Arlo Pro 4 with 4540 Smart Hub wont connect ... and more

[StanKL]

Pro 4 successfully connected to 4540 Smart Hub. Hub successfully connected to wifi network.

--Live feed won't connect via app on Android phone -- neither via wifi  or via cellular with wifi off. Sometimes it does, most time it doesn't.

 --When it doesn't, If I go to SETTINGS/DEVICE UTILITIES/CAMERA POSITIONING live feed begins in that window and within 20 secs or so shows "Strong Video Bandwidth".  Then upon return to the main screen, a live connection can be made, either via wifi or cellular. Any ideas on why live feed is not available, then can be made available by simply going to the Utility? Seems like firmware bugs to me.

--Question: Is live feed dependent on Arlo servers being up and running??? (that wouldn't be much of a security system.)

--Latency is horrible!!! Alerts occur many seconds (5-30) after a trigger with a greater than 200MBS download/25MBS upload internet connection and very fast router and uncluttered network channel. Has anyone come up with a way to speed it up to a second or two?  Is it feasible to do so with cloud storage/operation?

--Has anyone found it necessary to use a different wifi, local storage system to avoid the latency? Which one?

Stan

[jguerdat]

Try moving the hub and/or camera to see if that helps. This sounds like a signal quality issue to me. Having the hub too close to the router can cause issues but there are other sources of interference that could be causing this. Check for nearby wireless devices around the hub and camera.

[StanKL]

Guru:

Thanks for the tip. I will use a longer ethernet cable and move the hub further away from the router. It was at 5 feet, or so.  The camera is located on the opposite side of an outside wall and about 10 or more feet away from the router and other wireless devices on the network, including the hub.

I don't need or use the night vision or light so I put the  camera inside in a screened window. I was a bit surprised to see that the camera would not sense movement through a window screen (or maybe a window).  I thought the movement might be both sensed and analyzed optically.  Didn't try without the screen.  Moved it outside and it's fine... except for the infuriatingly long latency.

[jguerdat]

The original 5 feet should be adequate although additional distance still could be a useful troubleshooting step. What is the house construction? Stucco uses a wire mesh that can block the signal and other types of construction such as brick or stone can also be an issue.

Arlo outdoor cameras all use PIR sensors. Window glass blocks the needed IR for motion detection so that's why detection didn't work when indoors looking through a window. The Q and Essential Indoor cameras both work through glass since they use a pixel change detection method.

[StanKL]

Thanks. Sticking a square of aluminum tape on the side of the base seems to have fixed the intermittent inability to connect  to the camera.

The latency is still pretty bad for a security camera. I wish Arlo could/would allow alerts to be sent directly to the app via the hub rather than going all the way to the cloud and back. I can understand why a camera directly connected to wifi might be slow, but not a system with a 4540 hub.