I am looking for a setup to track when bats enter and exit my attic. Would the Wyze Cam v4 be a good option for this, or are there any issues I should expect? Obviously, this isn’t what it was designed for, but it seems to have night vision, 24/7 recording, and motion detection storage.
For those who use it daily, do you think it would work well for this?
For anyone wondering, we plan to have the bats removed using professional methods. But before that, we want to monitor how many are coming and going, especially after installing a one-way exit.
If you don’t turn on the IR light, it might be blurry in total darkness. The motion sensor should still work fine since bats are big enough to trigger it. The v4 doesn’t use PIR for motion detection, so it should still catch movement. It can do 24/7 recording on an SD card, but sometimes it stops for no reason. I set mine to restart automatically every other day, and that helps keep it working.
There have been studies on tracking bats through acoustic monitoring. Maybe try increasing the sensitivity of noise detection? Could help estimate activity, though you’d probably need to manually review the recordings to refine it.
I have lots of nectar loving bats in the late summer/fall take over my porch and hummingbird feeder. They are fast moving so they get a bit blurry but still show up pretty well. You’ll want IR light so either have the camera outside with the IR on or if it is behind glass you can add an IR light outside
I have a Wyze Cam Pan v3 in my attic mounted upside down. Works fine with an SD card for recording. If you need a longer USB cable, you can get extensions, so that shouldn’t be an issue.