Pro 5 camera is not charging on solar panel

[Arlo-help2]

I have five pro 5 cameras all of which are on solar panels.  They all get adequate sun to keep cameras charged to 100%.  One of my pro 5’s went offline 2 days ago….I am remote from this camera so I couldn’t trouble shoot in person.  Today it came back online and was showing charging with the solar panel but the battery was at 3%.  So apparently the battery is being drained and that is why it went offline.  All other cameras on solar panels are 100%.

Has anyone had this issue with your Pro 5 camera connected to a solar panel?  If so how did you resolve the issue?  Is it a bad camera or bad solar panel?  This camera has been set up on a solar panel for about 5 weeks and was working fine up until a few days ago….

This is a Arlo solar panel made for use with the Pro 5

[Arlo-help2]

JamesC

i have had similar battery issues with my Pro 5’s compared to the Pro and pro 2. I upgraded because of EOL and my old cameras got  3-4 months of battery life but the new Pro 5’s battery goes down a lot quicker.  I have a lot of the pro 5’s on solar panels which have been working fine except for one camera that apparently the battery went to zero two days ago and the camera went offline.  Today the camera came back on line and the solar panel was charming but the battery was at 3%.  So apparently the battery is being drained.  It has good wifi connection and is connected to the base station.  I have 4 other pro 5’s that are on solar panel and are keeping charged at 100%.  I am not at this location where the cameras are.  
So not sure what is going on.  The solar panel has been connected to this camera for about 5+ weeks and it was keeping it charged….not sure when it started not holding a charge I just know it went offline two days ago….it appeared to be charged as the battery icon showed a high percentage of charge.  
any help on figuring this out.  I am not at this location to physically remove the battery. Could the firmware update on the 12th or so have done something to negatively affect this camera being able to hold a charge?

[JamesC]

Arlo-help2,

Did this camera experience a higher than normal number of recordings/live streams? Are you still experiencing the same behavior?

JamesC

[Arlo-help2]

No it only get 1-3 motion activations a day and records for 15 seconds.  
It last recorded on June 14th then went off line on the 15th.  Came back online yesterday (18th) and camera was at 3%…through solar panel charged yesterday to 13% and today it is charging on the solar panel and is currently charged to 39%.  So it is charging back up slowly.  I did not get any kind of notification the battery was low and apparently it went down to zero and then the camera went offline.  I have it on low power mode now so it won’t record while I’m trying to get the battery back charged to 100%.  Just weird behavior especially since the other four pro 5 cameras have stayed charged on solar panels.  
My old pro and pro 2 cameras would send a notice when the battery got down to 15% ….are the pro 5’s supposed to do this as well?

So I’m not sure if this is/was a battery issue or a solar panel issue…..

probably take another 2-3 days to get the battery charged back up 

[StephenB]

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@Arlo-help2 wrote:

No it only get 1-3 motion activations a day and records for 15 seconds.  

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Are you using activity zones?  They mask the amount of camera streaming (since they are applied in the Arlo cloud).

[Arlo-help2]

No activity zones set up.  ( I Tyrone to limit using activity zones as I know it uses up the battery quicker). It’s in my back yard and it only gets 1-3 motion activity a day from wasps.   I don’t know what happened to make this one camera drain the battery.  (Camera issue, battery issue, solar panel issue, firmware issue…I don’t know). I still have it on snapshot mode but has only gone off about 3 times in the last two days.  The solar panel is slowly charging the battery back up.  It is now up to 71%.  So hopefully tomorrow it will be back close to 100%.  It gets about 8-9 hours of solar panel charging a day…..

I will let you know when it gets back charged to 100% and I put it back on recording videos and see if the battery holds the charge.  
When the battery gets down to 15% do we still get alerted that there is a low battery?   We didn’t get any kind of notification it just went to zero and then went offline…

[StephenB]

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@Arlo-help2 wrote:

( I try to limit using activity zones as I know it uses up the battery quicker).

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Just want to clarify this.  Activity zones have no effect on battery life.  When on battery, the camera streams whenever it detects motion (whether in or out of zone).  The cloud processes the video, and supresses out-of-zone recordings and notifications.  So the camera acts precisely the same way, whether zones are set up or not.

I asked because activity zones conceal out-of-zone notifications and recordings, so when you use them you really don't know how much activity there is.

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@Arlo-help2 wrote:

I will let you know when it gets back charged to 100% and I put it back on recording videos and see if the battery holds the charge.  

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Good, hopefully the problem is fully resolved.