Arlo|Smart Home Security|Wireless HD Security Cameras
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Alerting Mechanism for Base Station / Camera Offline

Our installation will be very remote beach house. There is a need for mains failure detection in case intruder has deliberately switched of the power. This would be a nice sofware update feature.

Comments
ant
Mentor
Mentor

Without having to log into our app and web site accounts.

ArloJohn
Follower

Someone please let me know if this is already available.

 

It would be nice to be notified, in the app or via email, when the base station loses connectivity with the Internet and/or the Arlo Service.  Since the Arlo Service is a cloud service, they should easily be able to know when the base station is disconnected and not receiving feeds/status updates from the Arlo devices and/or base station, and then, alert via app or email there is a problem.  This could at least allow people to reboot the base station, which usually reconnects it to the Arlo Service, and gets things back to normal.  Currently, we don't know when this happens, unless we look at our app and see the dreaded "getting status" notification, which is a good indicator that it's disconnected.

 

ArloJohn
Follower

Hi All - I just posted this in another area of this forum, but thought this may be a better area.  Here's a link to the post: https://community.arlo.com/t5/Arlo/Notification-on-disconnect-from-Arlo-Service-Internet/td-p/171168...

 

In case you don't want to follow the link, here's that the contents of my idea is: 

 

Someone please let me know if this is already available.

 

It would be nice to be notified, in the app or via email, when the base station loses connectivity with the Internet and/or the Arlo Service.  Since the Arlo Service is a cloud service, they should easily be able to know when the base station is disconnected and not receiving feeds/status updates from the Arlo devices and/or base station, and then, alert via app or email there is a problem.  This could at least allow people to reboot the base station, which usually reconnects it to the Arlo Service, and gets things back to normal.  Currently, we don't know when this happens, unless we look at our app and see the dreaded "getting status" notification, which is a good indicator that it's disconnected.

 

Maybe there's an IFTTT integration or something already out there (seems slow).  I'll look in that direction as well.

 

g_roh
Novice

Is an application software update possible to be notified when the central station runs out of electricity / internet connection? Since when this happens the alarm system is useless and the user is never aware of this.

Mike225
Aspirant

I have an Arlo running through a hotspot.

Assuming that the Arlo, the bridge and the hotspot all are plugged into a UPS, is there a feature or adapter I can add which can send me an alert when the building has loss power and the system is now running on the UPS?

This is a remote location and I would like to more easily diagnose when loss of connection is due to loss of power or loss of signal.

Thanks for any input you can provide,

Mike H.

AntonyFamily
Onlooker
Provide notification when base station is offline, which could be due to power or network issues. It would be good to know that security cameras are inoperable for any extended period of time. Also, please modify the polling or battery management of the cameras when the base station is offline. When the base station is offline, camera batteries die within a matter of days. With multiple cameras this can be costly and/or tine consuming. Also, if away, this means the cameras don’t work even when the base station comes back online. When the base station is offline for an extended period the camera polling should progressively extend, moving from frequent to less frequent polling (seconds to minutes to hours) to conserve battery.
valerama
Aspirant

4 years later and this is still not a feature? That tells us something.

 

I need to be notified about issues beyond a low battery alert (which is sketchy at best). I've frequently had all cameras lose their connection to the base station, they don't reconnect and the batteries get drained. With batteries on my original Arlos costing $9 for a set of 4, it's bad enough... but a couple of these devices require a ladder to access making it even worse. All of my devices have adequate signal strength.

 

(I've switched to rechargable batteries for most of the devices, but as they don't last as long as traditional batteries, the hard-to-reach cameras aren't using the rechargeables.)

 

I suspect posting here is a waste of time. My one-year-old system may just be a lost cause.

MarkC
Luminary
It is an absolute joke to be honest. We have been asking for this for years and it is as if their customers don't matter. I am surprised that they are still going to be honest. They have the ability to ping the cameras for battery status so there is no reason they cannot have the app or base report if one is offline. For example the Smartthings hub and app have this exact ability where it week report if a camera is offline (with the use of a SmartApp so how can Netgear hold us in such contempt. After all this should have been baked into the system from the start. My advice to you all is to get a proper ip camera system with a cheap dedicated NVR, you can pick up extremely descent packages from Amazon at less than half the price of the Arlo system and these cameras are 4k, support proper zone detection and record 24/7 with the ability to save motion events to the cloud automatically. You will have to run cables of course but with POE, WiFi bridges or actual WiFi cameras or is so easy these days and worth the effort for the end result. I moved to this a while back and have zero regrets. For the areas that you cannot run cables to I I use Blink XT cameras. Again, half the price. The batteries last a year and it notifies you if a camera goes offline. It also has some of the ather features like zones etc. Well as best as it can be on a battery system and I feel works even better than the Arlo attempt. Oh and no subscription costs! At best, give Blink XT a try and see how you feel. Netgear have lost the plot with just taking your money for supposedly better cameras every few months with zero added functionality. Goodbye Arlo!
sm1975
Guide
Thats exactly what i've done.... as soon as the system failed within the warranty period, the store gave me the option of store credit or replacement. I could not beleive my luck. I ditched this system for an NVR and now i have things like 24/7 recording, 2 weeks local storage with cloud based uploads for images, HD quality video where i can now zoom in to license plates out on the street, timestamps on video + many other features like perimeter line crossing, face detection , zones, etc,,etc... Do yourselves a favour and move on from any cloud run surveillance system...
valerama
Aspirant

I agree, it's become a joke. I'm gonna look elsewhere for a better, cheaper product. (I got suckered in on Prime Day last year.)