Arlo Pro Newbie questions

[RedCab]

Hi all,

 New user here... set up an Arlo Pro system last night (very easy!) and I have some questions I couldn't find with 'search'. 

1)  Will the system generate "low battery" messages (either email or sms)? Or do I need to set up IFTTT ?

2) I'm a little dubious about using a magnetic mount outside (hate to have the  last recording from my camera being of it being swiped!). Anyone have suggestions for securely mounting the camera on my house (or maybe even a fence for a broader angle)?

3) I noticed that setting the camera to record xx seconds after motion detection does exactly that -  even if the motion continues beyond xx seconds. This seems like either a bug or an error in my setup.  Can someone explain how to capture an entire motion event in one clip, even if it is longer than xx seconds?

4) With admittedly limited experience with the cameras, it seems the 720p resolution of the camera is a bit limited. How close would a face or license plate have to be to be recognizable? Anyone have experience with such experiments?

Many thanks to this helpful community!

[jguerdat · Accepted solution]

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RedCab wrote:

Hi all,

1)  Will the system generate "low battery" messages (either email or sms)? Or do I need to set up IFTTT ?

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Low batteries are notified via email.

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2) I'm a little dubious about using a magnetic mount outside (hate to have the  last recording from my camera being of it being swiped!). Anyone have suggestions for securely mounting the camera on my house (or maybe even a fence for a broader angle)?

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It depends on your level of paranoia. There are many camera mounts with 1/4" x20 threads. Pick and choose as you feel you need. However,do NOT position to get a wide field of view - that can destroy good motion detection.

3) I noticed that setting the camera to record xx seconds after motion detection does exactly that -  even if the motion continues beyond xx seconds. This seems like either a bug or an error in my setup.  Can someone explain how to capture an entire motion event in one clip, even if it is longer than xx seconds?

The indoor Q cameras can record (through windows, if desired/needed) for up to 5 minutes on continued motion. The wireless cameras cannot but you can set the recording time to capture up to 2 minutes at which time they will reset and capture more if motion can still be detected. Generally, the recommendation would be to use a longer time in the first place.

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4) With admittedly limited experience with the cameras, it seems the 720p resolution of the camera is a bit limited. How close would a face or license plate have to be to be recognizable? Anyone have experience with such experiments?

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It is limiting. 1080 isn't that much better (>1Mp for 720 vs. 2Mp for 1080) - rear-facing cell phone cameras are better. To see a license plate would have to be pretty close or have darned good software to enhance the image.

[RedCab]

Thanks for that discussion... diving a bit more into #3...

I've noticed that if there is continuous motion for a time extended beyond the length of the clip, that the camera needs some time to reset itself before it can begin to record the next clip. I suppose that the camera is using that time to process the video and then send it back to the base station in a very power efficient way. (I know a little about chip design for low power so that's my hypothesis, but I digress...).  Can anyone comment on how long the break is between Arlo finishing a clip and then being ready to start the next one? I suppose this is a bit proportional to the length of the clip that just finished recording, but I would be interested in knowing whether experience is a few seconds or more like a minute. Thanks!

[jguerdat]

I see about a 30 second (+/-) reset time on my Pro cameras.  Others have reported the same sort of time for the originals.

[jjhughs5155]

My arlo is set to record 10 seconds then it takes 8 minutes before it records again? Is there anything I can do to shorten the reset time between events?

[jguerdat]

What is your upload speed determined by speedtest.net?  8 minutes is in no way normal.  The previous video has to be completely uploaded before the camera can be reset so upload speeds are important.  The connection between the camera and base also affects this but I'd expect that you'd see a major degradation in video quality if that were the case.  Might be worthwhile testing a camera moved close to the base to see if that makes a difference.