Crap cameras essential 2k

[disappointed100]

Will not stay charged, even with extreme minimal detection settings. After I climb a ladder disconnect the camera from the solar panel that is supposed to keep the camera charged. Plug the camera into the wall outlet that takes almost the full day to charge the camera. I then climb back up the ladder reinstall the camera, only to have to do this again in 2 days. Yes, the solar panel is the one designed for the camera. Yes, the solar panel is working because I switched panels around to check if they charge other cameras. Yes, the soler panel is getting full. Yes, I tried taking the camera offline and reinstalling it to both my Wi-Fi and the system. Yes, the firmware is up to date.  

When I called the support line and explained that I know how to read a trouble shooting guide. I explained all of the above. What did the support person try telling me over the phone?? He said, "Your WI-FI address is incorrect" That is why the battery won't stay charged and will not work with the solar panel. 1. Why is all my other internet working?  2. What the heck does the WI-FI address have to do with the battery being charged?

This shows that they don't know their own equipment. They don't want to admit a flaw in their equipment. 

[jguerdat]

While it's possible you have a faulty camera, that would be a one-off, not applicable to the whole installed base. I understand yours has some sort of issue but you can't blame it on the product as a whole.

It shouldn't take all day to charge although if you have the XL version that takes much longer to charge. The product page indicates 4x the battery capacity so that easily could mean 4x (+/-) the charge time. My own usage seems to show ~3 hours to charge the non-XL version.

The usual culprits for poor battery life are 1) signal strength/quality issues and/or 2) excessive recordings and live viewing. >5 minutes per day should give you spec battery life assuming the signal is fine. However, use of activity zones means you won't be able to determine actual total recording time since the camera has to record so the servers can determine what's in zone or not. You'd need to disable those zones to get a true picture. A solar panel can help to a degree but remember it's a trickle charger, not equivalent to plugging into AC power.

For signal strength/quality troubleshooting, you can use a phone app at the camera location to check strength. For quality issue, you need to check for other 2.4GGHz devices near the camera that could interfere with  the signal. It may be easier to move the camera to another location (or swap cameras around if you have more) to see if it's the camera or the location that's the problem.

[disappointed100]

I have 2 other arlo cameras of the same type on the same mount. All three are within six to eight inches of each other. Each camera captures a different view of my yard.   All three each have their own solar panel that captures the same sun throughout the day, and the other two keep their charge just fine.

The WI-FI signal was checked and is strong on all three cameras. As far as "excessive recordings", the only thing I have it set to register, and record is movement of people and NOTHING ELSE. No live viewing.

There is no problem with recording quality on the camera. There is no problem with the signal.

Believe me when I tell you that I have read front to back more than once.

I am not stupid enough to think that changing my WI-FI address will solve the problem.

I just do not understand why your company is so snooty to think that everyone else is at fault and that there could never be a faulty product coming out of your stores. 

At this time I think it is time for me to find a different company for my home security.

[jguerdat]

First off, I have nothing to do with Arlo other than as being another user like you. The only Arlo employees here have an Arlo avatar. @StephenB and I are not employees - we just spent lots of time and effort here.

3 to 6 inches apart is a potential problem with the radios in each interfering with each other. That would cause battery life issues. I forget what Arlo suggests as a minimum distance but it may be 3 feet (could be a bit more).

[StephenB]

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@disappointed100 wrote:

The WI-FI signal was checked and is strong on all three cameras. As far as "excessive recordings", the only thing I have it set to register, and record is movement of people and NOTHING ELSE. No live viewing.

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Video is streamed to the cloud whenever the PIR sensor on the camera detects motion.  The cloud then determines whether the activity is in-zone or out-of-zone (if you use activity zones), and also does the classification of people, etc.  So enabling these features does not improve battery life.

The only way to gauge the amount of video being captured per day is to remove zones and other cloud-processed filtering, so you can see everything that is triggering the PIR sensor.

Another practical thing you can try is simply to switch two of the cameras, and see if the problem moves with the camera or not.

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@disappointed100 wrote:

I have 2 other arlo cameras of the same type on the same mount. All three are within six to eight inches of each other. Each camera captures a different view of my yard.   All three each have their own solar panel that captures the same sun throughout the day, and the other two keep their charge just fine.

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We only know what you tell us, and this was not in your earlier posts.