Motion detection appears all black

My ring spotlight camera (battery) detect motion and it appears all black screen for 40sec. Why?

Check out this video I captured on my Ring device.

https://ring.com/share/0eeba6c4-54f8-43ec-8bc5-dc50a7452b42

@Bandar wrote:
My ring spotlight camera (battery) detect motion and it appears all black screen for 40sec. Why?

@Bandar your issue definitely sounds Wi-Fi related. Ring Video requires a much higher Wi-Fi data-stream connection, and if not, you may encounter problems ( Black-screen videos , slow or no “Live View” connections, etc.). A strong signal connection doesn’t necessarily mean a good data connection. I too was having occasional Black Videos and intermittent/delayed Live View connection issues with one of my cameras. Now, both my Black Videos not longer occur and my Live View connection is established rapidly every time! In my case, even with a good RSSI (a low value of 48) signal strength number (displayed on “Device Health”), my issue was the Wi-Fi path of the Video data-stream between the router and my camera (was passing through a double-brick fireplace with a metal chain grating in front of it). This path degraded my data-stream. Since I couldn’t move my router nor camera (to improve Wi-Fi reception or path), a Wi-Fi ‘repeater’ type-device enabled me to have the signal path “go around” the brick/metal grate. Any good 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi repeater, placed about half the distance between your Router and cam should help both with your poor RSSI strength and choosing a low-density-obstruction path (or the Ring Chime Pro, which I did purchase which solved my signal-path interference issues).

Check your Wi-Fi router. If you have two SSIDs, you will need to find out which one is 2.4 and which one is 5, and then you will connect your Ring device to the SSID for the 2.4 Ghz network. In my experience, Ring high-data-stream video does NOT do well competing with other Wi-Fi devices for bandwidth of 2.4GHz. Since my router is both Wi-Fi 2.4GHZ and 5Ghz, I moved as many of my other devices (that were 5GHz capable) to only use the 5GHz band, thereby reducing the competition for the Ring Cams. I reconfigured my dual-band router’s into two separate SSID log-in names. I named the 2.4GHz band to “2WireXXX” and named the 5GHZ band “2WireXXX 5G” leaving both with the same password. Then my other Wi-Fi devices that could use 5GHz, I used “forget this network” and then logged them onto only the “2WireXXX 5G”.

You might want to look into modifying your 2.4GHz Channel Selection too, to minimize interference issues created by neighbor’s routers or signal-generating devices in your home (microwaves, electric motors, etc.). In the router’s default “Auto” mode, routers often pick a mainly from commonly-used channels in Auto Mode (Ch 1, Ch 6, Ch 11). But accessing my router’s configuration through my PC browser and using a downloaded App on my Window’s PC (Wifi Analyzer and Scanner), I configure my router not to use its Auto Channel Selection Mode, and rather stay on the 2.4GHz channel of my choice . There are 11 channels (1 thru 11) to choose from. In my case, I found that Ch 4, which is in between the typically used channels, gave me the strongest signal and lowest interference, according to the Analyzer App. This channel did reduce the Wi-Fi interference I was getting from my neighbor’s routers. I also did noticed an improvement on my Ring cameras connection speed too.

If you still have issues, re-post here (someone might have another solution), or try searching through the Ring On-line Support, such as:

https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/360023439472-Fixing-Black-Video-Errors-by-Adjusting-Your-Router

https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/360023556192-Fixing-Poor-Audio-Video-Quality-by-Adjusting-Your-Router

Or you can call Ring Support by telephone:

https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/360036196372-Get-in-Touch

I hope this helps you :slight_smile: