With the news from the Fix It Friday thread that Wyze is working on changes in manufacturing:
I suspect that the issue may be hardware related and is due to motor slip. It would be interesting to do a comparative test of a cam with the motor speed set to minimum versus it set to maximum speed. If it is motor slip that is the cause, the higher speed should result in a greater or more freequent offset error due to increased torque. And, since it is, in my case, much more prevalent on the vertical motion rather than the horizontal, I would suspect that’s it is more of an issue with the mechanics of the upper vertical rotation motor.
A teardown video online reveals that the lower unit horizontal rotation motor in the base is a direct drive non-geared stepper motor that is considerably larger and theoretically more powerful than the upper unit vertical rotation stepper motor. It also reveals that it would only be required to make one near 360° rotation, so it rotates at a much slower speed than the upper vertical rotation motor.
The smaller upper unit vertical rotation stepper motor is a gear driven shaft onto an internal tooth gear ring. This is probably the cause of the offset. The gears are most likely slipping or are not properly calibrated for their diameter and tooth count. This motor is also required to make many more 360° rotations at a considerably higher speed to translate the rotation to the much larger outer rotating gear ring. With the faster speeds and the increased number of rotations, the margin for error is magnified, especially if the calibration is off.
Another possibility that has to be considered is the orientation of the cam. I have all of mine upside down. When setting them for the 180° image flip, the firmware then makes changes to the directional rotation of each of the motors to rotate the motor in the opposite direction using the same command button. If that code isn’t right, it may also be causing an issue with the position memory for the motors.
I would be curious to know if the majority of the position offset errors are occuring when the cam is upright or inverted.
There is still plenty of time for Wyze to work thru the issues before the expiration of the 12 month warranty so I will be optimistically patient.