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?

[ice_man]

Thanks for the info. I will surely try this app to maximize charge time as well. 

I think the error on the solar panel maybe software related rather than hardware. I noticed twice now that at 100% is where the error comes up usually. Then it would stop charging after that and continues to give me an error til night time. 

In the morning it'll charge up again. And will give me the error again by either 10am to around noon. It might just really be a software glitch. What I don't understand though is why the camera on which the solar panel is attached to drains faster.

[616fun]

I let my Arlo Pro discharge to 0% then charged it to 100% and plugged the panel back in. It's worked the last two days. I'm holding my breath that this resolves the issue.

I did notice the camera on the panel drained very quickly while it was having the error.

[D_Hoque]

I just had my solar panel arrive and having the same issue.

When I plugged in panel to the camrea is was at 91% and charging indicator appeared.

Half way through the day noticed the red explanation mark, even after a battery pull and reboot of hub still getting the error.

Not Impressed 

[misterimposter]

I just installed outside and I am having the exact same issue as you report.  Got tired of waiting for phone and chat support.  I think I'll take the piece of crap back.

[ice_man]

Just an update. I followed migman_2001's suggestion about re-positioning the solar panel using the Solar app. So far no error yet today. We will see in a few hours. I was surprised by the Angle the Solar app gave me, but I think it was the optimum one after all.

I think maybe one of the reasons about this error is that it might not be getting sufficient power to charge the camera at its required minimum power requirement at some point during the day as the sun is moving. Also, another reason might be that it is actually does not recognize when the battery is fully charged. These would be easily fixed via software update (which I hope the Arlo Engineers are working on).

However, my biggest concern is still about the huge battery drain if it is connected to the Solar panel.

[616fun]

And now mine is back to not working.....

[sbos]

I've seen several people say, and was my experience: It seems like once the camera is charged to 100% sometime soon after that is when this error appears. This may not always be the case, but several people have mentioned it.

[D_Hoque]

@ice_man I used the SimplySolar app when setting the panel up, I don't seem to have any battery drain issue so far.

Hope it's just a simple firmware fix.

[migman_2001]

I hope everyone gets their issue resolved.

I have been going on 5 1/2 days without any error messages, and the panels have been keeping the batteries at 100%. I guess time will tell.

I have been very fortunate that the system has been trouble free since I purchased late last year.

Regarding the positioning app, it's amazing what the required tilt is needed.

[ryanr256]

My panel has been installed since 7/12/2017. No issues. I started with a 100% battery. My panel gets about 7 to 8 hours of full morning/ early afternoon sun.

The battery will drain to about 95% while not being charged, but the panel always brings it back up to 100%

-Bob

[sbos]

Well I used the positioning app and the panel worked great without issue...... for about 2.5 weeks. I'm glad to hear some are having a positive experience. Maybe that means there is a fix for the rest of us.

[Woundy]

I am having the same issue.  The icon appears to indicate that the battery is being charged, yet the battery level is quickly going down.  I understand this panel was to trickle charge the battery.  Not trickle drain.

[jguerdat]

Open a case with support using the Contact Support link at the bottom here. There have been cases of this and a replacement should fix it.

[D_Hoque]

Tried speaking to someone via online chat, conversation would have been more productive if I spoke to a wall!

I adjusted the angle of the panel ever so slightly without the solar app this time.

Seems to be charging battery more an average of 4% per day (Note: camera is on at all times at high quality since it is situated at the front of the house).

Now the red explanation mark only appears nearer to sunset, with no sign of battery drain as of yet.

[steve_t]

I guess when the light level is low, the panel doesn't make a high enough voltage to charge the camera

[Saint728]

I have the same problem with the same error message. I have to take the battery pack out and reinstall it a couple of times before the message doesn't show up again. It shows the lightning bolt sign that indicates it is charging, but after an hour or so the same error message shows up again. I have to keep on doing this all day long. It doesn't charge up my battery long enough before I get the error message so my battery is now at 89% when it was at 98% this morning. It only happens with this one camera as the other two work fine. I've swapped out batteries, solar panels, and power cords but is still does the same thing. I tried to buy a replacement power cord through Arlo, but they said they don't sell them. I accidentally damaged one of my power cords and now I can't use one of my solar panels. They said they will send me a replacement when one comes available. No timeline was given.

[D_Hoque]

Update: My Arlo device dropped to 81%.  But since the manual adjustment using my own eyes instead of the simplysolar app it has been charging fine, battey is mostly at 100% now and being from the UK where we dont get much sun this was a suprise at how effective it has been at charging considering the fact the front camera is armed at all times.

I still get the red explanation mark during the late afternoon/sundown my only conclussion is due to not enough power being sent to my arlo device.

[ice_man]

@D_Hoque that seems to be the only logical explanation. I hope Netgear addresses this annoying bug at the next software update.

[Bill108]

I hope I'm not repeating someone elses suggested troubleshooting tip, but I think I found the solution to the Solar Panel charging error.  I have 4 Arlo Pro cameras outside; 2 on Arlo Solar Power panels in sunny motion busy places and two in not so sunny and not so motion busy places.  I swapped the camera giving me the RED battery and charging error message with a camera that does not use a Arlo Solar Panel and that fixed the problem.  Just for reinforcing the idea, I took the problem camera in the house and plugged it into the Arlo charging adapter and it gave me the same error message after 3 hours.

[Bill108]

I forgot to mention that the charging error from using the Arlo Solar Panel with the Arlo Pro camera is due to a fault with the camera itselt, not the battery and not the solar panel.  I hope they can fix it with a firmware update.

[ice_man]

@Bill108 I tried all the steps you did well before I posted on this thread and I still got the same "Red battery" error. I still firmly believe that the error pops up if when the sun no longer provides adequate power to charge the battery. I noticed that this especially happens if the battery drops below 90%.

The Solar Panel simply cannot catch up ang charge the batteries (that are under 90%) to 100% before the Sun's power becomes to weak to provide adequate power, thus the error popping up. 

My solution was to charge the battery with the supplied wall charger. After reaching 100%, I replaced the batteries on my units that had problemd with the Solar Panels. It's been about a few days now and I don't see any error anymore.

The most my battery level drops in a day is to about 95 to 97%, then morning comes and the Solar Panels does its work and fully charges them batteries to 100% at about noon time. At around 4 or 5 pm, the charging icon on my batteries are gone since there's no adequate power supplied anymore, so it reverts back to using battery power.

As for your experience, I think it might be a hardware problem with the camera if the error comes up even with the wall charger. You might want to look into that for warranty issues.

[Chainer]

I had a similar problem and now it is resolved. No longer getting the "The charging source connected to the camera cannot charge your battery. Please use an Arlo Pro power adapter".

First thing I thought was maybe the panel was drained (if it had a battery - not confirmed).   I put it in the sun for a couple days without the camera attached.  I then reconnected and it still gave the error.  It was showing charging during the day but at night gave me the error.  I then started looking at the cable.  The cable that attaches to the solar panel with the clips was not making good connection.  I disconnected it and reconnected it about three or more times.  The last time it seemed to firmly seat in place.   After that, it has been charging quickly to 100% during the day and no errors (red battery) to report.

[migman_2001]

I posted earlier in this thread. I am glad some of you have been able to sort this out.
I have been going in three weeks now without any issues.

I had one camera that started on the panel at 100% and the other was at 61%. The 61% camera charged to 100% on the panel within two days. No issues with either.

I am in Northern California and both panels over this time receive minimum 4 hours of light each day. basd on their placement.

[Mingus509]

I installed two panels yesterday.  One is charging, the other gave me the error message others have repeated on this thread.  I'm going to try the unplug and replug to see if that works.  Hope its a one off.  There are too many of us having the same issue for them to be oblivious of it happenning.  These things weren't cheap either.

[tsalagi]

Just adding my issue to the many already stated. Same problem as described by everyone. Opened a ticket via email with Support. Hope they get it resolved soon.