What’s the possibility of adding a set of stop limits to the rotation of the pan cam. Both of my cameras tend to turn past the viewing point. And look at the wall. One is mounted upside down above a door jamb and it will turn past open viewing and look at the door casing. Which then triggers the IR and causes the camera to stare at the jamb as if it sees motion
[Moderator Note: This is now a merged topic]
If your handy and don’t mind voiding any remaining warranty you could add stops yourself relatively easily. A little glue and some scrap plastic or even wood would work.
I was looking for something software based. Sort of like the pan scan points. But more to tell the motor control. This is as far as you can go. I’ll take it into consideration. But I don’t want to hurt the motor by continually stopping it when it want to turn that way. Thanx for the reply
PFD
That might make an excellent #wishlist item if it’s not already. At the moment I don’t think it’s possible other than possibly by defining a series of way points. But that would only affect Pan Scan. Motion tracking will follow the motion to the physical stops.
If I understandyour problem correctly, a workaround might be:
Thank you for your input. But I use one cam to cover two rooms and a hall. If it doesn’t pan all four positions then someone could enter either room through a window(rear of house) and never be picked up as motion. Picture a V with the middle being blacked out as it is walls. And the cam being on the tip of the V. I posted somewhere that the cam is mounted at the top of a door jamb. It actually between two doors
PFD
You shouldn’t do that. The camera will stop but the motor won’t. It will eventually strip the gears or fry the motor.
Possible, but it has stops already built in. And sure enough the camera stops and the motor keeps going for a second or two. Has not hurt mine any yet.
The motor stops after a second or two because the software knows the camera has reached the designated stop.
If you block the movement early the motor is going to run until it thinks it has reached the real stop.
The motor controller may have a failsafe to stop the motor if it jambs.
The one I modified runs no longer than an unmodified one. But it saves me staring at a wall. So far, almost a year, no issues. Maybe I got a super robust one? But hey, at that it price I would be happy to replace it every year.
Oh, I didn’t know you actually did it.
It must have a protection circuit to cut it off before it burns out.
I may try that then. One of mine looks at a wall fairly often.
Oh that sound promising. I may try something with clamps or something removable just in case.
I honestly think it could be something written between the app and firmware. But your input seems a good choice at this point seeing I’m paying for complete motion. And a lot of it is video of my door jamb. Lol. Thanx PFD
PFD
I know I grabbed my cam as it unexpectedly began to rotate. And it really didn’t like it. That’s why I worry about setting blocks to stop it. I’m sure it’s something that can be software controlled. May be a pain to write the code with the variables needed. But the cam can’t see motion staring at the door jamb. Yet it luvs to do just that. Lol. Thanx folks. PFD
PFD
They’ve written code for programmed waypoints so programming defined stop points should be something they could do.
Yes. That’s my point. The cam knows its 0 point. And can be programmed to 4 way point in pan scan. So this far 180° to 5° and 180° to 360° can’t be that hard.
Next I’ll be asking why my cam luvs my windows. Other then the possible thermo content. There is no motion. Yet it luvs my windows too. Lol. Thanx for the back and forth. Nice to know. Someone heard me. Lol. PFD
PFD
I actually tried external mechanical stops and it didn’t work. You can read about my experiment above. But I wouldn’t worry about stripping gears or burning the motor out. Those stepper motors aren’t strong enough to strip gears, even little plastic ones. And the way stepper motors work keeps them from burning out.
The short story about my failed attempt is - There’s no feedback on the position of the camera back to the controller. The only way the controller knows where the camera is pointing is by counting the steps as it rotates the camera. It may sense the end positions, but that’s it. So if you externally limit movement, the controller is still counting steps as it tries to rotate the camera. The camera doesn’t move, but the controller doesn’t know that. So when it tries to return to the home position, it just remembers the steps it took previously and then counts the same number in the opposite direction, overshooting the old home direction.
Thanks. Good info and saved me from climbing up to my garage roof. 
Please add this feature. Simple:
This will make the camera a lot more useful.
It’s been over 2-1/2 years since this wishlist item, so do you know if there’s been any more thought on direction/motion limits on the Cam Pan? Th’s been a bunch of discussion on it, but that stopped last year. However, none of that discussion involved anyone from Wyze themselves.
A recap - It seems it’s a popular request, and even needed by those who want motion tracking at night. Several people mentioned that the camera loses it’s home position while tracking IR reflections on the back wall and often ends up pointing at the back wall until reset by the user.
Mechanical stops don’t work. The camera tracks position by counting steps of movement, If you mechanically force a stop position, the camera keeps counting the steps that don’t end up moving the camera.
I think Wyze is done developing the Pan. It’s using V2 technology at this point. If anything, they might be developing a V3 version of it that will hopefully have these features.