Pulsating lights

manxmariner

I have a new Reolink RLC-410ws and when it is dark and motion detection is set to on the lights pulse in brightness. This is causing many false alerts even when set to 50. If I turn off motion alerts the camera lights do not pulse. The pulsing does not occur at all times. It usually occurs when it first comes in at night and then several times in the night

It also will not send emails. It will send the test fine and I have the schedule set for all days

Latest firmware are applied to camera.

There should be an alert event when the switch occurs from day to night vision on the camera. There is a point when the camera flashes from color to gray and back, this triggers an alert event as the camera detects a large change in the frame; no matter hoe high you set the sensitivity value. I know there have been a few people request (you may be able to search the forum) that when the camera does this switch in modes that it ignores alerts during this time. I did not see any reason why this has not been implemented or if there were other issues that prevent them from doing this. I also am not sure how other vendors handle this type of event.

I have not seen any of my (14) 410B cameras pulse the IR LEDs during the night or day, only at the switch of modes. Do you know if the pulse is when the camera is receiving light and it tries to switch back and forth between night and day vision? You can also set the camera to stay in one or the other, or you could set an alert schedule to not send you one around the time the sun sets or rises. Not very easy with times changing over the year.

If you can provide more details or a sample of what you are seeing may be more helpful for us to assist in troubleshooting your issue.

manxmariner

Quella, here is a link to a YouTube video. What I am talking about is not when the camera switches from color to black &a white. This while it is already in black &white mode with the IR lights on. You will see it in the linked video. Thanks for the help.

https://youtu.be/Kyx9v439QVc

Manxmariner, I have not seen this with any of my cameras from Reolink. What is interesting that that the audio from the camera also seems to have some pulsating noise along with the LEDs. The video is very helpful for me, and I'm sure support, to better understand the issue you are experiencing. Sorry that I cannot assist more as you have stated in your earlier message that you have the latest firmware applied.

Do you have more than one of these cameras for comparison, or just this one? Is this camera POE (Power over Ethernet) or plugged in via a AC adapter? What is the length of the connection from the camera to the hub, router, etc.?

When the camera does this switch in modes that it ignores alerts during this time.----------I think if the alarm/alerts disabled during this period can cause some problem too. For example, if there is something big happening at this moment, but it doesn't send you an alarm/alert which can be an issue.

manxmariner

Hi, manxmariner

So your RLC-410ws is cable-connected or wifi-connected to network. And the camera is powered with a power adapter right?

And when you go take a look at the camera at night, can you see one or some of LEDs not light up/broken/pulsate?

I'm not sure why my reply to your resent post has gone missing, maybe user error on my part. Let me see if I can summarize what I said.

I would bring the camera inside and see if you get the same pulsating effect when directly on power (no ext. cord) and closer to your wireless access point (AP). What model of Wireless router do you use? Because of the amount of data these cameras can send, you may be running up against either not enough bandwidth or other items are saturating the wireless at these times. I would recommend you use AC or N wireless routers for this type of data flows.

I do not have any wireless systems myself, only POE (Power Over Ethernet) so I can not test this for you. Does the camera work if you connect it directly to Ethernet like when you first set it up, or does it only work over Wifi? For me I would think one of three things.

The device is too far from the Wireless AP, so you are getting dropped data

Power issue with the electrical feed, are you on US (60hz) or UK (50hz) power?

Defective unit and you should exchange it for a replacement.

Because you are receiving the data from the camera post Wifi or Power, it is hard to tell which one could be the culprit.

manxmariner

Thanks for the help everyone. I sent the cam back and reordered. The new one works just fine so far...no pulsating lights.

I do wish all the setting were in the phone app though. Desktops are so 1990

Glad to hear it was a rather simple return and replace. Also good to hear the issue went away in the new one.

manxmariner

I got my new camera (actually 2 new cameras) and they don't have this pulsating light problem.