Solved: Solar panels not charging.

[RegularJoe]

  Ok.... I've got 2 (Wasserstein) solar panels connected to my Arlo Essential Wireless cameras.  Today, this is the 3rd or 4th day that the panels have been connected. It took them a day and a half of overcast weather to charge the cameras initially.  After the initial charge, the cameras refused to take a charge again... no "charge" icon.

  Today is bright sunlight, so time to experiment.  

  On Cam 1, I went into settings and turned "off" the camera, and let it set for about a minute, gave it enough time for the signal to reach the camera and power it down, or so I thought. Then, I clicked the icon and turned it back on. Watched for the battery charge indicator on the screen, and nothing happened. I gave it a minute just in case there was a delayed reaction from the system/camera.  Nothing, just the battery level icon.... as usual.

  With no charge indicated, I turned it back off and let it set for 3 minutes this  time, then turned it back on again...then waited a bit longer to see if the panel came back on line.... and nothing.

 After that failure, I went back to the settings and went to the "restart camera" button. Clicked that, and let the process of restarting begin... and about 20 seconds later, the camera restarted.... and the battery charging icon was displayed!!!!! It worked!!! 
 
  Next camera. On it, I skipped the "turn off camera" step and went right to the "restart" button.  It did it's thing, and 20 seconds later was back on line... and the "battery charging" icon was illuminated!!!

   IT WORKS

  Both cameras started out at 93% this morning, and charged all the way to 100% before the sun went down. The charge indicator went out and reverted to the usual battery condition icon.

   To sum it all up:
  1.) It's not the panels, it's the cameras.
  2.) Turning the camera off has no effect.
  3.) Restarting causes the camera to accept a charge again.
  4.) It sure beats accessing the cameras and doing the unplug/plug schtick.
   
  Would be nice if this one restart shook something loose in the camera programming and caused it to allow the cameras to take a charge again automatically from now on. 


  I expect this will work with all the other styles of cameras, but owners of other styles of Arlo cam's that are having this exact same problem should try doing what I did and report back...

[RegularJoe]

 My cameras' hardware and software particulars are (if you want to compare yours to mine):

  Hardware: VMC2030AerH9
  Firmware: 1.090.30.2_24_499b975
  App version 4.0.3_28510

  From replies on another thread, this may be an Essential Wireless Spotlight fix only. Well, not fix, but workaround. 

  

[RegularJoe]

  I just now logged in on the app and both cameras are charging... it is cloudy, overcast and raining right now...and they're both charging.... I didn't touch anything on the app to force them to start, they started all by themselves.

[o-man2222]

Hi Joe

I have same issue, but each of the cameras lasts a few days at 100% charge then the app says the battery is flat. I’ve tried other solutions on here without any joy. 

I can’t see the “restart camera” option in the app though, where is it? 

O

[jguerdat]

If the camera is dead you won't see a Restart button. It also makes a difference as to which user interface (UI) you're using - the old one with the Library or the new one with Feed. With the old UI, Restart is in the camera settings (Settings, My Devices, your camera). With the new UI, click on the camera in Devices, then the gear icon top right. Click on the > next to the camera name to see Restart. Note that this only exists on cameras connected via your WiFi - if connected to a base or hub you have to restart that device.

[o-man2222]

Thanks Jg. Restarted the base station, I’ll need to wait for a sunny day to see if it fixed issue with the solar panel not charging the camera. 

[kihara]

Oh wow, this is really helpful. I just got 2 Arlo solar chargers and hooked them up to 2 Pro 3 camera whose batteries were already depleted completely. I was checking on my iPhone app, but neither camera was coming back alive.

I was afraid that the contacts were corroded or something. It didn't appear corroded on the outside. You've provided a crucial tip here - I'll try charging the internal battery first, then connecting it to solar. Thank you.

[rkelly327]

This worked for me!  Thanks!!  Rob

[Beaumilo58]

I have a Arlo Esdential model #vmc2030aerh9 and the solar plate is a Wasserstein Solar Panel. The camera shows the lighting bullet as if it’s charging instead the % continues to drop. I have done the following turned the camera off waited 3 seconds and turned it back on and it continued to show as if the camera is charging and was not. Then did a restart and let it do its thing camera showed as if it’s charging waited 5 hrs to see if there was a change instead it went down 1%. The solar panel is in direct sunlight and it’s connected directly to the Wi-Fi where my other Arlo cameras are connected to the hub and have no issues with them staying charged. 

[jguerdat]

It's certainly possible that this is an incompatibility with the 3rd party solar panel.

[RegularJoe]

I've got 8 Essential Wireless Spotlight cameras going right now that are equipped with good ol' "3rd party" Wasserstein solar panels... panels which are specifically designed to fit this model/style of Arlo camera. Wasserstein makes panels for quite a few different makes of cameras.

  I've had absolutely zero charging problems with my panels/camera system. They have been performing flawlessly together.  

   

[LakeTime]

I have tried this approach with my yumingsolar panels (3W, 6V) with usb-c to micro-usb adapters but to no avail.

anyone have any suggestions?

this is ridiculous, they are simply solar panels!

thanks in advance