Battery issues with new (gen 3) cameras

[Jemde]

I have two new gen 3 Essential cameras, and neither one is staying charged more than a few days. One of them goes from 100% to 50% in less than 24 hours, and has had to be charged 4 times since I installed it on 1 April. The other lasts about 4 days before needing a charge. 

I've set the worst one to "best battery life" for power management, reduced motion sensitivity, and set it to only monitor motion/record (b/w) at night, and it has a strong wireless connection, but it hasn't made a difference.

I've 5 other Essential cameras, but they're all gen 2, and they go several weeks (even months) before needing to be charged. Any ideas?

[StephenB]

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@Jemde wrote:

I have two new gen 3 Essential cameras, and neither one is staying charged more than a few days. One of them goes from 100% to 50% in less than 24 hours, and has had to be charged 4 times since I installed it on 1 April. The other lasts about 4 days before needing a charge. 

I've 5 other Essential cameras, but they're all gen 2, and they go several weeks (even months) before needing to be charged. Any ideas?

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Try swapping the cameras with the Gen 2s, and see if the problem moves with the cameras or stays with the locations.

Are you using activity zones?

[Jemde]

I've just swapped in a gen 2 for that location so I'll see what happens. Yes, I use a limited activity zone in that location, plus a privacy zone (to block out a bird feeder that sways in the wind).

Before I got the gen 3, I had a gen 2 in that location with the same setup and no power issues, but it went offline and wouldn't recover so I ordered the gen 3.

[StephenB]

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@Jemde wrote:

I've just swapped in a gen 2 for that location so I'll see what happens. Yes, I use a limited activity zone in that location, plus a privacy zone (to block out a bird feeder that sways in the wind).

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Activity zones mask the amount of video streaming, because they are applied in the Arlo Cloud.

So you could also remove the zone, and estimate the seconds of video streaming that are being sent per day.  That would let you know if the bird feeder is a factor.

[Jemde]

Interesting that the zones aren't applied until the cloud, thanks for that information.

The gen 2 camera is doing fine in that location. I recharged the bad gen 3 camera to 100% then put it in a drawer so it wouldn't be picking up anything. It lost 10% of its charge in 2 hours. What's weird is that it starts "ticking" (shutter?) rapidly anytime I open the Arlo app, then stops within a minute of the app closing.

Maybe this camera is just a dud?

[StephenB]

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@Jemde wrote:

Maybe this camera is just a dud?

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Possibly.

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@Jemde wrote:

What's weird is that it starts "ticking" (shutter?) rapidly anytime I open the Arlo app, then stops within a minute of the app closing.

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Are you seen anything odd when you livestream the camera?

[Jemde]

I just tried livestreaming it while it's in the drawer. Each time I heard the click, the display flashed from black to white. It did that about 6 times then stopped clicking and just showed black.

[StephenB]

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@Jemde wrote:

I just tried livestreaming it while it's in the drawer. Each time I heard the click, the display flashed from black to white. It did that about 6 times then stopped clicking and just showed black.

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Is there anything blocking the face of the camera (Lens, spotlight, or IR LEDs)? 

It sounds like the camera can't decide whether it should use Night Vision (infrared) or visible light.

[Jemde]

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@StephenB wrote:

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@Jemde wrote:

I just tried livestreaming it while it's in the drawer. Each time I heard the click, the display flashed from black to white. It did that about 6 times then stopped clicking and just showed black.

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Is there anything blocking the face of the camera (Lens, spotlight, or IR LEDs)? 

It sounds like the camera can't decide whether it should use Night Vision (infrared) or visible light.

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Thanks for the clue...I just turned off the Night Vision setting and the clicking stopped. I'll have to give it some time to see if that was what was draining the battery.  Although, even if that solves the battery problem, it seems like it would interfere with night recordings, which is what I use it for. 

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

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@Jemde wrote:

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@StephenB wrote:

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@Jemde wrote:

I just tried livestreaming it while it's in the drawer. Each time I heard the click, the display flashed from black to white. It did that about 6 times then stopped clicking and just showed black.

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Is there anything blocking the face of the camera (Lens, spotlight, or IR LEDs)? 

It sounds like the camera can't decide whether it should use Night Vision (infrared) or visible light.

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Thanks for the clue...I just turned off the Night Vision setting and the clicking stopped. I'll have to give it some time to see if that was what was draining the battery.  Although, even if that solves the battery problem, it seems like it would interfere with night recordings, which is what I use it for. 

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IR recording should actually use a bit less power than using the spotlight.  But continually switching back and forth will take power.

You could try a hardware reset:

• remove the camera from the account
• press the pairing button until the camera LED flashes amber (~15 sec)
• add the camera back.

[Jemde]

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@StephenB wrote:

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IR recording should actually use a bit less power than using the spotlight.  But continually switching back and forth will take power.

You could try a hardware reset:

• remove the camera from the account
• press the pairing button until the camera LED flashes amber (~15 sec)
• add the camera back.

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I'll give that a try, thanks!

[Jemde]

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@Jemde wrote:

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@StephenB wrote:

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IR recording should actually use a bit less power than using the spotlight.  But continually switching back and forth will take power.

You could try a hardware reset:

• remove the camera from the account
• press the pairing button until the camera LED flashes amber (~15 sec)
• add the camera back.

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I'll give that a try, thanks!

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Reset seems to have worked. Everything is behaving normally again with no drastic power drain or intermittent clicking. Thanks for the advice and help, @StephenB .

[StephenB]

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@Jemde wrote:  Thanks for the advice and help

Glad I could help.