I know this camera is not designed for the rechargeable battery to be user replaceable but has anyone tried? To me it seems ridiculous to have devices that become throw away products with batteries that can’t be replaced. I would have bought this camera had it not been for this point because rechargeable batteries only have so many charge cycles and suffer from battery degradation as they all do. But the solar panel keeping it charged to 100% all the time speeds up the degradation, because Lithium Ion batteries don’t like to be at a 100% state of charge. These batteries degrade two ways, by calendar aging and charging habits. Wyze already sells a camera with a user replaceable battery, so why not with this camera? Make no sense to end up throwing away a good camera because the battery won’t hold a charge anymore. Wyze do better!
I don’t have that cam and haven’t tried (and keep in mind Wyze is very sensitive about that cam right now so probably won’t want anyone saying anything about messing with the battery). However both of my dash cams got disassembled years back and the LiPo batteries replaced with similar ones I bought online. I’ve torn apart many assorted electronics, including solar, and the vast majority use pretty generic cells. Often times you can get them cheap and can even upgrade to a better brand.
The only catch is if they’re cells that need tabs welded on, you have to try to find ones that already come with them, and of course be very careful soldering to them. Attempting to spot weld a tab on yourself is pretty much guaranteed lithium fire…
I would guess they’re probably using a plug in pack in these cams but can’t say for sure. I guess when your battery dies, you can tear it apart and have a look. They’re not having parts custom built, most of what is in these cams is going to be off the shelf. Sometimes finding that shelf can be a bit challenging, but usually can be done.
Bear in mind though lithium battery BMS have come a long way. The solar panel is not charging the battery at 100% constantly. But yes, it will keep it “topped off” and that will definitely shorten the lifespan. Would be nice if they’d give the option like many laptops have to not start charging until it falls under 95 or 90 percent. But let’s be honest, these are essentially disposable devices. Making the battery replaceable probably put it outside of whatever the marketing experts set the target price to.
I’ve replaced many batteries on devices where they aren’t user replaceable, some were easy others weren’t worth the effort. Wyze could have easily made this camera with a replaceable battery, like their other battery camera. Probably only cost them one dollar more to manufacture the drop in slots and they could charge us $5 more. They’d still make more money from us by selling the replaceable batteries. This disposable era needs to stop!
Again, I want this camera but won’t buy it unless they stop using permanently installed batteries. An optical zoom in it would be nice too.
They do, and some details about the pack are pretty easy to read in the testing documents included in the publicly available FCC records for the product. The way it’s connected, no soldering would be required. I haven’t yet seen any reports of users attempting replacement, though.
In that case, probably easy to replace, potentially a bit more difficult to find and buy, but usually can track down something comparable (maybe even higher quality/higher capacity).
Obviously they’re not going to suggest anyone try to do that (especially on this model).
If they’d included an optical zoom in the Panv4 I would have considered upgrading my Panv3s. But you’d be amazed at what companies do to stay under a certain price point and above a certain profit margin. I’ve repaired high end stereo gear where they skimped like 2 cents each on the capacitors inside, cutting the lifespan in half.
Bean counters and marketing people ruin product quality (and engineers’ sanity).
$1 more is HUGE in this price point, at least to those folks. While making the battery removable might fall within a buck or two, optical zoom is more expensive to add.
By all means, avoid disposable/non repairable electronics. I’m not against that. But I guess I’m also aware that’s just the society we live in, and it is unlikely that enough people will care enough for that to change.