practical definition of Motion Sensivity

[BirdWatcherNY]

I got an Arlo Pro camera earlier this month so I'm still experimenting with it. The main thing I'm testing is Motion Sensitivity.

I've read thru a lot of the documentation but I'm not seeing a clear definition of exactly what's affected when you adjust the Motion Sensitivity percentage. Does a lower setting mean the camera ignores smaller motions? Or does it mean the range it covers is shorter? For instance, if I lower the sensitivity from 90% to 50%, will it detect motion only if it happens closer to the camera and not the full ~20 feet in the normal field of vision? Or will it still cover the usual range, but just not trigger unless it's a "big" motion?

I'm monitoring my front porch/front door. I've mounted the camera in a pretty good spot, about 7.5 feet high and just about 19 feet away from the front door and front steps. Field of view covers my front lawn and sidewalk so I'm happy with the coverage.

Butt, the main thing I'm having issues with is windy days. Frequent gusts of wind mean loose leaves, branches, etc. triggering the camera pretty frequently. It's not non-stop, but enough that I disarm the camera for much of the day and night.

Basically I want to know if it's worth adjusting the Sensitivity levels based on things like wind, if that means that the distance covered suffers.

[T369]

That's a good question. I like to know this as well.

[jguerdat · Accepted solution]

The distance remains the same but the amount of movement will need to be increased with a lower setting. Depending on your setup, that may make it look like the distance has diminished but in reality it just means the amount of IR required to set off the detections has to be increased. That should help with windy conditions where the sun's strong IR output gets detected too readily. It will take trial and error to get to the right level to minimize false triggers while still detecting people or whatever. You may also want to revisit the camera positioning to eliminate things like tees from the field of view.

To pull this together, create custom modes for particular time periods with appropriate settings. Then schedule them to automate the switching so you don't have to remember to do it manually.