Inconsistent motion detection in activity zones and activity found outside activity zones.

[zup28w]

My Arlo 4 Pro points towards my driveway. I've found that it's somewhat inconsistent with detecting people and vehicles in the activity zones. Sometimes it will pickup a car leaving, sometime it won't. It will also detect activity outside the activity zones (cars and people). I have the activity zones set to boarder on the closer side of the sidewalk (to exclude people on the sidewalk). It typically records them. 

The camera is about 5ft from the driveway. I use the solar panel to keep it charged. I never have any issues with connectivity. All the alerts show up in the feed. I haven't received any firmware or software update alerts, so I assume I'm all good there. 

Thoughts?

[StephenB]

Is the camera placed so the car is moving across the field of view?

On the unwanted recordings of people, is there any motion at all in the zone?

I'd do some testing w/o the zones, and see if you then get recordings from the car.  It's possible that the car is leaving the field of view too quickly (given how close the camera is to the driveway).  If so, you might get recordings that start too late.  The activity zone processing then would find no motion, and supress the notifications.

[zup28w]

Thanks for the reply.

The camera faces where the cars pull in. If the middle car is not there and the car all the way on the left pulls in, sometimes it gets it, sometimes it doesn't. The two right cars are normally captured. I can understand the far left car not getting captured if the middle car is obstructing the view, but it should work if the car is not there.

In the pictures below, I highlighted in green where it will sometimes pickup vehicles and people. You can see from the others pics it's outside the activity zones.

Green indicates where it sometimes capturesActivity Zone 1Activity Zone 2Activity Zone 3

[StephenB]

What is the distance from the camera to the car on the far left?

[zup28w]

Probably around 20+ feet. It's a 3 car driveway, so two car parking spot widths. 

[StephenB]

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@zup28w wrote:

Probably around 20+ feet. It's a 3 car driveway, so two car parking spot widths. 

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The spec'd motion detection range for the Pro 4 is 25 feet, so the distance might be a factor.  Though vehicles usually can be detected when further away, detection still gets less reliable as the distance increases.

Another factor is that the sensors tend to be more sensitive at the bottom of the field of view than they are at the top.  The third parking spot is higher in the field of view than the other two.

Have you tried increasing the motion sensitivity to 100%?

[zup28w]

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for the input. I haven't tried increasing the activity sensor, but can give it a shot. My only concern is that I hope it doesn't start picking up more items outside the activity zone.

[StephenB]

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@zup28w wrote:

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for the input. I haven't tried increasing the activity sensor, but can give it a shot. My only concern is that I hope it doesn't start picking up more items outside the activity zone.

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Another thing you could try is inverting the camera (and changing the setting, so the image is right-side up). Then the top of the field of view would be more sensitive than the bottom.

Not sure it will help with your camera, but if it is easily accessible might be worth a try.