Arlo Solar Panel not working

[616fun]

I picked this up from Amazon and installed it Thursday. I pulled the camera down and charged it to 100% before plugging it in. Everything looked great, the camera showed at 100% and charging.  The next morning I had a red exclaimation point and "The charging source connected to the camera cannot charge your battery. Please use an Arlo Pro power adapter" showing in my interface. Upon contacting help, they asked me to remove the panel and allow the camera to discharge to 50% before plugging it in again. I let them know that this wasn't at all helpful as it will take a few months to get to that point, and I cannot return the item after this long. I specifically asked if there was firmware that addressed the variable wattage input a solar panel will provide and they said that they would look into it and be in contact.  I'm underwhelmed with the help.  I pulled my other camera and the same message is provided (that camera was charged to 74%).  

Has anyone else tried the Arlo solar panel and had luckl?

[Ricochet1]

JamesC, 

I did the suggested steps noted in your reply as well as what support gave me when I opened a case.

The solar panel worked for about 2-3 days then stopped again gining me the fault message and telling me to again refer to KB article, but no article number to reference.

I have since swapped out battereis with one of my units that does not have a solor panel and the battery itself appears to be charging and working fine in the other camera.

So after swapping batteries, I tried the solar panel one more time on the same camera and again it worked for about 2-3 days and then the infamous charging fault message.  The battery at that time was showing 96% charge.  As I did not have time to climb back up my ladder (the camera is 12ft. up) I figured I would just wait until the battery was about ready to need charging and then do the infamous ladder drap and climb.  But that did not take very long as within 4 days the battery apparently went dead during the day when I was at work as I got the message it was time to charge the battery and the camera stopped responding.  This was just a few days ago.

I pulled the camera down that afternoon and removed the solar panel.  I then took the camera inside to charge the battery.  But it would not take a charge, it was as if the camera had shutdown completely.  In order for the battery to take a charge I had to reset the camera and only then would it take a charge.  Strange thing was that when I checked the charge indicator on my Arlo phone app, it was showing the battery at 80% charge.  Go figure as teh app previously told me the battery was "tired" and needed to be charged.  So now my question is that since i already swapped out the battery, is it the solar panel with the issue or the actual Arlo Pro camera with the issue?

So after the battery was showing fully charged using the wall charger, I have placed the camera back up with no solar panel to see how long the actual battery will last.  It has been three days now since I placed the camera back up with no solar panel and starting with a 100% charge.  As of this morning the camera is showing 98% charge and that is with my usual 5-7 triggers per day (delivery people, birds, spiders, etc. ... and dont get me started with the darn spiders at night who seem to love these cameras and build a web across the lens and then commence to bouce around all night setting the camera off).

I am hoping that NetGear will get this figured out as I am getting my share of stepping activity going up and down the ladder with the two cameras having this issue.  I am pretty much doing the troubleshooting with this first camera and just dealing with manually charging the second camera until this issue is properly identified by NetGear and fixed.  The solar panel setup is supposed to eliminate having to drag out the ladder to recharge the batteries but it is not working out that way too well.

It would be nice if NetGear would correct the seal issue and bring the outdoor power unit back.  I would much rather put an outdoor weatherproof receptacle up as a one-time install for my cameras then have to deal with this solar panel charging issue.  I have four of my cameras with the solar panel connection so I just hope and pray those other two dont start having issues as well or I may have to rethink this whole Arlo Pro deployment.

NetGear in my opinion makes really good products and I have used them almost exclusively for years but they just needs to get this solar panel / power fault thing figured out as these cameras are by far not the cheapest on the market and I have a considerable cash outlay with my two base units and six camera deployment and would hate to have to scrap this solution for another.

Help us out here NetGear!!!

Regards;

[GWA]

Just to follow up on getting 4 solar panels replace.  This took over 2 month and a lot of emails to get this done.

Should not be that way.  Netgear should know they have a BIG issue with their solar panels.

Received the 4 replacement.  I have install two of them.  Issue now is they always shown fully charged.

They do not recored.  Have to reboot the base station to get them to record again.  They still show fully charged.

They do not drop any % on the battery.  They have been up for 2 weeks now.  Worked great the first few days but then stopped recording.  Have had to reboot the base station once in 2 weeks.  Will keep you all posted on this.  Not sure what is going on with all the items.  Its almost like the customer is doing all the trouble shooting for Netgear and they really don't have any real answer.  Is it the cameras, batteries or the solar panel.

Purchasing new batteries and getting new solar panel and it still has issue.  Could it be the cameras?

Not sure how to get them replaced because, calling support they want you to go through steps that you have done over and over.  Really don't think it is the camera.  Reason they work for several months with nothing attached to them.  If you plug them in.  They show fully charged but they do record.  So thinking that Netgear took away the error for charging fault.  Has not displayed with the new solar panels.  They just show fully charged and no recording.  Anyone with suggestion?

[Ricochet1]

As I undwerstand it, the cameras will get updates in the middle of the night as so I checked my system date and it shows 6/4/18 as my most recent date.  So you may be on to something that maybe NetGear made some changes to the charging fault error message in this latest update.  Who knows for sure, except for NetGear.  But as noted, the camera runnning stand-alone with no solar panel seems to run ok.  It is when the solar panel is introduced is when the problems start.  Kind of makes you wonder if they received a bad batch of solar panels from whomever builds them for NetGear, and they dont really know which batch is bad as I have two of them that have been working perfectly fine since I installed them.  Come to think of it, my two solar panels having the issues were my first two purchased together.  My other two were purchased a short time later after I verified the first two were actually going to work as specified.  At approximately $75.00 a pop it can add up.  Like you noted, we the customer seem to be the ones doing all the troubleshooting for NetGear.  If it was up to me I would have already had engineers working on this in the lab and getting to the root of the problem and providing loyal customers a fix or replacement of the problem hardware.  Customer loyalty is earned, not taken for granted.  NetGear needs to take note of this and get on the stick.  

Hopefully we will all get a feasible solution from NetGear and hopefully soon as I am planning another NetGear purchase, this time another Wi-Fi Router and the Arlo Pro2 2-camera system for our rental property to keep an eye on things.  The outdoor weatherproof power adapter would sure be nice to have at this point!  Just sayin ...

[GWA]

I am looking at purchasing 6 more with two base station.  

You would think Netgear would fix the issue like you said.  Get the engineers in a lab and find the solution and replace all those that are not working.

I have two arlo go purchased when they come out.  Use them with only battries at the time.  Then when the solar panels came out.  Purchased them right away.  They have worked great with the GO.

Then purchase 7 camera Pros with panels  3 worked and is still working.  This has been for over 8 months now.  Only 3 were good.  The other 4 has never worked but these are the ones that I got replaced.

Charging fault went away but causing problems with the camera recording.  Will be watching this issue.

Yes with only the battery installed they work well.  I have also purchase the competitors solor panel but they only give charging fault.  Drained the battery overnight.  Hopefully Netgear will get a fix and let everyone know thats has accounts open up and are using them.

[banking]

Make sure the solar panel is in a spot that has not tree branches or anything to block the sunlight. You want the maximum sunlight possible from the sunrise to sunset the more sun, the more charge

[Ricochet1]

I have no trees in my yard and clear, wide open view of the sun (except as it rises and sets of course).

As I previously noted each of my solar panels gets at least 7-8 hours of full sun each day as well as on a sunny day they still show charging when only covered with indirect ambient sunlight.

Even on an overcast day my two good working solar panels show charging, albeit, probably not as strong as when in full sun.  This is why I suspect a faulty batch of solar panels as I have swapped batteries, moved cameras around, swapped solar panels and the problem seems to still stay with the two flakey solr panels.

I keep hoping to hear something back from NetGear support soon on my open case (hopefully they still have it open), but for now just crickets.

So sad !!!

[karisue]

Exactly; you'd think that there would be at this point in time instead of acting like ostriches with their head in the sand.

[GWA]

update on my 4 solar panels not working.

I received the 4 replacement solar panels after month of dealing with support and getting them replaced.  These are the ones that I purchase in the last quarter of 2017.

I have to same the new ones work.  I also have purchase some new one in the past two weeks.  The 3 kit of the pro 2's.  The solar panels are working just fine at this time.  All 3 worked out of the box.  I had no problem with either of them.  I charge the camera and hooked the panels up and put them out in the sun for 4 hours.  I took them to the site and installed.  Now for 2 weeks are have been charging just fine.  Two are showing 100% and one is showing 91% this morning.  So I would say any that has been purchase in the last quarter of 2017 might have issues.  Also some in the first quarter of 2018.  So I suggest that you call support and get them to replace yours if you purchase in this time line.  

Charge your battery.  Place in camera.  Connect Solar Panel.  Set in the sun for at least 4 hours before you install your camera in high places.  Good Luck. 

I hope by the last 3 that I purchase is a sign that Netgear has fixed the problem.  They should recall all the ones in late 2017 and early 2018.  At least replace the ones user call in with issue.

[banking]

Also, place the solar panels in a spot and angle the solar panel where it can receive the most sun from sunrise to sunset. I have 3 solar panels in a spot where it gets sun for about 7-8 hours a day. 6am - 3pm approximately. If you have any tree branches that may obstruct some sun rays, then chop them down, do not worry they will grow back in about 3 years. The goal is to have no obstruction.

[Ricochet1]

So, I just received my warranty replacement Arlo Pro camera yesterday.  I fully charged it and installed it last night without the solar panel attached.  So far the new camera is working correctly without issues.  But while waiting on the warranty replacement  to arrive I had connected one of the suspect solar panels to another of my working cameras and it has been about 5-days with plenty of full sun and the solar panel will not show any charging activity at all.  So my best guess is that I do indeed have two of my four solar panels that are not working properly and due to this one of my original cameras was hosed up in the process.

So now ... I get to call back in to Arlo support and see about getting the two defective solar panels replaced as I have grown tired of dragging out my extension ladder just to change out the battery on the camera.  Kind of defeats the whole purpose of having a solar panel when I have to go up and manually remove / re-charge the battery.  I am hoping that NetGear will provide a decent turn-around on getting my two non-working solar panels replaced.  This climbing ladders to change out / charge a battery is for the birds.

One last push!!  

[GWA]

I still believe Arlo/Netgear has issue with the solar panels.  It took me about 2.5 months to get them replace and a lot of issues.  Be sure you get a signed receipt when you mail them back.  Even with a signed recipt as to being delivered.  They told me they could not find them and they would not replace them.  After about 2 weeks of this they did come in the mail.  They should replace them and you would not have to climb that ladder.  I know that is no fun, because that what I was doing until I got the replacement panels.  Good luck!

[FrederickG]

I have 4 solar panels that worked fine for a few months then 2 of them started to get error messages and wouldn't charge. I tried everything possible but to no avail.  About 3 weeks ago, the problem mysteriously went away and they are all working fine.  This leads me to believe it was a software issue that was addressed on Netgears end.....................hopefully.

[jguerdat]

While anything is possible, I'd bet on moisture that got into a connector and it fianlly dried out. I've had this happen (although I took things apart and dried them out).

[FrederickG]

I kind of doubt it was water because I did the same thing when it started to happened. Additionally, we have had 3 days of torrential rain here in NJ and everything is fine.  I suspected the cables but it wasn't them.  I have been following this problem for a while and it seemed pervasive. All of a sudden, it just all went away.  Fine by me.

[larrywilliams]

I am on my 6th panel in 7 weeks.   They keep replacing them.   Just got my 6th one lat yesterday.    This morning, the sun comes out and I get the charging fault message immediately on a new panel. 

I have one other panel that has been in place for 7 weeks.  Working fine since day one.   The other panel is mounted right beside it, facing the same.   It is the one with 6 replaments now.

Is there an answer for this?

[banking]

I do not understand why so many are having problems with their panels, we own 5 of them and they are working all the time. Of course, the percentage will drop a little when the sun rays are out of range, but we had these panels for over 1 year and they are working fine, the only time we have to charge our cameras is when during a rainy season. It has been almost 9 months since we had to remove the cameras from the mount and charge them since then the ladder stays in the shed really bored

[Ricochet1]

I too believe it is the solar panels themsleves.  As I noted previously,  while I was waiting on my replacement camera I moved the associated solar panel to another of my cameras and not one time did it indicate ever charging.  Take note that the solar panel had been in the garage for a couple of days and no moisture on the power contact,  Nice and dry.

I have yet to be able to reach the support tech to handle my solar panel replacements.  Evetn though I get follow up emails they do nto allow you to reply to the emails.  You have to call the support number and sit in the queue to get another support person and explain everything all over again.  To me an email exchange with the support person who aalready handled things up til now would be the best way to resolve things I dont have to start from square one everytime I call in.

So VERY aggrevating to keep going though this cycle just to get a solar panel that works.  Keep in mind that I have two of my original solar panels that have not given me a single days problem, and they have been up for quite some time.  It is only the last tow that I bought most recently that are giving my the failure messages.

NetGear needs to step up and get this fixed.  Not having a reliable alternative power source like the solar panels is putting a very dark cloud over an otherwise remarkable product like the Arlo Pro.

[GWA]

Hello everyone,

Back again with the same issue with the 4 cameras not charging witht he solar panels.

Still having issues.  I got 4 new panels and they work for a few weeks.

Showed the charging symbols and did charge.  

Now they are doing the same as before.  Putting new batteries in and they do not charge and the batteries are drain within 24 hours.  Not sure what is going on.  Replaced batteries and still get the same issue.  Drains in 24 hours.  The batteries I have the model number A-1B

Does anyone know if this is the latest model or not?

I have purchase two more three camera set in the past 2 months.  I have installed them and they work great.  Cross my fingers and hope that does not change.  So now I am thinking the ones that are my problems.  Is it the cameras?  Should I replace all 4 of them and see?  They are really a big issue and have not work for long since day one.  Suggestion!!  I have read and tried everything that has been suggested.  Only thing I know off.  I have to repalce the cameras and see.

[GWA]

You are very lucky.  I have 17 cameras out and 13 work great but I have 4 that has not work since day one.

Replaced everything but the camera it self.  That is my next step.  Wish  you continue success with yours.

[larrywilliams]

Well, that 6th panel is still working.   I am at 6 days now.   

However, I did notice that that TCA number on the end of the box, above the serial number, end with R5.   The previous solar panels TCA number ended with R2.    Hmmm...

There was an Arlo agent on a chat with me that said they would send me the "new version".   Obviously, this leads me to believe there have been many issues that cause them to create and manufacture a "new version".

We'll see how this goes.   The last one charged well for a few days.   Fingers crossed.

[Ricochet1]

I still have two of my four solar panels not working and have called and been on hold seems like forever to get them RMA'd before the warranty runs out.  Maybe this is what NetGear is trying to do so they dont have to replace them under warranty.knowing they have a BOATLOAD of bad solar panels out there.

If NetGear would allow email communication with the previous engineer who helped my and knows what all was discussed this would be a much less painful process.

I just want my two flippin solar panels to work as they were intended to so I can put away the 24ft ladder

Just a thought ...

[larrywilliams]

If you have your case numbers from the last time(s) you talked to them, give that number(s) FIRST, then explain that you are having the problem.   This will spend things up tremendously.  

Remember to keep those case numbers.    I have created a spreadsheet with the dates, times, and case numbers.   It has gotten me my replacement panels a lot faster and without having to pay shipping since they have been dying in less than 10 days of receipt!

[Ricochet1]

Good to know.

Thanks for info. I will give that a try and see what happens.

[riverp]

I have installed an official Arlo Charger and it is not recognised - thus is very frustrating- has anyone else had the same problem?

[jguerdat]

Same thing on all cameras?