Solar Panel for Spotlight Cam

Products Security Cams
#1

The problem that I have is that the solar panel I have connectd to my spotlight camera is no longer keeping the battery charged (I understand it’s a trickle charge) after working flawlessly for more than 2 years. I bought a new battery, I have disconnected and reconnected the unit from the panel more than once, cleaning all surfaces and connections as a number of people and the Ring CS has suggested, but nothing changed. It still discharges. Then, very recently, the app started showing theb"Solar Status" of my spotlight cam as “Connected”. Great. It sees the panel, however, still no charge.

Does anyone have a similiar issue that they resolved??

ps, i have another spotlight cam with the exact same setup, but it’s newer and works perfectly. HELP.

#2

Thank you for taking the time to cover all the necessary bases for this to work, @Zman! Achieving the Solar status in the Ring app is a great step in the right direction. Understanding that you’ve completed virtually all troubleshooting methods with support, there may be some easy enough alterations that might aid in seeing a charge.

As we are always adding to and improving on features in the Ring app, we like to ensure there are still options for battery preservation, or optimizing the time between charges. I recommend checking out any and all settings associated with your Cam that might save battery. Motion frequency is a great place to start as it will limit motion in high traffic areas, or unwanted back to back motions that might drain your batter. Other motion settings, or even video or recording length settings, can help with this.

Check out also, our Community post about battery drain, to see if any of these factors might apply here. After adjust these variables, try starting with a fully charged battery and monitor from there to see a charge from the Solar Panel. Feel free to let us know how this goes! :slight_smile:

#3

While i appreciate the suggestions and advice, and have adjusted the settings accordingly to fit my needs, it doesn’t address the problem at hand. The bottom line is that I went to the length of purchasing and installing the solar panel on a device to fulfill a purpose. The unit worked perfectly and then didn’t. I find it dissapointing that such a seemingly robust product, with a combined cost of more than $250, would have a useful like of less than 2 years! I purchased the unit and installed it in late September, 2018 with the expectation that i would be able to count on a flawless performance for years to come. For your reference, I have a Ring Doorbell, the second Spotlight Camera that i recently purchased, as well as a full house alarm system and monitoring service through Ring. I am a loyal customer to this point, however I beleive that Ring should support me in fixing this situation by replacing the Spotlight Camera and Panel. I’m sure that you would have to agree that it seems like the only right thing to do as all other measures to rectify the situation have been exhausted. I have attached a copy of my original purchase reciept for your easy reference. I thank you in advance for your consideration. Please advise asap.

#4

Update as of 8:00am, Saturday, 5/23/20: Now the solar panel is no longer showing in a connected status on the app and i haven’t physically touched it in days. Please help. This simply isn’t right. Replacing the products is the right thing to do. I have no prblem returning the old one to you for a post-mortem.

Please advise asap.

#5

Hi @Zman. If the above steps did not help to resolve this concern, please give our support team a call at one of the numbers available here. We’re taking additional steps to protect our team and help reduce the spread of COVID-19, so this has resulted in longer than normal wait times. If you are outside of the US, please read our response to COVID-19 here to see how to contact support. Feel free to let us know how this goes, or any solution you find with support, as it might help any other neighbor who might be experiencing something similar.

#6

I’m experiencing a similar problem with my Ring stick up Cam connected to the solar charging panel. For over 2 years, the solar panel has successfully kept my stick up cam battery fully charged and I’ve never had to remove the battery and charge it using the USB wall charging cable. The Ring app has never recognized the solar charger connection between the stick up cam and solar charging panel, but it seemed to be working fine until recently, when I noticed that the stick up cam battery level was low. Because the Ring app has never recognized the stick up cam’s solar status and always showed power source as “battery”, I don’t know whether the Ring app coding is the problem (there are a lot of posts here on this) or whether I have a hardware problem with either the solar charging panel itself or the cable connection between the solar panel and the stick up cam. I would love to know if a phone call to customer service resulted in resolution of your problem.