Nest Cam installation errors & camera light color codes:

This article gives Nest Cam troubleshooting advice to get past a failed nest-cam installation. We describe the detection and correction of problems with Wi-Fi settings, number of users, and bandwith issues. The article includes a diagnostic table of the meaning of the various colors and status of the light on the Nest Cam camera.

This article series describes the Nest Cam installation procedure and includes advice on settings that can get you out of trouble if your camera installation does not go smoothly. To get the very best performance from your Nest Cam (or Dropcam) we give advice on camera location, use of lighting, and securing the cameras and their wiring.

Nest Cam Installation Technical Tips to Get Past Unusual Error Codes

I had trouble installing some of the cameras in both of our test buildings, usually the later ones I was trying to install. I successfully installed two of three Nest Cams in our second test building only to find that my third camera installation failed at the very end of the installation process, when I was to select the camera resolution. Error code 357 and then error code 350 left me stuck.

But with help from Nest technical support we ultimately got everything working. As I've not found this information well-documented anywhere else, here are some tips that can avoid trouble and get past some odd Nest Cam error codes and SNAFUs.

Check your Wi Fi Router's DHCP Protocol Settings and the Maximum Number of Users

In SNAFU #1 Nest Cam suggested that since the Nest requires DHCP I should be sure that service was enabled in my router. You don't need to know what that is (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), but your router must be set to provide it.

To fix this I needed to review the original installation instructions for my wireless router, log in to the router as administrator, and take a look at the router's settings. Using a Linksys Smart Wi-Fi that's pretty easy. Linksys gives you a link to enter in your browser. Once connected to my browser I looked at "Connectivity" to see that DHCP Server was "Enabled" - it was.

So what might be wrong? I took a look at the "Device list" showing what devices were connected to the router at that moment. I was surprised to see that there were five devices connected to my router, including several computers and my smartphone.

Back on the Connectivity page I saw that we had set the maximum number of users to 5. We'd never considered that each Nest Cam and each Nest learning thermostat connects itself to your wi-fi network as an individual user. My third Nest Cam that I was trying to install would bring the number of users to 6! I changed the number of allowable devices to 10.

Check the Bandwidth or Speed of Your Wireless Router

If you are busy watching a movie or if your Wi-Fi network is slow, or if you have a large number of Nest Cams and Nest thermostats installed on your network, you may have trouble getting the last Nest Cam or Nest thermostat to install. Nest tech support will usually ask you to check your wi-fi network's speed.

We used Speedtest found at http://www.speedtest.net/ to make this check.

A typical building wi-fi system speed determines just how much data you can stream at once from the internet into your home, computer, or devices (download speed) as well as how much data you can push up to the internet (upload speed). Speedtest will give you three parameters:

1. Ping: how quickly will your system respond to a simple tap on the shoulder asking "are you there?" - 42ms is a typical value
2. Download speed: what is the bandwidth of data that you can download from the internet - 15 - 20 Mbps are pretty good numbers
3. Upload speed: what is the bandwidth of data that you can upload to the internet, for example to the Nest service - 3-4 Mbps (mega-bits per second of data transfer) are acceptable numbers.

Check the resolution of the Sum of Your Nest Cams against the Upload speed of your Wireless Router

So how much bandwidth do we need to support a Nest Cam? The answer depends on the image resolution you've specified for each camera. Higher resolution imaging requires more bandwidth.

Watch out: if the total data bandwidth needed for all of your cameras is too close to the maximum upload speed of your wi-fi network your cameras may not work and may not even install. Here's the data:

Notes to the table above

1. Per Nest technical support call, 2016/02/13. Nest's website gives average image upload bandwidth for a Nest Cam without Nest Aware in numbers that vary depending on the level of activty. According to Nest's website, at 360p resolution bandwidth ranges between 0.06 Mbps and 0.15 Mbps (60 to 150 Kbps), at 720p the range is given as .2 to .5 Mbps (200 to 500 Kbps), and at 1080p the upload bandwith range is given as 0.45Mbps (450 Kbps) to 1.2 Mbps. The lower number of these pairs is described as "average bandwith) and the upper number as "maximum activity bandwith usage".

Watch out: if you plan to view your Nest Cam activity on your smartphone you may need to tune up your smartphone's data plan. At high resolution, monitoring one Nest Cam can use as much as 380GB (that's gigabytes). Even if your U.S. smartphone has a generous or unlimited data plan, you may find that when traveling abroad you are being charged for high volumes of data transmission. It's easy to top $100./month in data charges while traveling abroad for a few weeks.

2. The table above gives upload bandwith usage per camera. Add together the Mbps for all of the Nest Cams you are installing. If the total Mbps for all of your cameras is close to the upload speed of your wi-fi network that we determined above (using speedtest) you need to re-set the camera's resolution to a lower number. We set all of our cameras in our second test building to 720p.

In our first test building (building 1) where five Nest Cams and three Nest learning thermostats were to be installed we chose different Nest Cam resolutions for different cameras. At the highest- priority camera we used the full 1080p resolution. In three other cameras we set the cam resolution to 720p. In the lowest-priority (least-concern) Nest Cam location we set that camera to 320p resolution. All of the cameras and thermostats then installed without error.

With our cameras set to 720p and our DHCP support set to permit 10 users (you may need more) we were able to install all three of our Nest Cam cameras in building 2.

These steps put an end to our Error codes 357 and 350 - secret numbers that are not documented at Nest's online support system. Luckily you don't need to know the error code details for Nest as you can simply contact Nest technical support (below).

If you begin to see speed warnings when viewing your Nest Cams or Nest thermostat data try setting the resolution for cameras to a lower number.

How to Contact Nest Technical Support

• Nest Technical Support: Website: https://nest.com/support/ or Telephone: 855-469-6378
• Nest Cam error codes explained: https://nest.com/ca/support/article/What-do-Nest-Cam-s-error-codes-mean-How-do-I-fix-them
  
  Watch out: not all of the error codes that may show up during your Nest Cam installation are explained at the Nest error code web pages. But check first at the error code explanatory page link I gave above. That page will explain the most-common Nest Cam error codes

Nest Cam Status Indicator Light Color Codes

Watch the lights on your Nest Cam and you'll see that it gets busy.

Notes to the table above

Source: Nest Support, "What do the lights and sounds mean on Nest Cam?", retrieved 2016/02/14, original source: https://nest.com/support/article/What-do-the-lights-mean-on-Nest-Cam

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Continue reading at NEST CAM DISPLAYS - WHAT CAN YOU SEE? or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

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