Hero 11 Daily Timelapse Mode - Questions and problems

[OvrilPT]

Hello!

I have been running 2 GoPro 11 Black cameras with the "Daily Time-lapse Video and Optional Upload" program on a construction project since June 2023, and I've encountered several problems I hope you guys are able to help me with. I will divide this post in topics so it's easier to address each issue.

The Setup

The cameras are connected, without batteries, via the official USB Pass-Through Door to a 12V-5V car style USB converter, which in turn is connected to a solar powered 12V 12Ah lead-acid battery.
I have a 5G Internet Hotspot also connected and in range of both cameras, with good reception in the area.
I have the QR Code set to capture a Night-Lapse Video from 8AM to 6:30PM very day, with a 5 minute interval, with the Linear Lens option.

The Issues

• The daily upload doesn't trigger:
  Only one of the 2 cameras ever uploaded anything to the GoPro cloud (I have an active GoPro subscription).
  The camera that uploads, sometimes works, but most of the time (90%) the uploads don't happen at all, the camera starts the recording again the next day, but no upload was made on the previous day.

• The recordings stop randomly
  I go to the site about every 10 days to check on the cameras. Frequently when I arrive the cameras are not recording.
  Sometimes they record for 8-9 days and then stop and stay off, sometimes they only record the day after I set them up, and stop and turn themselves off.
  As most of the time they don't upload anything to the cloud, I don't know if they are recording or stopped.
  Sometimes when I turn them on they say they are trying to recover a recording, but most times they only turn themselves on with no message.

If you guys have any suggestions or tips about what might be happening, I would really appreciate the help.
Thanks

[dnewman-gpsw]

I've spent I lot of time on this recently, as this has always need a problem from HERO6 (unreleased Labs) through HERO11. The cameras would randomly stop in long form timelapse. It has gotten better as bugs were found, like some errors than only occurred at midnight. Things improved on HERO11 with v2.12.70 - Aug 10, 2023 release with support leaving the internal battery in. As you started in June, you may not be on that version. It is now recommended to leave the battery in, as it does a better job of keeping the internal clock accurate. Clock failures are a common cause for long form timelapse pauses. You can often see the clock error in the log file stored within MISC/qrlog.txt.

Info needed: firmware version, qrlog.txt files.

However, HERO11 with internal battery is still occasionally afflicted with random stops. It should be way rarer than your reports, but it is there. Typically the wake failures (not clock related, see above) are averaging one in ~300 starts. So should have been good for months.

Upload errors. This a I have less experience with, as Upload is not really a Labs function, Labs is simply scripting the start of a standard manual upload. For the bulk of Labs upload testing, home WiFi networks were used, as that is what it was designed for. A good test is try the manual upload in the menu at your remote location. 5G Hotspots are very asymmetric. I was testing one very recently and got 60Mb/s downloads, so I thought that would be perfect, but the manual upload was timing out after 20-30 minutes of trying. I then tested the upload speed was under 1Mb/s. When I moved to a new location, the upload speed went to 8Mb/s and the manual uploads worked, although very slow. There might be other errors in upload, but the log file might help.

Let's learn what happening from the log files. The Upload might be interfering with script reliability, the clock might be losing time, wakes might be failing. This should be reliable enough with the latest FW.

[OvrilPT]

Hello, sorry for the late reply, I wasn't able to get to the job site in the meantime.

First of all, thank you very much for the help.

My cameras were using the August 10 2023 release since around September, but with no internal battery.

I went today to the site to find again both cameras not recording and grabbed the log files, which I'm attaching here.
Cam 1 qrlog.txt
Cam 1 qrlog.bak

Cam 2 qrlog.txt
Cam 2 qrlog.bak

I've also updated the firmware to the most recent version (v2.20.70, November 2023) and inserted the internal batteries in both cameras.

Regarding the uploads, the wifi hotspots are of good quality and have good reception, with all power saving settings disabled so they don't shut down when they get no traffic.
When I trigger manual uploads from there, being from my phone or directly from the cameras, they have always uploaded the files quickly and without errors. The issue is when they try to upload automatically when I'm away.

Again, thank you very much for all the time and help.

[OvrilPT]

Hey @dnewman-gpsw sorry for the bump, have you had a chance to review my latest message?

I will go back to the job site on Saturday to check the cameras and I'll report if they are still recording.

Regarding the uploads, since my last visit, none of the cameras uploaded anything to the cloud.

Thanks!