+++ YAMYAM's detailed eufy cam SOLAR PANEL TEST & REVIEW +++

yamyam · April 10, 2019, 6:17am

PREAMBLE:
This post/thread of me may be interesting for everyone who is using his eufy cams very extensively as i do and therefore logically have frequent “power problems” and record-breaking draining eufy cam batteries.
Please do not wonder if every of the following posts will be edited several times as writing this detailed review (and not in my mother language!) and pick it with tons of pictures, will need its time and corrections

+++ YAMYAM’s SOLAR PANEL TEST & REVIEW - Part 1/7 +++

As you may know already from my tons of comments at the eufy cam kickstarter campagin or plenty posts here at the community forum ( https://community.anker.com/users/yamyam/activity/topics - don’t know if this link will work for others than me) , i am in the meanwhile own about one dozen of eufy cams (original and eufy cam E) with currently three homebases.

Referring to this, here are some picture impressions from the past months and several orders

Why i am showing or telling you this? First of all, for sure, to increase my ego and prag some bit But mainly because if you don’t know me yet, i want you to have certainty that i have a lot of experiences made with eufy cams in the past half a year and hopefully know what i am talking about …

… review to be continued in the next part …

Forum Signature: Yes, it’s me, yamyam
Most of you may know me already as very active user, tester, commenter at the eufy cam kickstarter campaign with hundreds of posts/comments: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1116368506/evercam-the-wirefree-security-cam-with-365-day-bat/comments
As non-native-english-speaker i am sorry if you have problems to understand me

yamyam · April 10, 2019, 6:17am

+++ YAMYAM’s SOLAR PANEL TEST & REVIEW - Part 2/7 +++

And as you may know already, from my STRESS TEST or other topics/posts,

… my most excessively hardcore used eufy cam is recording up to 150-200 videos daily(!) with a length of 60 seconds each. Means one record each 7 minute in average, day by day!

And as we all know, the eufy promise of a 365 day battery endurance with just one charge, is only realistic with about 10 records a day with a length of 30 seconds. My Stress Test (linked above) only has shown that not only record length and number of records per day are important, no, also the distance between the eufy cams and the homebase will increase the power usage! Somehow logical.

And of course, my most used eufy cam, mentioned here, is also the cam with the highest distance between my cam and hombase of all my cams, in my case sadly just 12 meters(!) in a downtown setting.

RESULT: My most used and farthest away from the homebase eufy cam drains empty in a maximum of 10-14 DAYS!

This meaned in the past:
I had to get my ladder out from the basement and climb up about 3,5 meters to get my cam down and to charge it at the homebase for about 4 hours, and this every two weeks(!) So with this single cam (out of my dozen cams) i do not have one charge in a year, rather i have about 26 charges per year - for sure a untenable condition.

And as i do not have any power cable near this cam, i needed another solution:

A SOLAR PANEL FOR MY EUFY CAM(s)

… review to be continued in the next part …

Forum Signature: Yes, it’s me, yamyam
Most of you may know me already as very active user, tester, commenter at the eufy cam kickstarter campaign with hundreds of posts/comments: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1116368506/evercam-the-wirefree-security-cam-with-365-day-bat/comments
As non-native-english-speaker i am sorry if you have problems to understand me

yamyam · April 10, 2019, 6:17am

+++ YAMYAM’s SOLAR PANEL TEST & REVIEW - Part 3/7 +++

And as i do not have any power cable near this cam, i needed another solution:
A SOLAR PANEL FOR MY EUFY CAM(s)

Said and done! … But as eufy still has (still) no own solar panel solution (booooo) … i had to fall back on a third party solution and even a solar panel made for a competitors cam … But as i knew that the eufy cams can be charged at 5V (9V) with max. 2,4A i searched the hundreds of available solar panels in thousands of versions and specifications for several days and finally felt in love with the following solar panel:

The reasons why i have choosen this one:

It is looking good and is kinda small/tiny
It has a wall mount and is adjustable
It has the needed 5V loadage
It got a waterproof MicroUSB connector
It got a very long cable included (3,6 m / 11,8 ft)
It got a monocrystalline/polycrystalline solar modul, which also will charge with no direct sunlinght and weak solar radiation! (other solar panels with different technology will only charge on direct/full sunlight at the panel)

The only disadvantage of the above panel is, that it only charges at 3,5W (about 0,58A) while the eufy cam would sustain up to 2,4A. But i couldn’t find any tiny solar panel with wallmount, long cable and above mentioned points which got 2,4A. So i took this one and hoped the Ampere will be enough to at least charge my hardcore used eufy cam a little bit

By the way:
This solar panel costs me 26,99 € and here is the german Amazon Link:

Regrettably this solar panel was sold out just some days after i bought it. Noticed it as i wanted to order another, second one some time later. After contacting the chinese seller he told me that this panel is out of stock and probably will not come back

BUT THERE ARE GOOD NEWS FOR UK PEOPLE!
There is still a “white version” of this solar panel available at Amazon UK!
And just seen: They also have the black version available now in some days (14.04.19)!
Here is the link:

Now i am kinda bewildered, as they told me that only some few white ones are available at amazon UK and now they also have the black one on stock in UK? HUH? … So why not filling up the stock for Amazon DE with the black and white versions? … I will contact them again and ask. Curious at the answer

Sidequestion:
Does anyone knows if Amazon UK would ship the black version to Germany?!
As i have checked this page some weeks ago only the white version was available saying “This item does not ship to Germany - Mainland”. Could any UK guy check this for me or ask Amazon UK if they would chip the black(!) version to Germany? Thanks!

Don’t like the white one as it will get dirty very fast i guess. But i would like to buy some more black ones. But never ordered at amazon UK as normaly everything is available at amazon DE what i want. So can anyone help me there? Thank you!

If you have finished reading my review, you will know why i want another one

But maybe eufy will finally hurry up bringing their own solar panel with above mentioned and listed advantages on the market after they have seend and read this review

… review to be continued in the next part …

Forum Signature: Yes, it’s me, yamyam
Most of you may know me already as very active user, tester, commenter at the eufy cam kickstarter campaign with hundreds of posts/comments: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1116368506/evercam-the-wirefree-security-cam-with-365-day-bat/comments
As non-native-english-speaker i am sorry if you have problems to understand me

yamyam · April 10, 2019, 12:18pm

+++ YAMYAM’s SOLAR PANEL TEST & REVIEW - Part 4/7 +++

And here it comes!
Received at 27.02.2019

After unboxing, i was wondering about the different volt data at the panel.
One sticker says 5V and the other one 6V.

But even if i knew that the eufycam can handle 5V/9V, and 1V difference won’t bring the anker battries to explode … or implode … i rather asked eufy at the kickstarer campaign if this panel will work, to make sure. Here a screenshot from about a month ago:
(click twice to “zoom” and make it readable!)

So as soon as i got the answer from eufy that 6V won’t damage the cam and the panel probably should do it, i at first started some testing, before drilling wholes in my wall and install the panel irrevocable.

So i walked to my roof terrace and place the panel temporarily for some days at a window and into direct sunlight

Following some pictures from the test setup at 06.03.2019:

I have packed the eufy test cam into a towel and the towel into some clothespin bag and hang up the clothespin bag to my chin up (in the shadow) and conntected the eufy test cam with the solar panel, here to see:

And i was pleasantly surprised and impressed! IT WORKS !!!

As you can see at the beginning of my test, the test cam got 2 bars of battery power:

And as soon as i pluged in the solar panel into the test cam, the app shows a green indicator that means the cam is really charging:

And after the end of the first test, after around 3-4 hours of direct sunlight and sometimes some cloudy sunlight, the cam showed 3 bars:

Amazing!

And even if my solar panel “only” puts out 3,5W / 0,58A, instead of 2,4A max possible, its really charges the cam quite a lot . Wow … nice! And even if the solar panel is without any direct sunlight and it is very cloudy, near to dark, the solar panel still charges the cam (but probably just at a minimum, but better than nothing):

So after i have tested this solar panel several times and days and after i have proven that is is working excellent, it is time to install the solar panel in the real life environment. This you can see in the next parts…

… review to be continued in the next part …

Forum Signature: Yes, it’s me, yamyam
Most of you may know me already as very active user, tester, commenter at the eufy cam kickstarter campaign with hundreds of posts/comments: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1116368506/evercam-the-wirefree-security-cam-with-365-day-bat/comments
As non-native-english-speaker i am sorry if you have problems to understand me

yamyam · April 12, 2019, 4:45pm

+++ YAMYAM’s SOLAR PANEL TEST & REVIEW - Part 5/7 +++

OK OK girls … now as i have tested the 3rd party solar panel and have proofen that it is working and charging the eufycam without it to explode or implode, i had to solve one last big problem with the eufycams (no matter if original or E) when it comes to the power supply … no matter if solar or cable … the only thing which is not smart (placed) at the eufy cams:

The displaced MICRO-USB Port!

Or do you wanna try to tell me how to mount my eufy cam now, using the outdoor mount, when we have the following connection or construction?

No chance at all to get this mounted now, no matter which mount.
But thx god there are mostly solutions for everything and by investing some bucks and buying those:

… the “unsmart eufycam micro-usb port location” problem has been solved, looking like this now:

So as the issue is solved now, we can start mounting the solar panel and eufycam again and to cable averything. This all you will see very detailed in the next part, coming soon!

I just hope the eufy/anker team is placing the micro-usb port on the future revisions of the cam much smarter!

… review to be continued in the next part …

Forum Signature: Yes, it’s me, yamyam
Most of you may know me already as very active user, tester, commenter at the eufy cam kickstarter campaign with hundreds of posts/comments: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1116368506/evercam-the-wirefree-security-cam-with-365-day-bat/comments
As non-native-english-speaker i am sorry if you have problems to understand me

yamyam · April 15, 2019, 9:07pm

+++ YAMYAM’s SOLAR PANEL TEST & REVIEW - Part 6/7 +++

OK girls … after some days of testing and checking things out (as seen in the previous parts) …

… TIME HAS COME TO MOUNT AND CABLE THE SOLAR PANEL

But before we start, let me tell you that i wasn’t feeling of tapping cable slots or to us cable channels. And as i have a tiles facade anyway, i decided to use the following self-adhesive cable clamps:

For interested people, here is the german amazon link:

SOLAR PANEL MOUNTING PHOTO HAUL @22.03.2019

… review to be continued in the next part …

Forum Signature: Yes, it’s me, yamyam
Most of you may know me already as very active user, tester, commenter at the eufy cam kickstarter campaign with hundreds of posts/comments: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1116368506/evercam-the-wirefree-security-cam-with-365-day-bat/comments
As non-native-english-speaker i am sorry if you have problems to understand me

yamyam · April 15, 2019, 9:23pm

+++ YAMYAM’s SOLAR PANEL TEST & REVIEW - Part 7/7 +++

+++ THE RESULT! +++

After about 2 months of pre-testing and already over 3 weeks of ACTIVE REAL LIFE SCENARIO INSTALLATION am so much impressed and fascinated about this solar panel, even if it only brings up to 5W power and the eufy cam could handle some more ampere on input, this solar panel is a 100% buy recommendation from me!

Even me will order some more of those panels for all my other “heavy used and fast draining eufy cams” in the near future.

The solar panel is now already over 3 weeks in usage and my (solar panel) eufy cam (which is normaly drained empty in less than 2 weeks) NEVER FELT DOWN LOWER THAN 4/5 BARS IN THIS THREE WEEKS!

Means: My eufy cam is (under the current weather conditions and with at least 1-2 hours of direct sunpower or 6-10 hours of cloudy/shadow indirect sunlight … probably NEVER EMPTY AGAIN!!!

So everyone who has the same problem with the eufy cam battery power, get a solar panel and be happy!

The only sad about all this is, that eufy itself did not succeed in the past 6+ months (since it was defenitely clear that there is a demand!) to bring their own (optimal) eufy cam solar panel to the market!

I hope you all had fun reading my detailed and extensive solar panel test review!
(Invested a total of about 5-6 hours to bring it to you, hope it helps at least one other person than me)

Greetings
yamyam

+++ END OF REVIEW! +++

Forum Signature: Yes, it’s me, yamyam
Most of you may know me already as very active user, tester, commenter at the eufy cam kickstarter campaign with hundreds of posts/comments: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1116368506/evercam-the-wirefree-security-cam-with-365-day-bat/comments
As non-native-english-speaker i am sorry if you have problems to understand me

gAnkster · April 10, 2019, 6:23am

Great work bringing these to the community and making sure we see them. I missed the original post but I am a candidate for eufy cams. i have been interested in how they perform and any issues that occur with them when they ship. This definitely helps me know I need to wait to see these issues resolved! I am interested in the battery - 365 days is a bold claim. Would you mind telling me how many days you have had them running consecutively?

Thanks!

yamyam · April 10, 2019, 6:33am

Hi @gAnkster

You are welcome! But i guess you misunderstand this thread. This is about a solar panel i bought to fix my battery power problem with my most used eufy cam, which is empty every 2 weeks, and not about issues with the eufy cam itself. (Or maybe i am the one who misunderstand your post, if so, sorry)

Sorry don’t understand the question. What exactly do you want to know? And of course i do not mind telling you as soon as i understand your intention

By the way:
While we post here i am still filling up this thread and part by part of my review. There are still some parts missing (see the placeholders) and a lot of pictures and infos. Maybe your question is answered already in the until yet published parts?! Or maybe after i have finished posting all party of the review?

Greets
yamyam

gAnkster · April 10, 2019, 6:43am

I did! I read your other review and saw that you had problems with video quality.

I see now you had problems with the battery too. You already answered my question.

yamyam · April 10, 2019, 6:54am

Ok, now i understand
No problem, you are still welcome and you may post your initial post at the correct thread too then?!

gAnkster · April 10, 2019, 7:16am

Done!

MSTR · April 10, 2019, 7:23am

Nice detailed review! Thanks for sharing

yamyam · April 10, 2019, 7:56am

Thanks @MSTR - but not yet finished.
Just making a break, after part 1-3 took me about 3 hours already Part 4-7 (and i guess they are even more intersting than 1-3) coming as soon as i find time to post them.

But thanks for the thanks in advance

yamyam · April 10, 2019, 12:19pm

Before i continue to fill placeholder 4-7, i have some little update for all interested:

Here is their answer:

Ice1 · April 10, 2019, 12:10pm

Hey @yamyam glad to know this solar panel works for eufycam. Something to consider in near future.
Thanks for sharing details and review!

yamyam · April 10, 2019, 12:24pm

You are welcome bro!
Nice to read that you like my review and extensive testing.

UPDATE: Placeholder 4 is now completely filled and available since a few minutes. Have fun reading and looking! Another 2 hours of “work” invested. Let’s see when i will find time for the last parts 5-7

Probably not today, already “wasted” anough time for it today. And tomorrow i am busy the whole day and night, so hopefully i will find time for the last parts until weekend. Stay tuned … even more pictures and the test result is waiting for you all

yamyam · April 12, 2019, 4:38pm

UPDATE: Placeholder 5 is now available. Have fun reading and looking! Direct Link to Part 5: +++ YAMYAM's detailed eufy cam SOLAR PANEL TEST & REVIEW +++

The last two parts, including the result after several months of testing!

yamyam · April 15, 2019, 9:29pm

FINAL UPDATE: Placeholder 6 and 7 a.k.a. Part 6 and 7 are now available!
Have fun reading and looking tons of pictures and see THE RESULT of my extensive review!

If you don’t wanna scroll like insane:

Direct Link to Part 6: +++ YAMYAM's detailed eufy cam SOLAR PANEL TEST & REVIEW +++

Direct Link to Final Part 7: +++ YAMYAM's detailed eufy cam SOLAR PANEL TEST & REVIEW +++

IT IS DONE … REVIEW SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED!

I hope you all had fun reading my detailed and extensive solar panel test review!
(Invested a total of about 5-6 hours to bring it to you, hope it helps at least one other person than me)

Greetings
yamyam

Ice1 · April 16, 2019, 12:25pm

Read through all your posts @yamyam. Thanks for sharing detailed review and how-to guide, very useful if somebody wants to repeat the same efforts.
Good job bro !