Arlo Pro 2 drains USB 20,000mah powerbank in a few hours

[litbro]

It 'appears' that the Arlo Pro 2 operates in a "high-power mode" when the USB is plugged in.  Consequently it drains a 20,000mah battery in less than 24 hours.

Has anyone found a way to get the camera to operate in a 'normal' power-saving mode while attached to an external USB battery power supply?

I have cameras mounted in trees and if I could get the Arlo Pro 2 to operate on a large battery, it should last 8 times as long as the little Arlo Cube battery, thus I'd only have to climb the ladder 1/8th of the time.  

I am aware that Arlo does not provide any technical assistance in the forum discussions and thank you folks for your assistance.  I would not have bought into the Arlo system if I knew there was no official guidance.

[JB68]

In my experience, just having the cameras up and in "Play" mode, even without recordings, the system eats up battery supply in order to continuously show any cams .
I simply purchased the power cables to run from the camera inside to a power outlet, only then will you not experience the battery drain you see now

I started in 2016 with the basic arlo wire free cams to the Pro's, and 2 different base stations. I've had to replace 1 failed camera but I'm like you, I'd like to have them displayed 24/7 on a monitor. But ARLO has never given a response and obviously doesn't give a f@ck as long as they keep taking the mounds of money in. How hard can it be, Amazon, Apple & Google have monitors available for their systems but I refuse to use their unjustified spying services. I AM SO FRUSTRATED WITH ARLO I'M ABOUT TO PULL THE TRIGGER AND BY A WIRED CAMERA SYSTEM WITH DIRECT RECORDINGS TO ITS OWN DVR, AND ELIMINATE THAT PROBLEM AS WELL!!
I am appalled at the lack of customer service, creating f products to make these fit our requested needs asked for daily with few responses.
I have many unused accessories, existing power cords on each, bird house with 1 Pro Cam, 3 OG Spot Lights(with shades) that get used indoors as triggers for (2) cameras' motion detectors as an extra alert(and the only constant working part of this system) 2 camera shades and a total of 4 cameras that I have WASTED MY LIMITED DISABILIY INCOME on.
When trying to watch on web they use to go up to an hour constantly displaying but now they disconnect every cpl minutes-why, what has changed it doesnt matter what browser I've tried, Edge, Chrome do they very same. And starting 2 or 3 days ago when you login then validate the 2-step I get a message " this browser is not recognized do you want to add ad recognized device" I went through process of trying to "add it as a recognized device" and it did nothing. Now when I login and it asks again, I say yes and get message "To many devices connected, go in to settings a delete one." Well I've got it down to the 2 I must have but get the same. ONLY way past is to so "No dont add."
What is this new BS we have to deal with. QUIT ADDING more issues to fix until you fix what is already there, but guess it's easier to ignore us and keep developing another " new device" we must purchase to keep up with the fixes but YOUR D@MN CLEVER and NEVER fix them so you can get more$$$$$$$$$$!

As the song goes, "SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO NOW", ARLO?

[Dannybear]

@litbro,
Have you considered using the arlo solar panel to keep the camera battery topped up?
Alternatively extend the charger cable to ground level with a car charger adapter and use a car battery to recharge the camera battery when low.

[jguerdat]

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@litbro wrote:

It 'appears' that the Arlo Pro 2 operates in a "high-power mode" when the USB is plugged in.  Consequently it drains a 20,000mah battery in less than 24 hours.

Has anyone found a way to get the camera to operate in a 'normal' power-saving mode while attached to an external USB battery power supply?

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The issue is that the camera is seeing the battery as being connected via a constant power source - the AC power adapter. Hence, it is operating all the time for the 3 second look-back, etc. I don't know of a solution to this. As previously suggested, a solar panel may be what you need in place of the power bank.

[StephenB]

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@jguerdat wrote:
The issue is that the camera is seeing the battery as being connected via a constant power source - the AC power adapter. Hence, it is operating all the time for the 3 second look-back, etc. I don't know of a solution to this. 

If the power bank can be placed in an accessible location, then it could be connected manually when needed to recharge the camera.  You'd want some way to protect the USB connected when it's not plugged in.

Something like this might also be part of the equation: https://www.amazon.com/Micro-USB-Smart-Adaptor-Compatible/dp/B083BKBKW5 (depending on how much power it draws).

The idea is to use the power bank to recharge the battery in the camera when it gets low, instead of providing power all the time.