Spotlight Cam Battery not charging with solar panel

Can you tell us what the solar panel voltage output should be. Mine measures 5.28V DC. I have two batteries there were fully charged. Now one is 0% and the other is three. All the usual rubbish excuses, cleaned panel, reconnected…bla bla bla. There is an issue here!

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That’s the correct voltage. The panels are 5 volts. Read this thread and you will quickly come to the conclusion it’s not due to bad solar cells.

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Hi Jennifer,

I am new here, but have read thru the forum. I am a RING customer of two years. I live in Maine. I currently have seven RING Spotlight cams. Four of them are battery cams, all with two batteries each and solar chargers and other three cameras are plug in. Until the end of 2019 I have never had a problem with the battery cams, except for fogging, which is a separate issue! All of a sudden my battery cams stopped charging. Three started working again on their own, but one of my cameras is still not charging. The solar panel for this camera is actually mounted beside another solar panel for a different camera. One works the other doesn’t. The one camera that is not charging was purchased in June of 2019 to beef up my security. It had been charging fine for months until Nov/Dec 2019 time frame. I have cleaned the solar panel, checked adjustment, charged the batteries, unplugged and replugged the solar charger, and have done a reset on the camera to force a new software update on it. That was a week ago and that cameras batteries are steadily dropping. It has been full sun for several days, and today in the 40’s with full sun and it dropped again. Again, the unit right beside this one which is almost two years old is working. I understand this camera may have gone bad, but but it is strange that this happened at the same time as everyone else here started seeing problems. Something changed on RINGs end, it would be nice to have it figured out.

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I dont understand why this isn’t an option.

after using for 2 months - my solar has also stopped charging.

I thought it has a virus… Spoke to Ring tech support in Egypt - very helpful custmer service but been asked to send back my old solar panel to be exchanged.

I charged both battery to 100% and reset camera and setup again - no luck!!

Let see if a new panel would help??

I personally think that the battery is not compatible with the solar charger - the battery takes 10hours to charge on the mains!! how could a small solar panel charge the battery??

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Ring and their weather theory so misguided. Last week I tried an experiement, I installed a different brand camera pro 2 and solar panel next to one of my Ring Solar panels. The A**o solar panel I mounted under an eave so it is only recieveing reflected sunlight. Battery was at 50%. The A**o cam charged to 100% while the Ring while in direct sunlight has lost 19% in that same time span.

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Jennifer,

Where do we stand with this situation? Is this issue being worked on? This whole thing is hard to believe. My cams worked all last winter and this winter they can barely keep up with what the dashboard consumes updating. My four cams are not even being activated by motion.

How can you just ignore everyone? Your cold temps theory is shot to hell when you consider all of the people who have written in that live in warm areas.

We deserve some answers as to where you are in resolving this issue.

clint

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I’m having the same issue, I bought the spotlight camera in may 2019 with a solar panel, it was working perfect, until about mid February, it stopped charging, Ring first replaced my camera, still not charging, not replaced my solar panel, still not charging, i have not move the solar panel were is always been, don’t know what else to do now.

can anyone help? I don’t want to be getting on a latter every 4 days to change the battery.

thank you

This is what you get when you combine technical incompetence with an amoral business. They’re hoping this all just dies down and we all just move on.

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Ring: Looking to get an update on how the solar panel issue will be fixed. Has a special team been tasked with this issue? You have indicated to please be patient, but updates are infrequent and there is never new information or progress status in the update. Is there a timeframe for a resolution? Is Ring close to a resolution - either committing to a fix by a certain date, and if that is not possible then compensation for equipment not functioning as advertised? Is there some end in sight?

Please respond. Thank you.

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One thing I have to say. Ring has certainly uped their security game to log onto this forum. Adding two factor authentication.

One more corporate road block thrown at the little guy.

1moreRobot is certainly correct, Ring is just allowing this to die down and would like everyone to move on or once spring/summer hits correct issue and claim it was winter.

Wow, four months and Ring still has not even acknowledged that this could be a widespread issue. They are still blaming on cold, weather, dirt, etc.

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Heck they don’t even provide a change log.

Ring when are you going to update us?

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Well, I complained when I had problems and so now I will note when I have solutions. I have had issues with the Spotlight Cam connected to a solar panel for months. I just could not get it to charge. It was not in an area of total direct sunlight for the entire day, but it was hit by sunlight for at least a few hours a day. Still, nothing. This week, we moved the solar panel by using extension cords we got from Amazon to move the solar panel to a location on a different side of the house that got direct sunlight for 4-5 hours a day at least. Well, today the charge went from 88 to 100 in a few hours (4-5). I am extremely happy and it seems my issues are over. My guess (and it is not based on any science) is that the Spotlight Cam for whatever reason requires more sunlight to charge them then the older Stickup cams. That’s OK. As long as there is a way to get them to work I am elated. Hope that helps!

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So as of today, everything is charged to 100%. All of a sudden, out of the blue. Today there wasn’t much sunlight at all either. Mostly a gloomy day in upstate NY. I would give Ring credit, but nothing was ever wrong in their end…

Anybody else having the same luck I am today?

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Happy to hear that your panels are now charging. Just keep in mind, you can NOT use one day as a baseline. Several of us, myself included, thougth our panels were “fixed” because of a couple of charging days. Just to see them reverted back to not charging.

Yesterday was a day with full sun about mid 50s, not one cloud in sky, at least six to seven hours of full sunlight on my panels. Still ALL four cams and doorbell lost at least 6% charge. While the A**o cam and panel has remained at 100% for almost a week, after charging from 50% and only recieving indirect sunlight.

Thanks for the heads up. Will keep an eye out and let the forum know.

I am having the same problem. I noticed the change in the app that says to add a solar panel and also the fact is that I have to pull the two batteries out 2-3 times a week. Unfortunately both my partner and I are disabled and have to place a ladder on top step in order to keep pulling batteries out and putting them back in. Ring first told me the problem was with the WiFi and I had to purchase a WiFi extender. After spending an additional $140 for another device, still nothing. I attached a photo showing the health of my ring. Note the section at the top that says add a solar panel to charge battery

I just checked all of the cakes with solar panels today and they are still charged. Each camera has anywhere between 10 and 20 events during the day and they are all set up with the snap shot feature. Tomorrow I will pull some used batteries from 4 or 5 stuck up cams and see if the solar panels will truly charge them over the next few days.

The weather here has been cold, only reaching 23 degrees today.

Same deal here…magically as of yesterday my Spotlight Cam Battery started charging on solar again, both battery slots are populated and both jumped from 90 to 100% and have stayed there through today. Have a feeling we received a firmware update that we don’t know about yet…cautiously optimistic…

thank god they have got a handle on this and the rest of the folks are getting back on line with the charging united everyone talking and complaiting got it done