Spotlight Cam Battery not charging with solar panel

I do not have this view on my phone app which was just updated on 2.7.

Hey not seen any updates for my solar panel.

Have not even heard from Jennifer_Ring.

I have an apple so my version 5.22.4 and was updated 2 weeks ago, I did not see any changes for my issue.

I guess Ring gave up on us.

?

Actually Ring was playing it to where we give up on them.

Will go into details later but I was able to source a Stickup and Spotlight cam produced before Oct/Nov2019 firmware update. What this means is that it has the firmware before the wheels came off.

How long has it been since Ring chimed in?

Maybe we need a concerted effort to blanket amazon, costco, and every other site that sells ring with truthful information about this fiasco in the reviews.

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Hi neighbors – again this would NOT be due to an APP update. The two are not related.

This, again, is most likely due to cold weather. Cold weather may be the culprit of not being able to charge the battery and not necessarily the Solar Panel.

A quick Google search will go into more detail about how cold weather can take a toll on your battery. That, combined with less sun and factors such as how your panel is tilted, how much actual sun your Solar Panel is getting, whether your Solar Panel is plugged in correctly, etc all play a crucial roll on whether or not the device can remain charged. Not to mention, if it is cold outside and your battery is not getting the full charge it normally does in the summer + you’re still getting the same amount of notifications then yes, of course the battery will deplete – which is what we have explained in the article, here. Also, your wifi enviornment can play a role with your battery.

I personally have been working with the team on this to ensure that our neighbors are getting the answers they deserve. I’m in ‘sunny’ Los Angeles and have been testing on my device. Yes, our days aren’t ‘freezing’ but our nights are cold which lowered my battery. Also, I had to physically adjust how and where my Solar Panel was, because now in the winter, the Solar Panel wasn’t getting as much sun and is does in the summer. I didn’t take into consideration new shadows that were casted on the device during the day.

Again, the team is continuing to test multiple scenarios with this, however, I think this is mostly due to the colder temperatures. I will continue to update you with findings from the team and also myself, but in return I would appreciate your patience as well as your understanding. I also encourage you to try some testing of your own. Bring your batteries and everything inside to test, adjust your Solar Panel, etc. Any relevant findings you discover, share them here so the team and other nieghbors can learn from you.

Thank you and I will be in touch soon.

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Jennifer.
Your response is a non sequitur and I won’t play.
I’ve had this system for several years. This is the warmest winter we’ve had, by far, since I’ve had it. My battery is currently sitting at 3%. Before the past couple months, it had never dropped from the high 90s%. Summer, winter, any time.

Please try again. Real answer this time.

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@Jennifer_Ring wrote:

Hi neighbors – again this would NOT be due to an APP update. The two are not related.

This, again, is most likely due to cold weather. Cold weather may be the culprit of not being able to charge the battery and not necessarily the Solar Panel.

A quick Google search will go into more detail about how cold weather can take a toll on your battery. That, combined with less sun and factors such as how your panel is tilted, how much actual sun your Solar Panel is getting, whether your Solar Panel is plugged in correctly, etc all play a crucial roll on whether or not the device can remain charged. Not to mention, if it is cold outside and your battery is not getting the full charge it normally does in the summer + you’re still getting the same amount of notifications then yes, of course the battery will deplete – which is what we have explained in the article, here. Also, your wifi enviornment can play a role with your battery.

I personally have been working with the team on this to ensure that our neighbors are getting the answers they deserve. I’m in ‘sunny’ Los Angeles and have been testing on my device. Yes, our days aren’t ‘freezing’ but our nights are cold which lowered my battery. Also, I had to physically adjust how and where my Solar Panel was, because now in the winter, the Solar Panel wasn’t getting as much sun and is does in the summer. I didn’t take into consideration new shadows that were casted on the device during the day.

Again, the team is continuing to test multiple scenarios with this, however, I think this is mostly due to the colder temperatures. I will continue to update you with findings from the team and also myself, but in return I would appreciate your patience as well as your understanding. I also encourage you to try some testing of your own. Bring your batteries and everything inside to test, adjust your Solar Panel, etc. Any relevant findings you discover, share them here so the team and other nieghbors can learn from you.

Thank you and I will be in touch soon.

With all due respect Jennifer, the cold can’t be the culprit. As I know I’ve stated plenty of times, I’m in NW WA and all 4 of my 1st gen Stick Up cams with solar panels are operating as normal. And you’re absolutely right that cold weather can run down battery, but again, my old ones are staying charged just fine.

I’ll acquiesce that the app update wouldn’t be the problem, but since Ring doesn’t disclose when we’re getting firmware updates or their versions, it’s difficult for us to pinpoint the proper timing. It was just very coincidental that this all happened the same time we got app updates. I’m on Android and don’t see the “Attach solar panel line”. I get that is an IOS app thing and has no bearing on anything. It just sounds like the wording on it is very confusing to many users, and frankly, just a sales pitch.

Obviously we’re frustrated. Like I said, it just doesn’t make sense that all my older solar panels are working perfectly with my older cams. And up here in WA, we’ve had maybe 1-2 sunny days since November, so the cold and cloudy days explanation makes no sense.

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no more canned answers please , we need solutions. people had this cameras and panels for years. if due to winter then you have to figure it out what you have changed to worsen the charging power. 50 pages thread Im sure is not a one person problem. real answers please. when the developers will be engaged in real testing ?

i had this problem since i got this solar cam on dec25 never charged i started talking about this i had to buy a 2nd battery i also got a sleeve i saw on ebay rubber i just said it will protect it from the elements but still not charging it was after i updated the app that the system started charging slow very slow i said something is better then nothing but now it’s up to 100% and or 90 i don’t know what they did if anything but as long as it’s charging i also ajustes the alert zone and did not link it to my other cam i left it working on its own when it was linked to many turn on hope this helps

Yes, depressingly, this is the same scenario for me, after having invested some $1,200 in various Ring devices, which, up until a mysterious event oddly timed with a firmware update last year, had operated flawlessly with respect to keeping the battery charged.

Bring on the class action!

– An understandably surly customer

I bought a solar panel for my spotlight cam. Installed on 2-11-20. First day I got 10% additional charge. Yesterday and today full sun and the battery has dropped 10%. What is going on?

I contacted Ring re my first generation stick up cam not charging via the solar panel and the fact this charging option has now disappeared from the App. They were very helpful and I have received a free replacement latest generation cam. I’ve still had to order a new solar panel as my old panel won’t connect to the latest cam but I can’t complain the cam has been replaced free of charge. Was hoping to install it today but Storm Dennis had other ideas here in the UK.

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So on top of all the other crap with the solar panel, my Spotlight cam took a giant dump on 1/30. Worked like normal running off of two batteries (gave up on the stupid solar panel for now), but it last checked health at noon-ish that day and I noticed that night that the light was flashing white and blue non-stop. Did that for 3 days straight until we took it down and took out the batteries. We tried reset, reboot into setup, but nothing works. It just keeps flashing that stupid light.
Been playing email tag with Customer Service (12 days running, now). The jerk keeps saying he’s sent me authentication support codes, but I’m not getting anything. Even checked my spam every single time. Husband is calling them today. He’s had it.

Semi-good news - I’m on iOS 5.22.4 and I see an actual firmware number on my stickup cams! I don’t seem to have the solar charging problem for my cams which are on “cam-1.4.15200”.

At least with firmware numbers being displayed again we might be able to narrow down the problem.

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iOS 5??? Current iOS is 13.3.1.

Can you explain further? Your screenshot just looks like a line of text.

That’s the app version. The firmware line on the device health used to just say “up to date” but now it has an actual firmware version, as demonstrated by the screenshot.

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@tim137 Firmware line for all my devices still say “Up to date” (see attached photo) and as you can see one battery already ran down again so hubby will have to go up as usual to change it…and this is one of 3 devices that also has Solar Panels attached…I just wish we can get some type of resolve

@tim137, thank you. Yes mine has been on that app version for a couple of weeks. Still no charging, still have the “firmware up to date” message.

Wonder why yours is giving an actual firmware number, maybe your FW is out of date.

Hi,

I didn’t feel like going through the 35 pages of posts, but I’m getting the same thing everyone is describing. I emailed customer service, this is their response:

Thank you for responding to my email.

Can you please try to do the following:

  1. Reset the device by holding down the setup button for 20 seconds.
  2. After the reset completes, the device will need to be set up again.
  3. Then trigger or perform a motion.

Please do update me after this for me to check further here, I will be looking forward to your response.

Please do not hesitate on reaching us back once you still have future concerns. We will be happy to assist you 24.7

Is it safe to say people already tried this and still doesn’t solve the problem?

Thanks in advance!

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