Spotlight Cam Battery not charging with solar panel

Update 7/23

The 5W panel is providing between 12-15% charge a day. It took the one side from high 60’s to 90% and then switched to chargingt he other side. Today it went from 14% to 29% while still alerting throughout the day. Will post how it does tomorrow and when both sides hit 90% if they start to charge up to 100%

7/27 left battery is now 100% and right battery is at 91%. The 5W panel did the trick

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I purchased a new Stickup cam two days ago, solar panel today and battery just drains. I’m not sure if it’s a Ring problem or a defective camera but it won’t charge via the solar panel.

I have only one panel installed so far and it’s already saying the battery is nearly dead. Plan on installing other panels tomorrow, wondering if this could be a waste of time & money. ?

I have two stick up cams and installed solar panels for each. Both solar panels drained the batteries from 100% to 0% in less than 24 hours. In fact I woke up this morning to find my two cameras went offline during the night. Beginning to think cameras are not fit for purpose.

Hello,
I am having the same issue. First it was one solar panel, then a few weeks later the second one stopped charging. I tried cleaning both, checking both cables, and resetting both cameras. They both get 8+ hours of direct sunlight a day.
I just bought a new solar panel for one of the cameras and a second battery, and the new panel still will not charge. Both cameras work fine, and I check the batteries throughout the day to make sure. Any suggestions?

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Hi @Rmc_originally! It looks like you’ve covered all the best steps to ensure for optimal Solar charging. Please also ensure it is in direct sunlight, facing the sun as directly as possible, for several hours a day.

As you’ve gone as far as getting a new Solar Panel, I recommend also ensuring the adapter ports are clear of any debris, and the adapters is securely plugged in. After adding a new Solar Panel, it may take some time before you start to see the charge. Even if the Ring app does not reflect the Solar Panel connection, try monitoring over time to see if the battery level increases. I hope this helps! :slight_smile:

Which power mode to be used for stick up cams (with batteries) and solar panel?

Battery mode or wired mode?

It was on battery mode working fine (not sure if solar panel was charging it or not). Then the app suggested to use wired mode (I guess because it saw current coming from the solar panels).

When I selected wired mode, the batteries drained in 2 days.

So which is the correct mode to use if connected to solar panel!?

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Glad you asked, @Loai! For a battery and Solar Panel setup, the best power mode to use is battery power mode. While the solar charge might not show right away, check on your battery over time to see this charge applied.

As you observed, the battery will certainly drain quicker when in wired power mode and using a battery. This is due to the advanced settings available in wired power mode that will drain battery quicker. If you are not noticing a solar charge in battery power mode, check out our Community post about battery drain for more tips! :slight_smile:

As you can see from the many previous posts, the issue with the solar panel has nothing to do with cleaning the panel, re-starting the camera, placing it in full sun, or making sure there is no debris in the cables. All of us have tried those suggested solutions and the solar panel still does not work. The issue started after an App update back in May - since then, nobody’s solar panels seem to be working.

Can you please give us a real solution or fix the update so that our solar panels start working again. In the meantime, you have a bunch of cameras whose batteries are draining very fast and useless solar panels. The only reason any of us purchased solar panels is to avoid climbing ladders to charge our batteries every other week!

We have been waiting for a helpful reply since June!

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I, too, am having this issue with both my brand new Stickup Cameras! Unacceptable, Ring!

And it seems to be a recent problem due to a recent software update.

When can we expect a fix for this?

Thank you,

Dale

This is kind of embarrasing, but I must have dislodged the battery campartment when I used a long extension swifter duster to sweep the cobwebs off my ring light/camera. I took it down, recharged the battery, returned the battery to the cam and plugged the solar panel back in. Now it stays fully charged.

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My solar panel has been charging my Ring Stickup cam perfectly for several months. Then suddenly on 8/16 it went offline due to a dead battery. I have checked all of the things suggested here. When was the last soft/firmware update? How do I find that info? I’m curious if it lines up with when my battery suddenly died. Also where do I find warranty info on my camera and solar panel? Is there a warranty for the batteries themselves? Am I just screwed?

Wow, this is very disheartening. I just bought a Solar Stick up Battery Cam. I dutifully charged the battery, placed the solar panel in the hot California Sun, and was happier than a pig in ****. For a day. Then the battery died and it went offline. WTF?? It is all brand new and we are getting 14 hours of sunlight, a large portion of this almost directly overhead (which it where I have my panel pointing). I believe I made have made an error in configuration, since when I connected the panel, it said it was on wired power and asked to switch modes, but even then, you would think that during the day, it would come back to life. No, it has been offline and completely dead for a week until I noticed it. Now I’ve been charging the battery all day long and it is still not charged. After a few hours of charge, I tried connecting the battery to at least reconfigure the camera and nothing. Completely dead. Now I don’t know if I have a dead battery, a dead camera, a useless solar panel or all of the above. I can tell you, if it is not charged by this evening, I’m sending the whole thing back for a refund. It is unfathomable that there has been no fix to this since the beginning of the year.

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Switching it back to battery mode seemed to make a big difference. It has been running well now for a few days.

I am having the same problem as everyone else. I reset the cameras. Cleaned the panels and ports. Switched panels around and all of that. No luck. Cameras have been at 3% or less for over a month. I have the cameras linked to come on due to safety reasons. However, the panels sit in direct sunlight sunup to sun down. I’m beyond frustrated that as I paid for 4 spotlight cameras with solar panels. If I could get a refund, I would and go with a competitor because it seems that a majority of us have yet to resolve this issue.

Ring needs to figure this out. Quickly. Will be calling customer service today to try to return items.

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What do you mean? Stop using the solar panel? Don’t quite understand what you meant…

I’m having the same problem Ring replaced the battery packs in the past and that kind of fixes thr problem but now they won’t charge!

In the app it says established but not charging
How do I get the solar panel replaced under warranty? It was purchased brand new from amazon a little over 1 year ago and I have protect plus plan!

Similar issues described on two other community discussion threads:

https://community.ring.com/t5/Security-Cams/Ring-app-does-not-accurately-reflect-battery-charge/td-p/11998

https://community.ring.com/t5/Security-Cams/Ring-Stick-Up-Cam-Battery-amp-Solar-Panel/td-p/56501

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I’m now having this issue!