Rapid blue flashing light since firmware upgrade

[Munchkin6]

Ever since firmware upgrade 1.092.0.6_15695, I have noticed my Arlo Pro cameras blink a rapid blue light every so often.  They seem to work fine otherwise.  Would anyone know what this means?

Thanks.

[jguerdat]

That's new.  You can try turning off the LED setting in Settings, My Devices, your camera but that really shouldn't make a difference since this sort of flashing shouldn't be happening. I would check to verify that the firmware on all devices is up to date. Regardless, remove the camera from Settings, My Devices and resync to see if that clears up the weirdness.

[Remoteshell]

PROBLEM RESOLVED!
Hi,
I had this problem with two of my four new Pro 2 cams. It only happened at night, or in low light, on those cameras that were outside and powered with the supplied white Arlo chargers.

Swapping cameras and batteries around didn’t help; any camera or battery in those positions caused the problem, and the cameras were only a max of five metres from the base station with line-of-sight (i.e. no thick walls) between them, so range wasn't the issue. Changing the USB power leads made no difference, either.

I SOLVED IT PERMANENTLY and immediately when I swapped the original equipment Arlo chargers for after-market Quick Charge 3.0 chargers bought on eBay UK (£16.99 for two, inc p&p, delivered in 48hrs).
The brand I bought was ”Lanmu” but I’ve since tried other unbranded ones and they have also cured the problem.
Restoring the OE Arlo charger in either camera position causes the problem to reappear, so it seems to be quite conclusive.

I can speculatively assume that this is because at night the cameras will turn on their IR illuminators, creating an additional electrical load. The Arlo charger on its own doesn’t appear to be quite capable of sustaining this load and so the battery supplies the extra power, dropping it from its 100% full charge and then (rightly) causing the blue led to flash whilst it’s topped up again.
The after-market chargers presumably can supply enough power to cope with the camera’s full power load and so the battery never drops below 100%, even momentarily, so the blue LEDs never need to flash (once the battery is fully charged, of course).

I was getting very pissed off with my two carefully hidden outdoor cameras giving away their positions at night with their flashing blue beacons! Now peace and harmony prevail once more!

If you try this and it works for you, please leave a post.

[jguerdat]

You can get the chargers replaced under warranty by opening a case with support here:

https://www.arlo.com/en-us/support/contact.aspx

[Remoteshell]

Thank you,
I will contact support but I’m not convinced that this is a true “fault” with the charger. After all, it charges the camera’s battery when it should and it’s not claimed to be able to run a camera without a battery, which it appears it could NOT do reliably, although I’ve not tried.
Changing the charger for a more powerful one as I’ve done is simply masking the problem, not fixing it.

I believe this problem occurred with the last firmware upgrade and that is where the “fault” appears to lie.

It seems that the battery’s voltage drops momentarily for whatever reason and the charger tops up the charge when that happens, flashing the blue LED when it does so. A firmware update with a simple time delay before the LED flashes might be all that’s required.

Whether the Arlo code monkeys see it as important enough is a different matter; from my perspective and apparently that of others on this thread, it’s a significant problem. When the world at large discovers that you can’t mount a powered Arlo Pro camera without it announcing its presence to any tea leaf (thief) who strolls by, then people may well opt for another brand. That ought to make this a high priority change but, looking at the numerous serious bugs that persist in the iOS and browser apps, I wonder whether anyone is doing anything to fix these faults!
I’d be delighted to be proved wrong . . . .

[superbit]

Great work.

I am convinced you are correct.

Since the disaster this year with the rapid discharge of most of my cameras while I was away overseas, I was left with no security, so I am changing all my cameras over to chargers. In the process I could not purchase genuine longer leads and chargers in Australia, so I had to buy non-genuine ones online. I understand voltage loss completely so was not surprised when a longer cable did not work on the original Arlo charger. It in fact flattened the battery with the camera off. Mainly due to rapid flashing red light all night, caused by the long lead on a geninue Arlo charger. The fast non- genuine charger bought online worked perfectly. That's because it has more capacity to handle the job.

Arlo needs top lift their game in many ways. Listen more to the community. Fix only half screen on Safari. Faster load times when logging in. Better video quality. Allow more cameras than 5 per email for free. We would then buy more.

[jsturess]

Hi Thanks for the help.

I switched two of my cameras, both of them is powered by cable. The one that has the blue flashing line stopped flashing and the other one that has not flashed before started to flashe after a week. So the problem is the charger and not camera.

Thanks again!