IOS App 5.21.0 Update Solar Charger Status – Add a Ring Solar Device to Extend Battery Life

Hi neighbors – it would be great to see photos of current set up of your Solar Panels. Of all the testing we have conducted, all Solar Panels are working as expected. In order to assist further, please let us know your current set up – wide photo showing the exact positioning of your device compared to the sun – and we can continue to educate and work together to ensure your device is working properly. Thank you

There are two issues at ply here.

  1. Ring pushed out a software update that deactivates battery charging below a certain temperature. Many people though charging ‘broke’, but it was an intended design change. Once that was made clear, this ‘problem’ has been resolved. Now that temperatures are warmer, people aren’t having problems with solar panels charging.
  1. The current problem is with the fuel ‘Solar Panel Status’ on the Device Health Page. My Spotlight Cam has a fully functional solar panel. I know this because the batteries recharge to 100% every day. The Solar Panel Status field however says ‘Add a Ring Solar Panel…’. My Ringdoorbell, which is hardwired but has a battery (no solar panel though) says Solar Charger Status Connected.

Obviously this is wrong and a bug in the app. This bug has existed for months. It doesn’t have to do with where the solar panels are placed.

@iowegian just to clarify, our batteries used in our products are lithium-ion batteries, which are effected by cold weather. This has nothing to do with a software or firmware push. I will also push back that the positioning of your Solar Panel is extremely important when providing a charge for your device. However, I will agree with you that the messaging in the Ring App, “Solar Panel Status” is not up to my personal standards and I have opened a case with the appropriate teams. I look forward to delivering results as they come in. Thanks.

If you go to the very beginning of this thread, this exact issue has been raised to the developers since December.

Also, I understand that lithium ion batteries performance degrades in cold temperatures. However: https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005939463-Cold-Weather-and-Battery-Powered-Ring-Devices

At the very end of that page it says, “ If the battery is too hot or too cold, on-board software will keep it from charging in order to avoid damaging the battery. Bring the battery inside and allow it to change to room temperature before trying to recharge the battery.”

Completely anecdotal, but in the winter of 2018, I never had to take camera down to charge inside. The solar panel kept it charged year round. When the latest software was pushed last fall, suddenly I had to bring the battery in weekly to recharge it. The climate didn’t change that much between 2018 and 2019.

If it is intended functionality to protect wear on the battery, I’m completely fine with that. But if there was a change, Ring did not communicate it whatsoever. The cold weather article was published Jan 10, 2018 so it’s possible that this has always been the functionality.

I’m having the exact same issue. Solar panel is working fine, keeping the camera charged to 100%, but it still tells me to add a solar panel, and doesn’t give me the option to select snapshot capture every 5 minutes because that requires a solar panel.

this works now !!!

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Not for me :frowning: Just updated my app. My cameras that are connected to solar are still telling me to connect it to solar power to extend battery life. My solar panels do work just fine and have since December when we installed them. My doorbell (which is hardwired with no solar panel), states its solar panel is fine. Seems like the coding in the app is still backwards (I have an iPhone)

Well about 10 minutes after I posted this went back into my ring app and now it shows solar panels connected. So all I can suggest is upgrade the app and give it 12-24 hours to correct itself lol.

@CarlsonFamily wrote:
Well about 10 minutes after I posted this went back into my ring app and now it shows solar panels connected. So all I can suggest is upgrade the app and give it 12-24 hours to correct itself lol.

I just updated my app. For my Doorbell 2 under Device Help –> Solar Status it just tells me to Extend Battery Life with a Ring Solar Charger. But my Doorbell 2 is actually now connected. When I called Ring some months ago, the agent told me that he could see where my Doorbell 2 was getting a trickle charge. But that there was no way to push that information to end users via the app or webpage.

It was also clear that the charger for the Doorbell 2 could not provide enough energy to totally obviate the need for charging the battery. That seems to be clear even as the days get longer and warmer, and the sunlight impinging more and more on the charger.

The agent suggested I move the charger and Doorbell 2, which was really annoying. My door is where it is, and the connecting cables are only so far. I’m not sure why I would have a doorbell not at my door.

The bottom line with respect to the Doorbell 2 charger is that the solar panel is too small to provide a meaningful amount of energy to the battery. The Ring app provides no way of letting the user know what is happening with the charger. Maybe unless the sun beat down directly on the charger for many hours in the day, and the use settings are battery-sparing, the charger does not relieve you of your recharging needs.

So money is better spent on additional batteries, or rigging a charging situation using house power.

So I have 4 battery Spotlight cams. One is now showing “Solar Status - Connected” and the three others are showing “Solar Status - Extend Battery Life with a Ring Solar Panel”.

So we know two things.

  1. Chelsea_Ring was making stuff up when she initially replied to this thread, as expected, and…

  2. Ring’s code is incomplete and unreliable, and it took 6 months for them to actually fix and implement this feature.

Good stuff, Ring!

I just noticed today thas Solar panel got detected for cams and for doorbell. (For the latter I wasn’t even sure if it’s working, didn’t charge due to my door facing north. Just recently it started with slight charge +1% day.)

I checked that the app updated to 5.26.1.

On my ipad it still has shown “Add solar panel…”, updating app there helped for the issue.

I am on 5.27.1 and this issue persists. I have a Stick-Up Cam (2nd Generation) and the solar panel charges the battery but doesn’t show one as connected. Further, under the Snapshot settings the 5 minute option is grayed out because it requires a solar panel and one is not being detected by the app.

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This is literally why I’m here. Solar charges it just fine but it’s not recognized in the app.

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Why does my app tell me to connect a solar panel when I already have one? Also, my ring pro chime doesn’t work wither

The app now shows that the solar charger is connected to my Doorbell 2. But in dealing with this problem I learned that the the charging data is available to Ring, but not to end users. I would like to know how much charge is being supplied to the device.

The advertisement for the solar charger suggests that if you buy a charger, your battery changing days are over. That turns out to not be the case.

Hey neighbors! When you go into your Ring app > Main Menu > Devices > Device connected to solar panel > Device Health, does it show that there is a solar panel connected? If your app is not showing the solar panel as connected under your Device Health page, you will want to ensure the device is connected properly. I recommend detaching the solar panel from your device and then attaching it back, while also ensuring that there is no dust and debris on the solar panels and at the connection.

After checking the connection, if you find that it is still not showing as connected in the Device Health section, please try resetting your Ring device (not the solar panel) by pressing and holding the setup button for 20 seconds. After this reset, re-establish the connection your device has in your Ring app by tapping on Reconnect or Change Wifi Network under Device Health. This will take you through another setup of the Ring device in the Ring app. Once completed, check the Device Health again to see if the solar panel is showing as connected. If the device is showing as connected, please ensure you are getting 4 or more hours of direct sunlight to the solar panel during the day to allow a trickle charge to your device. You will also want to ensure that your device is not discharging more than it is charging, as you may have an excess amount of events that could be draining the battery on your device.

In the event you may not see the solar panel connected still, 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. 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.

Right now it says ‘Established.’ (See attached) A few days ago I checked and it said ‘Connected.’

Is there any guidance on what either of these terms means in this Ring context?

But my ask is, how can I tell just how much power is being provided by the solar charger? This was my question in December. Then, when I talked to a Ring customer service rep, it seem like I was only getting an insignificant trickle of power, and I had to wait until summer to see something significant.

I figure by this time Ring must have some data on solar chargers, and how much power can be expected at a certain lat-long, at certain exposures. I was hoping there was some kind of app that could tell me if my charger is working as well as it could, or not. Are there benchmarks on performance to which I could compare?

All the marketing materials suggest that with a charger, a customer’s battery swapping problems are over. But it does not seem like the solar charger really extends battery life all that much.

And most important there is performance data that Ring techs can see, but is not being pushed to consumers.

Hi @ln001! The Established indicator you are seeing was a recent change that we made to the app, as we look to refine how the solar panel shows it’s connected on the Device Health page. If you see “Established,” this is the same as the “Connected” status, and therefore should not be a cause for a concern. If you see Not Connected, Not Charging or Not Established is when the Doorbell is not detecting the solar charger and should be looked into.

As far as power received by your Ring device, from the Solar Charger, this can differ based variables such as number of events, hours of direct sunlight, and more. The Solar Power Rating is 0.52W; 5.2V DC. Feel free to check out our help center article about the Solar Charger for more information. :slight_smile:

It just seems to me that the entire Ring range is buggy, You fix one problem just to be met by another. I have 8 Rings by the way. The solar problem is the one annoying me this week and yes I reinstalled the solar with same result. It is clearly a software problem.