Spotlight Cam Battery not charging with solar panel

When I called CS that’s the first thing they wanted to do… replace the solar panel, but I have 2 and they are both slower to charge than they had been. After the agent talked to someone in development they are aware of issues with the iOS app. Also I think that the app only updates the battery level when it performs a “health check” rather than each time the app is opened. I do not know how often the health checks are performed. I’ve seen times when it’s been 2 hours or more. I’ve not found a way to get it to check it in real time. The CS also couldn’t ‘see’ the solar panel on his end but development said that’s an app issue at this time.

With the shorter days coupled with the way the app is updating, I decided to wait and see. Once we got some decent sun yesterday both my spotlight cams charged back up. The one that gets the most sun went to 100%. The other is at 94% this morning but 2 days ago it was at 67%.

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I ordered my first solar panel spotlight cams 2 pack 2 weeks ago and they both stopped charging within 2 days. After numerous chat and phone calls was advised solar panels and cams are faulty and need replacing!! I decided to best solution was to return them for a full refund!

Then ordered wired versions this solved the hassle of how quick the solar versions become faulty but having slight quality issues with footage and viewing.

I would personally stay away from the solar panels until they fix the issues.

Yes - that feature would be great. My stickup cam seems to almost never have an issue with solar charging because it’s always at 100%. BUT my new spotlight cam was working great with the solar panel keeping it fully charged until a couple months ago now it seems to not work at all. I always check that the panels are clean and they are getting sun. Had to buy another battery. The ability to see a solar panel is connected and actively charging would be very helpful.

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Same notice for me with the newest update. It used to say solar powered as my power source but now it’s recommending I purchase a solar panel even though both cams have panels connected.

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So how do you get the batteries charged using the solar panel?

? connect the solar panel USB cable to the camera USB connector?

No it had been working but all of a sudden it stopped charging just like everyone on here described. But I haven’t heard how anyone fixed the issue.

Dismount camera and charge with wall charger. Return to wall when charge is 100%. The problem is latest firmware

MacX

Mine says that on the iOS app for both my solar powered cameras. According to support who talked to development… the app is not differentiating who has panels and who doesn’t. Everyone gets the statement.

My android app doesn’t show a line item for solar panel status at all and never has.

I thought mine weren’t charging but we’d had a few totally overcast and rainy days. After the sun came back out they are charging back to 100% each day as they always have.

Not sure support are dishing out accurate info as mine claims a solar panel is connected. In fact no solar panel is connected - it’s hard wired.

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Support wants to replace my battery as well which does not make a lot of sense seeing how it charges fine when plugged into the wall and powers the camera fine. Did the battery replacement resolve anyones issue here?

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@Truck3rcl0ck wrote:

Support wants to replace my battery as well which does not make a lot of sense seeing how it charges fine when plugged into the wall and powers the camera fine. Did the battery replacement resolve anyones issue here?

Your lucky they want to replace your batteries only (not sure why though!), with mine they wanted to replace 2 x solar panels and 2 x spotlight cameras! not the batteries as they said that the devices were faulty.

If your within your return period i would send the whole devices back and ask for a refund as they are not fit for purpose. I know the wired versions are not fit for everyone but they are a lot better than the battery versions - yes they have there own issues but mainly to do with the sensors being overly sensitive, however i have not had to worry about them having any loss of power.

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I am outside of the return period, but it charged great with the solar panel since July. My panel is not a ring branded one so they did not want to replace it, although I already had the company send me a new one initially thinking that was the issue, but it was not. They said per the logs it is charging, but I see it dropping 7-8% battery everyday with only a few motion triggers per day it should be able to keep up. I wish there was a charging indicator in the app so I could see it for myself. I think a replacement of the camera itself will resolve the issue, otherwise something happened with a recent software update. Maybe they made it so that only a genuine ring solar panel will charge, who knows. I just know I have the protection plus plan which extends the warranty and will harass support until it is resolved.

I only had the items both solar panels and cameras direct from Ring in december 2019, they lasted 2 days as they were charging the cam batteries fine. Then all of a sudden on day 3 they stopped and Ring said all of the them needed replacing due to them being faulty and from what i recall (as i had to speak to so many different people) they said that the replacements will be fully checked and updated with the latest software so there will not be any further issues due to the camera not recongnising that there is a solar panel attached (the ring app had recieved an update that now showed something to do with a solar panel being attached, but on mine is was saying to add one rather than picking up it already had one attached). Not sure what that means as they should already update the firmware themselves.

From what I understand the mention of solar panels in the app is just an “ad” to buy a solar panel and does not signify whether or not the camera can detect a solar panel is plugged in and that was only added to the iOS App. I do not see anything about solar panels in my Android app. The android version I am running is dated 12/20/19 which is after I started experiencing the issue. For the firmware on the device they no longer display the firmware version you are running, just an “up to date” status so not sure 100% which version of firmware is on my camera. Even if the new camera shipped with an older working version of the firmware the first thing the camera does when you add it to your app is reach out and update.

@Truck3rcl0ck wrote:

From what I understand the mention of solar panels in the app is just an “ad” to buy a solar panel and does not signify whether or not the camera can detect a solar panel is plugged in and that was only added to the iOS App. I do not see anything about solar panels in my Android app. The android version I am running is dated 12/20/19 which is after I started experiencing the issue. For the firmware on the device they no longer display the firmware version you are running, just an “up to date” status so not sure 100% which version of firmware is on my camera. Even if the new camera shipped with an older working version of the firmware the first thing the camera does when you add it to your app is reach out and update.

You get told different things by different support staff so not sure why the solar panel ad had anything to do with the support staff saying the camera is not recongnising the panel hence not charging it - if it was an ad that appears under the battery charge level then this has nothing to do with what the support staff said, i doubt they know themselves exactly whats wrong - or they do and they will be releasing a fix for it - who knows aye.

Interesting your screen cap says solar “charger” status.
Mine has “panel” instead of charger and the status is still to add a panel to extend batt life

So what do we do since the solar panel does not charge? I’m not going up a ladder every few weeks to remove battery and charge it. Whats Ring doing about?

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This is the second time a software update seems to have stopped by solar power camera from charging. Is there any way to verify that your solar panel is connecting to your camera batteries?

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Removing and reading didn’t help mine. I had the same problem and was sent a replacement cam so it has just been adding and It’s still not charging and says add a solar panel when I already have one added

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