Is the battery percentage accurate?

[DaveWick]

I've got the recent firmware update with the battery percentage indicator.

I'm wondering if the percentage is accurate. I've been running these cameras on the included batteries since April 25 in a house that we are selling while living elsewhere. I've been giving the cameras fairly heavy use because I've been "watching" whenever people come to look at the house ... sometimes keeping one or more of the cameras in Live View for 30 minutes or more at a time.

Plus, the front porch camera sends false alerts throughout the day because I can't help but get part of the road in the field of view.

Here's the thing ... my three cameras are at 97%, 99% and 100%, according to the percentage indicator. It's been almost a month.

Could this be possible? Are these cameras really that efficient? Or, will I wake up one morning in the near future with three suddently powerless cameras?

[jguerdat]

We don't know yet since it's new.  I'd try a base station reboot/power cycle to see if that makes a difference.

[DaveWick]

Thanks. I'm going to the house tomorrow, so I'll do it then. I'll also take extra batteries just in case it turns out they are running low.

[LovelyNot]

As I have a similar issue, road in part of view (and no selective area possible for motion detection with a wide-angle camera is annoying..).

After the firmware update that one arlo camera started saying it was at 39%, and now, only 3 days later it dropped to 1% immediately, asking me to replace them. I have not really checked what it said yesterday, but I must stress that it dropped 38% within ~50 hours.

I was inclined to think it would exponentially drop, like most of the Lithium CR123A batteries I've known in my life, but only after it's half done (at about 50% capacity left), so what happened with my cam is correctly depicted in the percentages as far as I can tell.

[LovelyNot]

.

[jguerdat]

Part of the battery drop can be the number of minutes worth of recording and live view used.  Since you have a road visible, it could be that you recorded enough to drop the batteries down quickly.

Use the Search function above for "pvc" for a successful, easy and cheap way to add a shield to the motion detector to help prevent unwanted detection. Also, rotate your camera down a bit - lots of folks try to get the whole scene in view rather than just the actual area of interest.

[DaveWick]

I went to the house yesterday and rebooted everything.

Today, my three cameras register 98%, 99% and 100%, as they have from the beginning when I got the upgrade that gives the percentages. All three cameras have had fairly heavy usage for more than a month now.

I can only conclude one of two things:

1) These cameras are super efficient, and use no noticeable battery power.

or

2) There will be a point when my cameras die still showing close to 100% battery.

Obviously, I hope it is #1, but I have a feeling I've got a surprise coming some day soon.

I hope I'm wrong. I'll monitor it closely, and will find out as time goes on.