Base Station question

[Dnikolai]

I have a VMB3010r2 base station with H7 cameras.   I bought 3 new Arlo Essential Cameras.   It appears my old base station wont work with my new cameras.  Is there a base station that would work with both my old H7 cameras and my new Essential Cameras?

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

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@Dnikolai wrote:

I have a VMB3010r2 base station with H7 cameras.   I bought 3 new Arlo Essential Cameras.   It appears my old base station wont work with my new cameras.  Is there a base station that would work with both my old H7 cameras and my new Essential Cameras?

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First, you can connect the essential cameras directly to your home wifi (w/o the base).  You'd lose local storage, and wouldn't have the ability to control all cameras from a single mode.

But to answer your question, the compatibility list is here: https://kb.arlo.com/000062284/Arlo-SmartHub-and-Base-Station-Compatibility

Note the essential cameras (unlike your old ones) don't include free 7-day cloud storage.  So you will need a paid subscription after the trial ends if you want storage. 

If you get new base, get a smarthub (VMB4540 or VMB5000).  Both give you the option of direct access to local storage ( https://kb.arlo.com/000062337/What-is-Direct-Storage-Access-and-how-do-I-use-it ).  That doesn't require a subscription, but has several limitations

• Access to recordings only in the app (not the browser)
• Access to recordings only using the primary account (not friend accounts)
• No manual recordings/snapshots
• No thumbnails
• remote access requires router configuration, which some find difficult.

Stand-alone bases are hard to find at the moment (and often are overpriced).