FYI...

[ant]

Hello.

I just got an e-mail about one/1 of Netgear Arlo cameras' batteries being low at 13% left through/via an e-mail:

"... Your Camera Batteries Are R u n n i n g D o w—

Uh-Oh ...!


Your Arlo camera is running low on power. It’s time to replace the
batteries in:


*
    Kitchen & Family Rooms:     13%

*


You’ve still got a little juice left, but in order to maintain
uninterrupted peace of mind, we recommend installing new batteries as
soon as you can..."

Is there a way to check these battery life numbers manually? 

Thank you in advance. 🙂

[TomMac]

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ant wrote:
snip

Is there a way to check these battery life numbers manually? 

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No... unless you pull the batteries out and use a voltmeter

[ant]

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TomMac wrote:

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ant wrote:
snip

Is there a way to check these battery life numbers manually? 

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No... unless you pull the batteries out and use a voltmeter

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Darn. Netgear needs to add that option. Since my battery was at 13% earlier tonight, would there be more e-mails closer to 0%?

[TomMac]

Not in my cases.... what will happen is the camera becomes unfunctional with a logo on it to change batteries ( if I remember right )

Since I'm using rechargeables more, when you get the messg, it's got a day or two max.... not so quickly with normal cells

[R_Lowe]

That's ironic.  So the email informs you in percentage (of a low number), but you can't otherwise see the on-going percentage at will; only the 3, 2 or 1-cell battery graphic (which I'd presume meant you have 67%-100%, 34%-66% and 1%-33%, respectively, capacity).  You'd think if they could tell you it had 13% juice left, you could be shown the exact current readout.

[ant]

Weird. We changed the three/3 months old camera's included batteries and tested, but all 4/four batteries were still all good according to a battery tester. Why does the web site say it is low? 😕 Oh well, we'll keep the old batteries for now. FYI, this is the far away camera that has weak wireless network connections in case that make any differences.

[TomMac]

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ant wrote:

Weird. We changed the three/3 months old camera's included batteries and tested, but all 4/four batteries were still all good according to a battery tester. Why does the web site say it is low? 😕 Oh well, we'll keep the old batteries for now. FYI, this is the far away camera that has weak wireless network connections in case that make any differences.

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Because your prob NOT testing them under the current draw like when in the camera... your doing more of a static test.

If they are normal cells, test them in a flashlight if able.... more than likely close to doa

[ant]

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TomMac wrote:

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ant wrote:

Weird. We changed the three/3 months old camera's included batteries and tested, but all 4/four batteries were still all good according to a battery tester. Why does the web site say it is low? 😕 Oh well, we'll keep the old batteries for now. FYI, this is the far away camera that has weak wireless network connections in case that make any differences.

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Because your prob NOT testing them under the current draw like when in the camera... your doing more of a static test.

If they are normal cells, test them in a flashlight if able.... more than likely close to doa

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Interesting. What's the camera's power draw? What is DOA? Dead or Alive? Dead on Arrival?

[R_Lowe]

Hmmm, even after I get a low battery email for one of my four cams, I think I'm going to wait until I no longer see a picture on it/them.  That way I'll know for SURE it needs replacing....

[ant]

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R_Lowe wrote:

Hmmm, even after I get a low battery email for one of my four cams, I think I'm going to wait until I no longer see a picture on it/them.  That way I'll know for SURE it needs replacing....

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Hehe, taking out its batteries definitely show no camera status. 😉 Netgear should continue to bug owners about the power going lower and lower (once a day?) as reminders. At least they can see the number going downhill.

[ant]

Interesting. Another camera's original batteries went low (9%) last night (not responding too) and then dead this early morning. These original old batteries were tested and put back in another camera, were at 5% according to an e-mail. And then, later they seem to be fine (2 bars) and working. Are the camera's battery checkers even accurate? Something is screwy lately. We have had these cameras since February 2015.

[jguerdat]

I've seen some weirdness, too, with the OEM batteries but I suspect it was due to firmware version. Were your cameras up to date before changing batteries? Changing them should have forced a check for the latest version but still worthwhile checking.

[ant]

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jguerdat wrote:

I've seen some weirdness, too, with the OEM batteries but I suspect it was due to firmware version. Were your cameras up to date before changing batteries? Changing them should have forced a check for the latest version but still worthwhile checking.

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I assume the supplied batteries are not rechargable and OEM. I didn't check their firmwares when having battery power issues earlier. I thought these cameras autoupgrade to the newer firmwares when they are released.

All five/5 camera settings show these versions as a of a few minutes ago:
Hardware: VMC3030
Software: 1.2.2412

The problematic batteries from last night are still showing 2/3 green bars so far.

These cameras are sure expensive to buy and operate. Their batteries only seem to last about three/3 months. 😞

[jguerdat]

Cameras should auto-update but things happen.  

My batteries were the Arlo-supplied ones and not rechargeable.  The fly in the ointment at this time is that my earliest experiences were done during very cold weather so not necessarily comparable with warm weather, not to mention firmware updates.

Yeah, battery life is a big issue, which is exactly why I'm jumping through hoops to test rechargeables.  Right now I have TangsFire 1000mAh, gray UltraFire 2300mAh and purple GTL 2300mAh.  Just takes time to get through all of them but one camera gets a lot of useage (2-3 weeks of usage resulting in ~350 minutes of recordings but haven't run them all the way down yet).

[ant]

From yesterday afternoon:

"Hi Ant,

This is a follow up about the case that we have. We have consulted this with our Engineering
department and the best way to determine whether a battery is good to use in a camera is to place it in the camera and observe two things:

- The relative brightness of the blue LED that flashes when the battery door is closed

- The battery level on the battery icon in the Arlo UI

Since batteries that are too low for Arlo to use will appear OK when tested with a battery tester,
because testers present no load to the battery..."