Pro 5S 2K motion detection

[Doorhinge]

I recently purchased the Pro 5S 2K starter bundle that included a Pro 5S and a video doorbell. The doorbell seems to be working fine. The Pro 5S however is sporadic at best. I have spoken to several Arlo technicians about the issues I've been having with no resolution.

The camera currently has all smart detection turned off except for people. When my dogs are in the back yard i get flooded with notifications labeled "motion". It was my understanding that if i only have people selected then people should be the only motion the camera picks up. This issue is draining my battery almost every 2 weeks. I am getting so many notifications from the dogs in the back yard that i dont even bother looking at any of the other important notifications. 

So far support has told me to do a factory reset on the camera twice to no avail. A third support agent told me that the camera does not have the capability to not detect animals?

Secondly, the other night we had a homeless person wander into my back yard and leave a bike by my garage. I woke up in the morning to find the bike but when i checked the feed the camera didnt pick up the event. I have a zone set to cover my entire yard. Upon further testing, it seems the camera will only pick up motion if you are within 10-15 feet or so regardless of what the zone covers. 

Are Pro 5S 2K cameras faulty? Should i switch to an older model?

[jguerdat]

No, Smart Notifications just provide a named notification. The camera will still record everything and the servers will provide a notification if it's a person. These do not prevent recordings of anything else.

ANy motion detections are based on the camera's PIR (passive IR) sensors which work just like those in motion detection lights, etc. Camera positioning and motion sensitivity are the keys with the limit for detecting people at ~25 feet. That's from the camera so the higher the camera is the farther the distance. You may want to rethink what the camera covers so only the most important areas rather than a large area (much of which may not even trigger a recording due to distance). A screenshot of the camera view with a description of what would be important to capture could be useful.

[Doorhinge]

My back yard is maybe 25ft from the back of my house to the lot line. I had someone come in 2 nights ago and stash a bike. They made it through the small section of the black fence and stored the bike against the back of my garage. This should be well within the cameras range to pick up a person. Do i need to keep the spotlight function on to gain more distance at night? Even during the day the camera doesnt start recording until someone is halfway between my garage and house. I have a zone set that covers the entire back yard and the parking spot next to the gargage. I have the sensitivity turned up to 100.

[StephenB]

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@Doorhinge wrote:

My back yard is maybe 25ft from the back of my house to the lot line. I had someone come in 2 nights ago and stash a bike. They made it through the small section of the black fence and stored the bike against the back of my garage. This should be well within the cameras range to pick up a person. Do i need to keep the spotlight function on to gain more distance at night? Even during the day the camera doesnt start recording until someone is halfway between my garage and house. I have a zone set that covers the entire back yard and the parking spot next to the gargage. I have the sensitivity turned up to 100.

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25ft is the spec'd range of the PIR sensor.

• https://kb.arlo.com/000062617/How-far-away-can-Arlo-Cameras-and-Arlo-Video-Doorbells-detect-motion

The camera is more sensitive to side-to-side motion than it is to motion directly towards the camera.  That might be a factor in your case.

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@Doorhinge wrote:

Do i need to keep the spotlight function on to gain more distance at night? 

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Motion is detected by a passive infrared (PIR) sensor on the camera face - not from the video.  So the spotlight is not relevant for triggering.  

Though you might want to try deleting the activity zone.  The cloud supresses any recordings and notifications when it doesn't detect any motion inside the zone.  Deleting the zone altogether will prevent that from happening.

Also, if you are using "until motion stops", you might want to try switching to a timed recording.

[chicane]

@Doorhinge  there's an issue with these cameras that support are trying to cover up. Check my long thread under the same forum / same device topic. 

[BrookeN]

@Doorhinge are you still seeing missed events on your Pro 5?