topic Re: Activity Zones do not work in Arlo Ultra 2

Activity Zones do not work

Exergon — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 08:38:16 GMT

After defining a zone, the sensors always continue to pick up motion outside the zone, and everywhere in frame.

One camera is triggered hundreds of times a day, each time a car passes in the street about 50 feet away, even though the cars are outside the right of frame(?). Turning sensitivity down has no apparent effect. Have tried rebooting the base and both cameras, and after pulling batteries out of both, but no change.

Does anyone get the Activity Zone to work? And why is the sensor triggered by motion that is not even in frame?

Re: Activity Zones do not work

jguerdat — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 12:41:07 GMT

These can happen if the action is close to the zones (the zones are not absolute) or if it's due to IR reflections from objects outside thew zone but are bounced by objects inside the zone. A passing car easily can reflect the sun's IR to trigger a false recording. Reposition the camera to eliminate the street from view may help a lot.

Re: Activity Zones do not work

Exergon — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 01:27:37 GMT

Thanks for reply! I wondered how a reflective surface may have something to do with it, which is probably occurring with the most problematic camera and a window at an angle to one side of frame. I cannot repo that camera that much without omitting much of the area I need covered. Oh well. I have to keep it plugged in, otherwise the battery drains in 3 days from all the undue recording.

But Zones also do not work with my second camera, not triggered by cars, and no particularly reflective surface is in frame. I tried to get zones to work over the 3 years I've had these cameras, to no avail. So I guess they work for other users. Will take up with support.

Re: Activity Zones do not work

Fresty — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 08:45:00 GMT

It happens the same case for me.

The cameras do not view any street or other location in witch any accidental movement may occurs.
In most cases the camera captures every movement; the alert happens because of cats that across my ground and definitely out of the zones that I set.
I have also disabled the smart recognition of animals but it doesn’t work: the camera captures every movement in any zone within the frame.

Re: Activity Zones do not work

StephenB — Sat, 19 Aug 2023 13:41:57 GMT

@Fresty wrote:

I have also disabled the smart recognition of animals but it doesn’t work: the camera captures every movement in any zone within the frame.

Smart Notifications just affects notifications, it doesn't change what is recorded.

Sometimes even slight motion inside the zone will result in a recording (even if what triggered the motion detector was out of zone).

If you are using the zoom & tracking feature, try disabling that.

If the camera is zoomed in, it might also be worth zooming it out and resetting the zones.

Re: Activity Zones do not work

Fresty — Sun, 20 Aug 2023 14:32:44 GMT

I don't have zoom and tracking feature.

if I have to be honest I did,'t find the feature in the App. I navigated every option of the App and I did't find the option.

Re: Activity Zones do not work

jguerdat — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 13:39:08 GMT

It's in the camera settings under Video Settings.

Re: Activity Zones do not work

Fresty — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 18:56:11 GMT

Ok Thank you very much I found it.

I confirm that it is disabled.

Regards.

Francesco.

Re: Activity Zones do not work

Exergon — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 05:08:51 GMT

If I disable IR, the camera stops triggering by every passing car during the day. So it seems that IR is always active even when NightVision is not? Maybe a feature request is for IR to activate only when NightVision kicks in in the dark.

Re: Activity Zones do not work

jguerdat — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 12:52:32 GMT

By disabling IR I assume you mean deselecting Black & White which disables the IR LEDs used for night vision instead of the spotlight. That should have no effect at all on triggering since the trigger itself is what would turn on those LEDs. If you can see them glowing a dull red all the time, that's a problem.

Re: Activity Zones do not work

StephenB — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 12:13:44 GMT

@jguerdat wrote:

By disabling IR I assume you mean deselecting Black & White which disables the IR LEDs used for night vision instead of the spotlight. That should have no effect at all on triggering since the trigger itself is what would turn on those LEDs. If you can see them glowing a dull red all the time, that's a problem.

@Exergon: To (hopefully) clarify.

There is no control labeled "IR", so we aren't clear on what you mean.

The cameras have an passive infrared (PIR) sensor that detects motion. There is no specific control to turn that sensor on or off. You can set the sensitivity for that sensor in the rules for the camera, and there is a motion detection test you can use to help you find the right setting for it. You can of course also disarm the camera, or disable motion detection for the camera.

There are also IR LEDs in the camera that automatically come on when the camera needs to use NightVision. Again, there is no specific control for those LEDs. But if Nightvision is turned off, then those LEDs would remain off.

Though both of these are IR, they use different frequencies (that is, they would be different colors if you could see them). So they do not interfere with each other.