Arlo 4 outside with AC power?

[ddinisco]

Can the Arlo 4 be plugged into AC outside instead of replacing the battery every few months? If so, can does it come with everything needed in the box. 

[dcfox1]

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@ddinisco wrote:

Can the Arlo 4 be plugged into AC outside instead of replacing the battery every few months? If so, can does it come with everything needed in the box. 

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The camera comes with a indoor charging cable but they make a 25 foot outdoor charging cable but you may have to wrap the excess up. There may be shorter third party cables but people have run into problems with them and Arlo does not support them. 

Arlo Security Camera Accessories | Chargers, Mounts, Skins & More"

[Retired_Member]

Yes, and no.

You'll need an outdoor magnetic charger cable, as the one that comes in the box will degrade in strong sunlight (the plastic will get brittle and crack) and the connection isn't waterproof.

Best to use an Arlo branded cable as some cameras such as the Pro 3 Floodlight can detect whether it's the genuine cable or a cheap generic cable, and won't operate while charging unless it's the genuine Arlo cable.

You can either drill a hole big enough for the USB connector on the cable to pass through, put the charger indoors, and seal up the hole with silicon or similar, or run AC power into a box designed for the job like this one (attached) and put the USB charger in the box.  Modifying AC wiring outdoors requires a certified electrician in many countries by law.  If that doesn't apply where you are, be sure to look up what a 'drip loop' is - be absolutely sure no water can get inside the box or into whatever space you're feeding AC power from.

[ddinisco]

Thank you both. It is rather disappointing that plugging it is so complicated. I don't mind the idea of battery, but I know in reality it won't last long enough for it not to be a pain. It would be better to set it and forget it.

[Retired_Member]

It is a bit of work though with my system I ran power cables to most of the cameras and I was very happy I did it.

I didn't realize it at the time, but with the 'Pro' model cameras (at least the Pro 3, I don't own any Pro 4s) if you connect a power cable to the camera it will record all the time but only 'trigger' and actually send video to the cloud if motion is detected.  It keeps a very short rolling recording in memory, and uses it to add 3 seconds of video to the beginning of a 'relevant' recording, so you can see what happened immediately before the camera was triggered.  Motion sensors can sometimes be a little hit and miss, it sometimes takes a second or two for them to detect something moving, so those extra 3 seconds at the beginning can make the difference between seeing who or what actually triggered the camera or seeing a half second of the back of someone's head.  This isn't well documented in the marketing material so I wasn't aware of this, but I've found this feature to be excellent and combined with not having to climb ladders to charge batteries I was very happy I ran power cables to the cameras.  I have one camera that is charged with a solar panel as the wall its on faces nearly due south and that works very well, but you don't get the '3 seconds' feature with solar panel charging.

[ddinisco]

When you say it is 'recording' all the time when plugged in, do you just mean the camera is active all the time and thus helps with the pre-roll? My understanding is that is only recording when it is sending data to the cloud. Does it have some form of internal recording device?

[StephenB]

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@ddinisco wrote:

When you say it is 'recording' all the time when plugged in, do you just mean the camera is active all the time and thus helps with the pre-roll? My understanding is that is only recording when it is sending data to the cloud. Does it have some form of internal recording device?

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He is talking about the "foresight" feature.  https://kb.arlo.com/000062053/How-does-the-Foresight-feature-work-on-my-Arlo-camera

When a camera with foresight is AC-powered, then it is always capturing video - so whenever motion is detected, the previous 3 seconds of video can also be included in the recording.

The camera isn't always recording/streaming, just capturing video.

[ddinisco]

Thanks. That makes sense.

[PropertyGuy]

I am looking at buying the Arlo Pro 4, and I've noticed that there are 25 foot cables to run to solar panels for the Arlo 3, however, I'm not seeing a comp for the Arlo Pro 4 and would definitely need a cable of that length, can someone with an Arlo Pro 4 verify that there are indeed cables of that length that work with this model?

Thank you in advance. 

[StephenB]

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@PropertyGuy wrote:

I've noticed that there are 25 foot cables to run to solar panels for the Arlo 3,

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No.  There is an outdoor charging cable that is 25 feet, and has an integrated power adapter.  There is also a solar panel that also has an integrated 8 foot cable.  But no 25 foot solar panel cabling.

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@PropertyGuy wrote:

I'm not seeing a comp for the Arlo Pro 4

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The Pro 3 and Pro 4 use the same accessories.