same wifi wise to me and a couple have surprised me that they actually work where they are. When the furthest one goes below about -70 it can start skipping and delaying a bit, and after -75 it gets really bad. My area is pretty congested on 2.4 but I’ve also done a lot of tuning, so probably a relatively good 2.4ghz environment. So I’d go with -70 being around the outer limit of these cams for most people, and that’s a best (or worst) case scenario, with some needing stronger signal due to interference.
If you can view the RSSI in the router with both v2 and v4 online and in about the same spot, should be easy to confirm if the “raw power” is different or not.