Pro 3 camera issue

[grandpawmoses]

I have an Ultra system with 6 Ultra, 2 Pro 3, and 2 Pro 2 cameras.

Only have an issue with the Pro 3 cameras. Both trigger for movement constantly, like 60 times a day with no apparent movement in the recorded videos. I have lowered the sensitivity on these (5% at a time) to 15% and they still false trigger.

Any suggestions?

Both Pro 3's have firmware: 1.060.10.12_358_e212922

Ultra base firmware: 1.16.1.1_475_71659aa

[jguerdat]

You are changing sensitivity in your modes and rules, right?

Post a video link for one of these so we can see.

[grandpawmoses]

Yes, this is one of this mornings videos at 20% sensitivity. They are about 3 minutes apart and only on the Pro 3 cameras. It started on both Pro 3 cameras at once. All the other Ultras and Pro 2's are fine at 85% sensitivity.

[StephenB]

Did you try swapping around the cameras, to see whether the issue is related to the scene or the camera? 

I think the trees are going to trigger a lot of motion recordings, especially when back-lit (as they are here).

If you have a paid subscription, then Activity zones might help, though even there you are likely to get motion recordings then the ground is lit due to the moving shadows.

Turning off "all other motion' will certainly control the notification rate, but not the recordings.

[K80Shooter]

Notice the shadows moving from the trees? Mine are doing the same thing and I'm 90% sure that it's the shadows. I also have played around with the sensitivity to no avail. Are you by any chance running these off of ac power? Mine picks up a lot more when running on ac. Also the activity zones on my pro 3's have no affect on what's picked up.

[dcfox1]

I was receiving  alerts from trees in breezy weather. I adjusted activity zone and corrected a lot of it.  Also i noticed in the video a white thing moving into the screen on the left side below ur picture at 10 seconds. not sure what it was. saw it later in your video. mabey its just the recording. 

[StephenB]

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@dcfox1 wrote: Also i noticed in the video a white thing moving into the screen on the left side below ur picture at 10 seconds. not sure what it was. 

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I think that's a leaf (sunlit).

@grandpawmoses:  Are you wanting to monitor that area for wildlife?  Or are you interested in monitoring for security?

If this is about security, you might do better to aim the cameras towards the house instead (mounting them on the fence, or perhaps on the tree.

[K80Shooter]

I'm betting he's wanting to see the deer that's coming to that salt block he has out there but also as a security camera.

[grandpawmoses]

Thanks for the replies.

I am retired and have a hobby of watching the wildlife, with a special interest in Whitetail deer, hence the salt block. I don't hunt them. 

I have 10 cameras total. Only two are Pro 3's. All others (Ultras and Pro 2's) are working as they should at 80% sensitivity.

Both Pro 3's have this issue. I get about 80~100 recordings from these two in about a 24 hour period (with them set at 20% sensitivity). 

Here's one from last night for your pleasure:

[grandpawmoses]

To just say it's interesting would be an understatement. Here's one more:

[dcfox1]

I have one for the same thing. Try the activity zones on the pro3 cams to eliminate the part of trees which u would't see animals or people. pretty much the top quarter or so. It cut my alerts down in a breeze or wind a lot but not perfect. Your set up is a lot like my on one of my cam toward the woods. 

[K80Shooter]

@grandpawmoses 

Are you running these on ac power or battery?

@dcfox1 

I see you also have the pro 3 correct?

My activity zones are worthless and so is the sensitivity settings. Mine are running on ac power though. I'm waiting on Arlo to post back as I have saw many posts where the activity zones not working. Are you running on battery power?

I'm wondering if that's what's causing my problems.

[grandpawmoses]

They are on AC power.

[dcfox1]

k80  i am on battery on pro 3 and it seems to be working  much better or one heck of a coincidence since then its been really windy the past week after setting them up had very few trees blowing  outside the active zones as before . I did  hear conflicting reports that it has to be on ac but dont know. i read cvr has to be not activity. 

[K80Shooter]

@grandpawmoses 

I thought you might be on ac power when you said the sensitivity was turned way down with no affect. I'll also wager that if you set up a activity zone that the pro 3 will record outside of it also. Mine is doing the same thing and I'm very unhappy about these issues.

@dcfox1 

I've also saw conflicting reports. I am not subscribed to cvr only the basic stuff. 

I do like how the detection range is boosted while on ac power but the activity zones really need to work. At night I'll get every car that goes up or down our road and they are a good 130 ft away and way out of the activity zone. Night, dusk and dawn is when mine picks up the vehicles. During daylight hours it does not.

[dcfox1]

If u could't use activity zones on battery i would think it would't allow anyone to set it up as it can tell if its on ac But who knows 

[StephenB]

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@dcfox1 wrote:

If u could't use activity zones on battery i would think it would't allow anyone to set it up as it can tell if its on ac But who knows 

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The same configuration is used for both cloud activity zones and local activity zones.  You can always set it up (even if you have no subscription and run on battery power).  But you will see a warning that activity zones are disabled if you are on battery with no subscription.

@grandpawmoses :  I think you should simply disable smart notifications for "all other motion" and "vehicles".  You'll still get the recordings in the library.  But you can easily set the filter to "animal" to eliminate the clutter.  This would require a subscription for at least the two cameras though.

You might also try swapping the cameras around, and see if the pro3s generate fewer unwanted recordings in another spot.

Thx for sharing the videos! 

[grandpawmoses]

Thanks for the ideas.

I do have a subscription for the ten cameras.

I don't mind the notifications but I hate to look through that many videos to see if there are anythings there.

Here's a little more information about my camera location swapping.

The Ultra's wouldn't perform there at that distance from the base. My best guess is that it has to do with the 4k vs 2k resolution signal requirements.

The Pro 2's do work there without issue. I added the Pro 3's there mainly for the better night vision. The Pro 3's worked perfectly there for a while.

Here's my theory. The sensitivity is always at about zero regardless of the sensitivity setting.

??????

[K80Shooter]

@grandpawmoses 

You stated that they worked fine to start with. When they worked were you running on battery power by any chance? Did your problems start when you added ac power? Or maybe after the last app update?

Try this and I'll almost guarantee your problems will go away. Just run on battery power only for a couple of days and see how it works.

I really think there is a problem with the app/software causing these problem as it seems that it's only when running on ac power.

I'll bow out after this post, hope they work out for you.

[StephenB]

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@grandpawmoses wrote:

Here's my theory. The sensitivity is always at about zero regardless of the sensitivity setting.

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I think you are finding that the sensitivity is always too high (not too low).  The cameras do react somewhat differently to motion.  

Another thought is that you could try disconnecting the power, and see if that makes any difference.

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@grandpawmoses wrote:

I don't mind the notifications but I hate to look through that many videos to see if there are anythings there.

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That's why I suggested using the filter when you access the library.

[grandpawmoses]

Here's an update.

Still having the same issue.

I Have tried disconnecting the AC & removing the batteries for 10 minutes. Then ran for a day on just batteries on 1% sensitivity. Both Pro 3's still triggering at a rate of once about every four minutes. 

This is the windy time of the year here and this year seems especially so. Hoping that's it & get a return to normal soon.

[K80Shooter]

I'm still having issues with the sensitivity myself. How many Pro 3's do you have" If there one that maybe not doing this maybe you could swap locations with it to see if the problem follows the camera or switches to the new one.

I will say that mine will pick up the tree shadows moving and start recording on a windy day. Also if there's a hard surface such as a deck or concrete drive it will pickup rain drops hitting the surface up close. Sensitivity settings does not help on mine.

Good luck, sorry I couldn't help.

[grandpawmoses · Accepted solution]

Problem solved.

Ever since I upgraded to the Ultra system I've had an issue with the smart hub going off line. It was only for a few minutes at a time and only happening about once a week so I accepted that it was somewhat normal. Well, two weeks ago it went off line for good. Tech support had me try everything they could think of to reconnect it & finally decided to replace the hub under warranty (10 months old). Was waiting for the replacement but Arlo kept telling me none were in stock right now. 

With the current riot situation underway and me being out of a security system, I broke down and bought another Ultra hub. I installed it and the camera issue has disappeared.