Until something is implemented in the software/firmware, what would happen if I were to mechanically limit the travel? I’m sure I can rig something up to keep the camera from panning further than I would like. That would only be for left/right movement, but that’s good enough for me.
It sounds like the camera uses a stepper motor, which would make the most sense anyway. Because of the way steppers operate, those motors are usually not damaged if you prevent motion. But the linkages could theoretically not be strong enough to hold up to the torque.
Another thought is the way it “remembers” the home position. If it’s counting steps, then that counter would count steps that didn’t move the camera. But if it has a sensor to detect its angle, then it wouldn’t care about the step count.
Does anyone know if either of these is a problem? Or could I make up a simple bracket to stop the motion?
One additional comment - The camera sometimes forgets its home position if it sees lots of movement. It does that herky-jerky movement tracking, back and forth, then gets confused and points at my wall. This is during the day, so not an IR reflection problem (which is the reason I want to limit motion).
Thanks for the response. Very well stated. I agree with your observations but as you said, I think the solution is a bit more problematic or they would have fixed it by now. One suggestion that may help you, If you go to a specific camera, then go to “settings”, then go to “advanced settings”, then go to “motor controls”, you can change the rotation speed of the PanCam motor. I have mine set to 3 (out of 9) and the speed of the motor is much more smooth. Hope this helps and thanks for the candid response.
Thanks. I did read somewhere that the motor speed only applied to manual rotation and not motion tracking, this was a while ago so I’m not sure if that’s still the case but here’s the post.
It would be nice to be able to set boundaries or rotation limits on the Wyze Cam Pam when motion tracking is on.
Everytime an object moves around a corner the camera follows it so far all I get is a video of the wall behind the camera. If boundaries could be set while motion tracking is on it would allow the camera to stay on the area i want recorded rather than a wall showing me nothing useful.
I’m replying to my own comment/question just to fill in on my “research”. I tried asking customer support about mechanically limiting the rotation myself, but never got an answer, other than modifying my camera would void the warranty. I even drew a picture of my method, (more of a cartoon, really :-)), which was to mount a bracket to the wall behind the camera that would have arms to stop the camera from rotating too far in either direction.
So I’m going to try this out. I really don’t think I’ll damage the camera, But if I do, then I’ll just use that as a $35 lesson.
My only concern is that the motor will lose its place if limited, but then again if pan and scan is on maybe the limits could be the end points of pan and scan so it would “self align”. I may try this as well.
Why hasn’t this been fixed yet? It’s been an issue since the Pan Cams shipped. The tracking is useless unless this bug is addressed. How about a Wyze engineer post on this forum and tell us what the hold up is? How much longer do CUSTOMERS have to wait?
Perhaps this has been covered but I could not find a way to search the forum.
I have set up (and fixed) my PanCam features repeatedly. 2 things have happened more than once; #1 - My set viewing area slowly changes, and #2 - My 2 Way Point settings have come ‘undone’ more than once.
HOWEVER, (#3) the real problem is that both of my PanCams seem to insist on going far past the Way Point settings. Even to facing almost behind themselves to the wall. It’s like they get overzealous and confuse themselves.
If the Way Point function had a hard stop built in that the camera could not ignore it would be very helpful and the cam would ‘recover’ and continue doing its job a lot quicker.
For a time I thought this behavior was due to security and/or porch lights being triggered.
But it will do it in daylight when neither are on.
Having said that #4 - I think it might be a good thing to have a way to tell the Pan Cam to ignore a light coming on at a specific place in its view. The security light is very sensitive and the Pan Cam immediately goes to it and could miss the person who triggered it as they go to the door or window because the light has its attention.
Crap! Now I need to follow through with my idea . I had actually given up on this and turned off the motion-following. It still covers a wide enough area, but not as far as I would have liked.
But in the team spirit, I’ll try to rig something up and see how it goes.
Well it has been over a year the you “have been working on that” - any progress???
Can after over a year will finally admit that you (Wyze) is NOT going to fix this Jerky cam ???
IS there a way to completely turn off ALL motion on the cam and make it just be a fixed view cam ???
Hi there,
If you go to the camera that has the PanCam while you are holding your phone in portrait mode, click on the “More” button on the right below the picture. Under this section Turn off “Pan Scan” and “Motion Tracking” and your camera will then be fixed just like a Wyze Cam.
Hope this helps.
That’s how I’ve got my Pan Cam set up. The nice thing is it’s still more than a fixed Wyze Cam. It’s normally fixed, but you have the option to move it around remotely if you happen to catch something and want to follow it. You can also remotely change where it’s aiming if you think a different area needs to be monitored for a while.
I’m disappointed that I can’t use the motion following functions, but at $35, it’s still worth the extra (to me, anyway).
OK, I finally got around to it. I kept it simple for this try - I just tied strings to the mounting bracket and taped the other ends to the camera body. The lengths were set so that the camera couldn’t go too far in either direction. The result??? FAIL!
It looks like the camera tries to keep track of the attempts to pan, even if there’s a physical limit (my strings). I set the camera “home” position, and it was looking fine. When I pointed the camera anywhere else, it returned to that home view in 15 seconds - unless I tried to move past the physical limits.
Whenever I tried to point it past those limits, after 15 seconds the camera would “return” too far in the opposite direction, and stay there. This happened consistently. I would recenter the home position, only to see the camera change the home position if I tried to have it go too far.
So I’m going to take the strings off and keep it in stationary mode. At least I’ll catch most of the movement in the area I’m interested in.
By the way, here’s my theory on why it’s behaving as it does. The motors in these cameras are very likely stepper motors. You can control those types of motors to a fine degree. The controller basically sends out “step pulses” in a direction, and the motor will only rotate that number of steps.
I’m guessing that, to keep costs low, the designers don’t have any position sensors and rely only on counting step pulses. They might have sensors at each end of travel, but that’s it. I know I get an “end of travel” message (or something similar) when I try to point the cameras too far.
When I tried to point the camera past my artificial stops, the controller was sending out the steps and counting them, but the camera couldn’t move. So when it came time to return home, it sent out the same number of steps in the opposite direction, which pointed the camera past the original home position.
. I had actually given up on this and turned off the motion-following. It still covers a wide enough area, but not as far as I would have liked.