Since the temperature has dropped here in the North East(USA) my solar panel is not charging the camera batteries anymore. And if it is, it’s keeping my Cam 2 Pro batteries hovering around 18%. I’ve switched to battery only, not charging…I switch to solar panel only, shows it’s charging but never get’s the battery above 18%. Today it was around 25-30deg F and this was my results.
Is it even sunny? During the winter, the sun’s power is less compared to the summer. That’s also why it is colder so there’s a connection.
Days are shorter, there’s less sun hours and the sun’s strength is less.
Does it charge but not to your satisfaction, or does it not charge at all while being in the sun?
It was partly cloudy today(Friday) with the camera shut off. When I posted this topic last night the camera had 13% charge and it was 25-30deg out. Currently right now of course it’s dark, I turned the camera back on and it’s currently at 9% charge. With the camera off all day it never charged…
The cameras do not accept charge when they are below 35 Degrees because it will damage the batteries. There is usually a small icon that will pop up next to the camera to tell you that. Once you acknowledge the warning it won’t pop up again.
Also, the batteries lose efficiency in the cold and won’t last as long. Lithium batteries will have the electrolyte turn solid below 35 degrees and they lose a huge amount of efficiency, so they won’t last as long. Only thing you can do is bring the cams indoors and warm them before charging.
I make sure that all my cams are fullycharged before the weather turns cold so I don’t have to take them down and charge them inside.
Preset,
Thanks for the reply. Today in New York we had an odd warm up of 65deg and mostly sunny until mid afternoon. The battery charged from 8% to 13%…Now the temps for the rest of the week are going to be around 40-50deg F during the day. Should I leave it turned off for now and see how it charges for the next few days? The camera is not easy to get to and that’s why I installed the solar panel to help prevent me from taking the camera down once every 2 weeks to recharge.
Also, if the batteries are protected to not charge below 35degrees, am I still going to have to manually remove the camera over the course of the winter to recharge it? I didn’t have that big of an issue last winter, maybe because there was more sunlight? And yes I do have the camera covered with the silicone sleeve to add to the weather protection.
Thanks again
How many hours of direct sunlight is it getting? I am not too far from you in south jersey and I have two eufycam 2 pro’s on solar chargers and both have remained at 100% since purchase, with alot of motion detection. The batteries on the non-compact versions are pretty large, and even if ran on entirely battery should last at minimum 3 months compared to the compact cameras. Have you changed your power settings on the camera so that it knows that it is attached to a solar charger?
Today most of the day was sunny, I’m guessing around 8am till 4pm so 8hrs worth of sunlight and it charged from 13% to 18%. In power manager I have it set to “Optimal Battery Life” and the power source was set to “Battery” with the camera turned off all day in settings. It around 45F all day.