Battery life draining. Is it because of all the extra wind activation and low wifi signal?

[Sterg]

Installed two Ultra cameras and have just deleted about 20 videos from the last 3 hours activated by wind blowing branches and showing no other motion. I have drawn the perimeter of the camera view to eliminate virtually all of the branches from the active area. What else can I do to curtail this?

These cameras were set up 6 days ago. One of the cameras (the one with the most "false" wind activation) already shows a battery level of 34% while the other shows 86% I should note that the camera with best battery level shows a wifi signal of three bars black. The camera with low battery shows just one bar red. Is that because of all the extra wind activation? Or a combination of more activation and low wifi signal?

If the latter is part of it would it help to get a wifi extender near there? That placement is really where I'd like the camera to be.

[StephenB]

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@Sterg wrote:

Installed two Ultra cameras and have just deleted about 20 videos from the last 3 hours activated by wind blowing branches and showing no other motion. I have drawn the perimeter of the camera view to eliminate virtually all of the branches from the active area. What else can I do to curtail this?

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Of course the cameras are going to detect the motion - and they will even trigger on the wind alone (with no moving branches).  They respond to changes in the heat signature, and the wind will change that.

Activity zones might surpress unwanted recordings, and you probably also will want to disable "all other motion" in the smart notifications to reduce the notification level (though this will not affect the number of recordings).

But activity zones won't improve battery life - the camera always streams whenever the motion detector goes off.  Since it uses heat, the detector can't apply the activity zone.  The cloud determines if the motion is inside the zone or not.

What you can try is reducing the motion sensitivity in the rules.  Obviously if you reduce it too much you won't get the detection level you need.  But any reduction will reduce the amount of streaming.    Another option (which is what I do myself) is add a solar panel for the camera(s) that are experiencing excessive wind/branch motion.  AC power of course would also do the trick, but that requires a power outlet near the camera location.

[Sterg]

Thanks, I do wonder too, though, if a weak wifi signal can cause that one camera to run down the battery so much faster than the other camera?

[StephenB]

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@Sterg wrote:

Thanks, I do wonder too, though, if a weak wifi signal can cause that one camera to run down the battery so much faster than the other camera?

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Yes it can.  You can test that idea by swapping the two cameras.

In general, dropped connections and lots of video streaming are the two things that are most likely to cause battery drain.

One thing to keep in mind is that activity zones mask the amount of streaming (since the cloud is supressing the recordings that are out of the zone).