I have the stick up cam and the solar panel. During the day time, the battery is always at 100%. So it looks like the solar panel is working to keep it charged.
However, each night over the last week, I’ve noticed that the battery is decreasing by 1% when I check the battery level roughly around the same time every night.
Example: last Sunday night at 10pm, the battery was 99%. Then back to 100% during the day. Then on Monday night at 10pm, the battery was 98%. Then back to 100% during the day. Then on Tues night at 10pm, the battery was at 97%. And 100% during the day and so on. Today after about a week, it is at 93% at night.
Has anyone else experienced this? It’s odd that at night it’s decreasing by 1% a day cumulatively. But during the day, it always gets charged back up to 100%. I would assume that the battery would fall to the same percent every night after it gets charged back up to 100% during the day. Like, every night should be down to 95% and then back up to 100% during the day. Not 95% one night, then 94% the next, then 93% the next, etc.
I have not changed any settings since last week when I first got the solar panel.
One person seems to be experiencing the same thing as me. It looks like the solar panel only powers the device during the day, so it shows as 100%. But it’s actually not charging the battery.
Anyone from Ring on the forums? Is there a way to have the solar panel CHARGE the battery instead of just powering the camera?
Hi neighbors! Thanks for sharing screenshots and information regarding the battery level on your Cameras. The way the Solar Panel works is that it will provide a trickle charge to your Camera’s battery each day as long as it’s receiving about 6-8 hours of direct sunlight per day. In this case, it is possible that you will see the battery level drop at night if the Camera is recording events still, as the Solar Panel cannot provide a trickle charge at night. Additionally, if your Camera records a large number of events each day, it may discharge more quickly than it can be charged from the Solar Panel.
However, if it appears that your Camera is not receiving any charge from the Solar Panel, you may want to try a few basic troubleshooting steps. First, disconnect and reconnect the Solar Panel and make sure there is no dirt or debris on the connection. Next, you can try resetting the Camera by holding down the setup button for at least 20 seconds. Set it back up in the Ring App afterwards with the steps under Set Up a Device. Monitor the battery level to see if this same concern persists after trying these steps.
Should these solutions not work for you, please give our support team a call at one of the numbers available here. They can take a deeper look at your account and device and offer more advanced troubleshooting support. 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.
Can you explain the “trickle charge” a little more in depth?
Is the behavior supposed to be Option 1: Solar Panel powers the device during the day so it will always show 100% during the day. But it is also providing trickle charge in the background. So if the battery was at 90%, it is slowly charging it throughout the day to maybe 93% by night. And then the camera switches to battery power only at night and shows 93%.
Or Option 2: The battery should not show 100% during the day. If the battery depleted down to 90% over night, the next morning should show 90%. And then throughout a sunny day, the Solar Panel is trickle charging so it should slowly climb to 91%, then 92%, etc… maybe ending up at 93% at the end of the day.
If it is supposed to behave as Option 2, then mine is definitely not working correctly because mine shows 100% during the day all the time.
I have unplugged, replugged the solar panel cable, and then reset the camera with the orange button and re-set up everything.
I’ll monitor it for the next few days and report back.
@lancerev0 The trickle charge simply means that when the Solar Panel is receiving at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight per day, it will provide a slight charge to the battery to help keep it topped off. If the Camera continues behaving the same after you’ve tried these steps, then definitely follow up with our support team at one of the numbers I listed in my previous reply. They’ll be able to look into this more closely to diagnose what may be going on with the Solar Panel or the Camera itself.
I contact customer service today about the same issue. I have had my two stick up cameras with panels attached all year without a single hiccup. Suddenly since the last firmware my batteries drained and died. And die daily now as well. No setting changes on my end. The rep indicatd their batteries dont work well below freezing ( it has not been below freezing but one day). My question is why does Ring not stand behind their prodcuts, this renders my cameras useless during all of winter here in Virginia (east side not mountain side so mild winter). I asked why this information is not provided up front anywhere to customers, had I known this I would have made a different decision on what products I went with (AKA not ring). THese are OUTDOOR cameras, they should be made for all the elements, or else DISCLOSE this !!
When it worked over the last year, did you notice the battery hover around like 95% the whole year? Did it stay around a certain percentage? I’m trying to figure out what “normal” operation should be. As I mentioned, mine keeps going down every night. Even after the reset.
I’m actually taking with support right now. They said the solar panel only is used as “back up” and doesn’t charge the device. I told them they are wrong because the website says it charges the battery and almost all 12,000 reviews on Amazon says that it charges the battery.
Very disappointed with Ring support not understanding how their own products work.
