topic Re: Solar Panel - Arlo Essential in Arlo Essential Outdoor 2nd Gen

Solar Panel - Arlo Essential

Mmaxwell — Sat, 22 Jun 2024 09:49:53 GMT

Has anyone else had trouble with the solar panel draining the charge from the camera? I have charged my camera twice in the last 2 days to full because the solar panel hasn't been charging it and both times the battery is drained within 4h of plugging it back into the solar panel

Re: Solar Panel - Arlo Essential

FC_Arlo — Sat, 22 Jun 2024 12:44:21 GMT

Just bought 3 cameras (Essential 2) with solar cells and installed. One of the cameras drained from a full charge to totally dead within 3 hours of nightfall. There were 0 zero motion detected events after dark and prior to battery draining.

It's on the west side of the house which gets a LOT of sun and gets quite hot with the sun on it. The camera is not in direct sun but the panel is.

I suspect that the panel drained the battery for some reason once it lost enough light for charging.

Re: Solar Panel - Arlo Essential

StephenB — Sat, 22 Jun 2024 13:43:21 GMT

@FC_Arlo wrote:

I suspect that the panel drained the battery for some reason once it lost enough light for charging.

Try disconnecting the panel, and see if that helps.

Also, if you are using activity zones, then remove them for a while. Those conceal the amount of activity the camera sees, and make it harder to diagnose the cause of the power drain.