White out/distortion issue with Essentials Outdoor Camera 2k (2nd Gen)

[shabuka]

Hi there

I just installed my 2nd Gen outdoor camera yesterday and am noticing today after mounting to the roof gutter (pretty sturdy on a mount) that we are getting a lot of distortion or white out of the camera feed.  It stabilises mostly, but then we get pockets of the issues.  I have attached three screenshots as proof.

As noted:

• Camera is on a mount with both camera and solar panel attached.   It is pretty sturdy, but might be shaking a little from the wind
• The internet modem is on the other side of the wall which the camera is attached to (whilst a brick wall, it is as close to the modem as it could possibly be for an outdoor camera).

Could this likely be an internet connection issue, or possibly wind issues or something altogether different?

[jguerdat]

It may be a signal strength/quality issue. House construction can cause this with stucco, brick and stone being the worst. If you bring a camera inside near the router does it work properly?

[StephenB]

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@shabuka wrote:

Could this likely be an internet connection issue, or possibly wind issues or something altogether different?

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This is either packet loss on the internet/wifi connection, or a problem with the compression hardware in the camera.

Though painful, the best troubleshooting step is to take down the camera and see if it behaves the same way indoors.  Ideally put it in the same room as the wifi router (but 6-10 feet away).

Distance is only one challenge with outdoor wifi.  There could also be something in the walls or on the path between the wifi router and the camera that is blocking the signal.  A pipe chase, chimney, rebar in the walls - lots of possibilities.

If it is safe to do this, you could also try running speedtest (the free ookla app) on the phone while you are at the camera position.  Make sure the phone is using wifi (disable mobile data).  The upload speed is what you want to measure.