topic Need help setting up GPS and TIME automations in Arlo Pro 5S 2K

Need help setting up GPS and TIME automations

Fattdogs — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 22:50:55 GMT

Cameras:
2x Arlo Wireless Doorbell (Firmware: 1.9.0.0...)
1x Arlo Pro 5 Camera (Firmware: 1.050.33.7...)

1x Arlo Chime 2 (Firmware 1.1.0.0...)
1x Smarthub Basestation w/32Gb USB (Firmware 1.25.1.0...)
3x Arlo Essential Outdoor 2k Camera (Firmware: N/A Haven't set up yet because i absolutely hate this new app)

I'm the only person running the app and its on a Pixel 8a
Android 15

What I would like:
If Away -> Arm away (Always)
If after 8:00PM AND before 8:00AM -> Arm Away
If Home AND after 8:00AM AND before 8:00PM -> Arm Home

Or I can substitute 8:00PM with sunset and sunrise, that works too, but why is this so hard?

Currently I have the routines set up so that when I leave home it disables all time based routines, and sets to Arm Away, the issue here is if I come home after the time based automations, the cameras become disarmed and stay disarmed all night unless I intervene. Also lately even though the Arm away automations triggers as expected, however the morning time based automation will still activate disarming the cameras even when I'm not home and the sunrise automation should be disabled.

Screenshots:

Last night I spent the night at my GF's house and it armed properly, but I woke up to it being disarmed:

Leave home automation:

Arrive home automation

Sunrise automation:

All automations, I was going to set up a time based arming automation every 30mins throughout the night to counteract me coming home after sunset disarming them... But gave up cause there's no way that's the only solution

Me ranting:
As a software engineer, I find the new UI absolutely infuriating especially since the old UI worked great till my old Essential cameras died and I was forced to upgrade for the new Arlo Pro 5 camera. The routines and automations should be able to have a simple And/Or flow, but no you have to finagle it with enabling and disabling automations. I've spent hours sifting through these forums and reddit trying to find a solution to what I want, and there seems to only be one person who figured it out but I failed to replicate their success. I understand that background apps and GPS tracking can get buggy, so I don't expect the away/home GPS based automations to be perfect, but they should be a hell of a lot better then they are currently especially since I never had an issue with the old implementation. This app literally has me considering just abandoning the ecosystem I've spent plenty of money on over the years to jump to EUFY or someone better.

Re: Need help setting up GPS and TIME automations

StephenB — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 23:54:26 GMT

@Fattdogs wrote:

Cameras:
2x Arlo Wireless Doorbell (Firmware: 1.9.0.0...)
1x Arlo Pro 5 Camera (Firmware: 1.050.33.7...)

1x Arlo Chime 2 (Firmware 1.1.0.0...)
1x Smarthub Basestation w/32Gb USB (Firmware 1.25.1.0...)
3x Arlo Essential Outdoor 2k Camera (Firmware: N/A Haven't set up yet because i absolutely hate this new app)

I'm the only person running the app and its on a Pixel 8a
Android 15

What I would like:
If Away -> Arm away (Always)
If after 8:00PM AND before 8:00AM -> Arm Away
If Home AND after 8:00AM AND before 8:00PM -> Arm Home

How exactly is Arm Away different from Arm Home? (In terms of what cameras are armed).

Broadly, what you need to do is reserve the use of Arm Away for when you are away (e.g., geofencing). Then schedule Arm Home and Standby. I usually recommend arming all cameras in Arm Home, and modifying standby if you want to arm cameras between 8 am and 8 pm. But it'd be useful to know more precisely what you want before settling on how to set up the modes.

Once we lock down the modes, we can set up enable lists in the schedule automations so that the automations are disabled when the system is in Arm Away mode.

Re: Need help setting up GPS and TIME automations

Fattdogs — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 00:44:19 GMT

Arm Away arms all cameras with notifications, Arm Home just disables everything but the front doorbell with no notifications. I didn't set up standby but I suppose I can transition to using all 3.

I would like exactly this:
If Away -> Arm away (Always)
If after 8:00PM AND before 8:00AM -> Arm Away
If Home AND after 8:00AM AND before 8:00PM -> Arm Home

Essentially when I'm out of the house, arm the cameras, when I'm home disarm them either completely or just notifications. My issue with the Pro 5s is that it would get so many notifications the battery would die faster then the solar panel would charge it, the first week i had it, it died in 3 days cause I was doing heavy yard work.

So what you're recommending is:

Arm Away -> Everything Active with Notifications
Arm Home -> Everything Active with Notifications
Standy -> Disarm cameras between 8am and 8pm

also how would this counteract the issue I'm having where geolocation arriving at home after the time automation triggers disarms the cameras?

Re: Need help setting up GPS and TIME automations

Fattdogs — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 00:59:08 GMT

I've adjusted to use all 3 armed modes and disable the automations depending on the mode. The only issue I see now is that standby mode will only ever trigger if im in Arm Home and it's in the morning

Re: Need help setting up GPS and TIME automations

StephenB — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 01:09:23 GMT

@Fattdogs wrote:

So what you're recommending is:

Arm Away -> Everything Active with Notifications
Arm Home -> Everything Active with Notifications
Standby -> Disarm cameras between 8am and 8pm

No. I am recommending that you modify "Standby "to arm the doorbell (without notifications).

Then you enable schedule automations in "Arm Home" and "Standby", but disable them in "Arm Away".

"Leave" is enabled in all modes, and "Arrive" is enabled only in Arm Away.

These settings ensure that when you leave, the system will stay in "arm away" until you return.

Let me know if you need screenshots.

@Fattdogs wrote:

also how would this counteract the issue I'm having where geolocation arriving at home after the time automation triggers disarms the cameras?

One limitation with "Feed" is that arrive needs to switch into one mode - either "Standby" or "Arm Home". So there will be times whe you need to manually switch the mode when you return. There is no way to avoid that.

Re: Need help setting up GPS and TIME automations

Fattdogs — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 01:37:55 GMT

I appreciate the response, this is a better solution then I've had, I'll see if it holds up. I'm still astonished that a security system company managed to make worsen the functionality of their systems though.