Hi,
The MyQ frequently sends me false or inaccurate messages on my garage door opening, the Wyze Cam allows me to confirm if the door IS open or closed.
I had “another” camera but they went through a software update and now it is hardly visible, It’s on Offer Up now.
Fast forward to today and the Wyze Cam V3 which has amazingly clear video, day or night.
Any recommendations on the settings to use for optimal notifications?
I live near the edge of town in the desert, thinking another cam on the patio, one with tracking would be fun to watch the critters who come through the yard at night.
Welcome to the forums! Specific settings for my use cases may not be the best for your location as everyone’s camera placements are like snowflakes, no two are the same. My advise though is to crank all the settings up to 100% to see what the camera is and can detect and see, then once you get a good baseline on that mounting location, and choose for the camera to stay or to try a different location, start lowering the settings %'s and detection zone to find your sweet spot. This somewhat changes if you have Camplus and was to use the AI tagging.
Another big advise piece it to play with the camera, check the different menus, all of them as they are many, get to know the camera and its features and abilities. Search and read the forum posts about the V3 to see what others have experienced. If you see a post that is similar to what your seeking, give it a comment, give it a like, share your experience. The Community here has lots of voices and is eager to help if need be.
I did something similar to what @Omgitstony suggested.
My first garage cam, I started with everything turned up, then started changing the sensitivity to fit that location. I was finding that light coming in through the garage window was triggering motion when I didn’t want it. I only wanted to know when one of the doors opened or a person came in, etc. Not when the light shifted through the window.
Then I realized another thing that would help was to use the detection zones. So everytime the sunlight set off my motion notification, I would go in and black that area out on the detection zone. Now it no longer caused me false notifications from that anymore. I still had enough of the garage door and the door to the house within the detection zone that anytime those opened or closed I got notifications. So it worked perfectly between detection zones and sensitivity levels.
Later I got cam plus as was able to have it alert me whenever it saw a person, which was pretty effective because whether getting into or out of the car, it would always see a person, so that worked too.
One other cool thing I did for a while before I had cam plus, is I had contact sensors and put one on my garage doors (the big one and the one to the house) and set up a rule to have it notify me and start a video every time one of those opened. The benefit of this is because if you don’t have cam plus, then the V3 will only be able to detect motion and upload something to the cloud once every 5 minutes. But with a contact sensor, there was no cooldown limit, so even if the camera was set off 1 minute ago by a lighting change, if either of those doors ever opened, it would still send me a notification and upload a cloud recording of that event.
There are lots of options, just play around and decide what is best for you.
Yep, one way to combat that is to use a different light source away from the camera if possible. Whether it’s a visible light or a different IR emitter located away from the camera.
I used to have the bugs problem on some of my cams, but one thing that is really cool about the V3’s is that they don’t need much light at all so there is a really good affordable way to resolve this. Now, my garage with all lights off is too dark for even the V3’s to see in color, BUT, what did work was adding in a little $1-$2 night light. So now, the LED night light which uses less than a single watt of electricity (0.5 watts), means even if that light is on 24hrs a day I don’t notice any difference on my electric bill at all.
The math goes something like this: The average price for electricity is like 12c per kwh, so 0.5wattsX24hrsX365days=4.38kwh, so even if it is on 100% of the time (which is not the case, since sometimes the garage has enough light that the night light photosensor turns it off), then it’s only costing an average of less than $0.53/yr or $0.04/month (and in reality it’s not even that much since it turns off during a lot of the day time). So at that tiny price, I have a small amount of light shining in my garage 24/7, which is enough light for the V3 that I no longer need the IR lights or night vision on the camera because the V3 can now see in color vision with the tiny night light. Now you don’t get the bug IR reflection motion alerts.
That’s a great solution only possible with the V3’s cool starlight lens. I started putting cheap night lights in rooms of my house just so I could turn off the IR on all my cams and still have good color vision when it’s “dark” without attracting bugs to the cameras. That’s a HUGE plus for Wyze’s cams!
(Keep in mind that Effectiveness may vary depending on the particular light used, the location, the design & layout of the garage or room in question (and the things in it and how much they block out absorb the light, etc), and how clearly a person wants to see in a particular area…I was simply indicating that I found a decent solution out workaround for my particular use case… Others may need/desire more light depending on their preferences and use-case)
Yeah, the reflection of the IR on other glass sometimes makes lights appear to be on.
You get a great clear view here using the IR though.
I agree with Seapup that there’s a high likelihood this is dust particles rather than bugs. It still ends up being the same issue (reflection of the IR), and they look very similar so it can be hard to tell for sure sometimes, but my experience of viewing other similar videos leads me to think this is floating dust reflecting on the IR.
Adjusting sensitivity settings can sometimes help with this, but even a dust particle, when close enough, covers so many pixels that it’s hard to cut out entirely. I am not sure if there is a really good solution. How often do you get alerts for these bugs/dust?
I cut most of my dust orbs down by resealing the garage door, back door, window, attic access and electrical outlets on exterior walls… then mopped the floor. Opening the garage door lets more in, but if you take steps to reduce drafts, the dustBunnyOrbThingies settle on a surface and stay put.
Turn the settings down to 3 and then test it with a human body,if your not useing cam + then the cool down is 1 min…I would open the door then turn on camera and test it
