SOLUTION for Allowing activity zones without power

[getalex]

I am practically giving you the solution to your customer's heavily requested and valuable feature.

Due to intense processing required to monitor so called "activity zones" you currently do not allow this feature in battery operated mode. I propose you allow activity zone configuration, and trigger the camera on motion detection, the same way you currently operate. The video feed goes out to the base station as usual. However, the main difference is that you do not push a notification or save the recording to the server *yet* -- your software processes the first few frames of the video to see if the activity zone was triggered, continues processing as you see fit to determine if any of the motion captured falls within the trigger zone.

If you don't find anything, you discard the video (or let the user review it later, without notifiactions). If you have a good indicators that you caught something within the activity zone, great. You push the notification and keep recording/processing. If this is too complex, at least provide your customers with the option, and expose the limitation that setting up a "battery-powered" activity zone is not as robust or instant as the standard always-powered option.

This is a happy compromise. I absolutely welcome your communication if you need any proof of concept help or implementation approach.

[Kmk85]

Arlo Pro 2- Home security use - Either the sensitivity levels need to actually work, which they don’t since a car driving by is detected at 1, or the activity zones needs to be offered for free during wireless options. After you figure out the sensitivity issue, I would also recommend some sort of better notification during nighttime operations when most people put their phones on sleep mode which silenced notifications.  Maybe some beeps from the base station or better yet, notifications from Amazon echo dots with Alexa or Google assistant. Kits should come with enough outdoor brackets for the cameras. Just price it in, it’s annoying you have to go out and buy more mounts and most people aren’t gonna buy them from you anyways when it’s just plane cheaper to buy them on amazon. On a positive note, I like the mic, speaker capability and video quality.  The company has great potential, but your risking losing repeat customers by not fixing these issues.

[NQ]

I am really very dissapointed by the fact that activity zones only work on A/C in my Arlo Pro 2 and I have not seen this restriction in the specs of the Pro 2 camera when I bought it.

Please , can one of your NetGear technician give me the solution for this situation? I do not want to waste my camera battery receiving false notifications all the nights long.

Please if you do not have any expectations  to have this feature added soon, let me know about it and I will return all the system back to the store with my money refunded.

Also, can any of your experts give me the way to update the firmware in my Arlo Pro Base Station?

Thanks,

NQ

[getalex]

It's worth mentioning that a few months after I posted this idea/suggestion, Arlo (Netgear) decided to go ahead and add "zones" as a wireless solution to not just the Pro 2 camera but just about any of their cameras, implemented in a very similar manner as I recommend here.. however, this feature costs a monthly fee per camera, making it rather expensive on top of the premium everyone already pays on the hardware.

I created my own "zones" by molding a lens cover on the camera, effectively blocking out my neighbor's yard and street - it's not perfect but it works well enough to have a poor man's zones solution. Another options is to couple these cameras with IFTTT devices, so if you buy a connected PIR monitor you can then trigger the camera when it detects motion - depending on lag times, it may not be an effective solution for you, but worth exploring if you are absolutely against paying this company a monthly fee (so they can keep making money after the sale until someone steps up and creates a better cheaper camera system, i.e. amazon in the near future with their blink aquisition) but that's another rant..

[britdog]

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I've ad 5 Arlo Qs for several years now and have been happy. Just spent $400 on two Arlo Pro2 and Base Station package and only after setting up and mounting have realized that I can't set activity zones when they run on battery. 

@getalex, you're saying that you can get this feature for a montly fee? Can you point to where this is described? Likely I'll have to get a pay plan anyway for my 6th camera, so hoping it's included in that $9.99/month plan. Any guidance appreciated. 

Netgear - Please do something about this, as this is not mentioned anywhere in the product literature and really feels like deceptive baiting to your otherwise satisfied customers like me. Feeling unhappy and deceived on this negative experience. Very disappointed and will likely have to return and start looking for another solution. 

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[getalex]

Hey @britdog I dont know the details, but I remember Arlo wants a monthly subscription and then on top of that $2 per camera for the activity zone feature.. say you have 3 cams and a base subscription, I can't imagine it being any cheaper than $10 or $15 per month to really get some good features...

[sdingding]

Same here!  I bought the system in December hoping to use the camera wirelessly!  But when it comes to activity zone, it's completely disappointed.  I don't mind changing battery but why make people pay for service in order to use it 😞

[tullyw]

Yes must be able to use activity zones without AC. And make the activity zone shape customizable so not just a rectangle.

[Eandori]

It quite irritated that my "wireless" camera system cannot be used wirelessly without a monthly fee.  This was NOT clear on the packaging.  The sensitivity is WAY too high so zones must be used or I get spammed with the slightest breeze blowing brush around.  40+ videos a day from a single camera, batteries dumping down and I cannot set an active zone because it needs AC power?

Tell you what Arlo... let me set my own zones, do them on battery power, and just try it myself.  Recharging a battery every few days would be better then what I have now.  They spam me so badly THEY ARE NOW TURNED OFF COMPLETELY which is the same as not having them!

And charging me every month for a feature that should be part of the initial offering?!?  It's just pissing me off!

[rikkidd]

I agree that this needs to be fixed and the cutomer presented with the option to enable. I have my Pro 2 cameras hooked to the solar panels and do not care about excessive battery drain from the processing required for the activity zones. Without the ability to use activity zones I have days when there is wind which have triggered over 4000 video clips to be recorded and caused the battery to die in 24 hours, the solar was not able to keep up the charge. If the activity zone was able to be used then it should have only triggered 8 to 10 videos instead of 4000+. Why is the solar panels not viewed as being powered either.

Other compentitors have the motion detection zone enabled on battery because even if it takes a little more power for the camera to determine if the motion is in the zone, the reduction of the ammount videos that need to be recorded seems to far outway the power consumption.

[Jun_Yu]

Bought my Arlo Pro 2 from costco few days ago, and only realized I can't do active zones without wired (I don't have power supply neer my camera) after I installed everything, it triggered too many alerts because of cars drive through front of my house, I think I need return it to store