Hello Everyone, I just purchased a solar panel for my old Cam Outdoor V2 and when I first installed it i was getting a charge but the next day bad weather started to roll in for the next 3 days without direct sunlight and the battery was not charging which is expected but what i didn’t expect it is draining the battery a lot faster without a charge going to the battery. Last night it was at 35 percent and this morning its at 15%. I could have a full battery last a good 3 Months before charging it without the solar panel attached. Anybody know what the issue is? Should i Toggle the solar panel switch in the app on raining days to turn it off?
I have a WCOv1 and a WCOv2, both connected to a Wyze Solar Panel.
The WCOv2 has been ‘in service’ with it’s solar panel for a month or so. It’s never completely discharged, it gets full sun for from about 9am to around 6pm. (currently most days here in San Diego County where I live are without clouds)
But, my WCOv1, currently sits up against the NW wall of the house and see’s no sun until after 2pm, ending around 6pm, so it’s getting significantly less opportunity to charge from the solar panel that its connected to. This WCOv1 has been at this location for a couple of weeks or so, and yesterday, it hit 1%. I also thought it drained quicker than I thought it should, similar to what you are experiencing.
I have six other WCOv1’s that are not connected to a solar panel, and I’m fairly certain they don’t drain as fast at the WCOv1 did with a solar panel connected to it.
This weekend, I will collect all my WCOv1’s (including the one connected to the solar panel) and fully charge them, and then keep track of how fast they each hit 0%.
I never gave any thought to this toggle for the Wyze Solar Panel until you referred to it in your message. (I too just installed solar panels on my WCO’s very recently)
If my WCOv1 w\solar does drain significantly faster than the six non solar connected ones, I’ll then do the test and set myself a reminder to toggle this off each night around 6pm and back on around 2pm. (too bad there’s not an automation that was available to do that for me)
I’ll update this when I have more info, which will be however long it takes my WCOv1 with solar to hit zero again after they are all top off at 100%