topic Re: Charging one camera with two solar panels in Arlo Pro 2

Charging one camera with two solar panels

Jbreynol — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 15:03:56 GMT

I have a camera in a tree that I can't keep charged with a single solar panel due to shade. Has anyone tried linking a single Arlo to two solar panels?

Re: Charging one camera with two solar panels

TomMac — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 15:20:10 GMT

Not to my knowledge... main issue would be keeping all waterproof connection.

Re: Charging one camera with two solar panels

Jbreynol — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 15:41:14 GMT

Yeah, I was wondering about that. Thought I'd use some weatherproof caulk to seal everything together. The only thing I haven't found yet is a good splitter to join everything up.

Re: Charging one camera with two solar panels

thelastosirus — Fri, 07 Jun 2019 14:34:52 GMT

The issue is probably not with the single solar panel, but with a firmware issue. I made my own solar charger using a raw panel, rectifier diode, and weatherproof USB cable. Basically what I have found is the cameras must go into some sort of high-power mode as if an actual USB charger is plugged in. The problem is when the sun goes down, the camera drains at an excessive rate which will flatten the battery almost overnight. I initially thought the rectifier diode had failed (and the solar panel was back-draining the battery at night) but I replaced this with a confirmed good one and the issue remains. So this is simply a firmware issue that needs fixing. I will attempt to solve it myself by using the solar power to "latch" a transistor closed, and when the sun goes down enough (and power is lost), the transistor will open making the camera "think" nothing is plugged in. While this won't solve the high power usage when the sun is up, it might work good enough provided my panel has a high enough output.

But my solution is way beyond what a typical owner can do and rightfully so. The Arlo ecosystem supposed to just work...Right?