Out of curiosity, is anyone else struggling with battery life on their S3 Pro?
Admittedly, I have mine linked to Apple HomeKit to use the sensor to trigger automation on 3rd party lights at night, but my garden camera seems to be losing over 10% a day meaning it needs a weekly charge. The solar panel is facing south, but it’s UK winter so we are not getting a lot of direct sunlight. That said, the camera surely should not depend this heavily on the built in solar panel?
The first few days it was fine, and then after a couple of days this rapid drain started. This happens whether I have 5 events or 50.
I have a case open with Eufy but they are not being very forthcoming with solutions.
Ask for a replacement, or check for damage to the solar panel. I had solar for something in my backyard (not a eufy product) that wouldn’t hold a charge/stopped working and it wasn’t until I went to examine the solar panel that I realize it looked like it was clawed by an animal. BUT with the eufy I had an issue with the homebase 3 I had a just asked for a replacement and you’ll send your old one back and they accepted it.
Perhaps the camera has a charging issue / defective battery.
You mentioned lack of sunlight also.
Or maybe… It may have something to do with Homekit draining the battery?
Being linked to it and checking in with it constantly if that’s what it’s doing?
I have two of it and appears one drain faster than the other, apparently the one that drain faster has more sunlight, but still winter and am waiting to summer to see if any improvement. I had the eufy pro 2k initially there and this last more than a year on a full charge and that gave me courage to invest in the s3 pro so hopefully I am not wrong.
@Mrkbates - There is no obvious damage, and I’d like to think that a battery cam could hold a charge even if the solar was shot. I’ve not been very impressed with the performance/service considering these cameras are something like £220 per unit.
@jd164 - This is my concern. It certainly points to the battery. Although there isnt a lot of sunlight, I would expect a battery to last more than 10 days before needing charging… even with HomeKit enabled. All HomeKit will do is poll for snapshots, and from my experience that is only when I open the Home App. All other settings that HomeKit changes I have been able to revert via the eufy app.
@Fabol That seems the same as ours, the one facing south is draining faster where as the one in the shade on the drive, facing north was lasting longer… though that is now continuously running in wired mode due to the lack of light and availability of a socket
@ikhalsa - For what they cost, they are not great, but I don’t know if you are missing events. The difficulty is that the interim recordings are displayed as a Timelapse, so missed events will be there, it’s just a struggle to extract them. That said, I cannot really speak from experience as I run one from battery, and the other from mains but with the continuous recording off.
@jfr180 - I do appreciate that, but I am in the UK so our version of cold is far warmer than say a Canadians. I’m pretty familiar with battery chemistry having Solar PV with battery on my house, and previously having had EVs, but even for 5ºC, losing 10% a day for 10-15 events seems a little excessive to me.
UPDATE: I have had a response from Eufy, they state there is a bug in HomeBase 3 Firmware 3.6.1.4 which causes device battery drain and have asked me to update my Homebase to 3.6.3.4 to resolve the issue… though checking for a firmware update on my HomeBase tells me I am up to date with 3.6.1.4…
Mine have been working okay, been up a couple of months and still 96% battery. I do however live in Sweden and fall/winter is very dark here. So they don’t even get that many opportunities to charge in a day.
What firmware is your Homebase on? Whilst I don’t trust that the Homebase was draining the camera, it did seem to come about after a Homebase update… Also, how much activity does your camera capture?
If it is not the Homebase then I would be lead to believe that this does seem to be a battery fault.
Reply back to eufy support and ask them to push the firmware to your HomeBase.
I’ve read that they are able to do this. They have your info and HB3 serial number?
Yeah, I have replied back to them stating it wasn’t available despite them stating it had been pushed, and they have my SN etc. so I guess I will just have to wait now, and then hope and pray it fixes the drain
Thanks @jd164, I’ll keep my eyes peeled for it tomorrow then. It’s odd as they told me to manually check in the app, but maybe it’s just a quirk of how it all works.
