About a month ago I installed two garage door openers/WyzeCam v3 combos. The cost was about $100for two garage doors. Not bad.
For new owners: Be certain to budget for one or the other (OK, or both) of these items when you buy your garage door openers. You will need at least one of the following:
a good, easy-to-use step ladder to reach the opener(s)
a “web” wi-fi power switch to power down/up the controller
The REASON you will need one or both of these items: The garage door controller is UNSTABLE AND UNRELIABLE. Even in a good wi-fi environment (confirmed by checking metrics visible from router and v3 camera). and with curent firmware, the controller is unreliable and must often be reset. You will NEED the ladder and/or wi-fi switch to power-cycle the cameras/controllers. You’ll get used to the “app” reporting the wrong door position. You’ll get used to it not connecting to the camera/controller periodically. And, sometimes the camera will connect but the controller (powered by the same wall wart as the camera) will be out to lunch – totally unresponsive. So – you’ll need to be able to toggle that wi-fi-based web power switch or drag out that ladder to power cycle the whole thing.
I bought the garage door controller hoping – just hoping – it would be more stable and reliable than the cameras. Fool me once … fool me twice …
Just passing on my advice to prospective new owners. Don’t forget an easy-to-use ladder and/or wi-fi power switch. Seriously.
That is odd, I have had mine in operation for a couple months now, without any glitches it even closes my door automatically at sundown, If I forget to close the door…
My only complaint is having to dig through the screens to get to the controller button to open and close the door. My guess is you have a neighbor or something that interfiers with your wifi signal.
I used to have a wrinkled aluminum foil wall between my neighbor and my wifi router. Now I have 3 access points, spread every 100 feet linked (wired) to a router. I am probably causing him wifi issues now but that is his problem…
@plainbroke : Yes, agreed, wi-fi- is usually the first place to look! However, (1) signal strengths are good on both ends, (2) I live in a rural area where there the 2.4GHz environment is rather quiet, (3) the APs report issues with “foreign” signals on their frequency, (4) the three APs are on channels 1, 6 and 11 and the WyzeCams can “hear” two of the three, (5) all other devices (including low-end IOT/ChiCom devices e.g. WyzeCams) connect and operate fine, and (6) the issue does not seem to be connectivity with the WyzeCams. The last item deserves some explanation: Sometimes the WyzeCam is connected and operational but there is no sign of a controller – even though it is physically connected.
The solution, and the only one of which I am aware, is to power-cycle the Rube Goldberg assembly – hence the vital need for a ladder or wi-fi power switch.
Note: I have not raised the issue of slow response from the WyzeCams/controllers. I can’t help but wonder if the cams are sometimes just too busy making repeated DNS inquiries (see other threads regarding this uncomfortable issue) DDoS’ing the PLA’s enemies to respond promptly – I dunno.
I think because I have a wireless access point in my garage about 25 feet from the controller and I have assigned the controller and the camera there own IP address through my DHCP server built on an old raspberry pi. Maybe try going into your router and assigning the camera and the controller there own IP address using their mac address. That is the only real differences I see in our setups… You can get the mac address from within the wyze app…
Just some random thoughts to try. One last thought. My wireless access point is connected to my network with about 200 ft of cat5E cable to my switch/hub in the computer room. It does not act as a repeater…
I have never had an issue with my garage door cam since introduction. It acts like my other cameras, which have no issues. Consider a hardware malfunction, or a router issue. And yes, a router issue can affect only 1 or a few devices.
Interesting. Well, not likely a router or AP issue. I don’t use a “typical” wi-fi router. This is a $2900 load balancing router with integrated AP controller and three “ax” APs (on non-interfering channels), all connected with Cat6 and 6A cable. DHCP address reservation is used for each so the Camera IPs do not change. I’m a network engineer and I think I have the OSI Layer 1-3 part of this figured out. (Of course, I have been fooled once or twice … ;<) )
And, if it were a wi-fi/network issue I don’t think that would explain why the WyzeCam can be seen but the controller cannot – since it is the camera that makes the wi-fi connection. I do not see a separate MAC address for the controller and I don’t think there is one. (And, ethernet routing/switching cannot take place absent a MAC address.)
I’ll still cast about for solutions – but keep the ladder handy. Hope these things don’t’ go out to lunch when I need them and am away.