Is it OFF or is it ON

Cameras
1

On the new AP v 1.4.56 there is a function to turn the camera off but when I touch the camera it is as HOT when is OFF as when is ON, what gives, is the APP reporting something that is not true?

Flaco

2

Two thoughts… How long had the camera been off. It could take a long time for heat to dissipate. Second, there is no such thing as completely and totally off. Since the camera can be turned back on via a remote command, it continues to ping the servers. Some heat would still be generated by the processor performing these tasks.

3

OK here are some results done with an Infrared Digital Thermometer

Room ambient temperature 79º
Countertop temperature 79º

With Camera ON
Temperature at the top toward the rear of the camera box 107.4º
Transformer case temperature 85.6º

One hour later

With Camera OFF
Temperature at the top toward the rear of the camera box 108.6º
Transformer case temperature 85.8º

If the object of the camera ON/OFF was to conserve energy it fail miserably, I just don’t see what was the intention for adding this feature other than privacy.

 

 

 

4

I can’t speak to the heat output, but I did put a meter on a camera and your heat measurements are consistent with watt I found (pun intended). While live streaming and recording the SD card, the camera used 2.1 watts. In OFF mode, the camera used the exact same 2.1 watts.

The intent of the OFF mode is to

  1. Stop any live streaming or playback in progress
  2. Stop generation of cloud alerts for motion, sound, smoke and CO
  3. Stop notifications due to #2
  4. Stop recording to the SD card (live or time lapse)
  5. Stop any motion tracking or patrol by Pan Cam
  6. Turn off night vision if it was on
As I mentioned above, to allow internet on/off control, the firmware must still be monitoring the internet connection. So the camera is never as "off" as if you were to pull the power. Saving the 2 watts clearly is not the goal of the off mode.
5

As far as:

  1. Turn off night vision if it was on

On my v2 it seems that even in the OFF mode, the IR LEDs still emit a red glow in low light, and the IR LEDs still seem to turn off/on based on ambient light. Not sure if this is the intent?

6

Of all the enhancements users have requested this one has to be one of the most useless one, just about everything it does can be done in the settings of the device by just turning individual features off and on.

For starters how about adding a muting function for shared cameras or adding time to cloud storage even if it means cutting down on the storage days or many other suggestions that won’t add to the manufacturing cost of the camera but will make the camera more useful.

Flaco

7

tng… you are right. It was an oversight and will be corrected in a future update.

8

Flaco… yes, you can accomplish those things individually, but some users find it convenient to be able to do it with one easily accessible switch.

The ability to set permissions for shared users, which would include temporarily stopping access, is being planned for down the road. I have been told it’s going to be a while before it’s implemented though.

Increased cloud storage, either as a paid option, or as a tradeoff for storage days is also being considered.

I’ll add your votes for both of these to Wyze’s feature request tracker.

9

RickO

Do you think they will keep the free cloud option if they start offering a paid option?

10

Pure speculation on my part, but I think they would since it’s a major selling point of the camera. I would think the paid option would be an upgrade to the free cloud to increase the clip length and/or reduce the cool down period.