PTZ, Monitor Points, Auto Tracking, and Gears

skipt

This post is about Reolink PTZ cameras in general and the E1 Outdoor cameras in particular. It is a little long but I have some specific questions at the end.

Over the past 7 months I purchased 3 E1 OD cams. Over time I found that they could not reliably return to the monitoring point (MP) after panning. Online discussions say there is a problem with the gears. Some people suggest the gears are nylon, they degrade over time, and worn/bad teeth preclude reliably returning to the correct MP. My oldest camera has the worst MP error, the newest one the least, this is consistent with the notion that the gears wear and get worse over time.

So I worked with RL support who has been pretty helpful. After upgrading the firmware on the cameras and doing some more pan testing I documented the problem in detail and RL agreed to issue me RMAs for the three cameras. So far so good.

The plot thickens here because I bought two of the cameras from RL’s eBay storefront and the third camera from RL’s web site. So, they asked me to return the cameras under two different RMAs. They sent a separate email with an RMA for the camera bought from the RL web site and a separate email with an RMA to return the two cameras bought from the RL eBay storefront. OK, I have to pay shipping twice because I’ve had the cameras longer than thirty days, but the physical address to which I must return the cameras is the same place in Pomona CA. Sigh….

Another curiosity is that the RL email providing the RMA for the cameras bought from the eBay store says this:

“As we are not sure if the replacements will solve the problem, may we know if you are willing to” (…take advantage of an offer to provide me with different model cameras) “…Or if you have other suggestions, please also let us know.”

On the other hand the RMA email from the RL web store mentions no problem with providing me an E1 to replace my original E1.

So the eBay RMA team seems to be suggesting the (gear??) problem in the E1 Outdoor cams has not been/will not be fixed, but there is no such mention in the email providing the RMA for the camera purchased from the RL web site. Why am I getting 2 different stories? If anyone from RL is reading this forum, please comment.

For RL users reading this I’d like to hear any reports of MP/PTZ problems possibly related to gear wear, both for the E1 Outdoor or any other RL PTZ autotracking cameras. Are there any RL WiFi PTZ autotracking cameras known to have a long term track record holding their monitor points? If so, are there known design improvements supporting such claims?