topic Re: Need Security Camera recommendations in Arlo

Need Security Camera recommendations

LK23 — Sat, 14 Mar 2020 05:18:01 GMT

I need a wireless, battery-operated security camera that will connect to my iPhone when movement is detected. My only Internet source is Verizon Wifi. I am concerned that cloud-based storage will eat into my Wifi data usage. Does Arlo offer a camera with local storage? Or, can you turn off Cloud-based storage? Any recommendations?

Re: Need Security Camera recommendations

TomMac — Sat, 14 Mar 2020 13:08:50 GMT

They're ALL are really cloud based even tho Arlo cameras do support local backup on most bases

So they may not suit your needs re data usage

Re: Need Security Camera recommendations

LK23 — Sat, 14 Mar 2020 15:18:41 GMT

Thanks for the prompt reply. A couple of questions:

1. Can the cloud-based upload be turned off and still give me iPhone notification of camera screens when motion is detected?

2. I plan to use the security camera one day inside my motor home while it is being serviced. Any estimate of how much cloud-based data usage if the motion sensor is activated 10 to 12 times?

Thanks,

Re: Need Security Camera recommendations

StephenB — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 14:42:13 GMT

@LK23 wrote:

1. Can the cloud-based upload be turned off and still give me iPhone notification of camera screens when motion is detected?

That depends on the camera. The Pro3 and Ultra won't upload to the cloud unless you have a paid subscription, but they will give you notifications. One challenge is that they come with a trial subscription - not sure if you can opt out of that or not.

@LK23 wrote:

2. I plan to use the security camera one day inside my motor home while it is being serviced. Any estimate of how much cloud-based data usage if the motion sensor is activated 10 to 12 times?

Arlo says the 4K camera (Ultra) needs a 3 megabit network connection (in practice it can be less).

If you set the camera to record for 10 seconds when motion is detected, then you'd be talking about 2 minutes of recording per day. That works out to about 45 MB (12 recordings *10 seconds * 3 megabits/8). If you view them once, then you'd need to double that.

FWIW, the Arlo Go is likely the best option for what you want to do. It has it's own SIM card, so you wouldn't need to provide it with WiFi from your phone or an LTE hotspot. It also wouldn't use as much bandwidth as the Ultra (it's be about 15 MB/day in the scenario above).