Google Nest Outdoor Camera Battery

[dcc017]

Hi,

I have an issue with a Nest outdoor camera.  It is less than six months old and the battery dies within 12 hours.  It is connected to a power source (tested working) and is on a 24-watt Anker self-adjusting power supply, not the 7.5-watt it came with.  The camera also loses power when using the factory 7.5-watt power supply, I upgraded to the 24-watt supply to test it.

I take the camera inside, charge it completely, and then reinstall it outside.  I connect the 24-watt power supply and check the condition and it shows fully powered and the “infinite loop” symbol of fully charged and connected to power.

I have performed several five-second restarts and one ten-second reset with the same results – a dead battery within 12 hours.

Background: We live on a heavily traveled highway and the camera faces it, but it covers our driveway.  I have set up a zone to ignore traffic on the highway.  I have turned the battery saver on, and the microphone off.  Same results: Dead battery within 12 hours.  Oddly enough, it does not record any events during that time. 

This is the second time this has happened.  We replaced a camera that was doing the same thing and put it in another area of our house (backyard) and it is working as it should.

Any tips or suggestions?  Why does it go dead so quickly and not record any events? 

[MplsCustomer]

@dcc017 

Is your power cable plugged in securely in the bottom of your camera (some customers have had trouble with the plug) and is the cable feeding towards the FRONT of the camera (some customers have mistakenly had the cable feeding towards the REAR of the camera).

Judging from other posts in this forum, the camera has to be plugged into power at the time you installed the camera, in order for the camera to recognize that it's plugged in. Some customers who added a power cable later have had to remove their camera and reinstall it.

Under Settings | Battery, it should always say "Plugged in" with an infinity symbol.

You say that you had another camera in the same location doing the same thing. If it was also powered with your 24-watt Anker self-adjusting power supply, perhaps that's the cause of your problem.  I don't know anything about that device, or whether that device is even appropriate to provide power to the battery camera.

We've had a battery camera for over 2 years, plugged in with the optional 10-meter power cable, and it's been "Live" the whole time and has never needed charging.

[dcc017]

Hi MplsCustomer,

Thank you for your response!  I have tried mounting the camera both ways:  Power cable first, then mount; mount, and add the power cable, both with the same results.  I double-checked the power cable pins direction each time and both cameras showed that they received power with the Infinity symbol.  

Yesterday, I fully charged the camera, did a five-second reset, and then mounted the camera pointing far below the highway I mentioned.  This morning, the camera was still working, but down to 39% battery and it showed it was charging/still plugged in.  No events were recorded.  It is perplexing. 

 I moved the first camera to a new location that has far less activity, after a full reset, and it is currently working fine.  I still don't know why the camera loses power overnight, we are talking 12-14 hours from fully charged to zero and it is plugged in.  BTW, the cameras were doing the same thing with the factory 7.5-watt charger; that is why I upgraded to the 24-watt self-adjusting charger.  I wanted to ensure it was receiving enough power...

Again, I appreciate your ideas/advice.

[MplsCustomer]

@dcc017 

When you say you're using the "factory 7.5-watt charger", are you referring to the 1-meter charging cord and adapter that come with the camera?

If so, I'm not sure that is designed to power the camera, rather than being used to charge the camera's battery from time to time as needed. Google Nest is not explicit on whether or not the charging cord and adapter can be used to power the camera. Their online literature says to use the optional power cables:

"You can keep your camera plugged-in, even outdoors, thanks to the Nest Cam weatherproof cables. It comes in two lengths, 16 ft (5 m) or 33 ft (10 m), and can easily be plugged-in inside or outside in a weatherproof outlet." (https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/10919314)

We're using the optional 10-meter power cable and adapter that are purchased separately, and ours has been "Live" for over 2 years.

Also, something occurs at the time of installation that determines whether the camera recognizes that it is plugged in; it's not just what happens when you're mounting it.  Customers in this forum have reported that if they installed a battery camera, and then later bought a power cable, they had to remove their camera from the Google Home app, do a factory reset, and reinstall their camera in order for it to recognize that it was plugged in and not running on battery power.

I suppose you could also have a defective battery camera.

[dcc017]

 Hi MplsCustomer,

I am using the 33' power cable for the camera when it is mounted.  I use the short cable to charge the camera to 100% when I bring it indoors.  I have fully recharged it indoors several times and did  a simple reset 3-4 times and a full factory reset once (so far.)

I have both mounted the camera first and then plugged it in the 33' cable and visa-versa, plugged it in and then mounted it - both times carefully to ensure the power cable pins were in the correct orientation and then checked the camera in the app to show the plugged in and infinity symbol.

Even if it was completely unplugged, the camera should last a month or more on battery alone.  Not completely discharge in 12 hours while connected to power...  It has done this on both the factory charger and the Aker 24-watt charger.

I do appreciate your effort to diagnose and solve the problem.  I am trying to include all of the details of the camera and what it is doing.

[MplsCustomer]

@dcc017 

I'm out of ideas. I don't understand why the location itself has affected both your first camera and the one you're using now. Perhaps the heavily-trafficked highway is causing your camera to be constantly triggered, even though the traffic is outside a zone. But I don't understand why it also does not record events.

Just one last thought.   I believe that in order for the camera to recognize it is plugged in, it has to be plugged in at the time of its first install, or its first install after being factory reset.

Perhaps you should try contacting Support; you can use the link and instructions in this post:

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Cameras-and-Doorbells/Using-Google-Nest-s-quot-Contact-Us-quo...

[dcc017]

Hi MplsCustomer,

I highly appreciate your efforts and feedback.  It does seem like it is the location of the camera.  I set a zone for "animals only" to cover the entire highway area and ignore vehicles.  Perhaps it is trying to filter each movement of cars and trucks moving past it.  That would account for it not recording events, but using excessive power to decide it is not an animal. <speculating>

Thanks again!

[MplsCustomer]

@dcc017 

Maybe.

But when plugged in, the camera should be running off of household current, and NOT off of battery power:

"Nest Cam (battery) works differently than Nest Doorbell (battery). For wired installation setups with a Nest Cam (battery), the wires power the camera directly."

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/11830989

[EmersonB]

Hi everyone,

@dcc017, thanks for reaching out here in the Community. Battery life will depend on factors including activity, temperature, and selected camera settings. You can extend the battery life of your Nest Camera by adjusting video quality, length of video clips, time between recorded events, and using activity zones to monitor specific areas. Here are some typical scenarios.

Nest Cam (battery)

Busy - About 1.5 months battery life (about 20 - 25 recorded events per day)

Typical - About 3 months battery life (about 9 - 12 recorded events per day)

Quiet - About 7 months battery life (about 2 - 4 recorded events per day)

Just a reminder: The battery won't charge at temperatures below 32°F (0°C), and will only charge slowly at temperatures close to freezing.

Lower the battery usage

When you lower the battery usage, your Nest Camera or Nest Doorbell will adjust video recording settings to do the following:

• Optimize its video quality.
• Shorten the length of time for which events are recorded.
• Take longer to begin recording between events.

Here's how to lower the battery usage:

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Favorites or Devices .
3. Tap and hold your device's tile More Settings .
4. Tap Battery Battery usage More battery life.

To learn more you may visit our public article about “Save battery for Nest cameras and doorbells”.

I appreciate the help, MplsCustomer. 

Best,

Emerson

[BasG]

Just because you have set up a zone that does not send notifications, that does not mean that the camera is not using processing power to analyse and then decide it should not report. 

Theoretically, it would be possible that the camera is spending so much time processing that it uses more power than the USB fed port can provide. But this seems like a unique problem to have. I regularly wake up to a dozen or two "motion" notifications that turn out to be birds or moths. But if cars come by every few seconds, all day long I can see that being an issue. 

[EmersonB]

Hello BasG,

We appreciate your efforts in posting here. Your Nest Camera runs algorithms to process video and audio data so that it can determine whether it detected something that you might want to know about.

• The camera is designed to analyse its video data for people, animals and moving vehicles, and can recognize when the same people reappear.
• To detect anything besides a person, animal or moving vehicle, the camera checks for general motion in the scene. It learns what's normally in its background view and looks for movement and changes. As a result, it can sometimes trigger not just for important things, but also for minor things like tree branches that sway in the wind. If you only need your camera to detect people, animals or moving vehicles, it's recommended that you do not turn on this feature.

To learn more, you may visit our public article about “How Nest cameras detect sound and motion”

Regards,

Emerson