Camera Placement VCS4500C Arlo Pro 2

[t_00x]

Hi, I have two Arlo Pro 2 cameras slated for use in the front of house shown below. One will be by front door under covered porch, and the second is intended to cover the driveway.  With that said, with only 23 feet of motion sensing capability, I'm not sure where to place the driveway unit.  Initial instinct was to place it on the right corner facing driveway at an angle, but the large door is already approx 20 feet wide; and I'm guessing I'll miss any activity by smaller garage door.  Thoughts appreciated.   Thanks!

[Wklovelace3 · Accepted solution]

It takes some experimenting to get them where you want them. They go beyond 23 feet though. Ive had to move mine twice. I was picking up cars on the main road which is a good 50 feet. Vehicles mainly. Mine is under eave too in the corner and i get most people on the sidewalk which is 30 feet away. Thats at 55% and it picks up some cars too. At 100% i pickup everything and the road is further than the sidewalk. Also try not to put them in direct sunlight if possible. When the sun is directly overhead it messes with the motion detection for me anyway. A person could walk up my driveway and it wont pick it up at 55% but at 100 it will. When sun goes down it will pick a person up at 20% so keep that in mind.

[Wklovelace3]

Also forgot ro mention it picks up motion side to side better than head on. So maybe angle it so right side covers your front door and left the driveway.

[martincc]

I have several of each camera (Arlo, Arlo Pro, Arlo Pro 2, and Arlo Q with Audio) covering a home. The cameras are very good at monitoring indoor areas where nothing is moving. It is however, more complicated to install them (or likely any motion sensing camera) for security monitoring of exteriors. Some of these cameras, when running off AC only, do allow the user to set zones for motion but that does not help the majority of other cameras. However, they are prone to being set off by motions from the wind moving Palm tree fronds (branches) and/or their moving shadows and the location of the shadows varies with the time of day/Sun orientation too, so setting up a camera zone in the morning might not work out nearer to sunset for example. 

Some of my cameras monitor an outdoor pool area. But the motion of water coming active when the pool timer daily turns on the circulating pump sets off my Arlo Q. Zoning has not solved this because treess/their shadows/and pool water cover or abut the areas I need the camera to cover. 

Fortunately for me, the winds and shadow issues tend to be worse during the day, and since I have multiple cameras types I can disarm an Arlo Q prone to false alarming during these instances, or dismiss when one goes off each day at the same time (pool timer coming on for example). However, the Arlo App does not seem to allow one to disarm the alarm of other cameras (Arlo, Arlo Pro) selectively, just turn them on or off completely so if any Arlo or Arlo Pro or Arlo Pro 2 is having alarming, then it's either on or off for it/them, or disarm the entire group.

One good sign, my Arlo Pro 2 will recognise and alarm with messages to let me know when it recognizes people.

 I find the technology is improving but not yet fully reliable for security. Of course these also only work when Internet access is there, so if a bad guy cuts your cable wire, then what?

M

[st_shaw]

@martincc The Pro2 cameras use a passive infrared motion detector.  This will not respond to moving shadows, etc. and should be less prone to false alarms outside. I think the Pros behave the same, but I'm not certain.

[Wklovelace3]

The arlo q uses pixel based movement not passive infra red. So it will go off for pool water movement. The bad guy has to get on my property in order to cut the wire and there's not a spot in my yard you can go to without being detected. I guess he could cut it at the power pole but what are the chances of that

[martincc]

Thanks for the explanation, that helps me to understand the technical aspects of why I've experienced the alarms.

I do understand that it would be best to expand coverage of the cameras to alarm when someone approaches the cable/wiring where it enters the house. That is not easy, since there's no low profile location where I could hide the camera and reliably power it too; I cannot get one of my out doors Arlo Pro 2 with Solar Panel to work reliably yet.

[Wklovelace3]

The pro and pro 2 use passive infra red. Basically it shoots out 2 beams of infra red per light and there are several. It measures the temp and if beam a is 88 and beam b is 90 it will activate that there is motion. It picks up heat differences. I have noticed the sun plays a part in false motion alerts. I get them occasionally from a swaying branch that casts shadows on my driveway. The shaded shadow would be different temp than the rest of the driveway. I use the arlo smart so i only get alerted for people. For the most part it cuts out unwanted alerts