The camera didn’t record a single event today and usually lasts several months in this out of the way location. Probably avg 3 events a day.
Not sure what’s going on??
It lost a bunch of battery the last two days, and then Last night I charged It, and it was full this morning, lost 90% on 10 hours.
Sounds like something is causing it to run continuously. That will drain the battery fast. Are you watching your camera all day? Normally it should be in low power, sleep mode until it senses motion and then powers up. This is the only way you’re going to have a battery last a few months instead of hours. It’s also why my main cameras are PoE cameras. I rarely have to do anything with them other than once in a while clean up spider webs. They are recording 24/7. I have one of these outdoor cams on the far end of my house where I haven’t run a PoE camera over to there yet. I’d like to put a couple of them over on that end in fact. I just haven’t done it yet.
The whole having to climb a ladder to take it down, plug it in for hours to charge up, and put it up again and re-aim it once again is a little annoying.
Maybe you have some event thing turned on with it? Something has just changed for you.
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Thanks for the reply. I still can’t figure out what happened, since I only looked once and it should’ve been off 99% of the day. But I did Another power cycle on the unit, and tried resetting the “triggers”, and now it’s back to normal. Only lost 2% in the last two days.
That’s good that you figured it out. Wyze had just released a new update for the outside cameras and the base station. Cameras are now at 4.36.0.290 and the Base Station is now at 4.16.1.22. Not sure what they fix? Because they’re always behind on what these newest updates do.
I have a simular problem where my outdoors camera was working great for the first 3 months> I went to charge the battery when it was at 20 something percent charged up to 45% in 12 hours. After that I unplugged it from the charger while I was at work came back it’a at )% and won’t charge at all. Before I charged that camera I charges another size outdoor camera and it was fully charged in 4 hours. Waiting for a response from Wyze. The first response was just a copy and past from the trouble shooting page, which I did already. Looking for ideas to revive the camera
Your scenario of climbing a ladder. etc., etc., etc. is exactly what I faced, but with a twist. Where I needed to place the camera (up high), I had to hire someone to do it for me, so going up and down a ladder was not an option. My solution was to run a cable long enough from the camera into the house so when the battery was low to just plug it in the base to recharge. My ISSUE, is the two outdoor cameras I have each seem to have a 6-8 hour battery life. This is very frustrating given the advertisement for this camera is a 3-6 month battery life before the need to recharge. Not my experience, nope… not my experience at all.
How are you using the camera? How much live viewing? How many events per day?
Just looking at that enclosure, the pir sensor won’t work because it’s behind the plastic or plexiglass. The front of the camera needs a object free view for the pir sensor to be able to detect motion. So jumping back to my previous question, I am guessing you don’t get pir detected events.
Why is your outdoor camera in an external case? It doesn’t need to be inside anything. I also wonder if that is what is killing the battery?
Really though, if climbing ladders was an issue. Might have been better off to get a PoE Security camera setup as I have. Camera’s that you can mount around your house full time. Never having to do anything, like Plugged them into recharge, let alone re-aiming. Just the charging up, even with a large cable attached to keep them in place in a hassle.
I have an NVR (Network Video Recorder) and currently 6, 5MP PoE cameras. (Power Over Ethernet) 5MP cameras are in the middle of 1080P and 4K resolution-wise. So all I had to do is run an ethernet cable to where I wanted each camera. You can buy Ethernet cable that can be in sunlight that won’t rot away over time from the sun or can be buried in the ground if need be. My PoE cameras are recording 24/7/365. The only thing I ever really have to do is clear away a spider web occasionally.
I can watch any of the videos on my Desktop computer or iPhone or iPad anywhere I’m at. Zero subscription fees. Very little of any maintenance. It just works. I have my NVR mounted in a lockbox inside my garage mounted up high. It’s connected to my main network. I rarely have to open up the lockbox or touch the NVR. The way my house is shaped, most of my Cameras can see almost everything from around my garage, from the front of the house to my front door to my back yard. Well, half of my backyard. So most of my Ethernet runs I could do from in my garage which made it really easy!!!. The far side of my house is where I have a Wyze Outside cam mounted for now until I figure out the best way to mount a couple of cameras over there. I still need to order up the cameras also. The NVR I got can handle 8 PoE cameras. I have 6. One of them is a Dome PTZ camera. It’s under the eave of the front corner of my house and I can control it remotely to see down the side of my house or turn it all the way the other way and see my front door and porch from another angle. Normally it’s pointed to look down the side of my house.
I say, if you can, PoE setups are really the way to go. I’m slowly switching my Home network to Unifi. I have a Wifi 6 Access Point which should show up on Monday. I have a few other things. At some point, I may switch into an Unifi Camera setup using 4K Cameras. But that is a few years away yet. But this is getting into more advanced Home Network things that are overkill for most. More Commercial type thing and which we are using at Work now.
I did mount Analog Camera around a 2 story house before I did my setup. That was a hassle. It was made alittle easier being able to use the scissor lift they rented, Analog cables and power cords were a hassle to run. You can’t really cut to length. Pain to run through the plastic conduit like we did to get the cameras down lower to where they could be useful they way up high at the roofline of this 2 story house. It would have been much easier running Ethernet. Overall a better system anyway and future proof. My Ethernet cables are already in location for my 6 cameras. Upgrading to better PoE cameras is a pretty easy swap from a ladder. Not a big deal.
My Wyze Outdoor cam won’t be there forever. They will only last so long with what looks like a non-replaceable battery. My battery is lasting at least 3 months on a charge or longer since I got my first one when they were first released, it’s only on its second full charge and currently at 78%.
This is a picture from my Wyze Outdoor Camera from the back of my house. This allows a view of the 2 windows on the house, and the shed and can see if anyone tries to hop over my fence. If they get past this camera and around the corner to the main backyard, they will be on a camera from my PoE setup.
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Hey @JBDragon, although your narrative is received as trying to be "helpful,"your response is based on many assumptions. It all boils down to this…I don’t own the house I live in, even though I live on a small street, for some reason there is a lot of foot and car traffic, and finally the neighborhood is bad. which is why the camera is in a case. This idea was taken from a fellow Wyze community member who posted his picture of an encased Wyze indoor camera outside. I just went a step further with the outside camera for theft protection, My reason for posting my setup with the cable was to give @reelcody17 an option about his 90% battery lost in one day.
The outdoor camera is being used as a security camera. It may be the angle of the picture, but there is no obstruction of view… no plastic or plexiglass blocking the sensor. The picture is crystal clear and viewable from my phone.
How often do you live view from the camera? Can you explain the “used as a security camera”?
The WCO is battery powered, and the Wyze website advertised 3 to 6 month battery life with 10 to 20 events captured per day on average. Say you use the free cloud storage, 12 second events. For maths sake, one event we will say is 15 seconds (wakeup time, record time, upload time, back to sleep time).
Omgitsscience!
15 second “events” x 20 events per day (using the high average) = 300 seconds. 300 / 60 = 5 minutes. So the 3 to 6 month battery life is calculated by the camera having only 5 minutes of awake time per day.
Now let’s take the 3 month advertised battery life (low end used). 3 months = 90 days. 90 x 5 (mins of awake time per day from above) = 450 mins. 450 mins / 60 (mins in an hour) = 7.5 hours. 7.5 hours of continuous use before you hit the advertised battery life expectancy. Which is right in the middle of your stated battery life.
(Just basix straight forward math, not taking into account camplus usage, environmental effects, etc)
This is partially right. The camera sensor is not obstructed, and can see crystal clear because the circle is right infront of the camera lens. The WCO has a PIR sensor for motion detection. This pir sensor is below the camera lens. If you looking at your case from the front, it’s the lower half of the “deathstar” circle.
The v2 you pictured uses pixel detection motion detection, which is why having only the lense cut out works. If you don’t intend on using the WCO pir detection system for motion detection, then it’ll be ok to have it covered, but using the WCO as a continuous use security camera is outside of what it is designed for. If you have a continuous power supply to that location, I’d suggest using a powered camera like the v3.
As I sit here now looking at both cameras on my phone the one that is encased is a live view monitoring camera which was consistently connected to the base so the battery remained pretty much at 98% capacity. If I see something that needs recording, I hit record and save it. When I remove the long charging cable, the battery will last about 6-8 hours before needing to be recharged.
The second outdoor camera was set up a couple days ago, being used inside with an outside view. Without the extended charging cable I would have to remove it from its perch in the window and charge using the cable that came with the camera. This to me is cumbersome, so I purchased a longer cable to avoid removing the camera from its perch and alternate plugging the charging cables when the battery reaches a low level. Again if I see something that needs recording, I hit record and save it. When I remove the long charging cable, the battery will last about 6-8 hours before needing to be recharged.
Why did you not get a v3 camera (or atleast a v2 camera?)? The v3 runs off corded power, has better features which include way better low light performance and continuous recording to sd card.
In learning about your use case, I’d highly recommend a corded camera instead of the WCOs. The change would erase the need to charge since you have corded power to the locations anyway.
I have two v2 camera as well. My setup works for me. Thank you for your suggestions and stay safe!
I am having a similar problem since the latest update. I have three outdoor cameras and one of them is down to 18% after charging to 100% yesterday. The camera had only 3 notifications today!
The camera paired with it is down to 52% and it was charged last week. I have a ticket open to Wyze, but the first response from the technician suggested steps I’ve already tried. Distance was reset to lower. Sensitivity was reset lower. The Detection zone eliminates trees and bushes in the area. The Cooldown period is 5 minutes.
Being in IT, I am ready to blame the update but that doesn’t explain why the two other cameras are doing fine. Is there any way to force the update to repost on the camera?
Can you take a screen shot of the battery monitor page from the camera with the drain and post it here?
I see a screen shot of your live view screen, your detection settings and your detection zone, not your battery monitor page. This is mine:
It is under your settings, device info, battery usage. You mentioned that your WCOs have the latest update, which has this new feature.
Sorry – I had never seen that display before. Found it. I recharged again last night and re-installed it on the post this morning, so the numbers will be different.
