Automation incompatibility

[SteveAR1427]

Hi,

I have a problem using timed automations and arrive/leave automations. I have a system setup in a scout hall. There are times when the scout hall is in use, so the system is set to Standby between certain hours, but we also have leaders that go to the hall at odd times, so are using the Arrive/Leave system with geofencing.

For example.  There is an automation that sets the system to Standby at 5pm and another that sets the system to "ArmAway" at 9pm as the hall is expected to be in use during these 4 hours. Yesterday however, one of the leaders who is enable for Arrive/Leave went to the hall sometime after 5pm (ie when it was already in Standby", but left at about 7pm. The "Leave" automation therefore set the system to ArmAway" at that time whilst the hall was still in use.

Is there a way around this problem. It seems I can mix the regular automations that control the state of the system whilst also using the Arrive/Leave function. The system appears event driven and has no priority system.  Whilst I can use automations to set Standby at 5pm and ArmAway at 9pm, the system has no sense that I want the system to remain in Standby between those two times regardless.

Any solution to this would be most welcome.

Thanks

Steve

[ShayneS]

Please reach out to the Support Team to further investigate this issue you are experiencing. You can find several options for contacting support though the Arlo Mobile App by navigating to the Profile icon > Support Center > Select device > contact

[SteveAR1427]

Thanks ShayneS.

I'll give that a go, but Arlo hides behind useless automated assistant. No way to pose complicated question except for phone call. I'll report back here if I can get an answer.

Cheers

Steve

[RegularJoe]

Well, just to piggyback on to your complaint... I finally gave up on getting any automation setup to work. No timed things, just arrive/depart.
  I tried multiple ways and it never did do what it was supposed to.

 Mine was simple: When I'm gone, 10 cameras on line. When I am home, 9 cameras on line.

I would actually get a notification that it was working, but it it wouldn't

I have a question: When it is working and does it's thing.. in my instance, go to armed home when I'm at home... should the display on the phone change from "armed away" to "armed home"? Nothing ever changed... that tells me that it doesn't work.

I'm going to post this to the discussion I started about this same issue...

[SteveAR1427]

Well, today I spoke to Arlo support.

They suggested that if I setup the arrive/leave automations prior to the scheduled automations, it should work as desired. I must admit to being a bit skeptical about this, but I will give it a go and report back. The inference I guess is that there is a non-obvious priority between the automations.

Cheers

Steve

[jguerdat]

I'm all ears on this! Please let us know the results.

[RegularJoe]

All I set up were arrived and leave instructions, no scheduled automations, and the system wouldn't function.

[SteveAR1427]

Ok, I think I have a solution, no thanks to Arlo support.

To quickly re-iterate the problem.

I have (for example) 

1- Automation Standby at 5pm

2- Automation ArmAway at 9pm  

This is because the scout hall is expected to be in use between those  hours.

3- 3 people are set up with Arrive automation that changes mode to Standby and and Leave automation that changes mode to ArmAway. This facilitates various people go to the scout hall at other than expected times.

Problem reported here and to official Arlo support, is that if one of those persons with the Arrive/Leave automation visits the hall between 5 & 9pm, on their exit, the system goes to ArmAway even though the intention was to have the system in standby until 9pm.   I surmise this is because the system is completely event driven and there is no way of directly telling the system to be in Standby between two times regardless.

Arlo's suggested solution that does NOT work. Support told me to delete all the automations, and then make sure I added the Arrive/Leave automations before the adding back the scheduled automations. This would seem to imply some non-documented priority feature. I suspect this suggestion was made with little knowledge of how the system works. In any event, it had no affect and the leave event still sent the system to standby.

However, with a little more experimentation, I believe I have found a work-around.  After the scheduled mode change to Standby at 5pm, I have added two more automations at 5:01pm, to disable the Arrive and Leave automations. This means the Leave automation is no longer active and has the desired affect of not re-arming the system if one of the people set up for arrive/leave comes and goes in the period in which the system is desired to be in standby.

There is still one thing I need to test. If the system goes to ArmAway at 9pm, and one of the users with Arrive/Leave setup is still present in the hall, it would be my wish that the system either remains in standby or goes back to standby once the Arrive/Leave automations are re-enabled. I have yet to test this.

It is worth noting that it is not necessary to schedule enabling the arrive and leave automations, since the scheduled ArmAway event at 9pm also re-enables all automations. This seems undesirable, but in this case saves me from having to add two more scheduled automations. This "feature" is evidenced by the warning in the app when setting up an automation - quote "By default, Automations will always be enabled when you enter any Mode." and also from this illiterate warning in the app "By default Automations will be Always be enabled when you any Mode. All other automations will be disabled when entering this mode.".

So to re-iterate, to get a scheduled Standby period that doesn't get interfered with by Arrive/Leave automations.

1  - Schedule Standby at time X

2- Schedule disable arrive automation at time X + 1 minute

3- Schedule disable leave automation at time X + 1 minute

4 - Schedule ArmAway automation at some time after X+1 minute

Cheers

Steve

[Clubber76]

This is completely unacceptable, I am experiencing the same issue with automation.  What exactly does the subscription pay for again?  So we can as an Arlo community can troubleshoot the issues.  

[ShayneS]

Hi @Clubber76 Please reach out to the Support Team to further investigate this issue you are experiencing. You can find several options for contacting support though the Arlo Mobile App by navigating to the Profile icon > Support Center > Select device > contact