4 Messages
Outdoor camera battery life is only 1 day — thoughts and ideas
My SimpliSafe outdoor camera runs through batteries one a day. I bought a solar panel which I'll install this weekend but in the meantime I wanted to recommend that you buy at least one extra battery if your situation is like mine...
The front of my house faces a busy street, and there's a sidewalk tree there which blows in the wind — as such, my outdoor camera is recording pretty much 24/7. I don't mind having this level of record, but swapping batteries out every single day sucks.
I tried setting the sensitivity to medium but that causes it to miss big, easy things like cars coming and going. (At medium sensitivity I will see my neighbor's car there in one recording and then it's gone in the next, with no recording of it leaving.) I don't want to change it to the "people only" setting because there are other things going on which I want to record. I've adjusted a couple of the motion zones but that doesn't do much because of the aforementioned tree blowing in the wind.
I am NOT happy about needing to use this solar panel, but it's better than swapping batteries one a day. At this point, there are huge chunks of time for which I'm getting no recordings because it will do a critical battery shutdown in the middle of the night, and I'm constantly wondering whether or not it will catch something I need to see.
If you have any thoughts to add here, thank you!
And if I've given you anything useful, you're welcome!
alexandria_c
Community Admin
•
218 Messages
8 months ago
Hi @blaircerny,
The battery in the Outdoor Camera is designed to last up to 3-6 months. I certainly understand the concern here when your battery is lasting only a day. One note, the Solar Panel was designed to top off the battery from what it uses within a day. In this instance, it may not keep your battery fully charged day to day. If possible, it sounds like your unit could benefit from being permanently wired into power with the cable provided. Is that something that can be done at this location?
If not, it may be best for you to speak with our Support Team. They can review the camera settings with you and make sure it's configured correctly, and additionally get a replacement camera your way in the event that one is needed. You can contact them with the details here.
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asnowing
4 Messages
6 months ago
Ditto!
1