A few questions about my new Arlo Pro System

[Drake3287]

I've already received some good advise on this forum but I was hoping someone could comment on a few of these questions I have now that I've been running this new Arlo Pro system for a couple of days. 

1. I have two camera's. One above my front door that seems to be working out fine and another about 8 feet above my garage door which is pointed down onto my driveway area. I have a pretty typical subdivision home with a 25 foot long driveway followed by a 3 foot sidewalk and of course then the street.

My probelm is tweaking both the camera body and sensitivity level so that I pick up and activate when someone steps onto my driveway. I keep getting passing car's setting it off. If I change the camera view away from the street more I also lose the activation on my driveway. Seems like a VERY fine line as to getting driveway coverage and not passing car coverage. Having this camera pick up possible car break-in's is my primary concern. 

2. What is the typical recording time most people are using? What's to short or to long based on not using up all my storage space but still having enough video time? Currently have it set at 30 seconds. 

3. The system comes with 1GB of free cloud storage. Any idea of about how many 30 second videos I can fit into this window of storage? Should I be concerned about deleting video's everyday to free up space?

4. The Arlo Pro is suppose to have a 23 foot motion activation distance but why am I getting activations of passing cars if the distance is 40 or 50 feet?

Thanks for any suggestions or idea's. I love this system but still fine it frustrating to get good coverage with limited false activations.

[Drake3287]

I might also add that if I pan the camera down so that the street is'nt fully in the view, I also lose driveway coverage even though it's still in the camera range.  In the above picture/camera location I catch car's passing by but if someone walk's up to my truck in the driveway it does'nt always activate. 

[Streak2]

I read somewhere that the motion detection is more sensitive for motion across the cameras view rather the coming straight on to the camera.

This could explain the passing cars being detected but not someone walking up your driveway.

Try and re-locate the camera more to the left so that you are looking across the driveway rather than down it.

It may not be the ideal location but will be an interesting test.

[Ducktaper]

Greetings. 

I can answer your questions according to my experience. Keep in mind we're all new guys with the pro version!

My typical file sizes are about 875k. My math shows that would be 1,198 files in a gigabyte, and that could be translated into about 171 recordings a day for 7 days. That should be plenty to keep you busy! You also have that option of plugging in a separate storage medium where all your recordings are copied and available to you with no 7 day limitation. My files are copied onto a portable hard-drive as a .mp4. My understanding of the free storage is it writes over the earlist day of the past 7, so any captures prior to a 7 day run are gone on their server. Another reason to consider using that USB port on the pro's base station.

As for your motion sensing, most consumer grade PIR's trigger better and faster with heat-motion going across their field as opposed to straight on or away. You have a motion sensing test mode available to use to verify.

With being said, and if you do see a difference, my suggestion is to move the camera so it's not looking directly towards the length of your driveway. If possible, move it off to the side, something like 45 to 90  degrees so your PIR will see more of a crossing path along the driveway. Look around some, maybe a tree, a flagpole, your neighbor's eave, etc. Good luck. 

[Drake3287]

Thanks for those idea's about moving the camera to the left. I just ordered a 15 foot micro USB cable extension cable so that I can plug the garage camera into a direct power source so maybe I'll wait until that arrives. Luckily this camera is under the eve of the house so it should'nt get wet although I'll most likely water proof the power connection into the camera just to play it safe.

If the camera motion detector is good for 23 feet why does a passing car at 40 feet set it off?

[Ducktaper]

The 23 feet range is simply a guideline, they could have just as easily said: "out to 23 feet and beyond...". . Since a PIR is triggered by a change in heat within it's area of view, it stands to reason that a larger/hotter object will be detected faster/farther than a smaller object. So, a car will be detected farther out from the PIR than say a squirel out at the same distance. I'm currently getting a triggered event on my driveway cam at about 50 feet out. The driveway is centered within the camera's view, thus the PIRs are also pointed in that general direction. Since a trigger is initiated mostly by temperature change within it's sensory field, I expect as my outdoor environment approaches colder temperatures my PIRs just might experience a farther "range" than right now as a (now much warmer than the air temp) car or body approaches. Having the ability to test and/or adjust the camera's PIR settings is a nice feature. Good luck.

[Drake3287]

Thanks! Your advise is always welcomed, nice to find someone that's knowledgeable on this and willing to help. I guess sooner or later I'll have all these bugs worked out. 

[Exuma]

Can I increase the motion detection speed?

[jguerdat]

Only with proper positioning and camera to base connection. There will always be at least a 2 second lag so position your cameras so movement is across the FOV, not at the camera, and be relatively close. Don't try to see everything but just the area of interest. Keep the distance to a minimum since the detectors won't pick up people beyond 20ish feet. Post a screenshot for specific suggestions.

A weak WiFi signal between the base and cameras can cause additional lag, too. Get the best strength you can on all cameras and make sure nothing is interfering with the signal. Walls, wiring, mirrors, ductwork, distance, etc. all contribute to a weaker signal as do other wireless devices that don't necessarily use WiFi but are using the same frequencies.