I am experiencing a loud machine-grinding like noise coming from the speaker on a V4. This noise cycles. I does it about 5-7 seconds (no, didn’t time it.) Then a 2-3 second wait and repeats. No stopping it without removing power.
This is the second camera in about 5 months to do this. I simply pulled and stopped using the V4 the first time. This is a newer one. About two months old. It’s about 9:30 pm where I am. No one is roaming the street or sidewalk. No one for it to detect. Lucky me. Its hidden inside an outside lamp mounted about 8’ off the ground. No one knows it there, and that’s the objective. Its been fine for months. And tonight along with two other brand new V4’s I decided to change the factory settings. Set up detection and event recording. Adjust some sensitivity and volume scale. Turned off Wyze logo - minor stuff like that.
Had it not been for a close by Echo Show 5, I would not have heard the noise. Soon as I did, I suspect it was a camera. Trotted the 30 feet to the steet and found it making a 80+ db noise that could wake the neighbors.
Okay, that’s the problem. I reset all settings and restarted the camera. Same thing.
So, I pulled a ladder, removed the camera and brought it inside. Interestingly, about a week ago, my curiosity had got the best of me, and I had opened a dead V3 to see what it looks like. So, tonight, I know what I am looking for before I opened the V4. Took less than 10 to open it, spot it, and unplug the speaker. 3 minutes to button it up. Now, no sound.
That’s the problem and how I fixed it. Anyone else have this happening?
Nothing like that on my v4 that’s been running around 6 months now.
Perhaps it is overheating inside the enclosure you have it in (especially with the heat of the light) and burning out the little transistor that drives the speaker. When those transistors start to fail you start getting all kinds of nasty noises (at least in regular audio amps, don’t see why it would be any different in a low power amp like would be in these). In larger speakers with more power, it is often enough to blow the speaker itself too.
Other possibility is it is just some sort of interference, possibly electrical. Try it inside, and use a different/known good adapter and cable just to rule those out.
I have something similar happening on a Duo Cam Doorbell sometimes after someone presses the button (rings the doorbell). It will suddenly make that noise to people really loudly. Been waiting to hear someone else say something.
I haven’t noticed it on my V4’s though.
Nope. Nice try. Plenty of air. I’ve had one there for over 5 years. Started with V2
Another one started this morning. I even can tie when to a trigger. I have it in my newspaper tube at the street. The newspaper boy put the paper in the tube and the camera “saw” it and the bold buzzing start. I rushed down and unplugged power in the garage. This is a camera setup brand new just Monday.
I can narrow the cause a bit more, but giving some history. Have 4 V4’s all relatively new (nice black ones), deployed 2 four months ago. And two more just recently.
I started because I made factory setting changes. First I just put them out there. Didn’t bother to set detection zones or increase sensitivity or volumes. BUT after I did, that’s sets the buzz to occur. I believe the trigger is detection of person, vehicle, pet, package, something. But in the one in the newspaper tube, it had to be person or package, because the newspaper boy’s hand didn’t even make it to the video, before the newspaper blocked its view.
There’s a V4 setting to restart, but also one to “Reset Services”, too. But it does not reset to the factory settings. So, even with reset button, or if you press the Reset button under the camera and add it back (without deleting it), it still retains those changed settings. And I don’t know which setting change set this up to buzz.
So, I am back to opening the camera, voiding the warrantee, to unplug the speaker. And I wiil to prevent the chance this occurs again. This morning, I will open that new one in the newspaper tube to unplug its speaker too. Sadly. I know now, I can’t trust innocently changing the settings can trigger this serious unforgiving noise. I will open and disconnect the speaker where necessary for my benefit.
Surprised no one has reported this before. I don’t bother reporting issues to Wyze Support. Seen too much frustration by other customers here.
I know people have mentioned the black cameras can get very hot in the sun and recently someone mentioned theirs fried where a white one in the same place is fine. Just a thought.
The “reset services” just re-establishes the link to the Wyze server. If you want to delete your settings, first delete the camera from the app, which should also factory reset the cam (but do a push button factory reset to be safe). Then re-add the cam with a slightly different name. You can name it back later if you want. From my experience that wipes all settings except if the cam is in a cam group, it will be put back into the group, I think it does that based on MAC address. But everything else will be wiped to factory.
Do you have “motion warning” enabled? I wonder if it is trying to play a sound when it detects motion but the speaker or amplifier is damaged.
Nope, nice try. Not in the sun.
No, did not have motion warning enabled. These are hidden. Sort of defeats the purpose of a hidden camera announcing “Hey, yo being recorded”.
And just now, a third V4 that has been setup for months started this buzzing. Its inside the house looking out. This only started after I tweaked settings. Though I have turned everything off, and down to 0 in adjustable scales, it will still do it.
And while I am on the subject, anyone look at the Spotlight settings on the V4? Nice, cute that it has the internal spotlight. But you can’t turn it off. There’s no disable setting. Either Automatic, or manual. And if you are not careful, its going to turn on when the schedule says. So, I again, have to have another work around for Wzye - I set the schedule to 12:01 pm to 12:02 pm. So now, it can turn on only for one minute at noon.
I can trust them. So, I will do again to the V4s what I did to my V3 Pro. Black tape over the spotlight in two-three layers to prevent the light from shining.
Attitude isn’t necessary, I’m making some suggestions of things to consider.
Manual means disabled unless you tap the spotlight button on the live stream or set an automation to turn it on. Mine is set to manual with the default sunset to sunrise (that should be greyed out, doesn’t have any impact) and does not come on unless I tell it to.
Considering multiple of your cams are doing this and nobody else is reporting it with the v4, there must be some common denominator. Could be something like a power wiring issue, or it could be some old glitch stuck in your account somewhere, but I can’t imagine what would cause that. Try the delete and factory reset process, start with the default settings and change one thing at a time until you figure out what is causing it.
I’ve had a Floodlight Pro and a V4 do this today. It seems like it might be related to linking to Amazon. If the kids request the camera multiple times from different devices it seems to trigger it.
The only thing that’s changed for us recently is getting more Alexa devices.
Someone just mentioned in another thread their doorbell doing this when being viewed from Alexa. Wondering if @Sam_Bam has them linked to alexa or not, may be a common factor here.
All my Wyze products, sensor, Lights, Sense Hub are linked to Alexa. After a dozen Wyze V4s and V3s rotate through the Echo shows.
The fourth V4 that has been purchased in the past 4 months started the buzzing. That’s now both the two that arrived Monday from Amazon. Just for giggles, I took one ‘old’ one and now, one new one and factory reset them, new names and deleted the old entry. Then went in to settings and insured stuff is turned off. no detection zones, 0 sensititivity. Put SD cards in to record events, and set spotlight to manual with 12:01-12:02 pm for when. Nuthin’ going on. Now we will see if it starts again. These two are located where, don’t really care if they are heard, but also taped over the sound exit.
The other two, (one older and one new) won’t get factory resets now, but have had all settings changed like these - AND won’t be making any noise anyway. These two, I opened and disconnected the speaker interally, permanently. And distrust the spotlight so taped over it with black tape. These are hidden.
Still have 3 V4’s that have not given me a problem. And two V3’s with no problem. I’ve seen this before, more than a year ago with a V3. I know they are capable. I replaced it and lost track where it is.
I also have about 7 Eufy’s that record to a quasi-NAS. And 5 Blink hidden. Layered recording. Partly for fun and to see what is possible, but still useful, with overkill.
Been tinkering with Home Assistant, where the Eufy’s and Blink’s work without effort. Wyze is absent Home Assistant.
5-6+ years ago, I bought my first V1’s because Wyze was working on a NAS for their eco-system. After years they gave up and I didn’t lose interest. I don’t want my "stored video’ to be handed over to the police without my consent. Ring and Blink, and Nest do it, without a fight, sometimes under court order and what we hear, sometimes without. I am not going to help them. Police Want Access
It is starting to seem like this is an issue with Echo Shows (or maybe just the Alexa link in general). On the ones you just reset, are those not linked to Alexa now? If the problem doesn’t come back, but then you link them and it does, that seems like a smoking gun. Maybe some odd combination of having alexa and one particular setting (since you said it only started when you changed settings).
FYI for the manual spotlight, you can ignore the time, the default of sunset to sunrise is fine. That really should be greyed out or not even there, it does nothing in manual mode.
Of course the question is, is this a problem with the Wyze Skill, Alexa’s software/hardware, or the 3rd party link between Wyze and Amazon… (3rd one seems unlikely, that’s just communications, shouldn’t be getting modified in the path).
First, thanks for your interest and your reply. Always, always good to have another set of eyes reading and thinking. I DO appreciate it.
I don’t understand what you mean by linking a Wyze cam to a Show. I do use routines to “show” a camera on the screen. But I have now had 4 cams make this buzzing noise and one doesn’t display on any of the 6 shows. (2 5", 4 8").
I’ve been displaying Wyze, Tapo, Blink Mini and Eufy cams on Shows for years now. One thing, that I have figured out, best results are Echo Show Gen 1. Gen 2 don’t work the same. They show the image for about 5-7 minutes, the minimize it 20% up intoo the left corner and you have to take action to open it again. Alexa/Echo team have reproduced it, but can’t explain it or stop it.
You could be on to something about changing a setting. Before I started this thread, I messed with (not factory reset), but zeroed all the settings and started over. Walked through every setting change one at a time, no buzz. So, if you are right, its got to be a combination 2 or more. But with all these settings, “the cows will come home” before we could step through the different combinations 2, then 3, then etc before we might learn. (I don’t have that many years left).
Spotlight. I can’t take the chance on the hidden ones. So, slap some black electrician’s tape over it and boom, no worry.
Yes, you are right about the Wyze/Alexa skill. We are not in the loop to even know when they have made a change (add, mod, delete, add back) some function. And they might fail and catch it after the ripple through the fleet, then it disappears 1 day - 1 month later. We have no way of knowing. I disable and re-enable regularly just in case it matters.
Thanks
The reason I’m mentioning the Echo Show/Alexa aspect is that there are now 2 others reporting that they are getting buzz/electrical/mechanical noise from their cams when viewing via Echo Show. Seems like it can’t be coincidence.
@majasmer1364 reports their Floodlight Pro and Cam v4 do it when viewing via Echo Show.
In another thread (Video doorbell pro making short circuit noise) @jay8 reports the same with their Video Doorbell Pro only when viewing via Echo Show. You can listen to the video in that thread and see if it is similar to yours or not.
I wouldn’t worry about taking chances with the spotlight, setting it to manual and leaving it at “sunset to sunrise” means it will never come on unless you tap the button to turn it on or create an automation for it. I’ve never once seen mine come on unless I turned it on, and that’s how mine is set. But if the tape gives you extra assurance, can’t hurt.
Dont know if I am having the same problem. 4 wyze cams, linked to the alexa show 8. Routine that if the camera sees motion, it will display on the show. Worked fine for years. Two days ago, when there is motion, there is a clicking noise on the show and loud buzzing on the camera. If i disconnect the show, the buzzing stops until I power the camera, it sees motion again or I call up the camera display on the show. Cannot be the power supply, it did this on 4 different cameras the exact same time. Something between the echo show and Wyze isnt happy anymore. Even bought a new Show v 3. Same thing, every time.
Definitely seems to be something broken with either the Wyze skill or something in the Amazon infrastructure.
Can you see in the history if the Wyze skill updated recently?
Exactly the same issue. Exactly the same problem. So, far, only thing that stops it is Restart the camera, and it only sets the stage to start again. One permanent but highly selected fix is to open the camera and unplug the speaker. Can undo this in 5 minutes in the future, but its there.
Thank you for posting your issue.
I don’t know where we would look for that. But over the years here, I recall skill updates be possible causes of reported problems. No one ever reported finding a way to blame it or clear skill changes. Eventually the thread(s) just moved to back burner, or “problem disappeared” (suspicious?).
If you put your ear to some V3’s you can hear a faint noise too.
Maybe this camera has the speaker amplifier’s gain cranked up caused by a firmware bug?