WiFi range dropped down to 35 feet after battery change.

[weft]

I had 3 cameras all working as advertised since 6/2015 on rechargeable TangsFire batteries.
The longest distance from my base station to a camera was 50 feet (camera3) and WiFi strength 4 of 5 bars.
Today 8/28 I got a notification from camera3 that battery power was down to 12% so I recharged my batteries
and tested the camera3 operating as advertised up to 35 feet from the base station.

When I place the camera back in the original location 50 feet away from the base station, I get the message on my iPhone “Unable to play. Please try again”. The motion sensor in the camera3 seems to be working (red LEDs on), but the video clips don’t get uploaded. The strength of the WiFi signal is still 4 of 5 bars.

I power cycled the camera3 several times (removed and re-inserted the batteries) - still the same, working up to 35 feet (but no more) from the base station.

The other 2 cameras are working as expected.

May I conclude at this point that this camera is defect?

[jguerdat]

Any new equipment or other changes recently that could interfere with the Arlo WiFi connection?  Try swapping cameras to see if that makes a difference.

[TomMac]

Have you tried another set of batteries?  I've had one go south after a recharge and do weird things. ( now i test the voltage prior to install )

[weft]

"Any new equipment or other changes recently that could interfere with the Arlo WiFi connection?"

I don't think this might be the cause as the camera was working as advertised at 50 feet, then I swopped batteries and was working only up to 35 feet.

Extremely unlikely IMO that such a change occured during 2 min. time window when swapping batteries.

"Try swapping cameras to see if that makes a difference."

I'll do eventually but am dragging my feet as other cameras are mounted in a location which is difficult to access.

Perhaps there is an easier way to isolate this error? 

[weft]

"Have you tried another set of batteries?"

I already tried with 2 different sets of fully charged (Nitecore D4) TangsFire and one set of the original non-rechargeable batteries with the same result - works up to 35 feet.

[jguerdat]

Short of testing with another camera, that sounds like a hardware problem.

[weft]

On Sunday morning 8/30/15 the camera3 started working (without reset) at 50 feet and kept performing as advertised all day. WiFi signal strengh has been 4 of 5 all the time. I wonder what was the cause of this service interruption and how to minimize such in the future. 

[TomMac]

just some sort of interference or nsa jamming your home. 🙂

[weft]

I haven’t seen any further interruption of connectivity between camera3 and Arlo base station. On 9/5/15 it’s been 6 days since my camera3 started working again at 50 feet from base station. Therefore my issue is probably resolved.

I don’t know how to explain the 2 day window of reduced range (down to 35 feet, despite the WiFi signal being consistently 4 of 5).
Probably some sort of temporary interference, as juggernaut and TomMac suggest (and thank you for comments).

There must be an event log in the Arlo base station which Arlo customer service or somebody with login credentials can review?