Spotlight Cam Battery not charging with solar panel

hi try this go to the app store and download the ring app again they put a new update that is helping a lot of the folks having this problem hope it helps you

Just to update the good folks on this thread.

This is day two with the Ring solar panel working as it use to.

Once again this morning my test Stickup Cam was at 96%, four hours later, it had charged to 100% and holding.

I just put freshly charged batteries into my other three solar powered Stickup cams. Will update everyone on Monday how they are holding/charging.

For those of you that are still having charging issues. Make sure to charge your batteries to 100% and then install back into your cams. It is much harder to charge these types of batteries from 10% to 15% than it is to charge from 90% to 100%.

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good for you unfortunately i have not had your luck yesterday my camera look like it was charging even when it was cloudy but today i had good sun light and it when from 68 to 69 % which is not charging the only good news is that it did go down so i am hopeful it will work i will give it until monday if not i will get my money back

Iam2928, try charging your battery to 100% then put it on the solar panel. Ring never claimed that the panels will charge a low battery to 100%. They always said it will maintain the battery or at the very least cut down on how often you have to manually charge the battery.

Honestly if not too invested with time and energy. I would return your equipment and either look at other brands or wait to repurchase once these issues are solved.

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UPDATE: So, I removed the camera (device) from and then reconnected it…that did the trick. I had the battery at 50% and then I just checked the app and it’s now at 100%. There is still the message displaying “Add a Ring solar panel…” under Solar Panel Status on the app but it’s definitely charging now. My advice is to try that…hopefully it works for you, too.

gallant_king: did you remove the camera physically from the solar panel and re-attach, or did you remove the device from the APP on your phone and “re-install a new device”? thanks!

I have 3 devices that uses Solar Power to charge the batteries and they worked fine up up until during fall. I spoke to Ring Customer Service and they told me that when the temp drops the solar panel doesn’t charge the battery…Now my hubby is pretty much forced to change batteries every week if not twice weekly…is anyone else experiencing this

Thanks for pointing this out. This is key. I noticed that one battery would eventually climb from like 10% to 30% during the day. I charged up both batteries and now they are staying in the green.

It does appear that Ring has addressed the issue. But what poor communication about the whole thing. I was thinking of converting my legacy home security system over to Ring, but not after this incident. The chance that one errant software update could disable my whole security system is just not worth it.

they could have told folks this before we got this type of system .

I totally agree. Being that I live in an area where 6-7 months and even more the temp can be low it would’ve been great to know that this is expected. They did say that when it dips below 36% is when the issue with the solar panel not charging happens however we have had lots of 40+ degree days and it doesn’t help that’s why we had to get 2 batteries for each of the spotlight cams and still we have to change the batteries…for me I say the solar panel only works during warm weather 65+ degrees…sorry but I’m putting it out there…I have 3 spotlight cams and 3 solar panels and 2 ring doorbells and in a way I regret my decision to go with them.

Update: with the latest iOS update this week, my Spotlight Cam DOES seem to be charging from the panel. Both batteries have been topping up to 100% each day. It still reports incorrect “solar panel status” messages for my different devices, but the ones on the panel do seem to be charging now.

And BTW the temp has been in the 40’s.

TomA lucky you…guess I gotta wait for the warmer temps…will have my hubby disconnect the solar panels and reconnect and see if it helps any but doubtful…

I posted on this thread on Jan 7th and my situation is now RESOLVED. Since that time, I have been working with Ring senior support to try to figure this out and here’s what we found that worked for me. I have a Ring brand solar panel connected to a 1st generation stick-up camera. The battery went from recently charged 100% in December to 67% beginning of January back up to 93% this week when the following occurred.

Two critical things to consider:

  1. WEATHER

The battery becomes impacted at 36F and will not charge at or below 32F.

The following are key temperatures to watch out for in regards to your batteries.

  • 36°F (3°C): The battery may not hold a charge as effectively, resulting in you having to charge the unit more frequently.
  • **32°F (0°C): **The battery may not charge at all. Even hardwired configurations may not charge the battery.
  • **-5°F (-20.5°C): **The battery may stop working completely until temperatures warm up.

See https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005939463-Cold-Weather-and-Battery-Powered-Ring-Devices

  1. ORIENTATION

The orientation of your Solar Panel is very critical. It should have an unobstructed view of the sky, facing directly toward South, and tilted at approximately 45 degrees.

How was my issue resolved? I am in the NY area and the weather has warmed up into the 40s the last week or so helping tremendously. But more importantly, my solar panel orientation had become out of alignment with the sun. When I first set up the panel orientation over the summer it was getting some direct sun exposure even though it was facing east. But as the earth has rotated into winter for the northern hemisphere, the sun was no longer hitting the area where I had mounted the panel. I re-oriented the solar panel to be more directly aligned with the sun (i.e., from facing east to facing south). That made a huge difference (even on limited 3-4hrs of direct sunlight per day)!

Simply put, each day the sun’s rising and setting points change slightly. At the summer solstice, the sun rises as far to the northeast as it ever does, and sets as far to the northwest. Every day after that, the sun rises a tiny bit further south. At the winter solstice, the sun rises as far to the south as it ever does, and sets as far to the southwest. So like in my case, if your panel is not facing south, it may still have worked over summer but may not be working now in winter as the sun may not be hitting it.

I hope this helps some of you.

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manikomio: Thanks so very much for your detailed post and helpful information. It was very much appreciated and I feel hopeful that my issues will eventually resolve for the first time in quite some time.

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i when to the app store and there they had an update i downloaded the update and you’ll still see that attach solar panel bla bla bla line but i don’t care about that but now i am getting some charge it was at 68 yesterday today it’s at73 so so
e charge is better then no charge and that with aprcial sun so i expect better when full sun hits it

It seems the problem is fixed, but it is still mislabeling the solar charger. Sure, it’s a minor inconvenience if it’s working properly, but this is Ring, owned by Amazon, so I would expect more from a trillion dollar company than my college programming final with a few bugs.

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UPDATE

Late last week I notice after installing a freshly charged batter on one of my Stick Up cams, that the solar panel appeared to be charging.

I then on Friday installed freshly 100% charged batteries to my other three Stick Up cams and a Doorbell 2 connected to an aftermarket solar mount.

I was going to report back my findings on Monday, but most of Monday was cloudy.

Since Friday evening, all sunny days except for Monday. My cams and doorbell 2, report

88%-89% Stick Up Cams

92% Doorbell 2

I have at least 12 incidents per day on these devices.

Seems to be charging, not sure if it is back to where it was before the Oct/Nov debacle, will keep an eye. Hopefully the solar panels can keep these devices charged until sunny and hotter days come around.

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yeah i have notice tha my solar cam has been charging slowly it was at 63 and i three days it’s up to 76% and the other is still at 100 % that’s with cloudy days as long as it keeps that up i am happy and will keep it it seems that the problem is fix i dont care that the app has that line add a solar panel to charge your batteries. as long as it’s charging it’s all good

Yes, it appears that Ring updated their software from version 3.21.1 (Nov 2019) to version 3.22.1 (January 2020). The update seems to have fixed the problem of solar panels not charging the batteries on Spotlight Cameras.

I purchased four new Spotlight Cameras and one new solar panel to test the charging function. The solar panel did not charge the battery on the Spotlight Camera to which it was attached, until I downloaded and installed the 3.22.1 update. The battery on that camera was draining at a rate of about 2% per day. One hour after installing the update the battery went from 82% to 87% and continues to increase. Let’s hope the software update is a good fix.

The Ring CS folks should probably broadcast this fix to the community and recommend going to Play Store and download the update.

Now I think I’ll order the other three Ring solar panels needed for the other three Spotlight Cameras.