Smart Home CommunityTapo Smart CameraC410 Solar kit has recently started using A LOT more battery with no change from me
Tapo Smart Camera

C410 Solar kit has recently started using A LOT more battery with no change from me

C410 Solar kit has recently started using A LOT more battery with no change from me

C410 Solar kit has recently started using A LOT more battery with no change from me
C410 Solar kit has recently started using A LOT more battery with no change from me
3 weeks ago - last edited 21 hours ago
Model: Tapo C410 KIT  
Hardware Version: V1
Firmware Version: 1.2.1

 

I've made no change on my kit, and yet all of a sudden, the battery usage has skyrocketed and the camera is going completely flat. 

 

Has there been any change to how these cameras work? It's made it go from an awesome setup to something that looks like it'll be unusable going forward.

 

In terms of detection, I have only an overnight detection set (via recording schedule being set from 9pm to 5am), and have had almost no recordings of detected events. Certainly no more so than previously. (Maybe a detected event once a week or so).

 

What could cause this huge of a change in battery usage?

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1 Accepted Solution
Re:C410 Solar kit has recently started using A LOT more battery with no change from me-Solution
3 weeks ago - last edited 21 hours ago

  @spocoaus 

 

The battery drain is related to the increase in Wake-up events, which, prior to the 27th, averaged around 16 but have recently jumped higher than that, with one day going as high as 32.   You mentioned a recording schedule is set for 9pm to 5am.  The issue is that the recording schedule does not stop your camera from waking up or sending notifications; it just stops the recording outside of the scheduled times.   So this means the camera will still monitor and wake up, and each of those wake-ups will drain the battery.  What you can try is a smart action to enable Privacy mode and schedule it to coincide with your recording schedule. 

 

  • Open Smart menu
  • create automation
  • Schedule the time for the automation
  • Set the When (Start of this schedule)
  • Set the Then
    • Control Device
    • Select the camera
    • Enable privacy
  • Save and run automation

 

 

This will ensure the camera and the battery are only used during the recording time. 

 

Carl | TP-Link Systems Inc. How Does Your Smart Home Help You Save on Electricity? Join our Community Feedback Drive: Let Us Know What You Think! Check out Our Community Newsletter and Monthly Firmware Updates in our Knowledge Base Contact Support or Join our Official Subreddits: r/tapo, r/tplink, r/omada_networks
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#2
6 Reply
Re:C410 Solar kit has recently started using A LOT more battery with no change from me-Solution
3 weeks ago - last edited 21 hours ago

  @spocoaus 

 

The battery drain is related to the increase in Wake-up events, which, prior to the 27th, averaged around 16 but have recently jumped higher than that, with one day going as high as 32.   You mentioned a recording schedule is set for 9pm to 5am.  The issue is that the recording schedule does not stop your camera from waking up or sending notifications; it just stops the recording outside of the scheduled times.   So this means the camera will still monitor and wake up, and each of those wake-ups will drain the battery.  What you can try is a smart action to enable Privacy mode and schedule it to coincide with your recording schedule. 

 

  • Open Smart menu
  • create automation
  • Schedule the time for the automation
  • Set the When (Start of this schedule)
  • Set the Then
    • Control Device
    • Select the camera
    • Enable privacy
  • Save and run automation

 

 

This will ensure the camera and the battery are only used during the recording time. 

 

Carl | TP-Link Systems Inc. How Does Your Smart Home Help You Save on Electricity? Join our Community Feedback Drive: Let Us Know What You Think! Check out Our Community Newsletter and Monthly Firmware Updates in our Knowledge Base Contact Support or Join our Official Subreddits: r/tapo, r/tplink, r/omada_networks
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#2
Re:C410 Solar kit has recently started using A LOT more battery with no change from me
3 weeks ago

  @Carl Thank you for this!

 

I'll try this and see if it fixes the issue.

 

I am very interested in why it's all of a sudden got so many more events compared to what it was getting though.

 

It's a camera inside a chicken run to look for foxes etc. at night. And it allows us to check in on the chickens during the day.

 

Up until this sharp uptick, it was handling things well with the solar panel and battery and always stayed largely charged. So I'm wondering if anything changed with the camera or software to cause this large change in behaviour.

 

Simon

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#3
Re:C410 Solar kit has recently started using A LOT more battery with no change from me
2 weeks ago

  @spocoaus 

 

It could be that because it's getting warmer, the chickens might be more active.  There isn't anything software that I can point to at this time that could cause that type of situation.

Carl | TP-Link Systems Inc. How Does Your Smart Home Help You Save on Electricity? Join our Community Feedback Drive: Let Us Know What You Think! Check out Our Community Newsletter and Monthly Firmware Updates in our Knowledge Base Contact Support or Join our Official Subreddits: r/tapo, r/tplink, r/omada_networks
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Re:C410 Solar kit has recently started using A LOT more battery with no change from me
2 weeks ago

  @Carl .

 

I tried that. The actions ran as intended, but a) it's not great, because my partner then can't view the camera during the day to check the chickens because people who have the camera shared with them can't take it out of private mode, and b) it's just entirely different battery drain behaviour with no change to the chicken behaviour or the setup. 

 

Surely something has changed on the tapo side? 

 

That behaviour before the 27th was perfect. And it would still record things that happened at night. 

 

Now it's useless, goes flat in no time.

 

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#5
Re:C410 Solar kit has recently started using A LOT more battery with no change from me
2 weeks ago

  @spocoaus 

 

Nothing has been identified or reported, and you are on the most up-to-date firmware.  The best option right now then would be to enable diagnostics for the Advanced Menu under the camreas settings.  Records a few days of operation and then submit the logs to support for investigation to Support.Forum@tp-link.com for us to provide to engineering for review.   

Carl | TP-Link Systems Inc. How Does Your Smart Home Help You Save on Electricity? Join our Community Feedback Drive: Let Us Know What You Think! Check out Our Community Newsletter and Monthly Firmware Updates in our Knowledge Base Contact Support or Join our Official Subreddits: r/tapo, r/tplink, r/omada_networks
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#6
Re:C410 Solar kit has recently started using A LOT more battery with no change from me
a week ago
Thank you for that Carl, we'll do that and supply those logs. Thank you. Simon
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#7

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