topic Re: Is the any way to connect Arlo wireless to a battery powered MIFI device? in Arlo

Is the any way to connect Arlo wireless to a battery powered MIFI device?

Trickyt57 — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 21:24:44 GMT

Any burglar in 2016 knows that the first thing you should after breaking in, is to head for the junction box and turn off the home electricity. Arlo devices would then stop uploading activity to the net.

If I could instead use a battery powered router or modem, such as a MIFI device, it would continue to work.

Amyone with a solution?

Re: Is the any way to connect Arlo wireless to a battery powered MIFI device?

arlocurious — Sat, 09 Jul 2016 09:37:06 GMT

I am interested in that too, so anxious to see if anyone has that working... as well as their experience with the amount of data used. (There have been other discussions on that topic in case you have time to search for them.)

An alternative to consider if power outage / power cuts are your concern.... put all the devices of concern on UPS backup. (Ex: the Arlo base station and your modem/router.) You'd also get the "benefit" of multiple BEEPs from the UPS systems yelling at you that the power is out. 🙂

Re: Is the any way to connect Arlo wireless to a battery powered MIFI device?

TomMac — Sat, 09 Jul 2016 11:38:21 GMT

Yes, a UPS for the base and router solves the short term power problems. Been running one since I started running Vuezone .

Also, it has been shown that if the base looses power, sometimes the cameras will drop out of sync after a time... if your Arlo is remote( vaction home, etc) there is nothing you can do to bring the cameras back online as they need phyiscal interaction to resync.

As a plus, some have the option to send emails ( if a computer is on the sytem too ) to notifiy as to power loss

PS; i ran a test a whle back about taking a camera... the Arlo will record up tothe time the camera is turned off and the file will save up to that point.

Re: Is the any way to connect Arlo wireless to a battery powered MIFI device?

trickytcamgeek — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 10:34:41 GMT

So an uniterruptible power supply (UPS) would keep things going for a while so that could be the answer. I looked on EBay and saw 100s of UPS of all sizes and specifications from $80 to over $1000.

I suppose the UPS needs to have certain level of power? For example, I see 1000VA 600 Watts for $437, or 500VA 120 V for $80, or 2000VA 1800 Watts 120V for $1'449. What would be the minimum specification needed? Any guidance or ad vie is most welcome.

Re: Is the any way to connect Arlo wireless to a battery powered MIFI device?

jguerdat — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 11:13:32 GMT

I use an inexpensive (~$100) 750VA UPS. Based on my quick measurements, it seems like it should last around 18 hours. Haven't tested that but have no reason to believe it would be less than 12 hours in the worst case. Sizing will depend on both the load (measure with a Kill-A-Watt or similar) as well as the longest outage you expect to handle. If you're worried about another Northeast outage for days, you'll have to spend a lot of money. If it's for a few hours, something in the $100 range should do you good. Note that extra features, such as email notifications, would raise the cost some.

Re: Is the any way to connect Arlo wireless to a battery powered MIFI device?

trickytcamgeek — Sat, 16 Jul 2016 20:22:43 GMT

TomMac wrote:

Also, it has been shown that if the base looses power, sometimes the cameras will drop out of sync after a time... if your Arlo is remote( vaction home, etc) there is nothing you can do to bring the cameras back online as they need phyiscal interaction to resync.

PS; i ran a test a whle back about taking a camera... the Arlo will record up tothe time the camera is turned off and the file will save up to that point.

TomMac, thanks for your answers. I just ran a test of a power outage. I switched off my base stations for 5 minutes and then turned them back on. The cameras re-synced to the base stations automatically with no human intervention. However movements which took place in front of the cameras while the base station was switched off were not recorded on the cameras, nor transmitted to the base station.

Re: Is the any way to connect Arlo wireless to a battery powered MIFI device?

TomMac — Sat, 16 Jul 2016 20:52:35 GMT

trickytcamgeek wrote:
TomMac, thanks for your answers. I just ran a test of a power outage. I switched off my base stations for 5 minutes and then turned them back on. The cameras re-synced to the base stations automatically with no human intervention. However movements which took place in front of the cameras while the base station was switched off were not recorded on the cameras, nor transmitted to the base station.

Yes for short times, it will resync automaticly.... if the time get longer ( unknown amout but happen at a 45 min mark once ) the cameras totalty drop out requiring resyncing

Also Yes, no base power, no recording at all.

Re: Is the any way to connect Arlo wireless to a battery powered MIFI device?

Schorschi — Sat, 16 Jul 2016 21:15:28 GMT

We've had some power outages in the past few days due to hefty thunderstorms. I think the longest outage was just under two hours. Never needed to resync any of my cameras.

Re: Is the any way to connect Arlo wireless to a battery powered MIFI device?

TomMac — Sun, 17 Jul 2016 02:00:27 GMT

Good to hear....

But all fairness, this occurred a while , prob 3 + SW updates ago ....it hasn't dropped out in a while since but I have been running off the ups anyway , I wouldn't see it

the ups does keep everything running thru the short blackouts...