SoloCam S340 - Solar panel seemingly not working

[ada5303]

Hi,

I installed the SoloCam S340 on my driveway about a month back. The solar panel is installed on top of the camera and although there hasn’t been much sunshine in the past month, there have been a enough sunny days over the past 30+ days, but thus far the solar panel charging indicator shows 0 mAh, 0 min. The battery is gradually draining and is currently sitting on 30%. The solar panel is detected in the Eufy Security app and I can see the icon for the solar panel when you look at ‘My Devices’ view and have selected it as the power source in power manager.

Any ideas, could it be a faulty solar panel or just the flaky sunshine?

thanks
AD

[alb590]

The solar panel of my S340 works fine these days

[jd164]

In the camera Settings if you have the option to Restart Device, try that.
Check the solar panel wire connection adapters.
Pull them apart and remove the one on the back of the camera.
Wait 5 minutes then connect them back, see if the panel starts charging again.

[ada5303]

Thanks - have given that a try, will see how it goes over the next few days. As it recognises the solar panel and shows the icon on the app. The wire coming out of the solar panel is not removable though, just the other end, which is usb ‘C’, which plugs into the camera.

[ada5303]

Just to say, that this seems to have worked, although the charging is still very poor, it’s done like 2% in the last month or so, but that’s like due to the flakey sunlight we have had in the past few months.

Thanks for you help.

[mla417]

Keep in mind the suns energy is not that strong in the winter months as to summer time even though its sunny out.

[Ron5733]

I’m struggling to get the solar panel to work. It’s a new install, and although the app shows the panel connected, apparently it’s not charging. I’ll go check the connection again. I’m located in Florida where we have plenty of sunlight, so there shouldn’t be any issues.

[Ron5733]

Update:

User error. Apparently I didn’t have the solar plug firmly into the camera. It’s now charging at a terrific level.

[tox51]

I am having the same issue with one of my four cameras. The other three charge and show information on the solar dash board. But one of the cameras shows no information on the dashboard. It does show the solar panel is connected. The cameras are on the same side of the building on opposite corners. So the panels get the same angel of the sun…

[jd164]

Well, if you had already checked the USB-C connection to the camera. Like pulled it out and reinstalled it.
Then I would check to see if that camera has the same firmware version as your other three cams, if it doesn’t perform a manual firmware update on it then.

[mik7358]

Having the same problem with the SoloCam S340.

Camera is in direct sunlight all day and dashboard shows it has been losing power for 30 days straight. I got alarm today that it was at 10% and that put me in action.

To share

Surveillance is set to Optimal (middle choice).

I climbed up, cables seem connected, I noticed pollen from local pine trees, so cleaned it, but honestly it was’nt that dirty but did have some pollen on it.

I’ve turned off security “Disarmed” to see if it will charge.

How can I tell from the phone app that it is FOR SURE getting a charge from the panel?

I see on the device at top
Solar Panel Icon in White, I see Battery icon in Yellow, and I see WiFi is connected (White)

if I go into Power Manager I see at top
Sun symbol in White, Solar Panel in Blue with Yellow Sun on upper left corner of icon, I see Battery icon in Yellow (10%).

Maybe I need another panel? can I connect two, or can I add a bigger one?

Thanks for any help

[jd164]

You could purchase a tester like this for USB-C.
Connect it temporarily between the solar panel and camera
It will tell you what voltage the solar panel is putting out and also if the camera is taking a charge by the amps / milliamps it’s pulling.

[mik7358]

Following up here after reading many other peoples troubleshooting guides. One theory out there is a hardware update to the camera puts it in a weird mode and they suggested to take the camera down and re-register/connect it to home base. I did that and now its charging again. The app solar panel icon and battery and sun now are GREEN in color and the battery icon has an animation showing charging (Before everything was white).

I have let it charge off of solar for several days in disabled mode, and the battery is up to 70% (from 10%).

I’m going to enable today and see how it goes.

hope this helps others, I’ll report back if it starts doing this again after I enable monitoring

[Wil10185]

I have the same issue, have installed this camera at the fron of the house, panel is receiving good amount of sunlight, but the Solar Dashboard says 0 charged. I have tried disconnecting cables, reset device and non has worked, the battery is still orange with 17% and no charging.

Help.

Best,

[hilmar.koerner]

Same here. After having it installed for a couple of days, I only noticed yesterday that it is not using the solar panel. I checked the cables, rebooted the camera and it now shows the solar panel icon active, but I still do not see any charging in the app and dashboard under power manager.
Waiting some more before I escalate this.

Edit: and just as a submitted this, now the solar panel icon turned green and the battery charging icon is animated. Maybe I’m Okay. More later

[GING1]

Does anyone sell just the solar panel for the S340? My solar panel no longer works after a year!

[dlleona]

Look on the eufy store. I say last night on sale for 29.99

[hm144]

I have one S340 with a solar panel on top that barely charges the camera and another S340 coupled to the solar panel with an extention cord that doesn’t charge at all.

I ordered the USB-C tester shown above in China for €5 and today I ran some tests to find out what the problems are.

The solar panel attached to the camera with the extension showed 4,6 Volt measured directly at the panel but no current. With the extension cord attached I measured 0 Volt and no current. Clearly, there was a problem with the extension cord.

When i changed the cord with the spare one from the other camera the camera started charging right away:

(Notice that the charging power is no more than 1,615 Watt)

This is what I see in the app:

Next I took a measurement of the second camera:

And this is what I see in the app:

Clearly, the solar panel attached directly to the camera is low on Voltage (3,7 Volt) and therefore low on power (0,556 Watt). The APP shows that is cloudy (on a bright day in reality).

There are lot’s of panels for sale in China, for example this one:

If this panel really gives 8 Watt power, it will charge the camera 5 - 14 times faster than the ones that came with the camera.

I ordered two of them at €11 each.

solar-powered security camera charger - usb compatible, adjustable mount, 4w/8w output for rechargeable battery cameras (not phone charging) - patio, lawn & garden - Temu Netherlands

I will post some new measurements after I installed the new solar panels

Two observations and one advice:

1. It seams that the solar panels supplied with the camera don’t work very well;
2. The APP doesn’t give you much usefull information on the performance of your solar panel and is useless for problem solving;
3. If you really want to know how well the solar panels are charging your camera or when you have some problems to solve, spend €6 on a USB-C tester:

kws-2302c type-c multimeter, digital voltage & current tester, 4-30v 0-12a, , metal construction, shockproof, usb powered, 1% , no battery included - business, & science - Temu Netherlands

I ordered one myself because the display of my €5 tester is not 100% (see the pictures above)

Hope this helps!

[WowFull180]

solar is good

[Luke_Greer]

Hi