UPDATE - (and a bit of advice on installing). Direct sunlight makes a BIG difference versus indirect sunlight with the panel. After having my panel installed in indirect sunlight (in clear, sunny skies), I adjusted my installation to point the panel at direct sunlight and immediately saw a difference in charging speed - roughly 10% increase an hour so far. Needless to say, I am happy!
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WOW! That is a big difference.
I wonder how hard it would be to link multiple panels together or if there would be any kind of point to doing so. At some point it would hit a maximum power and wouldn’t charge the cams any faster even if it was bringing in more energy, at least at peak times, but maybe a person could have different panels pointed different directions to catch the sun directly during different points of the day, or when the sun showing is weak (cloudy/stormy) to catch just a little more sunlight so it gets a little more charge than it otherwise would have. I guess it depends how high traffic of an area it is for a particular cam.
Obviously linking more than 1 panel together could invalidate the warranty, so I am not necessarily recommending anyone do this, I am just thinking out loud to myself 
I am using a 14 watt panel and my WOC sits at 100% charge.
I have a second WOC that sits in an areas of filtered sun, hooked up to a 20 watt panel, and it seems to be holding steady at 88% (it was at 89% 2 weeks ago) but it has not seen any dark days.
I am buying the W panels for the sealed cables.
Question, what does the WOC do differently when set to “panel attached”?
It keeps the camera from waking up every time a solar panel applies voltage. At the end of the day the solar panel will actually apply voltage several times as the sun gets weaker.
So a small efficiency increase.
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6 hours of sun is a good estimate for a stationary panel that can’t track the sun.
I’m interested in a solar panel for one of my outdoor cams (WCO?), but when I checked 2-3 weeks ago, the negative reviews scared me away. Are the ones shipping now better, revised or???
Thanks,
Ray Fuller
Fence Estimated date of install 2/23
I need to stop reading your posts… it’s getting really expensive to try your ideas out @carverofchoice
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Welcome to the forum @ray10.
Which review(s) are you referring to? Are you sure they were for the Wyze Solar panels and not a different Solar Panel?
The Wyze Solar panel just started getting into the hands of general customers. Unless some first look folks were posting bad reviews?
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I was wondering this same thing…how it could have bad reviews when it just barely started shipping. Maybe there were some sent to tech magazines or social media influencers? IDK. I hadn’t seen any reviews myself yet, but I would be interested in reading people’s technical comparisons between these and others. I think a huge benefit of these is that they have a special plug to exactly fit the WCO…and still be a good price. 
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I have two solar panels. Hope to install at least one this weekend. Looks nice. And thanks for the tips on pulling the old cover off!
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The little silicon straps are not needed to hold to cover in place. So, if you want to move the camera to a temp location, I think you will be safe.
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My NEW WYZE solar panel arrived last week and I installed it this past weekend. I’m in Arizona, and I figured it would help me eliminate the need to retrieve my back door camera for charging periodically. (This WCO is mounted up high & needs a ladder to reach it). I was correct and I think it has eliminated my ladder assisted recharge process! My WCO is now staying at 100% and I can see it charging at 8 AM every morning (sun is barely up) and continues charging until the sun goes down.
I can say its working as expected and all I did was follow the install instructions supplied. 
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If only Wyze would make a solar panel with built in battery, suitable to keep a v3 powered on 24/7…
Hope the shop gets some stock soon though, the battery life on my WOC is getting worse.
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I recently read an interesting article about this:
In short, need something to take into account the following:
Wyze Cam v3 are a 5V 1A DC power typically delivered using a Micro-USB port. The included adapter is rated for 100 to 240V input or that of a typical residential dwelling’s outlet.
Depending upon whether or not night vision is activated, the power consumption per hour of use on the device is about 2-4 watts per hour.
Remember if you select a system that will be paired with a 20,000 mAh power bank which allows for simultaneous use while charging, referred to as “pass-through” charging, such as the RAVPower 20000mAh 60W PD 3.0 or the Crave Plus 10000mAh Quick Charge 3.0, it will need to produce enough power to both charges the power bank while also operating the camera.
I also saw on here some people who have rigged their own systems to do this with V3’s, but I didn’t find them in a quick search.
Still, I agree with you, I would love to Wyze sell one that is already pre-built and ready and at a decent price. I’d buy a few of them.
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My outdoor camera is inside my mailbox. It has gone from 24% to 100% charge and stays there now.
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A weatherproof 20 watt panel put where it can get 6 hours/day sun should be able to keep everything running, and the Ravpower bank should go on for a couple cloudy-ish days before the bank runs down.
A 30 watt PD output solar panel would charge that Ravpower bank at the highest possible rate, so you’d only need 3 hours to bring the bank back.
I don’t see any rain-proof USB-C PD 30 watt panels for sale though.
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Ya, my camera, I had recently charged back up and so it was down at around 94%, after a day, it was up at 100% and is staying there. I didn’t even know about turning on the solar panel option. I just did that.
No more getting out the ladder to pull it down to charge it back up, and then putting it back and re-aiming the camera is a big plus. It’s making the whole setup much more reliable. I have one more camera to mount outside and a second solar panel.
Make sure you have the panel pointed south and at the sun. That can make a huge difference. If you’re not sure where south is, You can use the compass app on the iPhone for example. South and at the right angle. You want the Sun to shine on as much as possible on the panel. When you point it south, it’s now catching the sun as it moves from east to west. If you just point it east in the morning at the sun, as it moves, it’ll no longer be shining on the panel.
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Just ran a test on my solar Panel.
- 10:40 PM the previous night = 38% Battery after installation
- 12:48 PM = 68% Battery (added 30% of batter total)
- 4:16 PM = 94% Battery (Added 56% of battery total) - By this time of day it was already in the shade of the house and not getting direct sunlight
- 5:09 PM = 96% battery (58% battery increase in one day). No more gain after this.
- 7:33 PM = 95% Battery
Conditions were pretty good outside. This picture was at 5:40 PM my time, 2/13/22 to show that it was pretty clear out.
It hasn’t been a full 24 hours yet, but I am extremely confident it won’t go below 95% unless there is a significant event to drain it. There were no recorded events during this whole time, at least in the place I put it for this test. Obviously it would drain more if it was recording a lot more often, and it will when I put it in the normal place I use it, but I wanted to do a controlled run and see how it does without events draining the battery, and it is impressive for the tiny size. (there were actually 73 events throughout the day apparently…I didn’t see them until 9:30pm though).
57%-58% battery power from this tiny solar panel is an AWESOME amount of energy, and it was in the shade of a wall in the early morning and the shade of the house in the evening, so it would’ve gotten MORE than 58% if I’d had it somewhere in the sun 100% of the time. I definitely do not use 50% of the battery every day, so I am confident this thing is sufficient to keep the battery well-charged. I can usually go weeks or even more than a month sometimes without having to charge it, but even if it was every week, this thing collect more than enough power to cover my needs for this cam!
There’s no way I’m using anywhere close to 58% of the battery every day. Another great affordable product Wyze. For the next version, I’d love a bigger solar panel with a built-in battery that could run a V3 constantly recording. That would be AWESOME!
Edit: Apparently, there were actually 73 different recorded events throughout the day! And it still increased the battery that much
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My solar panel has topped up the battery to 100% and it’s stayed at 100% daily so far.
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