IR flips on and off and on and off, endlessly at twilight, or dim light

Power & Lighting
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1

I have a V2 set up in an interior hall, close to a window. Night Vision mode is set to AUTO. Near the end of the day, the ambient light level drops enough for night mode so that the IR comes on. Then 20-30 seconds later, it decides it’s not dark enough, and flips back. Rinse and repeat. I hear the internal IR filter flipping back and forth (which will surely wear it out prematurely). The cam is equipped with an SD card, configured to record motion to the card. The other day, it recorded ‘motion’ continuously for an hour and a half, triggered by the flip-flopping back and forth from day mode to night vision mode.

Does anyone else experience the same thing? Or is my V2 camera defective?? (it’s already been replaced once:-(

Note to Wyze developers – I think you need to add more hysteresis in the logic that determines when to shift into Night Mode and back.

10 Likes
2

Could you submit a support ticket on this so they can collect such instances?

3

Done.
Still interested to hear from others to determine if this is systemic (due to firmware design), or is limited to my particular unit.

4

have you tried to change the camera position, or facing direction ?

5

Of course.

It’s demonstrated the same behavior in some other locations, where the illumination is not uniform. For example, interior hallway in the centre, window off to the side. However, if I put it on windowsill looking outside (where the field of view is more evenly illuminated), it doesn’t flip back/forth. That’s why I suggested some hysteresis in the dynamic switchover algorithm.

6

I’ve had this problem on a cam pan set up in my living room since I bought it back in August. I’ve reported it but eventually gave up. Now it’s always set to on (night vision). In my case it also seems to be an uneven lighting issue due to a lamp that cannot be moved. The lamp comes on at twilight as well.

7

PhakeMail,
Thanks for responding.
I suppose it’s good to know that the problem is not a defect in my particular V2 camera. Not so good to learn that it’s (a) systemic across both the V2 and Pan-Scan models; and (b) a known problem that’s not been addressed. Adding some hysteresis to the decision logic should be an easy firmware fix.

I submitted a bug report, along with a sample of the video captured as the night mode flipped on and off. One hopes that will help get it fixed.

8

I have this same problem with my v2 but not my v1. Also, the v2 has a pretty loud and pronounced click sound when the IR turns on or off, making this unsuitable as a baby monitor.

Thankfully I have a v1 to use as a baby monitor. Hopefully they address both this and the noise of IR turning on/off in a future revision.

9

The loudness of the IR filter click varies depending on the particular mechanism. Probably not much they can do about that.

You might want to consider operating the IR filter manually for the baby monitor use case.

10

Yeah my assumption is that the click is a relay turning the IR emitters on or off and a hardware revision would be needed to change it. I hope they go back to the quieter setup they had in v1 or go even quieter in v3.

11

A little late to the party but I too am experiencing the same thing with my v2 pointing to our front door. Other two we have do not have this issue. Front door view is extremely important to us (as we had a break in via the front door in the past). I’m just putting up with it but it does become a bit of a p.i.t.a. as I jump on a front door notification when I see it…just in case. Sure would be nice for fix, or at least a work around.

12

@dave14
The click is not a relay. It’s a mechanical shutter moving an optical IR filter in front of the sensor. The filter blocks IR wavelengths from getting to the sensor in Day mode, but needs to be removed in Night mode.

13

I have the same problem with one of my V2 cameras. Clicks off/on for 30 mins at sunrise. I wish it would just decide to stay off.

14

Oh super interesting! Thanks for sharing. Wonder why it’s so much louder in my v2? The v1 is barely audible, the v2 can wake the baby even with a white noise machine running in the room.

15

I presume it’s due to different mechanical actuator in the V2, perhaps the result of cost-reduction for the 2nd-gen design. However, the click from my v2 doesn’t seem to be as severe as yours. I can hear it if standing nearby, but is pretty much inaudible from across the room.

16

Most of my V1 cameras (3 out of 5) create a false positive of a motion alert when they are powered ON in a dark room. In each case, the room has a small LED night light that is already ON before the camera returns its blue lamp signal; the room is otherwise very dark. Immediately after the full power-on cycle, the cameras return a motion alert. I have Sound Alert turned OFF. This circumstance began with V1 FW 3.9.3.72 and all FW versions thereafter, including the latest Beta FW for V1 units. My remaining V1 cameras that do not produce this false positive motion alert are all in rooms that are very dark, with no illumination.

17

Same problem here

18

My cameras do the same thing. I can’t use IR mode if the camera is facing a window to monitor outside.

19

I also have this same issue. This why we need the ability to turn the LED’s off but still stay in night vision mode. Because often there is enough light in the room for the camera to see without the LED’s on for a clear picture.

20

I had the same issue after a software update. The 4 v2 camera was stuck in the green screen and just stopped working after a few days. I contacted tech support I was sent a link do download an update the camera but no luck.