Arlo Ultra battery life

[sarah_lou277]

Hi, I just bought the new Arlo Ultra wireless 4HD camera. One is outside facing street and the battery is already in 23%?! I just plugged in today and have set sensitivity to low. Please help? I can’t replace them every day. What to do?! The plug in weather proof cable isn’t compatible with mine. There is nothing that let’s me plug in. It’s only battery

[AncientGeek]

There are supposed to be indoor and outdoor power cables as well as a solar panel that are all designed specifically for Ultra.

https://www.arlo.com/en-us/images/Documents/ArloUltra/Arlo_Ultra_Accessory_DS_09Nov18.pdf

Either way, your battery consumption seems like it is far less than intended.  The usual suggestions are to reboot the base and remove and reinstall the battery in the camera.  Then analyze the amount of recording time your camera is logging each day.  Battery spec is said to be set under the assumption of 5 minutes of recording per day.  Check the signal level between your camera and base.  Make sure your base stays powered on at all times.

[sarah_lou277]

That’s great thank you so much for the advice! The battery life stopped reducing once I set the motion sensitivity to low. It was recording everything on the street. I have one follow on questions though Ancient Greek. How do I set the street camera outside to constantly record even when am home but keep my indoor camera on geofencing so it doesn’t record when am home. Is that possible?

[AncientGeek]

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@sarah_lou277 wrote:
That’s great thank you so much for the advice! The battery life stopped reducing once I set the motion sensitivity to low. It was recording everything on the street. I have one follow on questions though Ancient Greek. How do I set the street camera outside to constantly record even when am home but keep my indoor camera on geofencing so it doesn’t record when am home. Is that possible?

“Geek” here....

Yes that hat is easy to do.   Create a new Mode (named “Home” for example).  Include only a rule the outside camera to detect motion and/or sound with the desired recording and notifications.  Create No rule for the inside camera for this mode.  Save it.  Set up geofencing to use the Armed mode when you are away and the “Home” mode when you are home.

[Dukenewcomb21]

I’m glad they rolled out new firmware but I really hope they do something for the battery life. It was supposed to be the same as the pro2/Pro. My Pro cameras battery’s go about 2-3 months. My ultras were all fully charged Sunday, it’s now Wednesday and theyre ALL at roughly 75%. That means these will all need to be recharged within a week! That’s INSANE!

I can’t be unmounting Cameras that are outside and inside every week to recharge for hours.

Why on earth is battery life not even close to what was promised????

[AncientGeek]

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@Dukenewcomb21 wrote:
I’m glad they rolled out new firmware but I really hope they do something for the battery life. It was supposed to be the same as the pro2/Pro. My Pro cameras battery’s go about 2-3 months. My ultras were all fully charged Sunday, it’s now Wednesday and theyre ALL at roughly 75%. That means these will all need to be recharged within a week! That’s INSANE!

I can’t be unmounting Cameras that are outside and inside every week to recharge for hours.

Why on earth is battery life not even close to what was promised????

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I can’t speak to Ultra battery life, but I decided early on, to buy the battery charger and at least one spare battery (I have several now) so I can take a fully charged battery out to the camera and bring the discharged battery inside for an offline charge without losing my camera coverage and not requiring two trips up and down a ladder in some cases.

[Dukenewcomb21]

Yes I have 2 sore batteries and the charger for Arlo Pro. The problem is ultra does not have the spare battery or charger available yet. I will most likely purchase them but either way, these cameras shouldn’t need fresh batteries weekly.

[adammiarka]

@Dukenewcomb21 with Arlo releasing updates for both the Smart Hub and Ultra cams last night, I would wait to see if the battery life has improved.   Prior to the updates, I had many connection issues to the camera, that might have caused the battery drain.   

[AncientGeek]

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@Dukenewcomb21 wrote:
Yes I have 2 sore batteries and the charger for Arlo Pro. The problem is ultra does not have the spare battery or charger available yet. I will most likely purchase them but either way, these cameras shouldn’t need fresh batteries weekly.

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I agree completely.  Normal battery life should be a few months.

Based on my Arlo experience, I wouldn’t buy a battery operated camera until spare batteries and an external charger were available.  Some other manufacturers don’t even offer removable batteries.  I would never recommend one of those systems to anyone.

[MoKat]

Unboxed, the batteries were at 52%. I turned my cameras off yesterday waiting for the firmware push as I was also experiencing the connectivity issue... the batteries still drained, now down to 25%. A 25% drop while off???

Powercycled everything after firmware push. Have one camera charging (let's see how long that takes), and others still going. Bestbuy return date down to 13 days... hopefully the battery issue will be resolved.

[DamianR]

Lithium batteries ate best shipped around 50-70% charged. Leaving them in storage at 100% causes deterioration. So Arlo is doing right there.
Your high initial drain is most certainly caused by the connectivity issue. Many of us have had excess battery drain on the older firmware.
Make sure yiu have the new base and camera fw, and the base must stay on.
Note that the battery will charge in a few hours with the 9V "outdoor" charger, but if the camera is connected to the 5V indoor USB charger and is on, it will only climb a few % per hour. Using a Qualcomm "quick charge" usb charger that can do 9V wont change it.

The outdoor charger is great, worth the money . The cable is 25ft too.

P.S. I dont work for Arlo.

[michaelkenward]

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@MoKat wrote:

A 25% drop while off???

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What does "off" mean? The only way to disconnect the camera completely is to remove the battery. Disabling the camera at the hub probably won't do it.

Leave the battery in and the poor camera may bust a gut trying to find a hub to play with.

[AncientGeek]

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@DamianR wrote:
Lithium batteries ate best ...

Note that the battery will charge in a few hours with the 9V "outdoor" charger, but if the camera is connected to the 5V indoor USB charger and is on, it will only climb a few % per hour. Using a Qualcomm "quick charge" usb charger that can do 9V wont change it.

The outdoor charger is great, worth the money . The cable is 25ft too.

P.S. I dont work for Arlo.

I’m surprised the indoor adapter is only 5V.  The adapter for the Pro/Pro 2 is dual voltage 5V/9V.  Charging behavior also seems to be very different than for Pro 2.  Yesterday, I charged a Pro 2 camera that started at 8% in just a few hours while it was still on.  I know the Ultra is a different battery, with a magnetic power attachment to the camera and the external battery charger reportedly is not yet available.    Since, power loss over distance at 5 V is quite severe, Arlo likely boosted the output power on the outdoor adapter to accommodate the new 25’ cord.

[jguerdat]

Don't forget that the 5v/9v Pro chargers are using QUalcomm Quick Charge capability that uses the USB connection to determine. The magnetic connection most certainly doesn't provide the connection needed but does help solve the moisture intrusion issues with the Pro cameras.

[MoKat]

I disconnected it from the hub, so "off" as in not connected but battery still connected.

Keep in mind there were no motion detection throughout the day, it just simply drained.

My setting are all default except power management = best battery life.
Firmware update has definitely improved the connectivity performance.

I probably connected 2-3 times per hour and only once did it not connect to a chosen camera. Well done Dev team.

Battery recharged on the 5v in about 90min from 20%.
Recharged battery/camera put next cat bed... got 80 motion detections in about 8 hrs > battery at 96%.

Now outside to test for the day.

Other test camera also recharged from 20% in about 90 minutes; placed in a room with no motion detection in 8 hrs > battery still at 99%.

[AncientGeek]

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@MoKat wrote:

I disconnected it from the hub, so "off" as in not connected but battery still connected.

Keep in mind there were no motion detection throughout the day, it just simply drained.

My setting are all default except power management = best battery life.
Firmware update has definitely improved the connectivity performance.

I probably connected 2-3 times per hour and only once did it not connect to a chosen camera. Well done Dev team.

Battery recharged on the 5v in about 90min from 20%.
Recharged battery/camera put next cat bed... got 80 motion detections in about 8 hrs > battery at 96%.

Now outside to test for the day.

Other test camera also recharged from 20% in about 90 minutes; placed in a room with no motion detection in 8 hrs > battery still at 99%.

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What do you mean by “disconnected it from the hub”?  Did you turn the device off or did you turn the hub off?  The latter will drain your battery.

[MoKat]

app > camera > device settings > device on/off: When I say I turned "off" the camera this is all I did.

[AncientGeek]

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@MoKat wrote:

app > camera > device settings > device on/off: When I say I turned "off" the camera this is all I did.

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Got it.  How is the signal strength between the camera and the base?  That can be an issue.  You might try swapping the offending camera with one that isn’t draining battery quickly to make sure the problem follows the camera and isn’t position dependent.

However. It is is possible there is still an issue with the firmware.

[Raprome]

Hi

Can anyone tell me the approximate battery life from full charge before a re-charge

Thanks

[jguerdat]

That's a loaded question because it depends on many factors, such as total number of minutes of live view and recording per day (<5 minutes total gives spec life) as well as signal strength and quality between the camera and base. If using the camera in spec with decent signal strength/quality, I'd say 3-5 months is possible. Haven't had mine long enough to be able to tell you from personal experience.