Arlo|Smart Home Security|Wireless HD Security Cameras

Run with two Arlo solar panels (VMA5600) in parallel?

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jeffbh
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Many thanks to @DucatiWiz for details on the electrical specs of the Arlo magnetic connector and the three camera power modes (wired, battery, solar) in their excellent 2019 post:Higher power solar charge project. They were able to get the Arlo camera to accept third-party solar panels that deliver much more power than the Arlo panel.  

 

Has anyone tried something similar, but with two of the Arlo solar panels (VMA5600) paired together? Seems as if you could connect them in *parallel* (e.g. by cutting and splicing together their respective positive and negative output wires into the Arlo solar magnetic connector of one of them) and have them operate properly, since this would keep the voltage delivered the same, but double the current.  Because the Arlo panel is actually 1.86W and delivers 7.5V (according to @DucatiWiz), it therefore produces only a 0.248A current, and twice that would still be much less than the 2A nominally delivered with the wall plug, leading me to believe that the camera's circuitry should be able to handle the combined output of two panels.

 

The problem I am trying to solve is that the output of a single Arlo 2W panel was unable to keep our Pro 3 camera with an XL battery sufficiently charged last winter whenever multiple cloudy days were strung together, so I would like a larger panel, but I worry that the non-OEM solar panels claiming Arlo compatibility might someday be rendered incompatible through an Arlo firmware upgrade.  My hope is that this approach might still appear to be "stock". 

 

Our camera is high up in an Owl nesting box and since Fall is the only time of year the box is not active, it's the only time we can climb up and perform camera upgrades. This year, I plan to swap the Pro 3 out for a Pro 5S (only because it's newer; I'll still connect it via an Arlo Hub) with a fresh XL battery, and I would also like to install a stronger solar power solution. But I need to be sure whatever we go with is going to keep working unattended for at least a year, so I'm hesitant to go with a third-party panel that might suddenly be made incompatible by Arlo (or might otherwise stop working, given the no-name manufacturers and unknown quality of those panels).

 

(Note: I want to DM @DucatiWiz to ask this question plus how well their solution has held up, but I don't see how to DM someone here.) 

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StephenB
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@jeffbh wrote:

 

(Note: I want to DM @DucatiWiz to ask this question plus how well their solution has held up, but I don't see how to DM someone here.) 


Click on the envelope icon in the upper right of the forum page.

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