Arlo 2 charging cables with an Arlo 4 via adapter

[TonyMaroney]

Hi,

I have five of the Arlo Pro 2 cameras all on permanent charge via the power adapters using long charge cables (all installed within conduits etc).  The cameras are still connected (for video feed) via wireless to the base station though. All this has worked pretty much flawlessly since I've had it.

The thought is that I'd like to upgrade to the Arlo pro 4 to get a better video quality....we just had an intruder, and the cameras got her, but the quality wasn't that great and it's a little hard to see her face etc. 

I don't mind if I have to pay for subscriptions etc if I change to the Arlo 4.

So I spoke to Arlo support and they said that the Arlo 4 and the Arlo 2 draw the same current and voltage, BUT the power connector in the back of the Arlo 4 is different to the Arlo 2.

I was wondering if anyone has seen an adapter that allows you to use an Arlo 2 charge cable into an Arlo 4 camera?  (it would be a 3rd party item...Arlo don't have one).

If there is such an item then I would change over the camera and the base station, but the cabling can stay installed (and this was about 90% of the effort of the install).

Does anybody know?

Thanks. Tony.

[StephenB]

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@TonyMaroney wrote:

BUT the power connector in the back of the Arlo 4 is different to the Arlo 2.

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Correct.  The Pro 4 uses a magnetic connector, not MicroUSB.

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@TonyMaroney wrote:

I was wondering if anyone has seen an adapter that allows you to use an Arlo 2 charge cable into an Arlo 4 camera?  (it would be a 3rd party item...Arlo don't have one).

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I know of no third party adapter.  It would be handy to have a proper adapter - I suspect it wouldn't be that hard to create one from a stock magnetic cable and a microUSB socket, but I haven't seen any posts here from someone who's done that.

You could try a female microUSB to female USB-A adapter, and then connect the (indoor) stock pro 4 cable to that.  Kind of ugly, and not something I've tried.  https://www.amazon.com/Electop-USB-2-0-Female-Micro/dp/B015PG6VU6

[TonyMaroney]

Thanks Stephen. That's a great suggestion. If I can find a short magnetic cable (not sure what the shortest cable is? I can only see long ones!) and one of these connectors, and some shrink wrap with waterproofing then it should work. I searched the arlo forum the other day but didn't find anything but then just found an old 2019 post in here where people were asking the same question. There was no solution back then really.

Also I presume that because the Arlo 4 now uses standard wifi connection to your own home network (rather than the proprietary Arlo 2 hub network that cannot be boosted with wifi extenders) that people are able to throw the signal further (via off the shelf wifi extenders) to cameras?  The Arlo 3 wifi connection (still via a proprietary Arlo hub) looks like it was a significant step backwards in signal strength so I was hesitant to upgrade, but the "standard" wifi of the Arlo 4 sounds like it should be better in this regard (and only at the mercy of my own home wifi signal strength, which I can boost myself). Correct?

Regards.

Tony

[StephenB]

The pro 4 can connect either to your home wifi or to a compatible base/smarthub.