topic Re: Anyone know if Solar Panel will cut out charging when Arlo Pro battery is full? in Arlo Pro

Anyone know if Solar Panel will cut out charging when Arlo Pro battery is full?

fisheye7 — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 22:31:17 GMT

Does anyone know if the Solar Panel (VMA4600) will cut out charging when Arlo Pro camera battery is full thus avoiding overcharging.
I live in a very sunny climate & the camera battery only goes down by a few percentage points of charge & when the sun comes up the battery gets to 100% within an hour or so.
Thank you in advance for any relevant answers.

Re: Anyone know if Solar Panel will cut out charging when Arlo Pro battery is full?

brh — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 22:31:28 GMT

@fisheye7,

The solar panel will not over charge te battery.

Brian

Re: Anyone know if Solar Panel will cut out charging when Arlo Pro battery is full?

fisheye7 — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 08:42:47 GMT

I’m asking about overcharging because I’m getting 100% charge indicating all day. I live in a very sunny climate. The charge drops to around 97% at night & then back up to 100% all day during the daytime.
I installed the battery after I had fully charged it via mains. (As per the Arlo instructions).
So I understand that most people will not be in my position because they are probably not getting 100% charge showing on their Arlo app due to non sunny climate etc.
Since mine is showing 100% all day, I am wondering if there is a possibility of overcharging in my case. Does the battery/camera or solar panel have a protection cutout to prevent this or are people commenting here simply assuming that user will never reach 100% charge from the solar panel which I am getting.

Re: Anyone know if Solar Panel will cut out charging when Arlo Pro battery is full?

brh — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 11:52:52 GMT

@fisheye7,

I am not sure, but most likely both of them have protection circuitry built inside. I have 10 solar panels in use, some of them were installed nearly three years ago. Most of them get about 8 hours of direct sunlight per day. Your readings are similar to mine. When you charge your batteries using the charger, you will get a true 100% charge. The charge from the solar panel, while saying 100% charge in the app is not a true 100% charge, indicating there is protection built into the cameras at least. This has been tested before by other members.

I don't think you have anything to worry about.

Brian

Re: Anyone know if Solar Panel will cut out charging when Arlo Pro battery is full?

fisheye7 — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 12:04:50 GMT

Thank you for your answer.

Re: Anyone know if Solar Panel will cut out charging when Arlo Pro battery is full?

jguerdat — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 12:36:26 GMT

The protection is built into the camera so as long as you are charging in the camera, you're safe. The battery actually only charges to 80% of the battery's total capacity although the display shows 100% (it's 100% of that 80%). This is well-documented that a li-ion battery lasts the longest when charged to 80%, not 100%.

Re: Anyone know if Solar Panel will cut out charging when Arlo Pro battery is full?

fisheye7 — Thu, 02 May 2019 14:01:48 GMT

Thank you for your answer.
Begs the question: does this happen on phones etc.etc. That is; charging to 80% only...

Re: Anyone know if Solar Panel will cut out charging when Arlo Pro battery is full?

brh — Thu, 02 May 2019 14:56:45 GMT

@fisheye7,

No, it is the protection circuitry built into the Arlo cameras.

Brian