topic Re: Activity zones in Arlo Pro 2 in Arlo Pro 2

Activity zones in Arlo Pro 2

Paul_FCCL — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 04:37:28 GMT

Are the activity zones back in AP2? I remember seeing something about the feature disabled a while back.

Thanks.

Re: Activity zones in Arlo Pro 2

steve_t — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 05:18:11 GMT

You can configure up to 3 zones when the Pro 2 is under permanent AC power

Re: Activity zones in Arlo Pro 2

Paul_FCCL — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 05:27:48 GMT

I understand that part, however I wanted to know whether it’s currently available as Netgear disabled the feature a while back (for some strange reason.....like the AP2 hardware wasn’t suitable to handle activity zones?). So just wondering now if it’s back and working. Are you using it with your AP2 and how is it working for you?

Thanks.

Re: Activity zones in Arlo Pro 2

steve_t — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 06:00:40 GMT

I haven't been using the feature.
I can set up the 3 activity zones, no problem there. But when I edit the rule for the camera to detect motion and record, there's no option to choose which of the 3 zones I want active... maybe it's always all of them??

Re: Activity zones in Arlo Pro 2

jguerdat — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 14:30:46 GMT

It should be active these days but I can't test it since my powered camera is indoors looking through glass which defeats the PIR motion detection (apparently the P2 uses PIR detection and pixle-based detection to determine the zones). We've been told that when you're AC powered and have defined zones, the zones (all of them) are automatically used in your rules. You don't get to choose whether to use them as well as which zones to use. It doesn't work at all like the Q cameras in that regard.

Re: Activity zones in Arlo Pro 2

Paul_FCCL — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 02:52:08 GMT

Wouldn’t the pixel-based motion detection be required (I’m assuming it’s working) in order to work through a window glass? If your camera is working ok and detecting motion through window, then it must use pixel-based detection. Activity zones, in that case, are optional.

Re: Activity zones in Arlo Pro 2

steve_t — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 04:34:10 GMT

wrote:

Wouldn’t the pixel-based motion detection be required (I’m assuming it’s working) in order to work through a window glass? If your camera is working ok and detecting motion through window, then it must use pixel-based detection. Activity zones, in that case, are optional.

Pretty sure his powered cam looking through glass is triggered by another camera

Re: Activity zones in Arlo Pro 2

jguerdat — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 14:14:50 GMT

Exactly - I have a nested rule where an outdoor camera triggers the indoor one. I have a rule for the indoor camera by itself but it never triggers.

Re: Activity zones in Arlo Pro 2

Paul_FCCL — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 23:23:41 GMT

@jguerdatwrote:
Exactly - I have a nested rule where an outdoor camera triggers the indoor one. I have a rule for the indoor camera by itself but it never triggers.

Jeff, do you have zones set up in your indoor AP2? I’m asking because it should trigger ok if the pixel-based detection was working as it should.

Re: Activity zones in Arlo Pro 2

steve_t — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 23:30:44 GMT

wrote:

@jguerdatwrote:

Exactly - I have a nested rule where an outdoor camera triggers the indoor one. I have a rule for the indoor camera by itself but it never triggers.

Jeff, do you have zones set up in your indoor AP2? I’m asking because it should trigger ok if the pixel-based detection was working as it should.

It's a "hybrid" detection system which uses PIR as the primary trigger and then looks at pixels, hence it doesn't work through glass 😞

Re: Activity zones in Arlo Pro 2

Paul_FCCL — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 23:55:45 GMT

wrote:

It's a "hybrid" detection system which uses PIR as the primary trigger and then looks at pixels, hence it doesn't work through glass 😞

Wouldn’t the preset activity zone(s) force the pixel-based trigger over the PIR, are zones just ignored in favour of PIR? Is there any AP2 technical reference text detailing these things?

Re: Activity zones in Arlo Pro 2

jguerdat — Sat, 10 Feb 2018 02:08:03 GMT

Yes, I have zones set but that hasn't affected motion detection. There's no reference I know of that details this but empirically it doesn't work. We;ve been told that it's a hybrid system that needs to use the PIR for motion detection and that's exactly what I've found. It's impractical for me to run power to my outdoor P2 so I can't say how that would work.

Re: Activity zones in Arlo Pro 2

Paul_FCCL — Sat, 10 Feb 2018 02:39:41 GMT

@jguerdatwrote:
Yes, I have zones set but that hasn't affected motion detection. There's no reference I know of that details this but empirically it doesn't work. We;ve been told that it's a hybrid system that needs to use the PIR for motion detection and that's exactly what I've found. It's impractical for me to run power to my outdoor P2 so I can't say how that would work.

That tells me the activity zone feature (nor the pixel-based detection) is working, it’s most likely still disabled. If I remember well......back a while ago, Netgear disabled the pixel-based detection, I don’t believe they ever put it back. I remember reading some posts about it, someone said he was told by Netgear support AP2 hardware wasn’t capable of operating with pixel-based detection.

I suppose this may/should be confirmed by support?

Re: Activity zones in Arlo Pro 2

jguerdat — Sat, 10 Feb 2018 13:31:50 GMT

It's an interesting/frustrating situation. I do have a couple of recordings from the indoor camera that don't also have a corresponding recording from the triggering outdoor camera. Here's the most recent:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gjtfnsfaatc599p/1518266961275.mp4?dl=0

The outdoor camera is mounted at an angle and would have difficulty seeing that small motion. I have no idea what's going on.

Re: Activity zones in Arlo Pro 2

st_shaw — Sat, 10 Feb 2018 16:56:24 GMT

As @jguerdat says, the activity zone requires both a PIR detection AND some activity inside the zone. I have confirmed this myself with my Pro 2 cameras.

It is quite easy to do a test to confirm this. Setup a camera indoors with an activity zone. Confirm it triggers inside. Point it outside through a window. Then try to trigger by walking through the zone outside.

Because IR doesn't pass through windows, this means you cannot have a camera inside detect activity outside using a zone.

Re: Activity zones in Arlo Pro 2

steve_t — Sun, 11 Feb 2018 00:38:23 GMT

I wonder if they run off a similar detection algorithm to Arlo Smart. The PIR detects the motion, the camera sends some data to the Arlo servers, which come back and say the pixels changing are inside or outside of the motion zones so either record or don't record

Re: Activity zones in Arlo Pro 2

Paul_FCCL — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 01:56:38 GMT

Or you could check how far motion detection can be triggered, either inside or outside. With the PIR system you’re only going to get a 20’ - 25’ max coverage (excluding triggers from hot objects like cars or trucks driving by). With a pixel-based system and activity zones, motion detection can trigger much farther, easily reaching the 40’ - 50’distance.

I may be wrong, but I believe the PIR automatically takes over when cam runs on battery, while pixel-based with activity zones (when working properly) is activated when cam is running on a/c power. That must be what they mean with “combo PIR-activity zones”, but only one or the other can be active.

Re: Activity zones in Arlo Pro 2

steve_t — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 02:11:52 GMT

Jguerdat's Pro 2 that looks through glass is AC powered and does not detect through the glass

Re: Activity zones in Arlo Pro 2

Paul_FCCL — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 02:29:48 GMT

wrote:
Jguerdat's Pro 2 that looks through glass is AC powered and does not detect through the glass

Yes .........that might be due to “disabled activity zones feature in AP2?” original question. That’s why I also said “when working properly”.

PIR and pixel-based are two completely different motion detection methods, I’ve never heard of them wotking together, it’s either one or the other active. Again, I may be wrong here, you’re welcome to correct me with something I may have missed.

Re: Activity zones in Arlo Pro 2

st_shaw — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 02:57:38 GMT

wrote:

wrote:

Jguerdat's Pro 2 that looks through glass is AC powered and does not detect through the glass

Yes .........that might be due to “disabled activity zones feature in AP2?” original question. That’s why I also said “when working properly”.

PIR and pixel-based are two completely different motion detection methods, I’ve never heard of them wotking together, it’s either one or the other active. Again, I may be wrong here, you’re welcome to correct me with something I may have missed.

At least two of us have already explained in this thread how the Pro 2 currently works.

No. It is not due to activity zones not working.

No. There is no reason why you must have either one or the other detection methods active, but not both.

Yes. PIR and pixel-based can be programmed to work together. It's called a logical AND operation.

Just because you havene't seen it doesn't mean that's not how it works.

Why do you keep questioning everything? Read my post for a description of how to test this yourself. It would only take a few minutes.