WYZE Cam OUTDOOR Is G A R B A G E!

I’d like you to post another video… Walk into frame from above the frame (out in the grass). Walking toward the deck… walk at a normal pace. I’d like to see at what point your cam starts to record. I bet you could walk all the way into the house without it starting the record…

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Yes, you are correct. No PIR sensor will consistently and accurately detect head-on movement. The more movement is parallel, the quicker your trigger. That just the way is works. And head-on is not in a 3 dimensional aspect unless the sensor is directly overhead. This is why it was so difficult for me to properly place my cams. I had to predict the directional movement of my subjects in order to get the cam to trigger, wake up and record in an acceptable manner.

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is this true? mine appears to have no problems in this respect. If you are correct it could go a long way to help people understand why there cam’s are behaving like they are.

Either way it is clear that with WCO and all other security products (not just cams) placement is critical. I have installed over 500 traditional security cameras in my professional life, and I know this to be true. It’s not a V2 and was never intended to be.

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Wow, that’s way better than what my images look like too. Maybe I’ll try moving it around to see if I can get better results. If not, I will call, thanks for the tips.

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Just for the heck of it, I tried head-on and ~15° left and right again… nothing, as expected. It will not trigger. Coming in from right is instant, from the left triggers about 3 feet into the view (probably a slight misalignment in the lens).

Not sure what this is in reference to… just observation and testing. I have only 2 WCOs here to play with, the other 2 are temporarily covering an adjacent property under an alternate account. I have real monitored security across 3 properties and coverage redundancy with an obscene amount of POE cams supplemented with v2 cams. I’m not ready to dissect a WCO cam at this point… perhaps when I get the others back. Some users running Wyze Sense motion sensors and/or PIR-triggered security lights may wonder why the slightest head-on movement is detected for those devices and not the WCO. Just my guess… it’s most likely that WCO uses a standard-band sensor (8-12 μm), a single pyroelectric element with 2 receptors and with a lower sensitivity combined with something other than a near omni-directional Fresnel lens in order to reduce cost and reduce false positives. The differences in sensitivity and lens design are the most important between WCO and Sense. If I could see the back of the lens, I could tell you what areas in the cams’s “view” are least sensitive or not covered at all. It’s probably not in Wyze’s best interest to share spec details, but I plan on dissecting a WCO sometime before the year is over just to make sense of what I’m seeing under frustrating and time-consuming real-world tests (aiming, testing, adjusting, more testing, ugh).

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I was referring to your comment about “No PIR sensor will consistently and accurately detect head-on movement.”

you are clearly more informed about PIR than i am. Guess i learned something new today. now i get to read up on how PIR actually works, but i’m just that kind of nerd :nerd_face:

I found this graphic to be pretty useful. Say if you have to break two of those bars to wake the camera, walking directly toward the camera you would need to be pretty close before breaking two bars whereas walking across the view will trip it very quickly.

factors-that-influence-the-reach-of-a-pir-sensor-system

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An interesting test would be having two WCO’s covering the same area but placed perpendicular to each other (imagine an “L” shape with a camera mounted on each side of the L. Then add rules where motion on one camera will trigger a recording on the other, that way any movement directly towards one camera would be across the view of the other camera :thinking:.

I actually have a Wyze V2 set up at my back door which works flawlessly. I then have the WCO set up deeper into the backyard behind the V2. I tried to setup the trigger so that when the V2 gets a hit the WCO will start recording… nothing. Doesn’t work.

The WCO needs major work. It simply doesn’t work.

How’s the signal between the base and the WCO? I just now set up a rule to trigger the WCO with a V2 and it worked. WCO clip started 1 second after the V2 clip started.

Not sure why you’re having so many issues? I have mine set up overlooking my backyard and have had 0 issues. Its been working amazing so far, and I’m super happy with it. I’m also especially happy with the price point… I have two more outdoor cameras ordered and will order another one soon for my camper trailer.

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Though I haven’t had any issues and it works as it was made to I am also very disappointed in this camera. I like @ROBOCAM and many others wished it preformed more like the V2! I was really hoping that we would get an outdoor V2 Camera with a battery. I thought we would be able to plug it in so we could get continuous recording. I thought it would have a good sized battery to compete with other battery powered cameras. I wanted all the features of V2 but made for the outdoors.

NOPE!!

Wyze brings us a only battery powered outdoor camera with 2 small batteries inside. You can’t remove them and I am finding I’ll be needing to recharge this camera about every 1.5 months. YAY! It does not support being plugged in which means it doesn’t have continuous recording. You ONLY HAVE 12 SECOND CLIPS. You can’t even record the entire event to a MicroSD card! I bought 2 MicroSD cards with my purchase. One for the base and one for the camera. I assumed like many others you could record the entire event to the MicroSD card and back it up to the base station. That’s not how it works. The MicroSD card in the camera is for time-lapses and “scheduled recording”. What’s this?

It seems as if this camera is more of a trail cam than anything else. “Travel Mode” so you can take this on camping trips and such. “Time lapses” for sunsets.

While the camera does everything it was made to do for me I just wish it did more. I expected it to offer way more than it does.

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I don’t understand why Wyze would remove some good features that they originally had in there! I really hope they add them back soon!

This is a thread I made to vote for a V2 Outdoor Cam.

I’m trying to get as many votes as I can so Wyze will see that people want more features.

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It’s an outdoor camera. It doesn’t say it’s a security camera anywhere in the description (although its language about motion detection would lead you to believe so). Using it as a security camera is your choice, but it has other uses outdoors. That’s not to deny your issues or experience, just framing your expectations for a very inexpensive device. Real security cams with deep reliability and functionality cost more. Trying to make something cheap do the same thing appeals to me, too, but I accept in advance that it’s going to be a bit lesser of an outcome. But yeah, it should actually do what it’s supposed to!

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Agreed. 12 seconds is way too short, but then again, as slow as it is in detecting motion, the extra time would only record empty pathway since the subject left the frame already. I get like 2.5 seconds of actual content.

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Holy cow, those are some well-fed, fat little raccoons!

This thread makes me very happy. I was going to order 2 outdoor cams until Wyze once again screwed up the F/W updates for the PanCam and V2 which caused me to rethink that decision and not follow up on that purchase.

I’m elated that this thread has validated my decision. :+1: :laughing:

i’m using a non-outdoor wyze cam outside at my gate (just over 100 yards from my home and router) and have had no problems.

i have it installed under the eave of an outbuilding to protect it from the elements.

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I sent mine back. While Wyze did not refund the original shipping, they did provide a pre-paid return shipping label - USPS 2-day Priority Mail. I think that is customary and fair. FYI, I also cancelled my pre-order for two add-on cameras.