Spotlight Cam Battery not charging with solar panel

Yup, my cams lost another 4% charge in the last 24 hours. I will not be changing and manually charging batteries every three weeks. I will return the cams and panels to the stores purchased from or look to dispute all charges with my banks and ship them back to Ring.

Looks like folks have been dealing with this since early November. Two months is far too long for Ring to ignore us and only offer weak suggestions.

1 Like

AVS, what CS told you is great, but it doesn’t address charge rate. Mine too are “charging” just at a much slower rate, about 75% slower rate than prior to last update. For those of us living in sunny parts of the country I would say some can be attributed to the seasonalbe change, but surely not a 75% drop off.

The only Ring device I have that is being successfully charged by a solar panel is my Doorbell 2 that is connected to a non-Ring panel. Consistently keeps it at 100%. I am considering another third party solar panel from Amazon to see if it solves the problem with the cams. It is more than disappointing that Ring corporate appears to be sticking its head in the sand on this one.

Is it a panel or the solar mount. I have the solar mount (made by Weisennor or something like that) on a rental property and it worked fine for almost 2yrs. Just got informed by my renter that it needs charging.

I have no clue how or why the Ring app or firmware would be able to tell the difference. Just a simple charge current from the two. Unless the Ring panels provide significantly more or less charge than the off brand. Pretty sure if a resisteror was in line the off brand would have replicated the setup.

Same issue. Live in Florida. The panel is exposed to sun on most days for 6-8 hrs. My battery is currently dead.

I honestly think its safe to say that the problem is not with the hardware. Frankly, I’d be happy if the rolled back the software/firmware so we couild start charging our units again until the glitch is worked out.

Need a solution, not just the canned response from Ring. Obviously this is a wide spread problem. It has nothing to do with colder weather or shorter days… we have had lots of warm weather and sun where I am and my battery has not charged for weeks on the solar panel.

3 Likes

As of this morning all four of my Solar Cams have dropped below 10% charge after loading them with 100% charged battiers and ensuring that the solar panels where clean, properly connected and undamanged last week. This includes the solar mount on a Video Doorbell 2, which is now at 30% charge.

I am certain that the panels are not “charging” any of the devices. If I have time today I will load them with freshly charged 100% batteries, leaving the solar panels unplugged. The Video Doorbell 2 I will not be messing with, I don’t have time to stop by that tenant’s house to change the battery, much less remove the solar mount.

I have a feeling the discharge rate will be less with the panels unplugged.

Ring this is unacceptable!

FIX OUR PANELS. We bought them because we don’t want to have to change batteries every week, month etc.

Ring, the majority of your customers buy the Securtiy Cams to use as you all advertise them as SECURITY CAMERAS. We bought them because we believed that they would prove to be reliable appliances, not as a “hobby” to be fiddling with on a regular basis.

5 Likes

I sincerely believe that if something is not done soon to remedy this it is not going to end well.

1 Like

I also have the opposite problem. My ring 2 has no solar charger, but says connected. It’s hardwired, and always recharges back to 100% overnight unless it’s in the 20s or colder overnight. It was in the 40s tonight and didn’t charge at all. It was working great until the solar charger connected field showed up. It’s like it won’t accept the trickle from my doorbell transformer anymore, and thinks it’s on solar. So frustrating!

Hi - I just got a ring spotlight cam that is battery powered and I added a solar panel yesterday, but in the device health, under “solar panel status” it says “Add a Ring solar panel to Extend Battery Life.” I am taking this to mean that it doesn’t even see the panel. Is this normal? I tried unplugging and replugging in the panel, but it doesn’t seem to recognize the panel. Do I need to give it a little time for the panel to capture solar energy before it’s recognized?

MiketheD, that is intresting. The Wasserstein solor charger that I have on a Ring Doorbell 2 stopped charging at about the time that this all started Oct-Nov2019, it was about two months out of the Amazon return period, but Wasserstein replaced it with a new one. The new one has not been keeping the RD2 charged. I assume it is due to the same issue that plagues the cams and solar panels. I suppose I could give Ring the benefit of the doubt and assume that the replacement charger is defective and everything is good on Rings end. Usually found that when you go to the extreme of making excuses for something, it is just because you are not ready to accept the truth.

Please let us know if the panel you buy from Amazon charges your cams.

Panel status is just an ad, apparently Ring would like you to buy an additional panel. Although your cam may believe there is no panel connected the “Panel Status” field will not tell you that. For the past three months that is “normal”

Depends on what you mean by “a little time”, some of us have been giving it 2-3 months time. Still no evidence of charging or change of Panel status, Ring still trying to sell us panels. I guess.

mhw23

the only way at this point to tell if the solar panel is working is if you see that it is charging the battery as it discharges. I guess customer service can also see if you have a solar panel attached but currently that "Solar Panel Status " section on the iOS app is merely an ad.

**For iOS users seeing “add a ring solar panel to extend battery life” read below.

I called CS… the person I talked to asked someone else about the “add a ring solar panel to extend battery life” statement . Developers told him that it’s on the IOs app only (not on Android) and that it’s there for everyone regardless of if they have a solar panel attached or not. It’s basically an ad. It’s not an indicator of if the solar panel is connected or not. They now know it’s causing confusion for customers that have solar panels attached.

Not true. I don’t have a solar charger but mine says connected. My theory is that there is a developer error where if you have one it says you don’t, and if you don’t, it says you do.

1 Like

Try unplugging the solar panel and see if it changes to connected.

Good eye Oxstang! So it would not be a strech to say, the cam thinks to try to charge when not connected to a panel and to display an ad when actually connected to a panel and not charge.

Best explanation I’ve seen all month.

Sounds like an easy fix, I guess we have angered Ring (wish my Rings worked as well as this software, didn’t let me use the word “pi**ed”) and they will wait to send update.

Makes good sense. I keep coming back to one thought. Why would Ring add a field with the word “status” in it and I’m suppose to believe it’s just there as an ad.

Some ones got some splainin’ to do.

Just to add my voice to this issue as well. My panel has been working great for months and now my batteries need to be charged. Cleaned the panel off and checked the connections and no luck. From all the other similar issues in here it appears to be something ring did. Hopefully they fix it soon.

I am having the exact same issue. I have an extra solar panel that is new and it still isnt working. What gives? Im very frustrated.