VMC2030 battery life is 7-10 days with default settings

[rpolak]

6 month battery life? The best I can get 7-10 days with default settings. Talk about false advertising!

[jguerdat]

Or a poor installation. Battery life depends on the connection between the camera and base or router, depending on how you have it installed, any 2.4GHz interference as well as the amount of recordings and live viewing you're doing. 

[rpolak]

WiFi extender is 3 metres from camera in the same room. Person detection only. Active zone about half visible area. Recordings rarely checked.

[StephenB]

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@rpolak wrote:
WiFi extender is 3 metres from camera in the same room. Person detection only. Active zone about half visible area. Recordings rarely checked.

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It'd be helpful to know about how many minutes of activity there are per day.

To estimate this, you'd need to disable the activity zones, and run the camera a few days w/o them.  Then look in the library and try to roughly estimate the minutes/day of recording.

[rpolak]

Day 1: 275 recordings b/w 10-15 secs each (45-68 mins/day)

Day 2: 249 recordings b/w 10-15 secs each (41-62 mins/day)

FYI, 61% battery remaining 48 hours after full recharge.

[StephenB]

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@rpolak wrote:

Day 1: 275 recordings b/w 10-15 secs each (45-68 mins/day)

Day 2: 249 recordings b/w 10-15 secs each (41-62 mins/day)

FYI, 61% battery remaining 48 hours after full recharge.

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Arlo's battery use is based on 5 minutes per day, and you are recording 10x more than that (or more). https://kb.arlo.com/1202753/How-long-do-Arlo-camera-batteries-last

[rpolak]

Thanks for clearing that up. Don't forget the figures I returned were based on your advice to remove any zones and just let the camera do its thing.

In reality, with zones & other settings applied, I have about 15 minutes of recordings per day. Still more than 5, but way less than 45.

Nevertheless, this shows that I clearly bought the wrong camera partly because, like most people, the 3-6 months battery life claim was far more in my face than the heavy hit it would take to use it for the purpose I bought it for. Maybe not false but definitely misleading.

This all prompts me to ask if you can provide actual real world examples/scenarios of how the camera needs to be set up to achieve the claimed battery life. I for one can't think of any, other than disabling ALL person/pet/vehicle detection, setting a very small active zone and short schedule.

[StephenB]

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@rpolak wrote:

Thanks for clearing that up. Don't forget the figures I returned were based on your advice to remove any zones and just let the camera do its thing.

In reality, with zones & other settings applied, I have about 15 minutes of recordings per day. Still more than 5, but way less than 45.

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As I tried to say before, activity zones do nothing to help battery life.  Turning them off is the only way to gauge the amount of streaming that the camera is doing.  

The camera streams whenever motion is detected.  Then the cloud determines if the motion was in the zone or not.  If it's not, then the cloud supresses the recording.  When on battery power, the camera acts precisely the same way no matter how the activity zones are set.

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@rpolak wrote:

than disabling ALL person/pet/vehicle detection

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Again, no impact on battery life.  FWIW, you can't disable person/animal/vehicle detection, you can only disable notifications. 

The classification is done in the cloud, not by the camera.  So the camera streams whenever motion is detected, and if that is in-zone the recording is saved (no matter what the classification is).  The classification can supress the notification, but not the recording (and of course not the video streaming).

Disarming the camera will improve battery life, so if you don't need coverage at some times of the day, a schedule can help.

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@rpolak wrote:

This all prompts me to ask if you can provide actual real world examples/scenarios of how the camera needs to be set up to achieve the claimed battery life. 

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Just in case this isn't clear - I don't work for Arlo, I am a user just as you are.  I have no control over how Arlo advertises battery life, or the standard they use for "typical users".

I don't really track it, but I think I am getting 6-8 weeks for most of my cameras that are purely on battery (a couple are AC powered, and one is connected to a solar panel).  The Pro-3 floodlight is a notable exception - giving me 3+ months.  But it has the larger battery (an XL). 

None of my cameras are recording as much stuff as yours - they are positioned to avoid capturing the street and public sidewalk, so they are only capturing activity on my property.  That is obviously less than what you are seeing.

In any event, positioning the camera is (in my experience) the best way to manage battery life.

[rpolak]

Thanks for your comprehensive reply. I'll probably need to go through it a few times to fully understand what you're saying but I appreciate the effort you've taken to assist me.

Unfortunately, I don't really have many positioning options to avoid spurious detections, so I'll probably move the camera to my office and repurpose it.

Thanks again.

[Graysonlaw]

Agree.  This camera is JUNK.  I would not buy.  I even purchased the Solar panel to keep power, but either the panel is not enough to charge or the battery simply will not hold a charge.  Junk!

[dcfox1]

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@Graysonlaw wrote:

Agree.  This camera is JUNK.  I would not buy.  I even purchased the Solar panel to keep power, but either the panel is not enough to charge or the battery simply will not hold a charge.  Junk!

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The solar panel will only charge in direct sunlight, not overnight or when cloudy and is slower then AC power. There are many issues as posted in this thread that caused battery drain if you read them.