[Motion-user] Network cameras hang randomly

[Barry M. <bar...@gm...>]

Hi Folks!


Recently installed two Reolink RLC-510WA wireless cameras and having a 
problem with the stream hanging/freezing randomly – usually around 30 
seconds but sometimes as little as 5 seconds. The clock on the camera 
stream stops; that of Motion continues. (In case that’s confusing both 
streams have clocks displayed – for now anyway. I’m looking at the 
Motion stream, Motion is looking and displaying the Reolink stream.)


I’m not sure where to begin troubleshoot – well, some shotgun guesses 
which seem to eliminate some problem sources. This is my first wireless 
camera.


Start with the Hardware:

Raspberry Pi 4B version 1.2

Not Throttled

Not using any Swap

Cameras (two) Reolink RLC-510WA; https and RTSP enabled.


Running Motion Version 4.7.0



The Reolink configuration is indicating it’s WiFi connection is 4 out of 
4 bars and I think is a 5G connection (dual-band device provided by the 
ISP). Know could check by channel being used but I didn’t find that 
information.



Raspberry Pi measurements:


Every 1.0s: cat /proc/net/wireless Motion204: Tue Sep 16 18:41:25 2025 
(same results @ 18:53)


Inter-| sta-| Quality | Discarded packets | Missed | WE

face | tus | link level noise | nwid crypt frag retry misc | beacon | 22

wlan0: 0000 40. 40. 0. 0 0 0 0 0 0



barry@Motion204:~ $ iwconfig wlan0 | grep -i --color quality

Link Quality=40/100 Signal level=40/100 Noise level=0/100



barry@Motion204:~ $ cat /etc/motion/camera2.conf

# /usr/etc/motion/camera2.conf

#

# This config file was generated by motion 4.5.1


###########################################################

# Configuration options specific to camera 2

############################################################


# User defined name for the camera.

camera_name Reolink - Porch


# Numeric identifier for the camera.

camera_id 102


# The full URL of the network camera stream.

netcam_url rtsp://*****:**********@192.168.*.***:554


# v4l2_palette 8 # 8 = MPJG palette 21 = H.264 but not work

# Replaced by video_parms -- see 
https://motion-project.github.io/4.6.0/motion_config.html#video_params

# video_params palette=8


# Image width in pixels.

width 1280


# Image height in pixels.

height 720


# Text size

text_scale 4


# Text to be overlayed in the lower left corner of images

# text_left CAMERA 1

text_left Reolink Porch Camera (204)


# Storage location

target_dir /mnt/Motion_NAS/Porch


# File name(without extension) for movies relative to target directory

movie_filename %m-%d/%v-%Y%m%d%H%M%S



The other Reolink camera uses camera3.conf, camera_id = 103; IP changed 
as needed.

(camera1 is a USB camera and AFAICT no hesitation/pausing.)


Using my browser (Firefox), so a https connection, I do not get the 
hesitations/pauses.



Thanks for helping me figure this out!

Barry