I’ve just bought the new Altas PT Ultra battery powered camera from Reolink.
And the new Hub that comes with it. And a solar loader.
I want to integrate it in HA ofcouse.
After installation, everything was working great. But the battery was draining fast. In 4 days from 100% to 10% and all settings to ‘off’ even recording was off.
I’ve contacted Reolink and we’ve tried everything possible. But no luck. Reolink offered to replace the camera.
But then, someone told me, maybe the HA integration was polling the camera constantly, draining the battery.
So I’ve uninstalled the integration in HA and guess what?
The battery is perfectly powered now. 100% and still 100% after several days.
And all options in the camera set to “on”
Now I am hoping to use the camera again in HA of course. But I think there is something wrong in the Reolink Integration. I have no idea what, but as soon as I install it again, the battery is draining power fast!
Can anyone tell me if this is a known problem and if there is a fix planned?
It looks to me ;ike you have a lot of evidence of an issue,.
If you cannot find a way to changew the polling for that camera or only have the integration talk to the camera on demand, then I would write up an issue against core.
Try those steps first, because I would think they will say the same thing.(Probably).
I have the same issue. Took the camera streams off the dashboard, turned all features off, and it still looses about 20% per day, even though its on a solar panel too.
Any advice greatly appreciated, and happy to do experiments to help out.
This is the brand new upgraded version - 6W.
After experiments, its def the integration which is the problem, by polling constantly and keeping the camera alive. 100% to 0% in about 3 days.
When I turned off polling, it took 2 days to loose 1% in dull weather.
The only workaround I am trying now, is an automation to reload the integration (while keeping polling disabled) - that polls once when the integration finished initialising.
So when I need to change a camera setting or check the battery, I’ll push a button or trigger it, wait a few mins, and then will have to latest status.
Far from ideal, but might get me by for now.
@starkiller has just fixed an issue around this and published an update.
Ive just upgraded the docker image to Package home-assistant · GitHub
Looking at the status of the cameras - they both say ‘sleeping’ which is exactly what we need, so looks positive.
Will leave polling on tonight and see if I have any battery in the morning!
I am also experiencing the same issue but with the “Argus Eco Ultra”.
Home Assistant is continuously retrieving a live stream from the camera. As soon as it is dark, the IR spotlight is also permanently active. This is causing the battery to run out very quickly despite the solar panel.
It has been determined that closing the HA app on all end devices or switching off the end devices does not resolve the issue. The only “solution” that has been found to work is to remove the camera from the dashboard.
There are several threads with cameras that cause high CPU on the HA server.
This is probably related to it, but you have just discovered the camera end of the issue, because your cameras are battery powered.
