Activity zones not working

[dbmgeneral]

I have an Arlo Q camera in my home's interior directed toward the entry door. The camera perspective picks up three windows so I configured activity zones to cover only the interior, however I get recordings every time a car or pedestrian passes by a window which is outside of the activity zone. It seems like this feature doesn't work at all.

What's required to get recordings to trigger only when there is movement within the activity zone?

[StephenB]

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@dbmgeneral wrote:

I get recordings every time a car or pedestrian passes by a window which is outside of the activity zone.

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Is the light level in the zone changing (perhaps due to reflections or shadows from the street)?

[dbmgeneral]

Good point. I watched the recordings and see no change in light level in the activity zones or anywhere inside when cars or pedestrians pass by.

[StephenB]

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@dbmgeneral wrote:

Good point. I watched the recordings and see no change in light level in the activity zones or anywhere inside when cars or pedestrians pass by.

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Are there shades you can close?  Then see if having the windows blocked makes any difference.

[dbmgeneral]

Window shades were already closed. I think your idea would be more likely to be the case in the evening with headlights coming through the windows. In the daytime however it is so bright outside a car passing does nothing to change lighting on the interior. I have also since shrunk the activity zones to test your theory and so far it is not proving to be the case 

[StephenB]

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@dbmgeneral wrote:

Window shades were already closed. I think your idea would be more likely to be the case in the evening with headlights coming through the windows. 

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It was just an idea of course.

FWIW, I have had my porch cameras trigger from reflections in the house windows.  The glass must have been reflecting the IR, and not just the visible light.

[dbmgeneral]

On further review I believe your original assumption was correct in that changes in light level are registering as “activity”. I shrank the activity zone down as small as it would go and that reduced the number of recordings. I guess this means the Arlo Q camera registers false positives for changes in lighting when there’s no actual motion. 

I use Arlo on interior cameras and Nest on exterior. The Nest cameras don’t have this issue, recording only actual motion so I’ll have to weigh the pros/cons of each in deciding whether to keep the Arlo cameras.

Thank you for your help!