Arlo night vision not working

[trburkiz]

I have 2/3 cameras that have always struggled to turn on night vision consistently.  The technical support people are not helpful. I've been troubleshooting myself and I have found that when I cover the light sensor on the camera with my thumb that the night vision only turns on when there is low ambient light. If there is good light then covering the light sensor doesn't turn on night vis]ion.  I would think covering the sensor with the thumb would turn on night vision regardless of the ambient lighting condition because Im blocking all light into the sensor when Im covering it with my thumb. Does anyone know if there is another light sensor on the pro 4 other than the one to the left of the lens that I have been covering with my thumb?

[StephenB]

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@trburkiz wrote:

Does anyone know if there is another light sensor on the pro 4 other than the one to the left of the lens that I have been covering with my thumb?

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My cameras often switch into (or out of) NightVision a couple seconds into the recording.  So I am thinking that the exposure measured by the imager (e.g., the camera itself) is what triggers NightVision, and not a separate light sensor.  (Not sure what you are covering).

Have you turned off both color and spotlight in the low light settings for the camera?

[trburkiz]

yea Ive tried everything. I thought night vision was triggered by two events being true: 1) low light and 2) motion sensed. However, when I cover the light sensor and wave my hand to activate motion and subsequent recording......NO NIGHT VISION!  My last model is that my cameras are not close enough to the base.  So I moved the base and am running an experiment. Other than that I'm completely out of ideas. Im fairly technical and this has me stumped. 

[StephenB]

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@trburkiz wrote:

However, when I cover the light sensor and wave my hand to activate motion and subsequent recording......NO NIGHT VISION! 

You are assuming that the sensor is used to trigger NightVision.  The product tour links it to the HDR feature, not NightVision.

What happens if you put the camera in a dark closet, and live stream it?

[trburkiz]

Well the light sensor has something to do with it because in medium light when I cover it it turns on night vision. When there is a lot of light and cover the sensor it doesnt turn on night vision. Maybe it has something to do with the HDR.  IDK.  Live streaming is where I first identified the issue. So night vision doesnt work in both live streaming or motion scenarios even when its dark. I thought it was because there was ambient light being detected by the sensor but there is some other criteria for night vision to come on besides the sensor detecting low light+live stream on or motion detected. Maybe its the HDR. Or it could be proximity to base (which im testing). Another thing to consider is that I can get night vision to work by either turning the night vision or camera power off and then back on again on the app. The night vision will work the rest of the night until the next next day and fail to trigger night vision again when its get dark again.

[StephenB]

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@trburkiz wrote:

Well the light sensor has something to do with it because in medium light when I cover it it turns on night vision. When there is a lot of light and cover the sensor it doesnt turn on night vision. 

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It could be a both-and kind of thing - looking at both the image brightness from the camera and the light sensor.

Maybe also there is some leakage of light from around your finger reaching the sensor.

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@trburkiz wrote:

 Or it could be proximity to base (which im testing).

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Seems very unlikely.  AFAIK the camera itself is deciding whether to turn on NightVision mode or not - not decided in the base (or the Cloud for cameras connected directly to home wifi).

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@trburkiz wrote:

 I can get night vision to work by either turning the night vision or camera power off and then back on again on the app. The night vision will work the rest of the night until the next next day and fail to trigger night vision again when its get dark again.

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FWIW, that suggests a software bug.

Have you tried a full reset of the camera?

• https://kb.arlo.com/000062438/How-do-I-factory-reset-and-re-sync-my-Arlo-camera

[trburkiz]

I agree, I think there are 2 conditions that are required to turn on night vision.  1) Ambient light condition (possibly something in the camera itself detecting the brightness and/or darkness) and 2) the sensor to the left of the lens has to also detect low light. The confusing thing here is that when I go under a bright light and cover the camera lens and then cover and uncover the sensor with my finger it still doesnt toggle on night vision every time. This is what made me think it was base proximity.  Heres another interesting fact:  I bought 2 new sets of cameras and the same thing happened on both new sets. And yes I have also reset my cameras.  I thought it was a software bug as well that was reading ambient light + my white walls as the sun went down (There are lights across the street that are in the cameras' field of view) and making the camera think that it was still light outside. I also ran an experiment where I went in a dark bathroom (pitch black) and started covering the sensor with my finger and the night vision didnt toggle every time. I was far away from the base.  I also ran an experiment when I placed a camera in a dark closet for a week in the same room as the base and night vision worked every time I live streamed. This is why base proximity is a current model.  We will find out soon enough.  If I still have the issue even with the base really close to the cameras then we need to understand the conditions and variables that enable night vision on these cameras. I would suspect there is a some other light detecting device on the camera other than the sensor that is picking up ambient light and not letting the sensor turn on night vision even though it is dark outside.  My Arlo doorbell which is also outside and is exposed to the neighbors' lights across the street has absolutely no issue with night vision and is also closest to the base.  One other experiment we can run is to turn HDR and/or color off and see what happens. I havent done either of these yet.

[StephenB]

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@trburkiz wrote:

One other experiment we can run is to turn HDR and/or color off and see what happens. I havent done either of these yet.

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I suggest turning off low-light color is a good step - since you want NightVision, low-light color will only get in the way.

FWIW, I find that with the Pro 3/Pro 4, there are cases where they chose low-light color when I think Nightvision would give better quality.

[trburkiz]

Garage cam is pitch black so base station model is busted. There is no color switch in low light settings for the Arlo Pro4 XL. So either its not an option on this model or they moved it somewhere that I cant find. I checked both the phone app and the PC app. Any ideas?

[StephenB]

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@trburkiz wrote:

Garage cam is pitch black so base station model is busted. There is no color switch in low light settings for the Arlo Pro4 XL. So either its not an option on this model or they moved it somewhere that I cant find. I checked both the phone app and the PC app. Any ideas?

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My only Pro 4 is currently in an account with the new "Feed" UI, so likely not the same as yours, and I can't check whether the setting shows up in "Library" or not.

With "Feed" there is a Nightvision settings area that lets you enable Color.  This is either/or  - you can enable "Black & White" (IR), or "Color", but not both.

[trburkiz]

I don't have any option that I can find to enable/disable color in library or anywhere else. I called technical support and they were useless as usual. Any other ideas?

[trburkiz]

I found this in the arlo community so I don't think I have the functionality to turn off color, only to turn off spotlight which doesnt correct the issue:

True night vision will be in black and white, since it is using IR lightwaves for recording.  Arlo, unfortunately decided to call their color night recording using the spotlight, “color night vision”, which it isn’t.  It is a marketing term for turning on the spotlight and recording in color using visible light.  Whatever triggered the motion will be well aware that they triggered a motion light of some sort.  Of course, this can be good as a deterrent, but IMHO it is bad to misinform people and devalue language.  It is not color night vision.  It is color recording via spotlight at night.

[StephenB]

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@trburkiz wrote:

I found this in the arlo community so I don't think I have the functionality to turn off color, only to turn off spotlight which doesnt correct the issue...

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It's there for my Pro 4 (which is in a "Feed" account), and also my Ultras (which are in a "Library" account). Not sure why you aren't finding it.

Also I am confused why you think the quote implies you don't have the setting.

[trburkiz]

What do you mean by feed and library accounts?  I have the Arlo Secure App.  I have a library section in the app where I can view footage but there is no where in the library section that I can find where you can adjust camera settings like color. 

[jguerdat]

There are now 2 user interfaces (UI) in play with the old one (you see Library to view videos) being replaced by the new one (you would see Feed to view videos). Since they're different, we need to know which one you're using for the correct response. Eventually everyone will be on the new one but there's no set date yet AFAIK. You see Library so you're still on the old UI.

The settings for the camera is the place to look. Use Settings, My Devices and click on the appropriate camera. Browse through the settings to find night vision and color recordings (might be just turn the spotlight on/off).

[trburkiz]

Here is the low light settings screen...no color option.  can you send me screen capture of where your color settings switch is?

[trburkiz]

The spot light isnt the issue. One camera has spot light on and the other has it off.  both experience the same problem of not triggering night vision.

[jguerdat]

The whole reason for having the spotlight is to provide color recordings. It provides enough light to allow this. Night Vision is using the IR LEDs which only provides B&W recordings.

[trburkiz]

Ok, so the spotlight is what toggles the color feed then. So the color model is now busted as well because with spotlight on and off the cameras still fail to trigger night vision.  I am 98% certain that the cameras are picking up residual light, and the residual light combined with my white walls is making the camera think it is still light enough not to trigger night vision. I am going to run some more experiments (covering the lens) and see if night vision will trigger in the current camera location. I will keep you posted with the results. Let me know if you have any other ideas.

[jguerdat]

A screenshot for a camera at night might be useful to help diagnose. 

Night vision does NOT trigger a recording - the motion sensors (PIRs) do. Night vision simply enables/disables the IR LEDs, just as the spotlight setting enables/disables the spotlight. It would seem that ambient light and the white walls would be the problem so repositioning the camera to eliminate or at least reduce the view of the walls would be useful.

[trburkiz]

So I've run some more experiments and did some more research.  First I finally found the color on/off switch.  Its only shows up as an option when the spot light switch is enabled. The color switch was on but the spotlight was always disabled so I don't think the color switch has anything to do with it since I believe color is only active when the spot light is on. I went ahead and turned the color switch off AND the spot light off and will confirm this tonight.

Through some research I found that the pro cams use different features depending on if they run on batteries or if they are attached to continuous power. For example, if on battery power they use passive infrared (PIR). Through experimentation I found this sensor to be right beneath the camera lens.  When hooked up to continuous power they use pixel based motion detection which is through the actual camera lens. I think I may be on to something here because I think my issues started when I installed my power cords. So next steps will be 1) to see results with color switch off and then 2) to see results with power cord detached and running off battery power. 

Also, through experiment I found when camera is running on battery power that night vision will only turn on  if 1) live stream is on or 2) if motion is detected. If either of these conditions are met  AND the light sensor to the left of the lens detects low light then night vision will turn on.  I haven't run any experiments with cameras wired yet but that will be next on the list.  I shouldn't be having issues with light colored walls, if so then that is a major engineering design flaw. 

I do have one question for you that may be related to this issue. Most times when I am live streaming I do not have the option to take a still pic or record video, only the mute, microphone and spotlight images are present. This makes me think that the camera doesn't fully realize that I am live streaming and hence would not trigger night vision. Any thoughts on this one?

[StephenB]

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@trburkiz wrote:

Most times when I am live streaming I do not have the option to take a still pic or record video, only the mute, microphone and spotlight images are present. This makes me think that the camera doesn't fully realize that I am live streaming and hence would not trigger night vision. Any thoughts on this one?

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Snapshots and Record Video only work at 1080p.  If 2K local livestreaming is enabled in the app, then they won't shot up.

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@trburkiz wrote:

Also, through experiment I found when camera is running on battery power that night vision will only turn on  if 1) live stream is on or 2) if motion is detected. If either of these conditions are met  AND the light sensor to the left of the lens detects low light then night vision will turn on.  I haven't run any experiments with cameras wired yet but that will be next on the list.  

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It'd be good to know if the behavior is different when the camera is wired.

[trburkiz]

Night 1 with power cord disengaged and running on battery power: Night vision is working. 

[StephenB]

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@trburkiz wrote:

Night 1 with power cord disengaged and running on battery power: Night vision is working. 

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Interesting.  So one workaround might be to connect the power through a smartplug, and program the smartplug to only charge the camera during the day.

You'd lose Foresight (pre-roll) when on battery, and hardware activity zones.

@JamesC / @ShayneS :  sounds like there might be a bug here.

[trburkiz]

Good idea but I will try running the camera off continuous power with the battery removed first.  I read in the manual that this is possible when I didn't realize it was.  Maybe some kind of interaction when continuous power is on in addition to battery charging at same time.  Keep in mind that we are not out of the woods yet. Night vision has worked in the past for a few nights in a row only to stop working later.  If this is a bug I will need to escalate to Arlo engineering.  Ill keep you posted.