Infrared light comes on when camera is off causing rapid battery drain

[Shammy]

Why does my camera night infrared come on when I have the camera set to off?

[secaz]

pc2k17 - none of my cams are utilizing Arlo Smart.  I dragged all of mine from enabled to disabled.

So,  if cams are not enabled in Arlo Smart, the cams are still using the same algorithm for motiong sensing, regardless?

[pc2k17]

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Arlo-Stories/Firmware-Release-Scheduled-6-21-to-Address-IR-Rapid-Ba...

New base station firmware version pushed out on 6/21/18 is version number 1.10.0.7_21310.

[pc2k17]

I don't know a lot about arlo smart, but you would think if you disabled them for smart that they should function like they did without smart. I wonder if just signing up for it changes something on your account? idk....

[secaz]

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@pc2k17 wrote:

I don't know a lot about arlo smart, but you would think if you disabled them for smart that they should function like they did without smart. I wonder if just signing up for it changes something on your account? idk....

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pc2k17 - I didn't sign up for anything.  Arlo Smart was pushed on me as part of my Arlo subscription... never had it before, but when Netgear changed things up, I received it free as part of the Primier plan, and I didn't want it, or ask for it... and when Netgear pushed this onPreimer subscribers, it was enabled BY DEFAULT for all 10 of my cams... so I had to deactivate all my cams from Arlo Smart...

[pc2k17]

@secaz

Oh I didn't realize they gave it to you for free with the premier subscription. I thought you all got the same email I did last week from Arlo saying I could try arlo smart for free. I passed. I don't need it. That stinks they didn't let you decide if you wanted it or not. I realize you can remove your cams from it, but it seems even doing that might mess with motion detection as some have described here.

[Bob_B]

Still having rapid battery drainage after the firmware update. However, I have been experimenting by turning off features on the cam one-by-one. From my preliminary data, when I turn off "night vision" under my devices -> cam -> video settings the drain suddenly stops. I need to let this go for a few more days, but I thought the firmware update was supposed to correct inadvertant activation of the IR LEDs; is this wrong?

Also, am I reading the recent comments correctly to suggest that much of the May 15th update was part of the rollout of the smart features for premier customers?

[secaz]

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@pc2k17 wrote:

@secaz

Oh I didn't realize they gave it to you for free with the premier subscription. I thought you all got the same email I did last week from Arlo saying I could try arlo smart for free. I passed. I don't need it. That stinks they didn't let you decide if you wanted it or not. I realize you can remove your cams from it, but it seems even doing that might mess with motion detection as some have described here.

pc2k17 - was an unpleasant surprise, for sure.  And on top of it, Arlo Smart would spit out three notifications for the same trigger, so when I work up that moring I had a ton of notifications on my phone.  It was an unholy mess that I wanted no part of... it may be very useful for some people, but I want to be notificed of every trigger, not just people or vehicles... I'm probably one of the few people who actually like catching wildlife on camera.  Yesterday caught a big road runner running across my driveway... and this morning a huge carpenter bee did a closeup on a patio cam, hovering in front of the lens for 10 seconds.  The quality of the video is amazing, even for something like a bee close up.  Used to get a lot more wildlife videos, but sensitivity isn't as sensitive anymore with these cams...

I just wonder if, even though I disabled all the cams under Arlo Smart, if something is still stuck somewhere.  Never had so many problems with motion sensing/trigger as I have since the latest firmware update.  Had some issues before that, since the update earlier this year and got even worse with the May update, but this recent update made it even worse, missing large vehicles at close range...

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[Wklovelace3]

I have had arlo smart since it came out 10 months ago. They put it out then took it back claiming they were making improvements. But if you called support they said it was discontinued. That was back in October. Arlo smart or no arlo smart i have noticed motion detection issues too. When i first got these cameras back in january everything was perfect. 55% would catch every person on the sidewalk and whoever came up to my door. It would catch some cars too. At 100% it caught everything. Every car every person. Now it is hit or miss. Last weekend my wife came home and it did not even pick her up as she approached front door. Arlo smart did go thru a learning period where it would ask you if this was a person or other. So i dont think this arlo smart trial period has anything to do with hit or miss motion detection problems. Also my signal strength is still in and out. So to say that everything is perfect after new firmware update is not accurate. Maybe for some. It did clear up the battery issue but ive never had an issue with motion detection or signal strength before this whole mess started. I know my cameras and they dont get moved. I plug in to charge and make sure by live view they are exactly the same as they were. Although they do function they are not as perfect as when i first bought them. I cant rely on 55% anymore i have to put it on 100% . not a huge deal but its not as it was back in january

[secaz]

Wklovelace3 - I know what you mean, my cams are spot on every time, I have reference points I use to line them up and make sure always the same.  I started having issues earlier this year, and it got worse after the fateful firmware push... but the firmware last week, it has a hard time catching big things and that's just not right.  Vehicles that were always faithfully detected, its hit and miss now... and although annoying, at least one of my two garage cams would always catch a vehicle, if not both... but now its missing big things in both cams... I know because I'm here and I can HEAR or SEE a vehicle go by... or if not the cams will catch it on return trip (I live on a cul de sac, one way in, one way out).

I've tried lining up the cams differently, but that's even worse... so... dogs are still best indicator of what's going on.  I tried chaning my cam res from low to optimized (and low res has become truly awful somewhere along the line, used to ok for me) in hopes a higher res would catch more, but that didn't help. My garage cams used to catch pedestrians 99% of the time, even if they were walking on the far side of the street, and on rare occasion, one cam might not trigger with a pedestrian, but the other cam certainly would. 

My dogs let me know when someone is out for a morning walk, they chuff... but the cams rarely pick up these pedestrians... bicycles are not getting picked up all the time, either... but I can always count on Arlo to trigger when a lizard runs across the driveway... which is fine, I like wildlife videos, but really would like to catch everything that is moving out there...

[BGPunggol]

Someone is messing around with firmware and it's not solving battery draining issue. Prior to latest base station firmware update, the camera is already draining at about 3-4% daily. After thw update, it started well with drain of about 1%. Than since 25 June, it started to drain at 5% a day! Looks like what Netgear did to firmware had made it worst than better.

[DocCJC]

I'm not convinced the latest firmware has fixed the battery drain issue either. Charged my cams fully on the weekend, and two are down to 90% just 4 days later. One has had no video recordings. Rebooted everything etc. Whether it's IR LEDS or an inefficienty coded algorthim chewing through the battery, no idea, but never had these sorts of worries before May this year.

[secaz]

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@DocCJC wrote:

I'm not convinced the latest firmware has fixed the battery drain issue either. Charged my cams fully on the weekend, and two are down to 90% just 4 days later. One has had no video recordings. Rebooted everything etc. Whether it's IR LEDS or an inefficienty coded algorthim chewing through the battery, no idea, but never had these sorts of worries before May this year.

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DocCJC - do you plug in your cams to charge or do you put in a fresh battery that was charged in a charging station?  As previouly explained by pc2k17, it appears that batteries charged in a cam only charge to 80%, and those charged in a charging station charge to 100%.

This appears to be accurate - I have much better results if I swap out battery with one from charging station, which is what I always used to do anyway, before the May update and the IR lights coming on all the time, even when cam status is OFF, which further drained batteries.  I only have two spare batteries, so after the May update I wound up having to plug in some cams to charge (have 10 of them)... and I got very poor battery life when I plugged cams in to charge, they would seemingly drop drastically overnight or within a day with very few videos.  Didn't know at the time, however, that batteries charged in cam are only charging to 80%.

As much as I hate to spend more money on Arlo, I ordered a couple more batteries and another charging station. 

[RanulfWolfSage]

I rebooted my base station last night, and as the cameras came back online, they all had a camera firmware update pending. I had to reseat a few batteries to get them to communicate, but they all eventually updated. One of my cameras that was incorrectly reporting a low battery despite having been charged, fixed itself with the new camera firmware and correctly reports a full battery.

[pc2k17]

Just FYI........... my stats after firmware update on June 21st.

Base firmware: 1.10.0.7_21310

Camera firmware: H8 -- 1.092.0.16_21159

Most active camera: records 20 to 30 one minute long videos, 5 days a week, when I'm home the cameras are off at night and off on weekends, when I'm away all cameras are on.

13% battery drop since the firmware update on June 21 (about 2% per day).

Least active camera: records 1 to 2 one minute long videos, 5 days a week, when I'm home the cameras are off at night and off on weekends, when I'm away all cameras are on.

2% battery drop since firmware update on June 21.

Mine seem to be working good.

[secaz]

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@pc2k17 wrote:

Just FYI........... my stats after firmware update on June 21st.

Base firmware: 1.10.0.7_21310

Camera firmware: H8 -- 1.092.0.16_21159

Most active camera: records 20 to 30 one minute long videos, 5 days a week, when I'm home the cameras are off at night and off on weekends, when I'm away all cameras are on.

13% battery drop since the firmware update on June 21 (about 2% per day).

Least active camera: records 1 to 2 one minute long videos, 5 days a week, when I'm home the cameras are off at night and off on weekends, when I'm away all cameras are on.

2% battery drop since firmware update on June 21.

Mine seem to be working good.

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pc2k17 - the firmware on my cams is 1.092.0.13_19715, for both H8 and H11 cam versions.  Since the firmware is pushed out automatically, then any idea why I have an old firmware version for my cams?

My base sations are all 1.10.0.7_21310, though...

[BGPunggol]

My camera firmware was not updated too. Would it be automatically updated or we need to do something?

[RanulfWolfSage]

Mine wasn't updated the same day as the base. But one camera wasn't communicating last night so I rebooted the base again, and the cameras that reconnected stated that they had firmware updates. A few didn't connect, and I had to remove and re-insert the battery. Once they reconnected, they prompted as well.

[secaz]

I rebooted a base station this morning, most of the cams on it were crabby about reconnecting, took forever to reconnect, the cams... but they are all still at 1.092.0.13_19715... no prompt that there was new firmware...

[RanulfWolfSage]

For mine, the 13 before the underscore went to 16. I have the Arlo Pro, bought within the past year.
H8 1.092.0.16_21159

[secaz]

I have three base stations and 10 cams, the cams are a mix of H8 and H11, and all cams still report firmware level 1.092.0.13_19715

[RanulfWolfSage]

Maybe I got added to a trial? All I know is that I charged two batteries after the base station firmware update, but the cameras never showed the updated battery status. After walking around and tapping the firmware update one camera at a time last night, they now correctly display the battery level. Which by the way has been solid!

[Wklovelace3]

I thought the firmware that was updated was for the base only.

[RanulfWolfSage]

That's what I thought, and initially that was all I got, the base firmware. But as of last night, I got the prompt for this new camera firmware.

[pc2k17]

@secaz @BGPunggol

I have no idea why I have a newer camera firmware version. I didn't do anything to get it. And as far as I know I had this camera firmware version before the June 21 base firmware update. No idea really though when the cameras were updated. Besides taking the battery out and rebooting base, I have no idea how to even try and force the cameras to update. It should just be automatic. I was never prompted to update the cameras except for the first time I hooked them up in June of 2017.

This difference could be why some see certain issue and others don't.???

[secaz]

No prompt to update firmware here for cams...

Yesterday had two of my cams which I had plugged in to charge tell me I needed to use the charger that came with the cams... which I always use, so didn't know what to make of that...