Can Arlo Pro 3 Smart Hub be combined with Pro 2 base station to extend range?

[Nat_Aus]

I have recently bought and installed an Arlo Pro 3 kit (Smart Hub + 4 cameras) to monitor our home and large garden. Unfortunately there must be a lot of interference around us and diminished wifi range limited the cameras to the house. I was able to use a wifi extender-repeater to receive my home wifi signal and boost this, allowing me to relocate the Arlo Smart Hub out of the house and into the yard area (in a backyard studio). This has allowed signal to reach the far corners of the yard (50-70 metres away) that were not possible when the Smart Hub was in the house. Unfortunately the cameras around the house suffer low signal.  I would like to add additional cameras to my existing 4 and boost signal.

I understand that I can buy another Smart Hub kit, however I thought to be more economical, can I:

- buy an Arlo Pro 2 kit with base station + cameras and hook this up to my home network?

- have both the Pro 3 and Pro 2 work together?

- combine Pro 3 and Pro 2 cameras well?

I'm interested because the Pro 2 price point is very attractive compared to buying another Pro 3 kit.

What would be the way to combine these? Have Pro 2 cameras in the backyard, sync'd to the base station in the studio yard; have Pro 3 cameras in the house, sync'd to the Smart Hub? Is that possible to get the most out of them?

Appreciate any suggestions in advance - cheers, Nat.

[jguerdat]

Generally, this will work well. If all cameras are on the same account, you can mix and match modes and rules utilizing all cameras as needed.

[michaelkenward]

That works here. Pro 2 base station (VMB4000) and Pro 3 hub (VMB4540r2).

But all cameras are connected to the Pro 3 hub for the sake of convenience and features. (My cameras are all within decent range of the Pro 3 hub.) I did have an Ultra hub with cameras connected, but consolidated it all to the Pro 3.

With newer firmware upgrading what the VMB4000 can do, I could probably split the cameras between hubs.

As @jguerdat says you can set modes and rules that use whichever hub you want.

Why keep the Pro 2 hub, because it has the loudest alarm going. (Just read all the complaints about newer hubs and their "silent" alarms.)

[Nat_Aus · Accepted solution]

Hi there,

I thought I’d share my outcome and reasons. It seemed that many people on this forum had experienced problems with the Arlo system when combining cameras from diff models to different stations.

I decided to buy another Arlo 3 Smart Hub and matching cameras. It works really well, but my image quality was poor due to bandwidth and distance. Having two smart hubs work well to cover my block (2500 sq metres) but wifi was still poor. I ended up setting up a mesh style network and this works fine. It seems that the 6 cameras work best when upload is about 10-15 mbps. Now both hubs have constant blue LED. 

I also decided to go Pro 3 for the extra hub and cameras because the Pro 2 price was similar, so no advantage price wise for me.

cheers, Nat

[michaelkenward]

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@Nat_Aus wrote:

I also decided to go Pro 3 for the extra hub and cameras because the Pro 2 price was similar, so no advantage price wise for me.

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The big difference, of course, is that Pro 2 cameras come with free on-line storage for life (so far).

With Pro 3s there is a three-month (I think) cloud subscription that you then have to pay for.