V2 and micro SD memory cards - not ready for prime time

Cameras
1

UPDATE: The local playback works great when you use a Class 10 mSD card. I’m a happy Wyzer…

I have been using Wyze Cam V2 with web recording for about three weeks or so and have been generally happy since they updated the firmware a week ago. Today, I inserted a micro SD card to use with the camera. Wow, I don’t think Wyze Engineering has spent much time optimizing the file system, firmware or the software for use with memory cards!!!

Wyze, it sure would be nice to hear some feedback on this. I mean, have your engineers, PMs, QA (I know, you are a small company) so it’s probably the PM - even tested the V2 with micro SD cards inserted??? I see another thread on the topic but the software is a horrible laggy mess when trying to view playback info. Longggggggggggg pauses, choppy video, app goes non-responsive, etc.

Please acknowledge that you are working on improving this. It’s really horrible.

I would recommend everyone stay away from inserting a micro SD card into their V2 until Wyze figures this out.

Member FWM was 100% correct when he said that turning off motion detection allows you to playback the contents of the mSD memory card without any pauses. I think your processor overhead is tighter than you are admitting…time to optimize!!! Update: While playback from mSD memory cards is better when turning on motion detection, it is still very laggy with long pauses at times.

My network: 3 Eero Wi-Fi system with 100/100MB FIOS connection with Netgear gigabit switches.

3

Thanks for the link oaktree! Perhaps the poor performance is due to the memory card. I’m also using a Sandisk card but I don’t think it has the same specs as yours. Here is the one I’m using:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MHZ6ZVO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I see that this card is a class 4 (good for 4MB/s writes) and the one you have is a class 10 (good for 10MB/s writes). That’s probably the problem. I ordered the SD card you are using and will report back after I receive it.

It would be ideal if Wyze could chime in and recommend a minimum class rating (and clearly state this on their website) so other users don’t run into this annoying problem.

I really like this camera and I hope Wyze continues to make it better!

 

4

They did a video

5

Perfect, that answers it! But I think they need to do a better job of promoting this section of their site. When you go to their Support site (https://www.wyzecam.com/wyze-support/) they have a section that says Get more help with your Wyze Cam and then an icon. I don’t know, maybe it is just me, but I have never seen the entire rich section of content behind that icon. It didn’t occur to me that I needed to click on that icon. Maybe if there were multiple icons listed, then I would have clued in. I’m just suggesting to Wyze to make this page (https://www.wyzecam.com/wyze-cam-getting-started/) more prominent and easy to get to because there is a ton of good info in there! Just a suggestion!

7

I used Class 4 SanDisk cards in my V2 cams, because that was all I could find quickly. They are both working fine. I have never seen any of the problems reported in this thread.

8

Now that you are talking about the memory card, two of my six cameras will not recognize the card. In addition, when I attempted to pull one out that is working and place it into the one that is not, it wouldn’t work either. Low and behold when I placed it back in the camera that was working it now will not recognize it. I even unplugged the camera when doing all of this. I have deleted the camera from my profile and went through set up again to no avail.

Thoughts options?

 

Kevin

10

Playback may be choppy but the video on the card appears good. Perhaps with camera writing to disk and sending playback video the video ends up choppy. Bottom line, go the SD card to see the best video.

11

Scan Disk, 32. I think at least one of the cards is bad, I cannot even format it on my desktop, but the other cards I can see when inserted into my desktop. I tried from the app and it will not recognize or states no card SD card.

 

 

12

When you said “Scan Disk, 32” were you referring to the SD card (SanDisk, 32GB) or running the Scandisk program on a 32bit version of Windows?

Do you know if the card was good before using it in the camera?

There have been multiple reports of problems with SD cards being “corrupted”. That can be caused my many things.

  1. A bad SD card. Test with h2testw before deploying an microSD card. *
  2. SD card exceeding write lifetime. This may be exacerbated (made worse) by record on event which is likely to rewrite the same area on the card repeatedly, although that is only my conjecture. I have never heard any response to my question.
  3. A firmware bug in the Wyze cam. If this was the case, I would expect more reports, but it can't be ruled out.
If you can, please backup the sd card (if you want what is on it saved), init the card FAT32, download and run h2testw. See

https://www.wyzecam.com/forums/topic/continuous-recording-to-sd-card-stops-once-card-is-full/#post-133640

for more info about the h2testw program and where to download and how to scan it to verify it is a legit version.

13

This is not what I am experiencing (best video on sd card). It looks like if there is close or “fast” moving detection from the camera the video skips frames (usually 3 seconds) and the video is choppy. This only occurs when motion detection is turned on and a 12 second motion detection video is being sent to the cloud. It does not occur witin the 5 minutes timeout period when no cloud detection takes place. This occurs on Android, I do not know about iOS.

If you wish to test that out, turn on motion detection, turn on sd card record on motion.

Take your phone and start the wyzeapp. Open the live stream. Walk close or toward your cam while watching the live stream. Do you observe choppy/ skipping frames video on both the live stream and sd card (at that particular time) while the 12 seconds cloud motion clip is ok?

It only happens when a motion detection clip is sent to the cloud at that same time.

This is what I am experiencing on both of my V1 cams, constantly, on somewhat “fast” or close to the cam motion. I do not own a V2 cam so I do not know if the issue exist on v2 cams. Maybe the faster processor and fps in V2 fixed that problem.

I have 2 other different brands cam that also record both to the cloud and sd card at the same time and I never experience those problems.

And I tried with many brand new or otherwise working Sandisk ultra and Kingston 16, 32, 64gb msd cards with the same results.

 

14

Here is what I am getting on the sd card when motion is detected and a motion file is sent to the cloud at the same time (see attached).

 

15

If I want to use sd cards to constantly record, how far back will a 32gig card record? trying to decide on 32 or 64

16

If I want to drive constantly, how far can I go with a 20 gal gas tank? I am trying to decide if I need an auxiliary tank. :slight_smile:

There are more factors involved than the size of the card.

https://www.wyzecam.com/forums/topic/32gb-card-only-recording-5-days-in-sd/#post-143217

17

Hey everyone–

I just opened a support ticket before discovering this forum. Thought I’d share what I’ve experienced.

I received 4 of the new V2 WyzeCams in early April. Working great for the money. However, I have had some MicroSD card corruption. I bought 4 class 10 32GB cards from Microcenter, formatted them as FAT32, and they all worked initially, but after just a few days (or maybe a week), one of them was no longer seen. Tried it in another WyzeCam, but no luck–not recognized. Tried to reformat it on a PC or other device (digital cam, dash cam, laptop). No longer seen as a disk, so can’t format it.

Figured/hoped it was just a fluke, I tossed the MicroCenter card. I had an old 8GB Class 4 SanDisk MicroSD laying around, so I used that. 5 weeks later, it still works fine.

But this weekend, I noticed 2 of my other MicroCenter cards are no longer seen in their WyzeCams. Same kind of corruption!

Browsing the forum, looks like a few people have reported issues with Microcenter cards, so maybe they aren’t compatible with the WyzeCams? I can replace these with SanDisk or Samsung Class 10’s, if they are definitely going to fix these issues. Or could there still be an issue with the Cams themselves, or the current firmware? I’m on 4.9.1.60, and think I’ve kept the firmware up-to-date pretty regularly for the 6 or 7 weeks I’ve had the cams.

 

 

18

@Zinzan,

Welcome to the forum where other Wyze customers try to help. I also have 4 cameras, although two of mine were “late” v1 cams.

Were you using continuous recording or “Record on Event”? I asked several questions yesterday all related to the micro SD cards.

One was whether the recommended SanDisk Ultra card is a good choice for continuous recording

https://www.wyzecam.com/forums/topic/should-high-endurance-microsd-cards-be-used/

One was whether “record on event” is better or worse for the SD card than continuous recording.

https://www.wyzecam.com/forums/topic/question-for-wyze-when-using-record-on-event-when-is-%ce%bcsd-card-written-to/

The last was a question about “ejecting” or “safely removing” the SD card.

https://www.wyzecam.com/forums/topic/what-is-the-proper-way-to-remove-the-%ce%bcsd-flash-card-to-prevent-corruption/

The reason I asked about how the cards are being written to is because I sounds like either you “exceeded the write cycles” of the SD or got cards from a bad batch of MicroCenter cards (they have different suppliers, and the quality varies). I now avoid them, because what you buy this week is very likely to be significantly different than what you bought 6 months ago. I have gotten some great cards, and some really slow ones.

Flash memory wears out with writes. And SD cards may not have any wear leveling. The FAT32 file system was not designed with Flash memory in mind. Some locations will get written to frequently, and if the SD microcontroller (yes, there is a processor in the SD card) does not implement wear leveling by mapping the same “memory address” to a different flash cell, these “hot spots” can wear out quickly.

There has been at least one report of a Microcenter 32GB class 10 micro SD card that was reporting more memory than it really had,

https://www.wyzecam.com/forums/topic/continuous-recording-to-sd-card-stops-once-card-is-full/#post-135636 (read the whole topic)

and that guarantees problems if you ever fill the device https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeonhole_principle

If you still have at least one of the cards from MicroCenter (and you have a magnifying glass or better eyes than me), see if the markings on the back of the MicroCenter cards are identical. If they are, then the 4th card will probably fail soon.

The MicroCenter cards I have handy all claim to be made in Taiwan.

The first line seems to always be E5<sizeinGB>Gyyww

For example from a 32GB class 10 card. E532G1544 (my interpretation 32GB manufactured 44th week of 2015)

The second line is probably a facility/batch or wafer id.

Example from above card. DWLI151002712

If you are interested and want to add some info to the knowledge base, can you backup the card contents that you want to save, init the card, download and run h2testw

https://www.wyzecam.com/forums/topic/continuous-recording-to-sd-card-stops-once-card-is-full/#post-133640

to see if the card passes the test?

19

Hello BuckEye–

Yes, I saw all your recent SD card posts. Good stuff.

I haven’t heard from WyzeCam Support yet, but it’s been less than 24 hours. Will update this thread if/when I hear from them.

Answers to your questions:

  • I bought all of 4 of these MicroSD cards new from Microcenter on 4/13/2018. Friday the 13th! Maybe that was the issue!
    • I formatted all of these as FAT32. Did not try exFat.
 

  • I threw away the first one that went bad, so can't look at the markings on the card. But I still have the two that recently went bad, along with the one still working one.
  • The two bad ones have the same markings (small sample size, but interesting)
 

 

  • The one good one has different markings, so maybe it will hold up?

 

I’ve run all my cameras on a combination of Continuous and Record on Event. No idea what the first one was on when it went bad, but the 8GB SanDisk is currently on Record on Event, and has run without issue for at least 4 weeks. The one good MicroCenter card is pointed at my front door and is set to Continuous recording. I’m guessing the two that went bad were on Record on Event, based on where they are located.

The two bad cards are no longer seen by my computer when I put them in a card reader, so I can’t run that h2testw on them. I’ll try to get around to running it on the good card later today.

Edit: Just ran the test on the one Microcenter card that hasn’t gone bad yet. I formatted it exFat, and ran h2testw:

Warning: Only 30518 of 30519 MByte tested.
Test finished without errors.
You can now delete the test files *.h2w or verify them again.
Writing speed: 26.3 MByte/s
Reading speed: 37.6 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4

20

Thanks for the feedback! I’ll send that up to the team who designs the support area of our website =)

21

Quick update from me:

  • Haven't yet heard back from WyzeCam Support regarding my ticket (#50163), other than confirmation that it was received on 5/21 around 11:38am.
  • Went back to Microcenter to see if I could get a refund on my 2 bad cards. Return period was 30 days, and I was at day 40-something, but they did offer to give me full value in store credit. That was fine with me.
  • I used the store credit to buy 3 new SanDisk Ultra Plus cards (but I did drop down to 16GB, on sale for $9.99). So far (24 hours later), they are all fine.
  • Ran h2testw on one of the SanDisk cards first. It passed, but it actually had a slower Reading speed than the remaining good Microcenter card.
  • However, the Microcenter card was tested after reformatting it exFat. But the WyzeCam had a problem with it, only recognizing 1 of the 32GB, so I reformatted it as Fat32 and the Cam could then see all 32GB. I did not retest the Microcenter card as Fat32.
  • And I subsequently left the SanDisk cards as Fat32 (as they arrived).