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Previously working cameras now offline

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AncientGeek
Hero
Hero

This is a shot in the dark, but I thought I’d ask anyway.  

 

I have around 41 Arlo cameras deployed at five locations.  I’ve been using Arlo cameras since 2015 and have evolved my deployed base of cameras over the years.  I have a fair amount of experience with Arlo and computer networks in general.

 

On April 1st one of my cameras went offline.  That one is 1800 miles away, so I won’t get to it anytime soon.  It has been running for two years and is powered via a solar panel.  

A couple of weeks prior to this, I swapped batteries in another Pro 3 and that camera did not come back online.  I didn’t notice until I was 100 miles away.  I was back there yesterday and decided to debug it.  Swapping batteries did nothing.  I removed the camera and brought it into my garage.  After some effort, it seemed to connect and operate… until I put it back in the original location.  Then it went offline again.   I then set up a new Pro 4 and put that in the same location …that, too went offline soon after I placed it in the housing.  I went back in the house and both the Pro 3 and Pro 4 work there.   I left the Pro 3 on the kitchen counter and it appears to still be working. The Pro 4 is in the original position on a tree facing the house and  is still offline.

 

Both of these “offline” camera locations experience low signal, but they have both worked fine for a couple of years.

 

It seems like the problem with my closest camera (100 miles away) is signal related, since two different cameras work in other locations, but not in that previously working location.  This prompted me to wonder if the offline camera 1800 miles away is also a signal issue.  If so, it seems like there are two likely reasons the two camera locations would become problematic after previously working fine.   One would be increased interference with the 2.4 GHz channel these cameras are using to communicate with the base station.  That is certainly possible.  It occurred to me that their might also be a second possibility.  Is it possible, the lower limit for signal strength that is considered viable by the Pro 3 system has been raised?  It just seems so coincidental that both cameras in marginal locations (1800 miles apart) went offline around the same time.

 

Has anyone else recently experienced a previously acceptable camera location becomin apparently unacceptable?  It could be that I have two completely different problems, of course.  I’m just wondering if the lower acceptable limit on signal strength happened to change recently?

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JamesC
Community Manager
Community Manager

AncientGeek,

 

To my knowledge, nothing about the minimum thresholds for maintaining connectivity has been changed for Arlo cameras. If the cameras have always had weak connectivity, it would seem some form of introduced interference has caused an issue.

 

JamesC

AncientGeek
Hero
Hero

Thank you, James.

 

It appears it was just coincidence.  One of the cameras was reported damaged…I haven’t seen a photo yet.  I’m 1,800 Miles away from that one, so I’m at the mercy of “helpers”.  

 

The other problem was caused by a bad solar panel apparently.  I worked on it today.  The cameras (Pro 3 and Pro 4) both worked fine until I attached the cable from the solar panel and then they went “tilt”.  They went offline and the blue light flashed slowly.  Removing the cable from the solar panel and power cycling the camera brought it back online.  I’ll play with the solar panel again offline to see if it is consistently the issue, but I think it is.

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