I continue to be really confused about why my outdoor cam picks up some motion, but not all the motion. I’m attaching a video of my (shared) driveway just so you can see what I’m looking at. The camera is set up over our two-car basement garage. I want to pick up motion in the entire shared driveway area , but would settle for motion in the area between the blue car at right, and the brown shed at left.
Sometimes, I get very brief captures of deliveries to that unblocked garage door, but not always. Sometimes, when I walk in front of the unblocked garage door, it catches me, but not always.
Tonight, we had a strange car pull up in front of that unblocked garage door and idle loudly there for some time - long enough that my husband went down to confront them and they pulled away shortly before that (turns out the neighbor knows them, but the neighbor’s friends are sometimes inconsiderate enough to be loud and shine lights in front of our house).
My Outdoor cam captured NONE of this - not the car, not my husband going down there, not the neighbor coming home right after this and my husband having a conversation with him in the driveway.
WHY? The “PIR area” is very small on this camera, and I’ve made an effort to angle the camera so the movements we’re concerned about are not likely to be directly toward the camera (I think I read to avoid that?). Yet - sometimes - motion is detected from the road that you can see far upper-right, in my video.
Yes, I have cam-plus and, though the continuous recording has never worked, that’s not what this problem is. I just don’t get recordings at all when there’s motion in the area that I think should be capturing motion. But, then, sometimes I do.
I’m unable to do that, right now, but I do know that the PIR zone is VERY small in relation to the whole of that driveway (doesn’t even go to the end of the shed at right, I think). But I get motion detection recordings, sometimes, from outside that zone, so I really don’t understand why sometimes I do/sometimes I don’t. And sometimes I don’t even WITHIN the PIR zone.
@p2788deal
Sorry - I shouldn’t have referred to “continuous” recording. My complaint is that I never get recordings as long as I’ve specified they could be (5 minutes) and there have been many times when I know that motion lasted longer than my recording. (This is from when I was getting recordings, regularly.) Also - I have “No cooldown” set, so it seems like there should be no recording shutoff if motion continues (rather, a new recording should start immediately).
Wrong camera for what you want but it can work if set correctly. These camera are horrible with movement straight at or away from the cam, like all PIR cams they work best when motion is side to side across the field of view. Your PIR zone ends at the red line. I suggest you turn the camera a few degrees to the left as shown by the yellow line. The field of view is quite wide, do a few degrees at a time to the left until objects crossing the yellow line get recorded. Either that or move the camera further to the right and aim it more left.
Thanks for the suggestions. I did angle the camera, though I went at about the same angle in the opposite direction. The upper right of the view is a roadway, some ways away from the camera (I’m lousy at estimating distances). That roadway is now included in the detection zone, and I left it deliberately included to test and demonstrate something.
Can you please explain the differences in “logic” of the camera in capturing events/motion in the PIR area versus in the rest of the camera view? The camera has been recording cars going by on this roadway, despite them being far outside the PIR, yet is still missing a lot of the activity that is going on inside the PIR.
I don’t understand why motion would be captured so far away, outside the PIR zone but would not be captured at various angles inside the PIR zone.
Tonight, a big truck pulled up RIGHT next to the blue car in my driveway, and it didn’t detect it. I’m tired of trying to force this camera to record what is right in front of it, and I won’t/can’t change the placement, and it’s situated so that the view is what I want to view.
In a previous comment, you said this isn’t the right camera for my situation. Any recommendations for a camera that WILL record anything anywhere in this driveway, preferably one that is wireless and solar-powered?
Sorry besides my four old battery powered cams I only have plug in powered cams like the V3, 3 Pro and V4 cams. If you have no way of getting any power to that cam location a Battery Cam Pro with a solar panel might work for you but it will cost your more money, about $90.00 for the cam, $6.00 for the solar panel plus tax and shipping. I have only one outdoor power outlet on my house but I got creative and found a way to run power from indoors to power seven cams outdoors. For my last adventure I got a flat 20 foot USB
extension cable from WYZE for $7.99. , Plugged it in indoors, removed a window screen, opened the window and ran the cable to the side of my house. Put the screen back on, gently closed then locked the window. From there I took a V4 camera outdoors, plugged it into the female end of the extension cable and mounted the camera. It works great, has a good field of view and it records everything I want to my cam plus events in addition to recording 24/7 to the SD card in the camera.
You should really look for a way to get power to that location or open your piggy bank for the Battery cam pro and solar panel. The V4 and Extension cable is probably $70.00 cheaper.
This is the newest install from the powered USB cable coming out the window.
