topic Re: Replacing batteries weekly. in Arlo

Replacing batteries weekly.

guzpro — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 22:51:11 GMT

I am honestly at my wits end and if I could return the set to amazon where I ordered it I would. I have in the last month replaced the batteries on one camer 4 times and the other twice. I have had the devices sleeping and they still show low battery levels. I have gotten almost no usage out of this system because at every turn the cameras are offline or the batteries are dead. Based on posts I have read it seems like I have the latest firmware. I am starting to think I wasted 350 dollars in less than 2 months, plus 40 dollars in batteries. I disabled the schedule I had setup to turn the cameras off during the day and for the last week had them "sleeping" and yet they still went from 100% to 6% in 4 days. Any suggestions on what might be wrong?

Re: Replacing batteries weekly.

RobertRosal — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 17:26:57 GMT

guzpro wrote:
I am honestly at my wits end and if I could return the set to amazon where I ordered it I would. I have in the last month replaced the batteries on one camer 4 times and the other twice. I have had the devices sleeping and they still show low battery levels. I have gotten almost no usage out of this system because at every turn the cameras are offline or the batteries are dead. Based on posts I have read it seems like I have the latest firmware. I am starting to think I wasted 350 dollars in less than 2 months, plus 40 dollars in batteries. I disabled the schedule I had setup to turn the cameras off during the day and for the last week had them "sleeping" and yet they still went from 100% to 6% in 4 days. Any suggestions on what might be wrong?

Hi Guzpro,

Where does it show the percentage left on the battery? I only see bars on mine.

How many recordings do you see? By chance are the cameras set too sensitive and recording keeps getting triggered?

Re: Replacing batteries weekly.

guzpro — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 17:43:26 GMT

The percentage is in the emails that get sent with the low battery warnings. I literally have zero recordings. I had them in sleep mode so not sure sensitivity would even matter

Re: Replacing batteries weekly.

laurenc — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 23:42:34 GMT

Hi @guzpro

Thank you for reaching out in the Community. Did you rename the Default Mode to "Sleeping" or did your system come pre-configured with this Mode?

I look forward to your next update!

Best Regards,

Lauren

Arlo Team

Re: Replacing batteries weekly.

guzpro — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 14:26:38 GMT

It came with it. As I mentioned I have no recordings saved and had the cameras pointed towards a wall in a room thats almost never used.

Re: Replacing batteries weekly.

laurenc — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 22:29:06 GMT

Hi @guzpro

We have had a small handful of reports such as yours where the modes are Home & Awake and Sleeping instead of All motion on and All motion off. The best way to resolve this is to actually reset the base station. Please follow the steps below while in the same location as the base station. This process should only take a few minutes.

Do a simple reset by using a paper clip to press the reset button on the base station for 10 seconds or until all the LEDs on the base station blinks amber.
Your base station will then perform the reset and reboot itself. Please wait until the Power and Internet LED turn solid green.
Resync the cameras as instructed in the quick start guide (one at a time).

You can then log into your Arlo account where you should see the new default modes “All Motion On” and “All Motion Off”. For good measure you should also enable “Auto Update FW” (Firmware) under Settings > Base Station settings.

Please let me know after this process what level the batteries are reading as well. Are you using the batteries that came with the system? If not, please include as much information as possible on the batteries used and their specifications.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Best Regards,

Lauren

Arlo Team

Re: Replacing batteries weekly.

guzpro — Sun, 26 Apr 2015 13:44:03 GMT

I did the reset and the new settings are showing as you described. The batteries showed dead again. this for the pair of camers is the 5th set of batteries (including the original). I tried swapping the batteries in each camera before again having to replace with new batteries. The batteries are energizer 123 batteries with expiration of 12/24.

I purchased the batteries from Walmart http://www.walmart.com/ip/Generic-EL123BP-12-Energizer-123-Battery-12-Pack-EL123-12/23236732

i have gone through 3 of these 12 packs. I have multiple netgear products including the x6 and and r700 and this is honestly the first time i have ever been severely disappointed in a Netgear product. Please let me know if I have provided enough detail.

Dennis

Re: Replacing batteries weekly.

AnthonyArmato — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 00:49:19 GMT

Dennis,

Just to reiterate this. You've replaced the batteries and have had the cameras in "sleep mode" without any use at all, yet they continue to drain the battery in a short period of time ?

Re: Replacing batteries weekly.

guzpro — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 01:22:13 GMT

Yes. From the original post date to today when I reset the router the batteries once again were fully drained

Re: Replacing batteries weekly.

AnthonyArmato — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 02:18:22 GMT

I'm a little confused. The batteries/cameras don't say they're drained until after you reset the router ? Why are you resetting the router ?

Re: Replacing batteries weekly.

guzpro — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 02:20:24 GMT

No, they showed drained before and after. I am saying the in the short time the initial post was live the cameras drained another set of batteries. I changed them after the reset to complete the repairing of the cameras

Re: Replacing batteries weekly.

AnthonyArmato — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 02:22:31 GMT

Oh okay. I gotcha.

You don't have them set to record anything ? You're not using them at all ? You're not going online and streaming from any cameras at any point ?

Re: Replacing batteries weekly.

guzpro — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 02:25:04 GMT

No usage whatsoever. Once the batteries kept draining I set them to record nothing and still batteries drain in about a week

Re: Replacing batteries weekly.

AnthonyArmato — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 02:30:12 GMT

While the cameras have battery life, what does the WiFi signal to those cameras look like ?

Re: Replacing batteries weekly.

guzpro — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 02:31:26 GMT

Full. They are about 2 feet From the router on my desk

Re: Replacing batteries weekly.

AnthonyArmato — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 02:36:53 GMT

I'm just shooting in the dark here.

Maybe try to delete all your rules for each camera. Go to modes and click the pencil on all modes off and make sure they are actually off (check marks all black).

I assume your base station and cameras have the latest firmware version.

Re: Replacing batteries weekly.

guzpro — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 02:38:22 GMT

Already done and verified latest firmware

Re: Replacing batteries weekly.

AnthonyArmato — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 02:48:10 GMT

At this point I'd see if NetGear will exchange the whole system for you. Other than the one camera I had an issue with mine are not having this issue. Granted I've only had my system almost a week but each camera continue to show full bars.

Re: Replacing batteries weekly.

laurenc — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 19:59:10 GMT

Hi @guzpro

Please look for a private message from me shortly. We will go ahead and open a Support case for you to further troubleshoot this issue.

Best Regards,

Lauren

Arlo Team

Re: Replacing batteries weekly.

guzpro — Wed, 20 May 2015 12:34:10 GMT

As an update, Post the system reset and being sent replacement batteries there was marginal improvement. In tuning off all motion detection, the batteries did not drain at all where in the past they would drain within days. Now however with 1 week of motion detection off and less than 2 weeks of motion detection enabled for only the overnight hours the batteries are drained once again. A total of 16 motion detected 10 second clips were recorded during the window. I reached out to Amazon to inquire about a return but since I purchased at the end of February there is nothing they will do. I like the features and the wireless convenience concept ut in action so far this has been a pretty bad expereince.