My WCO battery drains to zero in a matter of days instead of weeks or months. I believe the issue is that it is detecting motion from the shadows of waving palm tree fronds (Florida!). What can I do make it better?
The solution starts with how you charge it. You must turn it off, then charge it from the base station or a outlet sourced connection. No portable battery, no laptop for example.
When you turn it on, even with heavy traffic, you should see better results. I have a SD Card in the Base. Only save clips. Make sure you do not have continuous recording set up. I do not have Cam Plus
I’ve had my 4 WCO for 1 year and have never turned them off while charging, I just turn event recording off when I move the camera. I have been doing scheduled event recording with the cams since February 2021 and the batteries still last at least 5-7 weeks for the heavy traffic cams, and much longer for the cams with lite traffic. I also have the IR lights turned on.
Mogli, how is the Wi-Fi signal to your camera? If you have a weak signal that will make the battery use go up. What version of firmware are you using and how old is the camera? Did you turn down the sensitivity on the cam? Many other questions and answers required. A screenshot the what the camera is looking at would be good also.
Good signal for my cams:
This is my history with WCO…Battery drains with Weak or No WiFi. Buy a Wasserstein Solar Panel to keep the battery charged.
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I am not familiar with this method. The WOC has a microUSB connector that is used to charge it. The base station has nothing to do with charging the WOC.
The full size usb a connector on the base can be used to connect your usb cable to. Connect one into the base and the other end to the WCO when you want to charge the WCO.
https://support.wyze.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037539752-Battery-Life-and-Charging
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Duly noted.
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I’ve never used the base for charging either. My 4 WCO all came with a power adapter and cable when I got them in October 2020. Just plug adapter into the wall outlet and connect cable to the cam.
Thanks isaaiah58. The last couple of time I charged it, it was off since it drained to zero, and I used an outlet and cube. I imagine even with a low voltage cube and cheap cord, a reading of 100% means 100% even if it takes longer.
Thanks Antonius. I am very frustratingly trying to update the firmware in the WCO and base station. If/when I get it working, I will provide the details you queried about.
The base station has a USB port where you can connect your charging cable to. I am providing advice based on my long term experience.
Sounds good. Please make sure to switch the camera off. It is something I started to do and it can help.
Either method is fine.
Making sure the power switch is OFF resolved the mass drain situation for me.
For one WCO, I left it inside a couple of days after fully charing it. I turned it on an faced it against a wall. Just to see if the battery would stop draining so fast.
Hate to be saying the camera battery only lasts 90 days if the camera never detects motion
The more I read in this forum, the worse I feel about this product. The official instructions for flashing the firmware with an SD card are lacking. If an SD card is formatted FAT32, is it not possible to use that card for flashing? Does the card need to be formatted in NTFS or something for my PC to be able to write to it?
I had charge the battery last Friday (100%)…Now it’s 68%…Standard settings…Low Traffic area. And the Network has been up (the AI Sucks for WCO on how is handles down network which kills the Battery). I also have a WCO for the Pool and with no issues (running 2 months and at 60%). Since the 1st WCO is located in Direct Sunlight…I believe this is also killing the battery (besides when the Network is down).
A 32 GB or smaller FAT32 SD card is the correct card and format for flashing.
What firmware versions are you using on both the base and WOC? There have been recent versions that could drain the battery in a day thru constant reconnect attempts keeping the WOC awake. This doesn’t happen on all WOCs, but the ones it does happen on need to be upgraded ASAP.
I have a WCO that is in the sun all day, no issue with battery use. If your signal to the cam is weak in will kill the battery “FAST”.
I am having trouble flashing with a FAT 32 16Gb card. I could use some better step-by-steps on how to get the zip file onto the card; my PC does not want to do it.
I updated the base with the latest firmware today. The WCO will pair with the base for about ten minutes and then go to blinking blue. I have tried to update the WCO firmware various ways a hundred times.
There is only one set of instructions that you need to follow as written.
