This is my second Pan Cam that has completely lost the ability to pan. I have a pan cam in my cat run, and I like to check on my cat throughout the day. I use the pan arrows to turn the camera and see what my cat is up to wherever she is in the cat run. The first Pan cam worked for a year and then, no matter which pan arrow i press, it says ‘You have reached the end.’ It is only able to pan up and down about 90 degrees, if I hit the left or right arrow it might twitch slightly in that direction and then say 'you have reached the end. When I press the way point buttons nothing happens. Here is the troubleshooting that I have already tried:
Restart the camera from settings
Restart the camera by unplugging it for 3 min
Reset Services under Settings
Reset the Position under Settings >Advanced Settings > Motion Controls
Unmounted the camera and set it up again in case the screw is too tight.
Verified that Motion tracking is on
Verified that the firmware is up to date
Deleted the camera from the app and set it up again
Eventually I just bought a new one, but now after only 6 months the new one has the same problem. I am at a loss, this camera is useless to me without the motion panning and I hesitate to buy another one since they seem prone to failing.
Is the camera mounted with the cam on bottom or on top?
If mounted with cam on bottom (upside down) I would guess that water and dirt are getting in. Two motor failures in that short of a time seems unlikely if it isn’t some environmental or other common factor.
It’s mounted with the camera pointing down, hanging from the roof of the cat run. I don’t believe its a motor failure as both cameras are still able to move up and down about half of the field of motion they used to have, but they can’t go side to side (left to right) more than like.. a very small amount. It seems like they’ve just lost most of their range of motion and I wonder if it’s software related since it’s displaying on screen ‘you have reached the end’
I took a screen recording but it wouldn’t let me attach it directly, here is a link to the video Imgur: The magic of the Internet
There are two motors, one for side to side and one for up and down.
The side to side one is closest to the bottom of the cam where dirt and water can get in when mounted upside down. If you want to keep it mounted that way I would recommend covering it to protect the bottom from rain and dust/dirt.
“you have reached the end” just means the cam has detected that it is unable to move any further. While I wouldn’t normally recommend this, you can power the cam off and physically rotate it side to side (and up and down if that has issues too) a couple of times. If it is seized and won’t move try wiggling side to side and see if it comes free.. Might be a grain of sand or something stuck in the gears.
Since it is under a year, you can get a warranty replacement, I would mount the new one right side up or use a cover over it if upside down. There are some disc shaped covers available on amazon, and others here have used things like plastic lids or built little wooden “roofs” over the cam. Also make sure the power cord goes downward as soon as possible after leaving the cam so that water can’t track in that way.
Those are great suggestions, I will look into a warranty replacement and a cover to put over the camera. Fingers crossed that those resolve the issue, because I do really like the Wyze app and overall functionality.
