Solar panel charging slow

[Razorx92]

I have 2 Cams, both are using solar panels to keep charged. One camera stays nearly fully charged all the time while the other one will charge all day long (displays charging indicator in the app) and not actually charge. What i mean by this is, at 7am the battery level will be at 74%, and itll start charging, after 7 hours of charging and possibly 12 alarms where it records for a total of 14 minutes, the camera actually loses 2%, dropping down to 72%.

Ive tried charging the camera from an AC connection and it takes the charge within an hour or so and ive also relocated the Solar panel to the point where this thing is getting sunlight nearly 14 hours a day and im still rendering the exact same results. Im really confused and im not quite sure if i should be looking into another Solar Panel or if there may be another solution.

[jguerdat]

At least part of the problem is the ~14 minutes of recording per day. That is enough to cause significant battery drain which the solar panel, being a trickle charger, can't keep up with. You can try swapping cameras or panels around to see if that makes a difference but I suspect it's the relatively high recording usage causing this.

[Razorx92]

That was a rough estimate because i have it set to record for 120 seconds per trigger. If i cut that down to 40 seconds, do you think that would be enough to see that Solar Panel doing a good charge? We have 6 triggers per day on a normal day not including mother nature and animals walking through the yard, so that would cut down the record time quite a bit.

[jguerdat]

It's hard to say because it's a matter of trial and error. Cutting back on the recording time can help. Remember that spec life for battery usage is <5 minutes per day on average. Yes, the panel changes that equation but only to a certain (unknown) degree.

It would also be worthwhile to verify the angle of the panel relative to the sun. Straight-on sunlight is best.