Battery drain within a few hours

[marcuswhit]

I've just setup the Aarlo plugin in the past day for my 4 cameras, and all seemed like it was working great. But then they all went from near full charge to flat overnight.

Today I had to reinstall my Home Assistant OS anew (for unrelated reasons), and hence also did for Aarlo too, with all the default suggested settings - but I only added one of the cameras back in for now. So today I had two cameras going, with only one integrated with the fresh install of Aarlo.

The result is the same for both cameras with a heavy battery drop over several hours. Attached image shows the battery drain from the one integrated. There is limited movement during this time, so typically the cameras would be asleep - this issue has only surfaced since integrating with Aarlo the first time yesterday. I'm assuming at this stage that even though I didn't integrate my second camera with the new Aarlo install today, it must have had something changed the first time around which is keeping it awake?

Any suggestions? I'm using it with two Pro 4's and two Essentials, and the issue seems the same.

Thanks.

[twrecked]

Can you send the model numbers of the cameras and can you paste your config - the non sensitive bits obviously.

Also, is there anything in the logs?

[marcuswhit]

Sure - the models are two of the Arlo Pro 4, and two Arlo Essential Spotlight Cameras - both current models bought 2 months ago. Battery drain for all was as expected until I set this up.

Config for the dashboard widget is:

type: custom:aarlo-glance
entity: camera.aarlo_driveway
name: Driveway
show:
  - motion
  - sound
  - snapshot
  - battery_level
  - signal_strength
  - captured_today
  - image_date
top_title: true
top_status: true
top_date: true
image_click: play

The HA config is as follows - I've done almost nothing with the fresh install other than setup Aarlo and enable remote access.

# Configure a default setup of Home Assistant (frontend, api, etc)
default_config:

# Text to speech
tts:
  - platform: google_translate

group: !include groups.yaml
automation: !include automations.yaml
script: !include scripts.yaml
scene: !include scenes.yaml

http:
  ssl_certificate: /ssl/fullchain.pem
  ssl_key: /ssl/privkey.pem
  ip_ban_enabled: true
  login_attempts_threshold: 5

aarlo:
  username: !secret arlo_user
  password: !secret arlo_pwd
  tfa_source: imap
  tfa_type: email
  tfa_host: imap.gmail.com
  tfa_username: !secret gmail_user
  tfa_password: !secret gmail_pwd

camera:
  - platform: aarlo

sensor:
  - platform: aarlo
    monitored_conditions:
      - total_cameras
      - last_capture
      - recent_activity
      - captured_today
      - battery_level
      - signal_strength
      - temperature
      - humidity
      - air_quality

It's worth noting that the first time I installed it I did include the optional args for the Aarlo config as follows, which I didn't include this time in case that was causing the battery drain:

  refresh_devices_every: 2
  stream_timeout: 120

[simdevmat]

Also experiencing the same issue. After setting this up last night, battery on my Pro 3 Floodlight is near flat. Using default aarlo config with aarlo-glance-card

[twrecked]

Can you both send me the model numbers. And can I ask, does the device appear as its own base station?

I ask because some battery based base stations shouldn't be polled. I have a check to determine this but I may need to update it.

[simdevmat]

Can you both send me the model numbers. And can I ask, does the device appear as its own base station?

I ask because some battery based base stations shouldn't be polled. I have a check to determine this but I may need to update it.

https://www.arlo.com/nz/products/arlo-pro-3-floodlight.aspx Hardware number: FB1001AerH4

It's a standalone camera with no base station.

[twrecked]

I don't have one of these cameras, can I bother you for some more information? If you look at the Developer Tools > States for one of the floodlights, can you send me the following values (obviously, your values will be different):

battery_level: 45
battery_tech: Rechargeable
brightness: 0
charging: false
charger_type: None
wired: false
wired_only: false

You don't need to paste these, but are the parent ID and device ID the same?

Thanks.

[simdevmat]

Yea they are the same

[twrecked]

I think I have an idea how to fix the floodlight. I'll try some code out.

[marcuswhit]

Hi - the camera models I have are:

• VMC2030AerH8 - https://www.arlo.com/au/products/arlo-essential/default.aspx
• VMC4041PAerH3 - https://www.arlo.com/au/products/arlo-pro-4/default.aspx

All are standalone cameras without a base station. Re your question above, the parent ID and device ID are the same for each.

Since my last post I've reset the cameras, added them again into Arlo and Aarlo/HA, with just the default config, and the result is the same - the battery drains to empty over half a day or so. Interestingly though, for at least one of them the drain didn't really start straight away after recharging - it was ok for several hours, then around 10pm last night it went to empty pretty quickly.

[twrecked]

I just created 0.7.1.4 with a possible fix. If it still doesn't work can you paste this information from the camera states:

battery_level:
battery_tech:
charging:
charger_type:
wired:
wired_only:
wifi:
corded:

[NickM-27]

@twrecked Wanted to add to this, I am also experiencing the same issue. Just updated to 0.7.1.4 and will report in a few hours how much they drained.

I have 3 of these: VMC2030A - https://www.arlo.com/au/products/arlo-essential/default.aspx Only one has a solar charger and the others I recharge inside.

Here is that information you asked for just in case:

battery_level: 100
battery_tech: Rechargeable
charging: false
charger_type: SolarCharger
wired: true
wired_only: false
wifi: false
corded: false

battery_level: 44
battery_tech: Rechargeable
charging: false
charger_type: None
wired: false
wired_only: false
wifi: false
corded: false

battery_level: 27
battery_tech: Rechargeable
charging: false
charger_type: None
wired: false
wired_only: false
wifi: false
corded: false

I also have a battery video doorbell (model AVD2001A):

battery_level: 37
battery_tech: Rechargeable
charging: false
charger_type: None
wired: false
wired_only: false
wifi: true
corded: false

[twrecked]

That's great info. I think the wifi being false was causing the issue. I ignore it for the essential cameras now.

If anybody has pyaarlo logging and verbose debug turned on can you look for the phrase NO ping to. It should be skipped for the Essential cameras. Config is something like this:

aarlo:
  username: !secret arlo_username
  password: !secret arlo_password
  verbose_debug: True

logger:
  default: info
  logs:
    pyaarlo: debug

[NickM-27]

I don't have the debugging on, but wanted to say when I initially enabled aarlo two hours ago the cameras dropped in battery but they have been steady now for 2 hours after that so seams like at least an improvement.

[NickM-27]

Another update, looks good:

[simdevmat]

Im still seeing reasonable battery use. Been running the update for 24hs.

model_name: FB1001A
brand: Netgear Arlo
battery_level: 22
battery_tech: Rechargeable
brightness: 2
flipped: true
mirrored: true
motion_detection_sensitivity: 80
power_save_mode: best_video
signal_strength: 3
unseen_videos: 0
recent_activity: false
image_source: snapshot/08-09 13:00
charging: false
charger_type: None
wired: false
wired_only: false
wifi: false
corded: false
attribution: Data provided by my.arlo.com
model_id: FB1001A
siren: true
supported_features: 0

[NickM-27]

Maybe that model number wasn't included in the false wifi change @twrecked ? My essential cams have still yet to lose even a percent since the update yesterday.

[twrecked]

I missed the model. I'll add it in. I'll create a new release first thing tomorrow (it's night here right now!)

edit: got it done earlier, should be fixed in 0.7.1.5

[marcuswhit]

All looking good here now, with both Essential and Pro 4 models. Will update if anything changes over the next couple days, but they've been running most of today and no notable battery drop 👍 Thanks @twrecked for the quick response!

[simdevmat]

Amazing @twrecked, thank you for the quick fix!

[howetech]

I'm having this same issue with my battery doorbell:

model_name: AVD2001A

wifi is showing as false for this. Does this model need to be included in the above fixes as well?

[twrecked]

@howetech I'll take a look.