I have a situation where I’m using a hotspot with limited data to monitor an area. I want to know about motion detected (almost all motion is just from employees and not a concern, but I want to know what time the motion was made), but I’m finding that it takes so many videos, that my data is being used too fast. If I could get a notification without video, I could just view on the app if I need to confirm.
Is there a way to get a notification of motion without it sending a video?
No. Notifications are initiated by the server, from the server, in response to uploads. They don’t come from the cam.
To get a notification, the server has to get an upload.
That is what I expected.
Is there a way to stop motion detection for, let’s say 15 min., after it sends a notification?
You tagged this thread Cam Plus Lite, so I am assuming that you have a Cam Plus Lite Compatible cam (V3 and prior) assigned to a Cam Plus Lite subscription.
Cam Plus Lite already imposes a cooldown timeout of 5 minutes between uploads events.
The only cams that are capable of setting a variable timeout cooldown between events are the Outdoor cams (battery operated) and the Doorbell Pro while on battery power.
Motion detection on\off is available as a trigger within the Wyze Rules Engine, however scheduling it on\off for a specific time in response to a motion detected trigger is not available as an action for the cams.
But, this can be accomplished with the introduction of an intermediary relay device that does have the action capability to be scheduled on\off for a specific time period. I use Wyze Plugs for this, but bulbs would work too. The Rules created to handle your scenario would look like this:
Trigger\Action Rule 1: Trigger - When Cam A detects motion, Action - Turn Plug A on for 15 minutes.
Trigger\Action Rule 2: Trigger - When Plug A Turns On, Action - Turn Off Motion Detection Cam A.
Trigger\Action Rule 3: Trigger - When Plug A Turns Off, Turn On Motion Detection Cam A.
In this scenario, a motion upload would turn the plug on which would shut down uploads. In 15m when the plugh goes off it would trigger uploads to resume.
Yes, I do have the Cam Lite version, but my cooldown appears to be less than 30 seconds. I’ll get five 20-second videos, within a few minutes. That eats data unnecessarily. I’m thinking of upgrading the cameras to the Cam V3 Pro, using the light socket plug to power them. Are you saying that the variable timeout option would not be available in this situation?
Go to the Services Tab, look at the list under Cam Plus and Cam Plus Lite and verify that your Cam is listed under Cam Plus Lite. It sounds like that cam is on Cam Plus because you are getting (a) videos longer than 12s and, (b) consecutive upload videos with no apparent cooldown. Also verify that the cam is not a new cam that may be assigned to a Cam Plus Trial period that will auto renew to monthly Cam Plus when the trial period expires.
Not going to work. (1) the Wyze Light Socket only supplies 1A. The V3Pro requires 2A. (2) The Wyze Light Socket can ONLY be controlled by the Cam V3 plugged into it. The V3 is the only cam with the firmware capable of carrying it as an accessory.
Also not a good idea if you are trying to conserve bandwidth. The V3Pro is a 2K cam so the videos uploaded are higher quality unless you purposely set the cam video quality to SD or lower which would defeat the purpose of paying twice as much for a 2K cam.
The user set Variable Cooldown is only available on the battery operated Wyze Cam Outdoor series and the Wyze Doorbell Pro which also has a battery operation mode. No other Wyze Cam has this capability as they are wire powered cams and do not need it to conserve any resources.
Have you looked at HotSpot plans with unlimited data? A slight uptick in price might be worth it to effectively monitor your a hotspot area.
Yes, the camera is listed under the Cam Lite tab. Odd that I’m getting so many videos. Even if I had the data to handle all these videos, I don’t want them. I’d like one notification per event. The rest are just an annoyance. It doesn’t seem like there is an easy way to achieve that with this system. I’ll have to check out some other brands.
I’ve had Visible - horrible service! AT&T is the only carrier that gives me good high-speed data at this location and I’m currently on their Cricket division. AT&T is literally more than twice the price and I hesitate for the one location because the data I get is fine, if I can get rid of all the unnecessary videos I get on each event.
Have you tried unassigning your cameras from Cam Plus Lite? Without a service attached to the camera, I believe you get Notifications and a snapshot (no video). An uploaded snapshot should use less data than video. An SD card could be set to Continuous Recording and could be accessed locally.
I have not tried this, but I believe this is how the Wyze cameras work without any subscription.
Unfortunately, there has always been a problem with unassigning a Cam from Cam Plus Lite within the app unless there is an available Cam Plus subscription to pull the cam off of the Cam Plus Lite Subscription. I have not read of this being solved. There have been upgrades to the subscription management UX in the web page services.wyze.com, perhaps they have integrated the capability there. 
There was an instance in the past when a firmware bug on a specific cam model created the exact symptoms you are describing on cams assigned to Cam Plus Lite.
What Firmware version is installed on the cam and what App version are you running?
Also, do you have Sound Detections enabled in the Event Recording tab? Those have their own 5m cooldown sperate from motion.
Firmware: 4.10.9.2351
App: 2.45.6 (361)
I attempted to duplicate this. I moved my PanV1 running 4.10.9.2351 over to Cam Plus Lite and produced movement in the FOV for over 10m. The cam uploaded 3 videos. One immediately after starting the test and two more at 5m intervals. I could not duplicate what you are experiencing.
Some steps you might consider taking that may reset the server connection on the cam and get its subscription features right:
Clear the App Cache, Sign Out, Force Close the App from the OS App Info UI, Unplug the Cam, Restart the Phone, Plug in the Cam after 30s or more unplugged, Log into the app, close the app and test the cam.
If that doesn’t resolve it, you may try deleting the cam and reinstalling it then testing it without a subscription before assigning the Cam Plus Lite subscription and testing.
I’m using the Pan v2. I’ve already tried force closing the app and signing out. I’ll try the rest and see what happens. Thanks for all the suggestions.
If you have Firmware Version 4.10.9.2351 you are using a Cam Pan V1.
Cam Pan V2 is firmware series 4.49.x.xxxx
Not sure if this is what you’re looking for but it sounds like you want to reduce the videos you receive? couldn’t you just make a rule that whenever the camera detects motion it takes a picture then you just have to look at the picture with the timestamp on it and not the whole video which would stay in the cloud.
All Rules are saved on and executed from the server. In order for a Rule to trigger, the cam has to upload to the server to trigger it.
With your Rule, the cam would upload a video event (Cam Plus or Cam Plus Lite) or snapshot event (no subscription) then receive an incoming data command from the server when the rule triggers to upload yet another video because the only upload Rule action available for cams is to upload a “short” 12s video. There is no option in Rules to upload a snapshot. That increases data usage instead of decreasing it.
