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All cameras offline at once - dead batteries

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Mvettori
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I recently installed a series of Arlo cameras in my elderly parents' home. They both have illnesses and it's a great way for my siblings and I to check in on them when we're not able to physically be there.  I have the same camera setup in our vacation home, they work great and I'm very accustomed to using them. 

 

Since I installed the cameras in my parents home, on multiple occasions the cameras all go offline at once, as if they lost power or the base station had an issue.  Every time this has happened it was because the batteries in the cameras all needed to be replaced...all five cameras at the same time, more often than not the batteries have had significant battery life left before the situation occurs.

 

Assuming that this was an issue of one of my siblings not understanding how the cameras or Arlo app worked, I assumed it was someone that turned the cameras on to view and never turned them off when leaving the app, thereby allowing the entire set of cameras to run until the batteries all exhausted. Assuming this was the case, I made sure that each sibling knew how the app worked and to explicitly turn off the cameras when they were viewing anything live. 

 

Only two of the five cameras are set up to record on motion, and that is for 30 seconds intervals. The other three cameras have the motion detection turned off and need to be explicitly turned on to view live video.

 

Since I showed my siblings how the Arlo App works and made sure they understood the need to explicitly turn off the cameras, this situation has occurred about four or five more times, each time with my siblings telling me that they understand how the app works and they did not leave the cameras running.  

 

I'm beginning to believe that this is some form of system issue. Has anyone experienced anything similar or have any thoughts on what the issue may be?  I'm very quickly spending a lot of money on extra CR123 batteries.

 

Thanks in advance.

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jguerdat
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Guru

All 5 running down the batteries at the same time implies either someone turned off the base (the cameras then keep trying to connect to the nonexistent base) or perhaps a 2.4GHz wireless source of interference near the base. Spec battery life is for <5 minutes of live viewing and recording on average per day but I doubt that would happen for all 5 at the same time. It may be worth moving the base away from the router as much as possible and checking for any wireless devices that are nearby (cordless phones, etc.). A system reset may be needed to see if that helps.

 

BTW, the cameras will stop any live view going on when navigating away from that viewing in any way, whether closing the app or just moving around in the app. You may also want to investigate the Arlo-approved Tenergy rechargeable batteries to reduce overall battery costs long-term.

TomMac
Guru Guru
Guru

First,  cr123 batteries are a lot cheaper if bought online in bulk 

( like from batteryjunction ; https://www.batteryjunction.com/batteries-size-cr123a.html  )

 

there are also rechargeables ( 3.7v li-ion ) but they last half as long ( don't be fooled by amount of mahr ratings... quality 123 rechargeables can't physically hold more than 750 mahr of chems )

 

Most of my arlo HD cams run 2-3 months on a set of 123s.... a month on the rechargeable

 

 

So, make sure they are NOT left on in live view ( even tho they should shut down at about 30 mins to prevent total drainage ).  Battery life is bases on 5 mins per day in live view or record... so if  many are looking them it can drain them faster.

 

Make sure you are DISARMING the cameras and not turning off the base ( if the base is off the camera batteries drain looking for it )

 

Make sure the base is powered and not losing power at times ( as same as turning off ) or losing connection to router.

 

Make sure there is a good signal from base to cameras.

 

If inside the home, there are 3rd party power options which cost about 3-4 battery sets

( like https://www.amazon.com/LANMU-Power-Adapter-Security-Camera/dp/B081HH6RQ3 )

do a search or if handy there is a LONG thread on same

 

Let me know if any helped

 

 

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