Argus PT cameras with Battery level STUCK on 100%

diitto

I own five Reolink cameras, all going on but not yet at one year old. Two of the cameras are Argus 2's and they are used inside without any solar assist. Then I also own three each of the Argus PT cameras, all three of which I have installed outdoors and connected each to their own Reolink Solar Panel. Where I have the solar panels located (intentionally so kind of hidden) they do NOT get direct sunlight for many hours so they are not capable of keeping the cameras at 100%. Instead they just slow the battery decline so I don't have to climb up quite so often and quite high to recharge them from a USB Battery Charger...

But I recently noticed ONE of those cameras sitting at 100% for seemingly too long a time. But it is summer after all so more sun and this camera gets triggered the least amount of any of my five so I thought, well maybe... But then the camera died and after playing with it for a while I realized its battery was dead. Still saying 100% but DEAD...

And now I'm very concerned that I am seeing exactly the same behavior on my other two Argus PT cameras. I am still watching but it seems like they, too, have been stuck on 100% for too long. I am considering disconnecting all three from their solar panels to see if that matters...

The first of the three to do this I reported to Reolink support. First thing they recommended was a complete "paper clip" reset of the camera which I did. I charged it for a long time (can't say where the battery really is but I would think I charged it long enough to be at 100%) and now I am watching...

But none of the three are coming down from 100%, again all currently but not for much longer connected to their only partially helpful solar panels.

Anyone got any ideas of what might be wrong??? I have the cameras set to only be manually upgraded and each time I click through to that point it always says my cameras are "up to date". They did recently release a new Reolink APP and I'm wondering if maybe something is buggy with that??? Such that it thinks Argus PT's are always at 100%. My two Argus 2's inside and NOT connected to solar are slowly coming down from 100% so no issue there...

Any help??? Why are at least one and now I suspect all three of my Argus PT's STUCK on 100% BATTERY???

Cynthia

Hi, there. You can let a DC 5V/2A power adapter to power on the outside cameras and see if the battery will slow down from 100%. Have a test to let one of them put inside and use an outlet to power on it instead of the solar panel.
And I think you should also contact the Reolink support to see what they can help you with. support@reolink.com

Mike

Are you able to pop the battery out? If you can, do that. Take it out, leave it out for a few minutes, then put it back in, and do the reset procedure. If you can't remove it, or it fails, I'm inclined to say that the IC that monitors the battery charge somehow got fried.

diitto

No, unfortunately the Argus PT (Pan, Tilt) cameras do NOT have removable batteries, one down side I considered when I decided to buy them. I also have two Argus 2 cameras and they DO have removable batteries but not the Argu PT's. I currently have the solar panels disconnected from all three of my Argue PT's so I can just watch the battery discharge behavior over time. When I removed the solar panel from two of the Argus PT's I noted that the battery level changed instantly from 100% to 97% on one and 96% on the other... While the 3rd Argue PT sticks on 100% all the time... Of those other two Argus PT's I'm even a little concerned that their battery levels might be stuck too although one of them did finally go from 96% to 95% but at the level that particular camera gets accessed, I'm somewhat surprised it has come down only 1% over two days now. But the one stuck on 100% clearly has an issue. As stated elsewhere I did a full reset on that camera and set up it up from scratch and just charged it for a long time since I couldn't tell its real level of charge...

But no to removing the Argue PT battery. Unlike the Argus 2, it cannot be removed... thanks...

brave586

I am looking at purchasing the same camera and 1 of my concerns was the inability to access the batteries and what could be done if the batteries wear out. I would hope you didn't have to throw the whole camera away and buy a new one. Did you ever get your battery situation resolved.

diitto

Hi brave586... The one Argus PT that was stuck on showing a battery level of 100% no matter what the real battery level was, continued to have that issue. So I eventually asked Reolink to replace that one camera and they did so. They sent me a new one and I returned the one that was faulty.

And today, all five of my Reolink cameras, three Argus PT's and two Argus 2's are working fine with the batteries all consistently showing a reasonable charge level.

That one camera must have simply had some sort of internal fault that showed itself when the camera was still quite new and certainly while it was still under warranty.

brave586

That sounds like a good deal but, my question is what happens when the batteries give out (and they will eventually give out) after its out of warranty? It would be nice if you could send it back to Reolink and let them repair it (for a reasonable price) instead of throwing it in the trash and paying for a brand new one.

diitto

Yes, understood... Clearly one down side of the Argus PT is that unlike the Argus 2, the PT, as you state, does NOT have a replaceable battery. When that battery gives out and mine are still new enough I've not discovered that place yet, but when they do fail (and assuming after warranty) I do believe the likely only solution would be to buy a new camera... Clearly a downside to the Argus PT, in my opinion... You might ask Reolink if they have anything else to offer on that such as any estimate on how long the battery might last???

md

Built in batteries in most security cameras are like those in cell phones, laptops, tablets, they should last several years and can be charged many times before failing. My Argus PT is about 1 1/2 yrs. old and working/charging fine. By the time the battery fails the camera will be outdated, I'll be looking for a new camera anyway with higher resolution and better features.

The Public's Radio Engineer

For what it's worth, I have an Argus PT 2K I bought three months ago, and in that time the battery never read anything but 100%. This was true even though the solar panel is not in a great location and can only get direct sunlight a couple hours a day, at most. And it was true even after several cloudy days in a row. At first I thought I had the same problem the OP did. But at the prompting of Reolink support, I disconnected the camera, put it on the bench with no power source (solar or wired), and rigged it so it was constantly getting the motion sensor triggered. (I put sensitivity to 100% and put an oscillating table fan right in front of the camera)

After roughly 100 minutes, the battery level dropped to 93%. So it wasn't "stuck" after all. I had to go out for a while, so I did and came back 180 minutes later and the battery was flat dead. Totally discharged; I had to plug it into wall power (via a USB power adapter, of course) to get it to turn on at all.

Most "battery capacity meters" are really just voltage meters. Batteries' output voltage tends to drop slightly as it loses power/charge, and in a relatively predictable way, so you can use it as a meter. In this case, I wonder if the measurement just, well, isn't very good. If it's not a very linear relationship between whatever the percentage meter is measuring, and what the battery's current capacity actually is. Because that was a mighty slow drop in battery percentage at first, followed by a very, very fast dropoff.

That might explain why the meter seems to be "stuck" at 100%; the battery's actual charge/capacity has to drop by a disproportionately large amount before the meter will budge off that 100 number.

Either way, try doing what I did a couple times: completely drain the battery and recharge it. If there's any "battery memory" issues (google it) that ought to help with them as well.