topic Re: Battery life indicator inaccurate? in Arlo

Battery life indicator inaccurate?

Joeb912 — Sun, 06 Aug 2017 23:00:56 GMT

I bought the Tenergy batteries and charger because I was having difficulty with regular batteries, but the problem continues: the camera reports low batteries even when the batteries are charged. I tested with a multimeter, all are at or above 3 volts. The camera goes offline every day, I have to reset by opening and closing the battery compartment. Might the camera or app be defective?

Re: Battery life indicator inaccurate?

manfredz — Sun, 06 Aug 2017 23:27:50 GMT

Did you buy the gold colored 3.7v batteries or the gold colored 3.0 batteries. You need the gold colored 3.7v batteries

Re: Battery life indicator inaccurate?

Joeb912 — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 00:33:32 GMT

I bought the 3.7. I charged them this morning and the camera is offline tonight. I had the same problem with alkaline batteries. They metered at 2 to 2.5 ea and the camera reported 3%, then eventually zero. The Tenergy batteries and charger are 50 bucks.

Re: Battery life indicator inaccurate?

manfredz — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 00:51:34 GMT

altho it takes a few charges to get to best use, you should be getting much better. possibilities:

you got bad batteries or charger

putting batteries in wrong (dont force down, let closing the door seat them. make sure polarity is right

you got dirty contacts

something is wrong with cam.

Re: Battery life indicator inaccurate?

TomMac — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 01:30:26 GMT

As mentioned something is not right , 3.7 V lithium ion batteries should read 4.2 v approximately when fully charged

Re: Battery life indicator inaccurate?

Joeb912 — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 22:02:23 GMT

To clarify, I haven't measured the voltage after charging the batteries, only after getting low battery warnings. The % indicated by the app has been way off. Today it's measuring 62%, and is the first day in a while that the camera didn't go offline. My post was to see if anyone experiences the same issue. I'll have to open a ticket with Netgear support if this continues.

Thank you for the replies.

Re: Battery life indicator inaccurate?

edge1282 — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 11:11:02 GMT

Hi

I'm having the same issue with one of my four cameras. All cameras are set the same. Battery life has dropped 20% in a week on 3 of them, but according to the app the 4th camera ran out of battery after 6 days. I replaced batteries with fully charged set 12 hours ago (it read 96% when I installed them) and now it reads 81%. I've had no alerts from that camera during the 12 hours, so it can't have been using any significant power. Also using tenergy 3.7 with charger. Haven't tested the batteries once camera reports they are dead.

Re: Battery life indicator inaccurate?

jguerdat — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 13:37:45 GMT

Rapid battery drain usually indicates either excessive recording/live viewing (5 minutes or less per day is the spec) or poor signal quality between the base and camera. An easy thing to try is to swap cameras to see if the issue remains with the camera or position.

Re: Battery life indicator inaccurate?

Joeb912 — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 15:24:59 GMT

I'll have to experiment by placing the camera where there's no activity, and hope that I remember to put it back before I leave the house. When we're home, this and my other cameras have constant activity.

Re: Battery life indicator inaccurate?

jguerdat — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 19:24:45 GMT

Swapping the cameras and leaving them for a while would be simpler.

Re: Battery life indicator inaccurate?

Joeb912 — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 21:41:49 GMT

I only have one. The others are a different brand and are plugged in.

Re: Battery life indicator inaccurate?

Joeb912 — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 01:01:04 GMT

Looks like it was just a bum camera. Netgear replaced it, and this one seems to be reporting battery life correclty. After 2 full days it's as 98%. There's less activity on it, I point it facing the wall when I'm home, but I don't think that accounts improved accuracy. The camera has also stayed online, instead of losing connection with the base station a few times a day.

Netgear, like every company nowadays, encourages community forums to look for answers, but opening a support ticket and getting the camera replaced was the solution.

Thanks for all the replies.

Is there an option to mark an issue resolved? If so, I don't see it.