6 Messages
One of four outdoor cameras is not working quite right...
So I have four outdoor cameras on my system, with solar panels to keep them charged, and I have 1 indoor camera inside my garage. All of the outdoor cameras are on the latest software version (1.15.3.387) and the base station is up to date as well. The camera that covers our main entrance / egress door, our side deck door, doesn't seem to be working properly. The motion detection doesn't seem to start the recording when it should. i.e. My wife could go out the door onto the deck and down the stairs to put something in the garbage cans. The camera won't start recording until she is almost at the garbage cans. Respectively, when she comes back up onto the deck to go back into the house it doesn't catch her at all, it just catches the door closing. All my cameras are set the exact same way, but the others seem to work just fine. All cameras are set for all motion, medium sensitivity and all activity zones active. Any ideas on how to fix this one camera? I have attached links to sample videos.
brino
1 Message
1 year ago
i have exact same problem... garbage cans and all.
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captain11
Captain
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6K Messages
1 year ago
@Sean_Posey I have two outdoor cams and work okay (still too long from wake up to live stream but slowly improving). I would first use the Connection Check Tool and see if your camera at that location has a strong enough signal and up speed is okay. If not, if you have a mesh WIFI, try moving a point closer to the camara or put in another point. I have a Google Mesh and moved a point dircetly between my 2 outdoor cameras and definitely helped perofrmance.
Please post your outcome here is you get a chance. Thanks
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Sean_Posey
6 Messages
1 year ago
Thanks for the suggestions captain11, I have done the tests and they came out with really good levels at -41dBm and 7.85 Mbps. I also have a second camera just around the corner of the house about 5 feet away from the problematic one that works just fine. It's levels were -47 dBm and 8.0Mbps. I do have a really new Deco wifi mesh with 4 access points, one of which is in the kitchen about 20 feet from the camera in question with only the exterior wall between them - pretty much a clear line of sight. I do have a second wifi AP in the basement at that end of the house. Maybe the problematic camera is connecting to that one? Which could maybe account for the slightly lower levels and the recording issue? Can anyone tell me do the cameras record locally or to the base station? I'm going to kill the power to the basement AP and do some testing.
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Sean_Posey
6 Messages
1 year ago
Okay, I did a bunch of testing tonight. Shut down the basement AP and moved the kitchen AP within 10 feet of the problematic camera on the deck. Signal strength got better and speed got worse which is weird. Nothing I did changed the delayed recording. In the end I put everything back to how it was. I'm not sure the delayed recording issue is from poor wifi connection. I tested the front door camera and it's test results were lower than the deck camera's but the front door camera records properly. Is it possible I need to yank the camera down and cycle it's power to reboot it? I now suspect this is a problem with the motion sensing. It's not starting the recording as fast as it should.
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davey_d
Community Admin
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5.6K Messages
1 year ago
Hi @Sean_Posey ,
You describe a known issue where a lot of folks experience a long delay in Outdoor Camera motion triggers - due to a slow time to wake from deep sleep. Our engineers are very aware of the issue and are still hard at work on improving performance through firmware updates (like fw1.15 that you mentioned).
In the meantime though, one other factor that is very important to keep in mind is that the Outdoor Cameras not only need to connect to your WiFi router, but also your Base Station. So you'll want to consider the distance between the Outdoor Camera and your Base Station, what's in between, etc. Maybe try moving the Base closer to the side of the house where that problem cameras is, and see if that improves anything.
(edited)
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Sean_Posey
6 Messages
1 year ago
Thanks for posting this davey_d!
I'm glad your people know about the issue and are working on it.
Now that I know, I can just leave the system alone and wait for the fix to come out.
I suspected a bug after all the troubleshooting didn't make any difference.
(I'm an I.T. person with 32 years experience so I've troubleshot my fair share of wireless connectivity issues.)
Something that would be helpful for troubleshooting the wireless connectivity would be the ability to see the cameras on the access points - unhide their IDs.
That way you could see which AP it's hooked up to and you could give them high priority for streaming.
Or would broadcasting their IDs be a security risk?
I think the base station positioning is good (20 feet away from 3 of the cameras and maybe 30 feet from the fourth).
The cameras wake up, connect and start streaming quickly when live in the app.
Also the system worked perfectly when I bought and installed it in August - the delay showed up later.
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Sean_Posey
6 Messages
1 year ago
Okay, so after the last firmware update the cameras started working perfectly again.
Now for some reason, the last few days, the cameras are doing the same thing again - the motion sensing is not working as it is supposed to and the cameras are missing a lot of activity.
I know there was an update on the app for iPhones a few days ago so is it possible it is the culprit this time?
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