I have a newish solar pan tilt camera that is not the 2k version and I left it in my garage for a few month and its battery drained down to 1%. It did not die fully discharge but it did get really low and then I brough it inside and charge it with a wall charger. I have now placed it back outside and am using it with the solar panel but the charge status has not changed. Even after fully charging it with a wall charger. Is there a way to get it to refresh this status indicator or is the battery really at one percent. it seems to be working correctly for the last 24 hours that I have had it back in full operation.
I have found that with certain battery cameras like this the attempt to use solar charging, there’s kind of a battery hump you have to get over before the solar panels able to step it up and start charging it. You said you fully charged it with a wall charger but the battery’s still reading 1%? When plugged into the solar camera now that it’s charged have you tried restarting the camera?
What version is this?
They’re all 2K, the main difference between the two “versions” is just that they had to change documentation and possibly the mounting hardware due to the recall.
As @bam mentioned, unplug the panel and fully charge it with a standard charger. When a lithium battery falls to a certain point, the small amount of energy from a solar panel isn’t enough to get it out of low voltage protection.
VERSION 1.0 running firmware 2.0.1.2388 activated on 6-9-26, bought before the redesign.
Thanks for the reply. It took some month sfor the charge to rund down to 1% but when I found it I put it on a wall charger for 2 days and it nevered moved from 1%. I then reset, rebooted, removed from the app, and factory reset the camera with no change in the 1% reading although it is operating just fine now that I have moved it back outside and attached it to the solar panel. It has been on the panel for almost 24 hours. However, it still says 1% battery left.
here is my response to BAM:
Thanks for the reply. It took some month sfor the charge to rund down to 1% but when I found it I put it on a wall charger for 2 days and it nevered moved from 1%. I then reset, rebooted, removed from the app, and factory reset the camera with no change in the 1% reading although it is operating just fine now that I have moved it back outside and attached it to the solar panel. It has been on the panel for almost 24 hours. However, it still says 1% battery left.
If the battery was drained beyond the lower limit of the safeties that are built in, it won’t accept a charge. However a trick I’ve used many times of totally flat lithium batteries is to plug them into a charger for like 10 seconds, unplug for 5-10 seconds, plug in again, and keep repeating that process (sometimes it can take 10-20 tries or more). Each time it accepts a tiny bit of charge before the safety kicks in, and if you can get it above the low voltage cut off, then it will charge all the way after that.
Or if it is just dead and won’t take a charge, if it is still under warranty they should replace it (not sure how long you’ve had it).
Hi @Wholesaleguy , sorry for the inconvenience. I’m the Product Manager for Solar Cam Pan and I’m here to help. Could you please submit a log and let me know the log ID so I can have my team look into this issue you encountered?
Thanks for the info dave but I think we have missed the point. The solar camera is working correctly after pluggin it into a wall charger but the battery charge status indicator is saying 1% battery left all of the time. Like it is not updating and should show a much higher number. Appreciate your response and if you have anything else I would be glad to try it.
Thanks for taking this seriously. Here is the log id: 2586857. I included my phone number if you need to talk to someone.
Have a great day!
So the battery is fine and the cam works even when it is dark? If so then yeah it sounds like the battery is charging but the calibration is off. With many devices, you can force a recalibration by draining it totally until it shuts off, then charging it up fully (with a wall adapter, not the solar panel) but not sure if that would work on the Wyze battery or not. Hopefully they can figure something out from your logs.
@Wholesaleguy Thank you for providing the log. We will look into it and get back to you!
I briefly discussed the issue symptoms with my team yesterday, and our initial speculation is that this may be related to a data communication or calibration issue between the battery voltameter and the MCU.
While we are investigating the log, could you please try pressing and holding the SETUP button for more than 20 seconds to force reboot the system, then set up the device again and check whether the issue still persists?
If you really think this will fix it I will, but I have already attempted this procedure before without success. I would really like to wait and find out what you think the true cause is rather than take a guess.
They need you to help troubleshoot in order to find out what the true cause is.
dave27, thanks for your input on this issue. I think that I am going to wait for them to go through the logs now that they have them and try to determine a cause and fix before attempting possible “guess” fixes that have already been done prior to creating and reviewing the log info. Once again, thanks for your input!!!
Just an update to anyone watching this thread! The Camera has been working perfectly on solar power now for 5 or 6 days but the battery staus indicator still reads 1%. I will be standing by to hear what the results of the log review find.
I have this same issue. The battery percentage displays 1% no matter how long I charge it on a wall charger. I’ve done the full reset as well. The camera is using solar now and works, but the battery percentage displays 1% no matter what.
Sorry to hear that but hopefully help is on the way.
@Wholesaleguy Thank you for your patience. Our engineering team reviewed the log. It looks like the device failed to properly initialize the battery voltameter, which caused abnormal battery level readings.
Please try pressing and holding the SETUP button for more than 20 seconds to force reboot the system, then set up the device again.
If the issue resolved after force reboot, it may be a software glitch. If the issue persists after the reboot, we suspect there may be an issue with the battery fuel gauge on your device. In that case, please reach out to our Customer Support team to proceed with a warranty replacement and we also would like to get the hardware back for further investigation.