Question about Item No. VMA3600-10000S (Solar Panel for Essential Cameras Item No. VMC2030-100NAS)

[Gren86]

Hi I'm new to the Arlo community :D. Hope you guys are doing fine. Anywhooo...So we have an Arlo Floodlight cam in front of our house hooked to a 25 ft mag charger and later decided to add an outdoor Essential 1080p camera for our backyard and figured I'd need a solar charging panel to go along with it to take advantage of LA's "sunny-ness." The camera came out of the box with 50-some% charge, installed it along with the compatible solar panel charger but sun was already very low on the horizon when I finished. The following day the solar power kicked in and started charging the camera until it charged up to 100% another day later.  So like I said it charged up to 100% and the solar panel stopped charging around just before noon so I was like okay good it's a "smart charger" like it stops charging when camera reaches 100%. A few days later battery started draining and until down to around 86% TODAY literally just before I signed up on here and I thought hmmm it's super sunny but the charger wasn't doing anything. Again I'm like good but let me go to the Arlo forum to research but couldn't find anything about what the battery low TRESHOLD is for the solar panel to start charging again. I then went to the app and restarted both Pro 3 Floodlight and the Essential camera and lo and behold the solar panel started charging the latter and now it's up to 88%. I don't remember coming across any user guide either about how exactly the solar panel functions specifically like how charging is triggered.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ktjgtdr4rfekmu4/Photo%20Sep%2028%202022%2C%2012%2009%2056%20AM.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yfzoy38tuol8pwg/Photo%20Sep%2028%202022%2C%2012%2009%2007%20AM.jpg?dl=0

My question are:

1) Is there a low treshold for the solar panel to resume charging the camera? Like when camera drains to a certain % solar panel starts doing its thing again?

2) If not then is it really a thing to restart the camera from the app or web app portal just for the solar panel to start recharging it?

Thank you for taking time out of your day to read and maybe give me answers and insights. Have a good day!

[jguerdat · Accepted solution]

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@Gren86 wrote:

1) Is there a low treshold for the solar panel to resume charging the camera? Like when camera drains to a certain % solar panel starts doing its thing again?

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Nope. It constantly charges according to available light. Little light, little charging, lotsa light, lotsa charging. Remember that it's a trickle charger so "lotsa" light doesn't allow instantaneous charge.  And nights are dark so...

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2) If not then is it really a thing to restart the camera from the app or web app portal just for the solar panel to start recharging it?

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See above. No need to do any such thinng.

[Gren86]

Ok  now it's reached 100% again and stopped charging...it does sound like some kinda smart functionality right there. Thanks for your response!