Arlo Q indoors behind window looking out

[flyhigh]

I have the latest Arlo Q along with most up to date firmware. I have set up my Arlo Q upstairs looking out to the driveway out front and I have defined a zone covering my driveway and garden.
During the day the system works fine, it detects motion and alerts only when necessary and in my defined zone.
In the evening it's a completely different story. The camera can see outside easily enough as long as the bedroom light is not on, despite the reflection and blue status lights being apparent. The problem is that absolutely any activity outside now triggers an alert... the defined zone only covers the driveway, but the camera covers the street as well. Every time a car drives past during the evening (which is quite frequent) I get an alert which pretty much renders the system useless as you no longer check the recordings as there are so many false positives.
Has anyone else come across this problem and is there a way to solve it please? Motion detection is set to 4 at the moment which picks up people moving on the driveway so I'm wary of lowering this further... and I can't seem to angle the camera any lower to avoid the street being in view... although I don't believe this will solve the issue anyway as I think it's picking up pixel changes as the car lights reflect against my window.
Any advice is appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[TomMac]

I also have a Q up against glass ( andersen dual pane ) and yes, some of the lights on the glass cause scatter and trigger off a record.

The only thing that's prob possible is 1) reset the camera just in case a glitch on the zones... 2) make sure you not getting reflection from INSIDE the home, I had to cover mine a bit.

Tho it's prob not a fix, it may be worth a try.

[flyhigh]

Thanks I'll give it a go. I just repositioned it so less of the street is in view but can't avoid it completely. I also restarted the camera, redefined the zone and updated the rule... fingers crossed!

[MarkPar]

Please let me know if you have solved the car headlight reflection triggering problem. I installed the two Arlo Q's pointing outside behind windows. I had to turn off the night vision to get a view without a reflection but picture is still okay. One camera is pointed perpendicular to a road that is 100 feet away and 15 feet higher. I set the zone to be way below the road and adjusted sensitivity down to 2 of 10 but the headlights of cars passing by at 90 degrees trigger motion at night. I've got the same issue with the 2nd camera where headlights actually do illuminated the zone. I did not want to bother with batteries for an outside Arlo Pro but am concluding the Arlo Q pointed through a window is unworkable due to the optics of light and dual pane windows. Any thoughts? Thanks.

[jguerdat]

Did you try setting up detection zones and use those in your modes?  That would be the easiest way to accomplish this.

[MarkPar]

Yes, I have set up zones with each camera to cover the minimal area that needs monitored. I've reduced the visual sensitivity to 2 so will try that when it gets dark again. It just seems that the window glass coupled with indirect car headlights create glare, and pixel changes, that causes the problem. I'll keep experimenting but definitely will not purchase more until resolution. Thanks.

[jguerdat]

Another possibility is to use two modes - one for daytime and another for night. Use the schedule to switch them. Also, make sure you're baffling around the camera to prevent interior lights from adding to the issue.

I get some reflections causing motion detection but I'm at 9 for sensitivity and the issue is minimal. Any chance a bit of rearranging of the camera position could help?

[MarkPar]

Thanks jguerdat. I will continue to collect data and see if there are certain problematic periods that I feel that I could schedule the cameras to disarm at those times. I guess that the scheduling function works that way i.e. either armed or disarmed, correct?

I am having no issues with interior lights causing motion detection as it's just adjacent car headlights.

Thanks again.

[jguerdat]

Yip, the schedule would be used to allow recording appropriately for your case. You don't schedule the Disarmed mode, any time period without a mode is automatically disarmed.

[mike_777]

Hi, this is my first post. I just purchased an Arlo 2 system. I am pleasantly pleased.

I can look through my double-pane window fine during the day. I am able to look through it at night, via 'night vision', by tinkering with the brightness setting. I figure (as a novice) the brightness is related to the camera's digital focus.

So tinker with the brightness with night vision and you may be able to see through your window at night.

I also trigger using my bell, not with the camera. I will set up another camera to trigger on an Arlo motion detection light. It gets cold up here in these parts so the -4F degree spec may not cut it for the camera.

Hope this helps.  

[StephenB]

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@mike_777 wrote:

I can look through my double-pane window fine during the day. I am able to look through it at night, via 'night vision', by tinkering with the brightness setting. I figure (as a novice) the brightness is related to the camera's digital focus.

So tinker with the brightness with night vision and you may be able to see through your window at night.

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I'm glad this is working for you.  In general, window reflections (and of course condensation or frost) are also barriers to getting this to work correctly.

It sounds like you aren't using the IR motion detection in the camera (instead triggering on the doorbell).  That is very relevant, as you'll find it won't trigger on motion because the window glass blocks the IR frequency used by the sensor (which is different from the IR frequencies used by NightVision).

BTW, if you power the camera with AC, then you will get a 3-second lookback on the recordings (seeing what happened right before the door bell detected the motion).  If it's practical to do that, then maybe give it a try.