Arlo Pro Nightvision Issue

[arlobro]

Hi,

Having an issue with Nightvision.

During the day, live view works just fine.

During the night, when using live view, it works fine..but after shutting down the live view - I get about 4 or 5 alerts in a row right after using live view that motion was detected (and it records for 20 seconds each -as I have it set to do)

Tested by turning Nightvision off, live view works, and when closed, no motion detected.

It seems like the camera is detecting its own Nightvision light as motion for some reason.. Bug? anyone else have this issue?

I have the latest base and camera firmware installed.

Thanks.

[Materhead]

OK, I ahve jumped in the fray and filed a case as well.  Here is what I can tell you from my limited experimentation:

1) It certainly only occurs at night for me on multiple cameras mounted outside around my house.

2) Limited trials have not created the same false motion errors on a few cameras I have inside the house.  Need to do more work here.

3) #2 could lead to a potential temperature issue as a possible player in the root cause.  I live in the midwest and it has been in the 20-30F range most nights.  While my wife says I try to freeze her at night, I don't keep it quite that cold in the house.......let's say 65F at night.

4) It is related to the night vision.  Cameras I have out back DO NOT have the false motion detection issue at night when the landscape lights are on.  When it is completely dark, the false motion does occur.

4) I have H7 and H8 cameras demonstrating this false motion detection condition.

5) With one of the cameras, I found that reducing the motion detection from 80% to 70% did assist in the attenuation or quantity of false alerts.  I increased it back to 80% this morning before I left for work and the number of repeated false motion detections ramped back up.

I will admit this is a pain but overall I love this product.

[ArloPro_gk]

I checked and I have 4 H8 Cameras.  I will be opening a ticket this weekend with Netgear so its documented that I have the night vision issue.   I really like this system and the more I think about it I should be able to use the night vision functionality.   Question I have is the next revision of camera H9 a hardware version or can the H8 be upgraded via firmware when available in 2 months?

[arlobro]

Well,

I received a message today about my case asking if I understood that it was a hardware issue and to wait until new hardware comes out.

I replied, Yes, I understand when the new cameras are available you will send them to me for testing. Please let me know when they are available.

The next message was something to the effect of 'Great, I'll let you know in a few months - so I'm closing this case, take the survey.'

..As soon as I went to reply to this message and say that I don't think it's a good idea to close my case until it is completely resolved.......

"Sorry, this case has been closed, and you can no longer make updates to this case, start a new case, blah blah blah" when clicking on the Reply.

NICE.

"So Arlobro, What Night Vission Issue? We have no idea what you're talking about."

At a loss.

[jguerdat]

You can always open another case and reference the old one. I've had to do something similar to keep things alive.

[ArloPro_gk]

Day 11 of my 15 day Best Buy return window.   2 of my 4 cameras went black Saturday night, other 2 still were recording good nighttime video with the night vision setting off .  Flipped night vision back on and both started triggering multiple alerts.  Turned off night vison and could not see anything, totally black.  My plan is to monitor the forum and when the H9 model comes out re-evaluate if I want to give it another run.  I think this product conceptually meets every requirement I was looking for in a wireless security system.   I love the configuration options as well as the compact design of the camera and base station with siren (excellent feature for door alerts).   Other systems that run on wi-fi cannot compete with the 300 ft range of the camera to base station that this design offers.  Absolutely no issues with daytime use and the audio pickup was amazing.

[manofice]

so I had one camera that I returned due to this nightvision issue. The replacement was working fine for a while, recently if I live view at night, it will trigger ONE false recording SOMETIMES. So far, it hasn't gone crazy like the major issue at hand...so it's still acceptable to me. But I truely believe any H7/H8 camera could become victim to this issue at any point in time. The right thing to do in a few months when they have the new version out is offer up a full recall to anyone that wants it.

[Ultbruin]

Thanks for the update manofice.

My replacement is coming in tomorrow.  Hopefully it'll work fine.  But seems like if you have a good unit then you're fine but otherwise it's prone to problems.  

[Materhead]

Still working through the various experiments I mentioned above.  I noticed this morning that the camera viewing my driveway (normally mulitple false alarms after motion detection) did not trigger anything other than the required motion when my wife left.  I do not know of any updates that were pushed out over the weekend and I did not adjust any settings.  Only difference between this morning and a week ago, temperature.  Today it was right about 32F and last week it was 10F+ colder.  So many variables........

[Fish66]

Same Issues with Cameras False alerts after Live view or actual motion detection, Bought 4 Camera system (H7) and 2 were bad the first try.  Returned the first set. Second set month later(H8) had 1 bad one. Will try to just exchange the 1 camera at best buy if they will work with me I will be able to keep swapping them one at a time until I find another good one. Will require multiple visits but not far away.

Easy to test 1) wait til it is dark or put in dark room. 2) Have system armed 3) Live view and pause 4)See if it sets off motion alert and continues to set off motion alerts.  Hopefully it does not appear later after I find a good one.

If this appears later I do have a replacement plan in place. Best Buy wont be happy after people keep returning them broke. Hope they figure a solution out and fast!!

[ysu]

Yes, I saw other customers hit or not hit this issue in different temperature. But it's not the case for me. I'm in Santa Clara, CA and it's quite warm -- it's 11PM and outside is 50+ F. Still have the issue. So at least for me, it's not due to cold weather. 

[Ultbruin]

Fish66 - did Best Buy let you exchange 1 bad camera from a purchase set of 4?

[Materhead]

This problem is vexing me.  So today, the driveway camera that had been false alarming a few times after valid motion detection did not even detect my wife and I when we left the driveway at separate times.  I have not changed anything.  I aksed in my case file if Firmware updates are auto pushed out and if any changes had been made.  Something certainly changed.  I know temperature does not appear to be a potential contributor for everyone but the odd thing for me this morning is that it was nearly 60F.  This is 30-40F warmer than last week.  Crazy midwest weather.......  Supposed to have 1' of snow and 20F on Wednesday so we will see quickly if something changes again.

I was more OK with a few false alerts than no alert at all......

[greenweenie]

Received 2 replacements (H8) from Netgear today. Tried everything to make them record a false. Neither of them would and both are working excellent and as expected with no issues so far. What a relief......Will keep an update if I incur any issues.

[Ultbruin]

Got 1 replacement H8. So far so good. Hope problem is fixed.

[JamesC]

The engineering team is currently investigating this issue. I will post an update with more information as soon as I can. We appreciate your patience in this process.

JamesC

[manofice]

I would imagine this has to be the largest concern for netgear at this point with Arlo Pro. All other issues appear to be smaller, but this issue really appears to be widespread and a huge concern. It has to be costing the company a ton with all the returns. Im anxiously waiting to hear what the root cause of this is and how they will address it.

[aquarianuw]

Just received my 2 camera system today from Amazon.  Both H8's.  One kept disconneting from the base even though the camera was within 10 feet from the station.  I then put both cameras in the dark with the night vision on, and guess what, both are bombarded with the false recordings......

[ysu]

I got RMA for 3 cameras with this issue. But it's been a week they are still in 'exported to warehouse' state. Requested update from service and didn't get useful answers ("we'll let you know once we know" kind of response).

I do hope this is a positive sign that their engineers are taking this issue at systematic level. I already passed the Bestbuy return window so they'd better take care of me...

[JamesC]

The engineering team has identified the root cause and has been able to reproduce this issue. I will provide an update once I have more information on a fix.

JamesC

[Barry2016]

Now, if we could figure out the clicking/ticking sound.

[manofice]

Can you at least tell us if the problem is software/firmware or hardware based?

[Matador]

Received my 2 replacement cameras and they appear to be working and no longer triggering false alarms after "live" view.   

[InsaneDiego]

I got my bad camera replaced via RMA and the camera they sent out could not maintain a connection for more than 5 minutes. 😞  It was hardware version H8. I sent that back and got it's replacement yesterday (H8). It connected perfectly and recorded only the 4-5 activities that happened during the night exactly as it should. We're in for some rainy weather this weekend. Hopefully it will function perfectly through it all and then I'll be able to call mine case closed.

[Matador]

Latest update ....my old cameras were H7 and now these H8's seem to be working perfectly!!!    Finally!

[manofice]

Matador, it effects the H8 cameras too, so just be on the look out.