Been to 4 Retailers who Know NOTHING

[abdptyltd]

Hi some Details Please

What is the Life of the Battery before Re Charge?
How is Data sent into the Cloud & Stored ?
How do they perform with STEEL Buildings ???
Is there a recording System Unit ?
How do you Handle Wildlife Triggering ???
Distance of wifi signal for receiving ?
Battery Charge v/amps Please for Charging from Battery's in an OFF Grid System

I want to use 4 Cameras to Secure 3 Farm buildings externally  to Monitor for Theft & damage & 1 for a driveway Camera watching comings & goings the building requiring the base unit is Steel framed & Clad

Been to 4 Retailers who Know NOTHING

Thanks

[steve_t · Accepted solution]

If the total of your recording and live viewing is less than 5 minutes per day, you should get 4-6 months between charges

Data is sent over the internet to the Arlo servers, which are provided by Amazon Web Services

The Arlo Pro 2 cameras connect to their base station by a secure wifi network. If the steel building interferes with 2.4GHz wifi, it will affect the range of the cameras. You can use multiple base stations if you need to increase coverage area or signal strength. No limit on the number of bases but the number of cameras are limited by subscription plan. Up to 5 cameras for free with 7 days on the basic plan
The Pro base records simultaneously to a USB drive if you install one and turn on the feature. The drive can be up to 2TB. Unfortunately, to watch the contents of the drive, you must remove it from the base and plug it into a computer. VLC is the best player as some players won't render the video correctly
Triggering optimisation is based on camera positioning and the motion sensitivity setting
Line of sight, you get 300ft of range
The battery uses a Qualcomm fast charge charger. This does 5V for USB power and 9V for charging. You will need to use the included charger thus you will need 110V (or 230V in other countries)

[brh]

@abdptyltd

The sales people in the retail stores have to have a basic knowledge of often thousands of products. They get a little training on each product and are taught the buzz words and buzz phrases that the store wants them to use to sell the product, but more than likely they have no personal experience with the product. When I am thinking about purchasing a product, I have found the best place to get the information I need in the Amazon question/answer section and the reviews. Got to be careful about the reviews as many people refuse to read the operating manual and call a product a pile of trash just because they did little to no research on the product and didn't read the owner's manual.

Secondly, every property and every building is different so it is not possible for one to precisely answer your questions.

Steve_t did a great job of giving you the specs, so I will try to answer some of your questions from my personal experience.

1) As Steve said, the batteries can last 4 to 6 months with about 5 minutes of recording/day, but if you are leaving the cameras armed 24/7 and in a high traffic area, expect less than that. If you are unable to plug the power adapter into a wall outlet with AC power, I would recommend using Arlo's solar panel if you can and you will no longer have to worry about the battery life.

2) All videos and pictures are automatically sent to Arlo's servers over the internet with the length of storage depending on your subscription, (the first 5 cameras have free storage for up to 7 days. On the 8th day the first days videos disappear.

3) I live in a 1,000 sq ft older but solid home. The Arlo cameras are advertised to work up to 300 feet away with no walls or other obstructions in the way. Expect a lot less range than that. From my base station until the signal to the cameras drops off is about 50 feet. Different homes will have different results based on a lot of factors. I would think that the range would not be very good through a steel building which is denser that a brick home. I have read, though, of people placing their base stations with wifi extenders outdoors in a weather proof enclosure to increase the range. I typically find that the motion detection range for detecting humans walking across the camera's field of view to be about 20 to 25 feet. More for cars and trucks, less for people walking directly towards or away from the cameras.

4) These cameras don't record to or need an NVR or DVR. They are strictly cloud based, although as Steve said, the Pro base station has two USB ports for adding either flash drives or external hard drives for backup storage. They will not work simply using these storage devices - you must have the internet connection to the base unit. The base unit must physically connect to your router through an ethernet cable.

5) Wildlife radiates heat just as humans do , (automobiles radiate much more), and thus will trigger a motion detection just like humans do depending on the size of the animal. The bigger the animal the easier it is for the motion sensors to detect them.

6) As stated above, depending on a lot of factors, the wifi signal range can range from about 40 to 50 feet up to around 300 feet.

7) I believe Steve covered that quite well/

There is possibly a better solution, but a lot more expensive, and that is the Arlo Go camera that uses cellular data, requires no base station and should have much better range than wifi. Coupled with a solar panel they can be placed anywhere on your property.

Lastly, do your research well before you purchase a system that you may be disappointed with ater.

Brian

[abdptyltd]

Thanks More thn I got from all 4 retailers

First hand Will have to try 1 Maybe before diving in.

[Scott2ya]

I'll chip in a bit more. I am pleased with my purchase. I get about 1 month before I need to recharge on my busiest and about two on my least. All mine are outside watching my front door, driveway cars under my deck.. My dad was impressed with this system and he bought it based on my opinion, he wasn't that happy, mainly because he bought it for different uses, he wanted to mount most of his inside to monitor his thieving Foster and Grand kids. He has a very busy house with around 10 people on average running in and out. He gets only a weekend worth of battery on his most busy cameras. He's had to purchase extra chargers for those inside. Personally I'd buy something different if that's what I wanted to do.

[steve_t]

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@Scott2ya wrote:
I'll chip in a bit more. I am pleased with my purchase. I get about 1 month before I need to recharge on my busiest and about two on my least. All mine are outside watching my front door, driveway cars under my deck.. My dad was impressed with this system and he bought it based on my opinion, he wasn't that happy, mainly because he bought it for different uses, he wanted to mount most of his inside to monitor his thieving Foster and Grand kids. He has a very busy house with around 10 people on average running in and out. He gets only a weekend worth of battery on his most busy cameras. He's had to purchase extra chargers for those inside. Personally I'd buy something different if that's what I wanted to do.

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I'd say the Arlo Q or Arlo Baby would be better for him