I’m on my 3rd replacement of this camera and it hasn’t gotten any better. We got this one to install at my 95-year-old mothers-in-law house to make sure we knew when she walks outside. Family members make 2 trips a day (morning and afternoon) to check on her, and it might notify us on each one, might not. Sometimes we get notified when someone arrives and other times only when someone leaves.
I restart and reset services only to have it work for a day, maybe two and then it stops detecting. I’m about feed-up with the Wyze product line; I have 7 going back 7 years to a V2 which seems to work flawlessly compared to the newer models.
I don’t have this particular model, but the first question that comes to my mind concerns how and where it’s mounted. What detail can you share about that?
My understanding of Battery Cam Pro is that it relies on PIR and radar for initial detection (initiating a motion capture event), so if the Cam is behind a window or has a head-on view of the expected approach path (i.e., a desired target would be moving directly toward or away from the Cam instead of transversely across the Cam’s field of view), then it’s apt to miss a lot of events.
Also, what alternate Cam mounting positions have you tried, and what information can you share about Settings?
The battery cams have to save energy and that means there are going to be tradeoffs, and they will be less sensitive to brief motion (especially with the PIR motion detection). This can be somewhat overcome with repositioning of the camera and/or tweaking of the settings, but with PIR, people walking toward and away will be less likely to trigger it than someone walking across the field of view. And there will be a delay between motion starting and the cam waking up and logging an event. I believe connecting a solar panel or other power source to it may allow it to be a bit more sensitive but not totally sure on that.
Do you have the option of using a cam with wired power like the v4? Even if the outlet is far away there are some options like using POE to get longer distances, or even just a long AC extension cord etc.
This is mounted outside with a solar panel and is typically at 100%. I’ve experienced this issue even when we’ve had weeks of no rain and clear skies. It’s also mounted so that it detects motion going across the view, not towards.
I totally agree the wise Battery Cam Pro is an absolute joke. The motion detection does not work even on cat size objects. The battery are terrible and there’s no time lapse. I thought they would’ve had it figured out by now so I bought three of them unfortunately!!! Not amused at all.
I know that’s been requested in Wishlist, and that’s one of my frustrations with their battery-powered cameras, because something like Battery Cam Pro—and Solar Cam Pan—seems like it should be an ideal tool for setting up in an area where power and Wi-Fi access might not be reliable or readily available, and so I think it’s reasonable for someone to want to place one of these cameras with an appropriately long capture interval and expect the Cam to wake up the image sensor, snap a picture to stack into the time lapse recording, and then go back to sleep to preserve power. That’s why I’ve voted for Battery Cam Pro to have that feature even though I don’t own any (and I’ve voted for Solar Cam Pan to have that feature in a related topic).
That’s good to know. What can you share about your Settings? As I’ve said, I don’t have this particular device, but screenshots of things like Detection Settings, Detection Zone (if you have that enabled), and Event Recording might be helpful for other Battery Cam Pro users who may want to offer input.
