I have 11 of these exterior cameras across 3 locations, and they’re all less than a year old. So far, they’ve been performing great, but one of them stopped charging via the solar panel. I’ve done a lot of A/B testing to figure out the issue: swapping batteries, solar panels, and locations (sun/shade test), and charging the battery with a USB-micro charger. After a week of testing, it seems like the issue is with this specific camera’s port, not the sun location, battery, or panel.
Everything else seems fine, and the power mode in the app is still set to Battery Mode. The only odd thing is that sometimes the Device Health screen shows the solar is connected but gray instead of green, with no charging message. Other times, the solar section is missing from the health check completely, as if it’s not detected at all. Either way, the battery is draining over about 10 days without charging.
I’ve checked for debris in the port, water damage, bent metal, oxidation, or a worn-out plug head, but everything looks fine. I’m wondering if this could be a software issue (which would be great), but I suspect the charging port might not be fully functional.
If I want to temporarily test it as hard-wired, can I plug a standard USB-C phone charging cable into it?
And most importantly, has anyone else experienced a similar issue with this model recently?