Power Adapter for Arlo Pro

[Brian0613]

I bought a set of 4 Arlo Pro Cameras. It came with a single charger. I would like to have all 4 units continuously powered since I often leave home for 6+ months at a time. I am unable to buy just the charger without buying an additional battery or dual charging station. Am I missing something? Other USB power adapters do not work because Arlo seems to use a custom configuration. I am not sure if the customization is in the cord or the AC adapter. Can I buy just the Charger?

[TomMac · Accepted solution]

TBMK, the only option is a battery pack and charger together as you found....

It would be a good idea to put it here; https://community.netgear.com/t5/Arlo-Idea-Exchange/idb-p/arlo-idea-exchange

[DaveWoj]

What do you mean by custom configuration?

I ran a round USB cord to mine in place of the flat white one supplied so the cord is no different than any other cord (although you need to make sure the micro usb end clears the plug hole ok when fully inserted)

As for the adapter?  I can't see why you can't buy an aftermarket power supply with the same ratings.

[Brian0613]

I tried to use the USB adapter for my Ipad and a message came up indicating that it was not the correct adapter. As I started searching the net to understand why this was the case, I found a discussion about Arlo using one of the pins as a 9V source to rapid charge the battery. If this 9V is not present it will not charge. I think the issue is with the adapter and not the cable but I am not 100% sure.

[DaveWoj]

If I am reading your post correctly, did you try your ipad adapter while the battery wa still in the camera?

I ask only because maybe it needs it for charging, BUT if it's running on constant power with no battery, it wouldn't need that 9V.

Just a guess.

[DaveWoj]

I am running my pro with the stock adapter and an aftermarket cord only because I wanted a black cord. I used the stock adapter only because it's what came with it, but I would doubt an aftermarket adapter wouldn't work if you are just powering it without the battery.

But I had no reason to try it.

Let us know if it works.

[Brian0613]

Wow! Taking the battery out worked! The failure message went away and a plug appeared in place of the battery level indicator. Thanks for the help!

[DaveWoj]

Excellent. Glad it worked.

[TomMac]

The OEM adapter has a dual output... 5v ( usb standard ) and 9v to allow the battery pack to charge to 8.4v ( full charge ).

I could see the camera possibley running on a standard usb adapter but you'll never be able to vcharge the battery pack with a higher voltage as needed.

Not sure if it is curcuitry in use or maybe an extra pin in the cable to do same.( or both , Ive seen it done before )

[mchinsomboon]

We have the exact same problem. We swapped out all of our regular Arlo's with the new Arlo Pro's - bought THREE 4-packs - with only 3 chargers in all! (btw, for the interior cameras, we have several more Arlo Q Plus' too)

So we had to spend even more money and buy 6 battery/charger combo packs at $50 each - and now have 6 spare batteries that are completely going unused since we only needed the chargers.

We do have a couple that are still on battery only, but now the issue is that Arlo didn't seem to manufacture enough of the seperate battery charging stations as none of their retailers have them in stock (Amazon said Nov 4, and I had a pre-order that didn't fulfil and now it just says backordered), Fry's says Nov 14 delivery, and Insight is charging $80 for them and has no note on if/when it's available. Curiously, why doesn't Arlo have one retailer that will sell all their accessories anyway? Then seemt to be split between retailers.

So now, in the meantime before the seperate chargers arrive, we will need a spare Arlo Pro camera just to keep the spare batteries charged so as to be able to swap out when depleted.

After all this, we have 12 regular Arlo's and base stations for sale, and seveal spare battteries for the Arlo Pros. Anyone want to make me an offer for them?

Yes, very expensive endeavor! But I will say, we are very happy with this new system in general! (the old Arlo system was good too, but this better!) We have peace of mind as we prepare for holiday travel that's coming up! (our Airbnb's are secure!)

[DaveWoj]

I read your post around 3 times and I am still confused about the number od usb adapters you have. I sounds like you have 9 total and are running 3 on batteries until you can find more in stock so that you can run them all off AC correct?

If so, you just spent $300 on 6 chargers only to use them as direct power and the extra batteries are useless to you.

I am wondering why you just didn't buy a micro USB adapter off Amazon. I see many of them for under $10 each so you could have spent $45-$50 instead of $300.

Am I missing something? Why do you need so many chargers if you are not powering the cameras by battery?

[mchinsomboon]

Regular USB chargers don't work for these unfortunately. The Arlo will know and stop charging for some reason.

[DaveWoj]

I know that you need the Arlo charger to charge the battery, but I was under the impression that you were using all the cameras without the batteries and powering by AC.

Sorry I was confused

[DaveWoj]

Oh and by the way, I agree with you on the availabilty.

I think that Netgear's availabilty on camera's and accessories was terrible.

I wanted some skins "before" I mounted my exterior camera. Now I have to wait until the middle of November or longer, unmount my screw mounted AC powered camera, install the skin and then re-mount it, and set it up for position all over again 13 feet up on my garage.

I really can't imagine that the demand for some of the accessories can be more than the supply. If that's the case, their supply was terribly underestimated.

[Ducktaper]

Out of curiosity, I know some of the more recent Samsung cell phones come with a fast charger, which is also dual voltage, the standard USB 5volt and the fast charge is 9volt. Since it is also mico USB, any Galaxy owner out there want to test and see if it can charge their Pro camera? If so, you'll have a second charger!

[avonord]

Those are good info.  

For those who tried hooking up their Arlo Pro to a non-QuickCharge charger, does the camera work despite the warning message?   Where does the warning display?

Here's what I want to do.  I want to hook up the cameras to a regular charger, so that it uses power from the wall.  But if there's a power outage, it will use the battery power.  Is this feasible?

[DaveWoj]

Why wouldn't you just use the stock charger? Are you running multiple cameras off AC power?

I believe someone on here commented about using another charger and it works fine for power it just won't charge the battery.

If you use an aftermarket power supply and the power goes out, the battery should kick in for power but it won't charge once the power returns.

Maybe I'm missing somthing but why would you want it to work off battery when the power goes out?

[avonord]

For your first question, I bought the two camera bundle.  If I want to hardwire both batteries, I need two chargers.  But the combo only comes with one.

Brian0613 said that the camera has some type of warning message when an aftermarket charger is used, unless you remove the battery from the camera.  I want to know the nature of those warning messages.  

I want to leave the battery in the camera to act like an un-interrupted power supply.  If power goes out, I want the camera to continue operating.  I have the Arlo hub and all my network infrastructure (i.e. network switch, modem, etc.) on UPS as well.

[avonord]

By the way, I do understand that with that setup, the batteries wont' be charged.  And they don't need to.  They will be barely used because the camera will run on AC power 99.9% of the time.

[DaveWoj]

OK I didn't know you had a UPS.

I can't speak for the message when the aftermarket is attached since I only have it powered for exterior without the battery in it.

I'm sure Tom Mac or one of the other experts on here may have some knowledge about that.

AC power supplies are fairly cheap (under $10 on amazon), you may just want to pick one up and plug it in with the battery and see what happens by testing it.

[perrenialguy]

Hi Brian0613,

thanks for the information. Do you know if your battery is actually charging? Have you tried putting it back in the camera and observing if the battery level indicator went back up to 100% ?

[Brian0613]

I tried to put the battery back into the camera with the after market adapter and it gave me a failure message in the application and the camera would not work. I am currently running without any batteries in the cameras. I agree, it would be nice to use the battery as a backup even if it didn't charge it. I guess Arlo has a little development work to do.

[perrenialguy]

I have a different problem that I am trying to address. I am trying to see if its possible to just charge the battery using non arlo provided adapter and cable.

Based on what I am reading, the arlo charger uses Qualcom fast charge technology so i am assuming as long as i use an adapter that supports qualcomm fast charge feature, it should be able to recharge the battery. Has anyone tried this?

[JamesC]

perrenialguy,

The Arlo Pro rechargeable battery should always be charged using the included charging adapter/cable. For more information, see here: What is Quick Charge and why do my Arlo Pro Wire-Free cameras use it?

JamesC

[lasersocks]

Hi,

The issue that I'm having is related to the cold Canadian climate. 

I keep one of my outdoor cameras plugged in because it is near an outdoor outlet but now that it's consistently below freezing, the camera refuses to operate while it's plugged in. 

Is there any work around to this? About half the year it's below freezing where I live so not being able to keep the device plugged in is inconvenient.