Useless solar panels

[Mnsteve]

There is,a,tree over the location where I have the solar panel.  It does not keep my camera.  I wanted solar panels because there is no outlet.  The solution?  Use the outdoor charging camera.  There is no bigger panel and there are no specs listed for the s9lar panel so you can't know,when you buy it that the directions say that it is too small to charge the battery.  Plus other 3rd party panels,are not compatible with arlo for undisclosed reasons. Arlo made the choice to do something so you can't use other panels.  That makes 2 cameras and 2 solar panels useless.  Wasted money.

[StephenB]

---

@Mnsteve wrote:

 That makes 2 cameras and 2 solar panels useless.  

---

Have you tried using the cameras with just the battery?  They will need to be taken down from time to time to charge (depending on the amount of motion at the camera location).

I do get the frustration, but I don't think it's reasonable to blame Arlo for putting panels in a place without direct sun.

[Mnsteve]

Obviously I cantankerous them down and charge them.

A truly competent company would realize that solar panels that only work if you have full sun all day are functionaly useless.  People who need solar panels are not going to be able to control that. They will have houses that face north or are innarrow spaces or are far from electric power.

Instead they would offer panels large enough to power the tiny demands of a tiny camera with only minimumal sun. Or they would not design their equipment to be incompatible with other equipment.  They would include specifications so the buyer could know,what they arw getting.  Maybe they would not make equipment that's says in effect, caution this pos does not supply enough power to actually charge the battery.

Just suppose we don't live in California.  Maybe we live somewhere that can be cloudy for  days or where we have actual trees not those sticks that they call palm trees.

[StephenB]

---

@Mnsteve wrote:

Maybe we live somewhere that can be cloudy for  days or where we have actual trees not those sticks that they call palm trees.

---

FWIW, I live on the east coast.  One of my cameras is an XL (larger than usual battery) and is mounted on a maple tree. I also put a solar panel on the tree. Although it doesn't get as much direct sun as I'd like, the panel still helps quite a bit. But I do need to charge the camera a couple times a year.