Arlo Q tripping by change in light

[Sno_01]

My Arlo Q has been tripping/recording motion caused by lightning storm flashes, car lights when I come home, turning on or off lights in adjoining rooms and computer monitor turning on or off. Any sudden change of light in room where the camera is located. Some of these things I can control but night time lightning storms and car lights continue to be a problem for me. I have tried setting up motion detection zones and changing motion detection levels. Neither worked for me. Would like to know if other people have experience this with Arlo Q and if anyone has found solution for the issue.

Model number VMC3040r6 Firmware 1.8.3.0_9926

[TomMac]

The Q cameras pixel based detection is pretty good...

Yes, try zones and lower the sense levels ( don't know where you set them ).

Another thing is to angle down the carmera to eliminate some of the car headlights ( you might have to elevate it to angle down properly ... as the detection range is about 50 ft.

Also remember, you can set up custom modes, 1st  mode without the alerts and 2nd mode with alerts, use them as needed ( also diff sense levels )

[Sno_01]

Thanks for the quick response and some new things for me to try. Previous sense levels tried from 8 down to 4. Have not tried angling the camera down but I will tonight. Setting mode without alerts sounds better than getting woke up in the middle of the night!  I do have other camera’s and door sensors that should alert me in case of intruder. Will try your suggestions tonight and post the results.

[TomMac]

BTW, lower the number, lower the sense level... I run mine at a 3 ( IIRR ), you may need to go to a 3 or 2 ...some cams may be more sensitive than others.

But do it a number at a time and test for a day or two before changing again.

[Sno_01]

Thanks TomMac, I never went below the 4 on the sense level.  Over the next few days I will spend some time with the sense level.  It seems to me the darker the room the more sensitive the trip/motion detection is when it comes to light change.  Of course, it is always darker when the thunder storms move through.

[TomMac]

Understandable...  remember the way the camera senses motion is by the changes in what the lens sees, it does not rely on IR like the other Arlos.

[Sno_01]

TomMac@ Per your suggestion I change the camera angle to point down a little. Set detection zone to cover about 54” from floor. With sense set on 3 the car lights did not trip motion. Inside lights from adjoining room did cause trip. The light was 3 bulb 60W each overhead light. Using dimmer I set lights on lowest setting and it still tripped the motion. Changed sense setting to 2 and repeated the test. No trip from car lights. Still tripping on inside light set to full 180 watts. Using dimmer set lights to about 1/3 brightness. Turn on and off without tripping. With ever change in settings I walked through the room and the sensor tripped and captured full video.

Over the next few days I will continue to work with sense setting and position of camera. I do feel you have got me on the right track and I appreciate your time working with me. Will post update tomorrow night and let you know if the camera is still responding in positive manner.

Thanks

[TomMac]

Keep in mind, what you are trying to capture ... If interior lighting is stable it should not issue a false trigger but at the same time the camera has to be adjusted for want you want to capture and lower the false triggers at same time

Sounds like your on the right track

With mine, looking thru Andersen double pane glass, I had to 1) place the lens directly against the glass 2) block some of the INSIDE light reflecting off the glass by moving camera a bit to place under curtains 

good luck..it does take a few tries to make it right.

[Sno_01]

TomMac@ Had a lot of hope when I was testing Wednesday night. With sense set on 2 it was somewhat working. I tested the Arlo Q camera several times with different light sources entering the room where the camera was set up. It was not tripping the camera with low light entering the dark room. The next morning when I did the same test over it tripped and recorded motion on all test. Same results again that night.  Changed the sense setting to 1 and it did not seem to make any difference. Like you said, if the light is constant it should work and it dose work when the light is constant. When light comes through windows or doorways the camera senses the change even on it lowest senses setting causing it to trip the motion/recording. My home has a lot of open areas (no inside doors) on first floor where the Arlo Q is located and a lot of windows. I think the design of the Arlo Q will always be a problem for me during thunder storms. Unless you think I’m over looking something in the setup I will go ahead and replace the Arlo Q with camera that is not effected by light changes. Will then use your suggestion to change alert settings on Arlo Q so it don’t trip external siren or call me in the middle of the night. Sometimes simple is just better! Thanks for your time and suggestions.

[TomMac]

Sorry, couldn't help more.

[Bob924]

I am having the same problem with false motion detection with my new Arlo Q. It appears to be triggered by the headlights of our paper deliverer at 3 AM when his car lights are reflected off of the back wall of our den. I turned down the sensitivity to 4, and we are still getting false alarms. Today, I turned it down to 2 and we will see how that goes. Getting false alarms regularly at 3 AM is obviously a problem. We also have two regular Arlo cameras, one of which is outside, that are not triggered by car lights. If the false alarms continue, I will have to turn off motion detection for the Arlo Q and rely on my regular home security system for inside motion detection, which unfortunately will not automatically activate the Arlo Q camera to capture the incident. 

[TomMac]

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The detection on the Q cameras is pixel based...when the picture changes it triggers an event.

As the thread above goes, light change from headlights on wall will trigger the camer to record....this does not mean the camera can't be used, it's just you don't want to be woken by false triggers...

The best in your case, is to make up a custom Mode for the camera with the alerts OFF for the night...

Using the alerts off, the camera will still record the event, just not notifiy

Or like myself, I moved the Q camera to the front window ( detection still works thru glass, just turn off IR liights ) ..it is always armed with alerts off,

So it records all day long.

In you case you may be able to move one of the outside cameras Inside( where the Q was) with alerts on at night, while the Q covers the front yard area thru a window with alerts off

[Bob924]

Tom - Thanks for the reply. I had previously read the string in this posting which was very helpful in understanding the problem and the differences in the motion detection technologies used by the regular Arlo cameras versus the Arlo Q. If the reduction in sensitivity does not do the trick, then we will take your suggestion and turn off the alerts for the Arlo Q and rely on our other Arlo cameras and home security system to alert us of motion. It is good to know that the Arlo Q will still record an event even with the motion detection alerts turned off. Very helpful suggestions... thanks again.

[TomMac]

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Bob924 wrote:

. It is good to know that the Arlo Q will still record an event even with the motion detection alerts turned off. Very helpful suggestions... thanks again.

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Yes, the alerts and the recording are separate... you can turn the ALERTS on/off but the camera will still record if armed ( custom mode with alerts off but set to record )

[Hula_Rock]

Here is something else you can check:  (it happens to mine)

- does the sudden change in ambient light casue the camera to go into color ( or vise-vera) ?

Like I said I noticed something simular on my Arlo Q.  If the Arlo Q audio detection is,on and set to 5 (MAX level)  the IR , switching on and off triggers a audio alert causing the camera to record.  A "click" can be heard in the captured video.  Once I backed it down to 3, the problem went away.

It was a weird problem because at the time, I was getting MOTION push alerts not Audio alerts.

[Bob924]

When my Arlo Q has had the false senses at night from car lights, it has stayed in IR mode. 

I have had a number of false senses from audio which I suspected w

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Hula_Rock wrote:

Here is something else you can check:  (it happens to mine)

- does the sudden change in ambient light casue the camera to go into color ( or vise-vera) ?

Like I said I noticed something simular on my Arlo Q.  If the Arlo Q audio detection is,on and set to 5 (MAX level)  the IR , switching on and off triggers a audio alert causing the camera to record.  A "click" can be heard in the captured video.  Once I backed it down to 3, the problem went away.

It was a weird problem because at the time, I was getting MOTION push alerts not Audio alerts.

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as the resullt of the house heater and humidifier coming on during the night.  You raise an interesting point because I did hear a distinct click each time.