topic Re: Spotlight behavior issue in Arlo Ultra

Spotlight behavior issue

blong7699 — Fri, 13 Mar 2020 22:45:56 GMT

Why is my ultra’s spotlight being turned on when there is movement outside of my designated activity zone? I have designated an activity zone that does NOT include the street (see image below); however, all motion outside of this zone triggers a spotlight (including cars in the street). The problem with this behavior is that every car that drives by at night triggers my camera’s LED spotlight. Therefore, the only present solution is to turn off the spotlight altogether which is not what I want to do! Hopefully, this is a bug that can be fixed!?!? Anyone else having this issue?

Re: Spotlight behavior issue

jguerdat — Sat, 14 Mar 2020 13:10:18 GMT

Can't see the image yet - use the Attach File or paperclip at the bottom of the text box instead of the camera icon above it.

A typical issue is that the camera is pointed too horizontally. Rotating the camera down to eliminate the street would be the fix.

Re: Spotlight behavior issue

blong7699 — Sat, 14 Mar 2020 16:16:27 GMT

Image of activity zone(s)

Re: Spotlight behavior issue

blong7699 — Sat, 14 Mar 2020 16:17:28 GMT

Camera utility screen

Re: Spotlight behavior issue

blong7699 — Sat, 14 Mar 2020 16:23:26 GMT

@jguerdat wrote:

Can't see the image yet - use the Attach File or paperclip at the bottom of the text box instead of the camera icon above it.

A typical issue is that the camera is pointed too horizontally. Rotating the camera down to eliminate the street would be the fix.

Why would physically restricting the cameras view (pointing it downward) matter? Isn't the point of activity zones to limit what the camera is actually reporting and recording?

Re: Spotlight behavior issue

JamesC — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 21:14:32 GMT

blong7699,

The spotlight engages because motion is still being detected by the camera. The activity zone simply tells the cloud not to save the detected motion event in the library. For this reason, camera positioning is important if you do not want the spotlight to engage when the camera detects motion outside the activity zone.

JamesC

Re: Spotlight behavior issue

blong7699 — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 00:06:28 GMT

@JamesC , thanks for the response. Your solution helped me, and I’m sure others, who didn’t completely understand the distinction between general camera and Activity Zone movements.