topic Re: Why is my camera alternating between two image brightness levels? in Arlo Q

Why is my camera alternating between two image brightness levels?

Cyrano — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 23:28:18 GMT

I've set one Arlo Q camera behind a window, to observe my front porch.

The night vision on this camera is disabled.

At night, with my porch light on, things seem fine:

https://arlo.netgear.com/hmsweb/users/library/share/link/B0193CFEFFAD25FD

But when I turn off the porch light, the camera won't hold a constant brightness level. Instead, it alternates between two brightness levels, at a frequency of about once per second:

https://arlo.netgear.com/hmsweb/users/library/share/link/61EA07F41AC4E779

Any ideas on what is causing this weird behavior?

Re: Why is my camera alternating between two image brightness levels?

jguerdat — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 13:52:37 GMT

It looks like a light is turning on and off but there's the noise that may be causing it. Is there something nearby that could be causing the noise or is it the camera? I don't know why that would be causing a change in brightness unless there really is a light doing that.

Is your microphone enabled? Try disabling it. Both night vision as well as the mic are disabled on my Q pointed through a window and don't display this behavior.

Re: Why is my camera alternating between two image brightness levels?

TomMac — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 14:51:25 GMT

To me it looks like the camera is on the edge of iris sensitivity and filp flopping back and forth to B/W mode.

To fix , go to live mode and adjust the iris level ( looks like a small sun on the live view screen bottom when viewing ). It gives a + and - adjustment for light.

If that doesn't work, I'd reset the camera and test again.

Re: Why is my camera alternating between two image brightness levels?

jguerdat — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 17:50:39 GMT

Worth a try but I don't see color in either version. My cameras are very definite when switching in and out of B&W.

Re: Why is my camera alternating between two image brightness levels?

Cyrano — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 20:09:38 GMT

@jguerdat: The sound you hear on the video is coming from the camera itself, as something in its internal mechanism is toggling on and off.

@TomMac: Interesting idea! I'll test this hypothesis this evening.