I have a WyzeCam with latest firmware setup in my backyard for the sole purpose of detecting raccoons coming to dig up our new sod.
The first night I had it setup it did an ok job of detecting them very close to the camera but about 15 feet away it wasn’t triggering even though they were visible.
I tried adjusting the detection zone and sensitivity (was also getting a lot of false alarms from car lights and bugs) and the next night it completely missed a raccoon about 10’ in front of it tearing up the lawn.
I’ve now ordered some of the Wyze Sense motion sensors but is there a way to analyze the video and see why it wouldn’t have triggered the motion tagging on something right in front of it?
Welcome to the forums! Do you have an SD card in the camera? Was there an event within 5 mins prior to the coon digging?
Yup it has an SD card and the thing was there for at least 20 minutes digging around in plain view of the camera with zero motion tags.
Here’s a 1 min clip after the raccoon showed up and started digging. This goes on for at least another 20min with no tags: Damn Raccoon - Album on Imgur
My first thought is the “motion detection” of these is actually the camera detecting pixel change in the frame. In the video you posted, the deck railing (the triangle in the bottom left) and the tree are way closer than the yard and appear way brighter than the area of the yard where the coon is. My guess is that a higher sensitivity is needed to detect pixel change in the dark area of the yard where the hole was dug. Another idea is to move the camera to a place that has less foreground which will help the background or yard have more contrast (less IR blowout) so that the camera detects the pixel change easier.
Thanks for posting the clip!
1 Like
Yeah definitely. On my phone I could barely even see the critter or see it moving, unless I zoom in. The tree getting all that light is the problem. I’d suggest trying turning off the LED lights and/or adding supplemental illumination (regular or IR) lower to the ground…
1 Like
Makes sense, appreciate the tips. Unfortunately I’m out of town so will have to make those adjustments when I get home. I also bought an IR light to go along with the camera to help illuminate the grass.
I did use the notification area and have readjusted it so it’s only on the grass area and excludes the trees and railing. Is that going to help (along with boosting the detection sensitivity) or would it be better to leave it open (no zone)?
Makes sense and will adjust the camera as soon as we’re back. And as I mentioned in my other reply I bought a supplemental IR light that should help. Just want to protect the lawn for the next few days!
Right now I’m going to keep the detection zone on (excluding the trees and railing) unless I hear otherwise and boost the sensitivity up to 100%. I didn’t mention it before but I have the motion triggering the lawn sprinklers to come on via IFTTT which worked great the first night so hoping this will work.
I believe it should. Make sure motion tagging is on so that you can tell what the camera is triggering on. If you have a coon in the detection zone, and no green boxes on recording, then there isn’t enough contrast for the camera to trigger to the pixel change.
You can try turning off the LED lights in the app right now. (Keep night mode on Auto.) There might be enough ambient light for it still to see and without that huge contrast from the tree. Though maybe not, it seems pretty dark in your sample. But it works well for me and eliminated the bug alert problem.
Appreciate it. I ended up automating our overhead string lights to come on and stay on all night which helped. The raccoon still got a bit of grass along the edges but as soon as it came for the middle the sprinklers scared him off. Next step will be to trap and relocate but still want to get the camera dialed in in case any of his friends heard about the grub worm buffet in our backyard!
1 Like