topic Battery problem on 1 Ultra Camera in Arlo Ultra

Battery problem on 1 Ultra Camera

Orygun — Sun, 15 Sep 2019 16:57:39 GMT

After months of trial and error I have finally found camera positions that offer the least amount of notifications outside the designated Activity Zones. They are on a corner midway across the front of my house pointing in opposite directions.

I get maybe 3-5 notifications a day yet one camera goes down to 30% battery within a week while the one right next to it is at 95%. Just a bad battery?

I’ve only had the system since March and operate it wireless, no hard wiring.

is it possible the battery has already gone bad?

I’ve charged it in the charger that came with the package and I use a charging cable so I don’t have to take the cameras down everytime.

Re: Battery problem on 1 Ultra Camera

StephenB — Sun, 15 Sep 2019 19:53:50 GMT

@Orygun wrote:

After months of trial and error I have finally found camera positions that offer the least amount of notifications outside the designated Activity Zones. ...

is it possible the battery has already gone bad?

If your ultra is on battery power, then the activity zone detection is done in the cloud. So the camera still streams video every time it detects motion (in-zone or not). Then the cloud decides whether to store the recording or not.

While this will reduce notifications, it won't help battery life.

Re: Battery problem on 1 Ultra Camera

Orygun — Sun, 15 Sep 2019 21:54:42 GMT

Neither camera is seeing that much motion, especially the one I’m having battery trouble with.

Im thinking about switching the batteries to see if it’s the camera or the battery.

@StephenB wrote:

@Orygun wrote:

After months of trial and error I have finally found camera positions that offer the least amount of notifications outside the designated Activity Zones. ...

is it possible the battery has already gone bad?

If your ultra is on battery power, then the activity zone detection is done in the cloud. So the camera still streams video every time it detects motion (in-zone or not). Then the cloud decides whether to store the recording or not.

While this will reduce notifications, it won't help battery life.

Re: Battery problem on 1 Ultra Camera

StephenB — Sun, 15 Sep 2019 21:59:28 GMT

@Orygun wrote:

Neither camera is seeing that much motion, especially the one I’m having battery trouble with.

If you set up activity zones, you can't tell how much motion they are seeing (and how much video they are streaming to the cloud).

So try disabling the activity zones, and then see how many recordings/day your camera makes.

Re: Battery problem on 1 Ultra Camera

Orygun — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 18:43:26 GMT

Stephen,

Thank You for responding on this issue.

So I fully charged the camera on Saturday, removed and reinstalled the camera and did not set up activity zones. Intertesting thing, I now am getting night time recordings again of nocturnal visitors (this had stopped about 10 days ago).

I tested today while the system is typically armed and got notification of my movement and the battery is still at 99%.

I am a little confused, I thought you had to have activity zones drawn out to get any kind of notification. It appears that I must have had a lot of movement or something making the camera work overtime.

Guess I will go back to the instructions and get an understanding of why activity zones need to be used.

Re: Battery problem on 1 Ultra Camera

StephenB — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 18:58:25 GMT

@Orygun wrote:

I am a little confused, I thought you had to have activity zones drawn out to get any kind of notification.

Not at all. If you don't configure activity zones, then the entire field of view is one activity zone (so any detected motion generates a recording and a notification).

Drawing in the activity zone(s) reduces the area where motion is detected (resulting in fewer alerts). If the camera is using battery power, the activity zone processing is done in the cloud - so it won't help battery life. It can help you reduce the number of uninteresting notifications though.