Infrared cut-off filter is activated on motion even though spotlight is off (B&W night visio

[chuck21]

I've noticed with some of our essential cameras that the infrared filter can activate when motion is detected, even if the spotlight is not set to come on. This means the recording ends up blank at night after the first second or so, as B&W night vision is not possible with the filter on. It acts like the visible light spotlight is about to come on, even though it isn't.

It might only be doing this when the system is armed (that I've noticed), so maybe a race condition when the siren is set to go off? IDK how it's programmed 😛

[chuck21]

Also have found times on other cameras where the spotlight is enabled and it doesn't come on as it should

I honestly think Arlo should assign a PM to us as we have so many issues and we could work together on solving them, haha

[StephenB]

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@chuck21 wrote:

I've noticed with some of our essential cameras that the infrared filter can activate when motion is detected, even if the spotlight is not set to come on. This means the recording ends up blank at night after the first second or so, as B&W night vision is not possible with the filter on.

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Something is definitely wrong.  If this is happening all the time, I suggest trying a hardware reset - removing the camera from the account, holding down the button until the camera flashes amber (~15 sec) and then adding it back.

If this is intermittment, then it is possible that there is just enough light in the scene to keep the camera from using IR (but not really enough to capture visible light).  You might try swapping cameras, to see if the problem moves with the camera or if it stays with the location.

[chuck21]

@StephenB it's random and infrequent. It seems like a firmware issue. There is no light source changing that would make it think it's daylight.

[ShayneS]

I have escalated your case & someone from support will be reaching out to you as soon as possible.

[chuck21]

Thanks. I'm not having the greatest success with the phone support. They did not call today, and I don't really think they understand the issue. They kept wanting me to go verify that the infrared LEDs are coming on. Like, yup, you can even see that they *were* on in the video I sent, but went off........ *sigh* Now they say they can't view my videos. 🤔

[chuck21]

One thing I neglected to check is if the infrared LEDs stay on and it's just the filter turning on, or if the LEDs turn off, too. It is an inconsistent issue so would be hard to test. I wish there was a debug log or something haha

[chuck21]

Also I have a couple recordings now where the spotlight (on other cameras where it's enabled) goes off and comes back on again. 

The firmware on these units is 1.6.0_1530_073be65 which was released early March (I don't know when they were actually updated to that though). So my guess is the issue is with the siren being trigged, as we recently set the automation to arm the system at night about two weeks ago, rather than just the firmware by itself. Did not see the issue before that, and actually have disabled the system arming automation now as it was mostly triggering for some poor opossums and rabbits, so I'm curious to see if the issue is still present now.

Sorry for all the posts but maybe some engineer will read this. Maybe

[chuck21]

I don't think this issue occurs when the sirens are not armed, but I want to see another night or two before I'm sure. Conclusion would be there is a bug when the siren is triggered 

[chuck21]

Yup I can say with a pretty high degree of confidence this issue emerges only when the cameras are armed.

[chuck21]

So far the phone support has called on a different day than asked and then not called back on the day they said they would 😞 

Can I just submit a bug report?

Can I have access to device logs to help diagnose the issue and maybe pinpoint what is happening?

[ShayneS]

Hi @chuck21 I followed up on this and someone should be contacting you again to verify some information.