Essential VMC2030 Sensitivity loss

[MrBill923]

Have had this camera - Essential VMC2030 - for almost three months. It has worked as expected. In the last two weeks it's motion detection has turned inconsistent. One time it records delivery van, the next time it does not. Same with people movement. I set up the camera exactly as directed, I have made no changes in the settings since I set it up. It just started being inconsistent. I contacted online chat support, and that person gave me all the standard tasks, none of them made a difference. Now they want me to reset to factory settings and start over. That does not make sense.  It was working fine with original settings. ( Yes, I cleaned the camera). App states my firmware is up to date. Anybody have this problem, any ideas?

Thanks 

[jguerdat]

A screenshot of the camera view with supporting description of motion missed would be helpful.

[MrBill923]

The camera worked fine; no changes were made to settings. One time it records delivery van, the next time it does not. Same with people movement. Motion has been recorded in all directions. I set up the camera exactly as directed. 

[StephenB]

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@MrBill923 wrote:

The camera worked fine; no changes were made to settings. One time it records delivery van, the next time it does not. Same with people movement. Motion has been recorded in all directions. I set up the camera exactly as directed. 

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Has there been a significant temperature change from the time it was working as expected?  Changes in ambient temperature will affect the performance of the passive infrared (PIR) sensors used for motion detection.

[MrBill923]

Camera is located in the Midwest, installed Mid May - now July. Normal temperature changes from 60's to 80's. Nothing unusual for anywhere in the world. Tech support has only given me the usual basic steps to troubleshoot no motion detection.  They do not understand that everything was working fine, then detection became sporadic for same motion from one day to next. 

[StephenB]

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@MrBill923 wrote:

Camera is located in the Midwest, installed Mid May - now July. Normal temperature changes from 60's to 80's. Nothing unusual for anywhere in the world

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Understood.  The most difficult scenario for the motion detection is when the ambient temperature is close to skin temperature (about 91 F) - since the sensor is IR.  So it's more difficult with July daytime temps than May.   Winter can also be challenging (just because people are wearing a lot of insulated clothing, and the exposed skin is colder).

Vehicles should be easier to detect than people, but we have some reports here that suggest that the paint color of the vehicle  matters - in particular posts saying that dark colors are detected more easily then light ones.

Have you tried increasing the motion sensitivity, and see if that is enough to resolve the problem?

[MrBill923]

Interesting thoughts about temperature and colors. But the camera is mounted in the shade of the front porch (no direct sunshine on north side) and even in the early morning it sometimes does not capture motion - whether its person or light or dark vehicles. It just seems so random. I can walk to my mailbox from garage and one time it records me and the next time it does not. It is a real brain twister. 

[StephenB]

The advertised motion detection range is up to 23 feet.  It looks the garage->mailbox walk is further away than that - is that the case?

[MrBill923]

Yes, camera to corner of garage is about 20 feet. Camera has always recorded what happens at far end of driveway and street. It used to record a delivery driver parked at end of driveway and walking up to front door. This problem just started 2 weeks ago. 

[StephenB]

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@MrBill923 wrote:

Yes, camera to corner of garage is about 20 feet. Camera has always recorded what happens at far end of driveway and street. It used to record a delivery driver parked at end of driveway and walking up to front door. This problem just started 2 weeks ago. 

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Not sure how to proceed - I don't doubt that the performance has changed, but it was overachieving Arlo's spec before.

I think moving the camera closer to the driveway would make the detection more consistent.  If this isn't urgent, you could leave the camera as it is, and see if performance improves again in the early fall.

[MrBill923]

Thanks for your ideas. I'm not a wait and see kind of person. I will try to increase the sensitivity and adjust camera's field of view.  I just can't understand why the camera stopped working the same after 3 months.  It makes me think there is a deeper problem just waiting to crash the camera. Thanks. 

[StephenB]

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@MrBill923 wrote:

I just can't understand why the camera stopped working the same after 3 months. 

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Motion detection performance does vary somewhat from season to season, and I think late spring and early fall are likely the best.

Of course you can never rule out a side-effect of a firmware update