Arlo integration into IoT world - options?

[orfiorfi]

I need to enhance the video quality of my Ultra's 2 which provides a rather limited sight during night as it is so dark and the IR LEDs are too weak to provide a sufficiently good quality on a needed distance. The hardly to find 7-8m spec seems not sufficient to identify a person.

So, I was hoping to get a IR illumination - Arlo doesn't provide that and recommends to use market products for IR LEDs on 850nm.

The issue with that is that they are usually not battery powered and will not last the whole night due to continuous operation - solar recharge wont help here of course. So, I would need to fallback to AC powered ones - undesired/not easily possible.

To improve that but also hoping to get a battery only solution, I had the idea to turn on the IR illumination on Arlo events.

With my experience from home automation, I was thinking or hoping for some IoT protocols being supported.

Speaking of MQTT, RPC, websocket or some simple HTTP endpoint calling, would give us the option to trigger other events.

For example, we could turn on the switch for further IR illumination. Problem solved.

(other use-cases could be shutter closing, regular (outdoor) light turn on etc. etc.)

The question is, is Arlo is planing or already supporting this?

No offense, this is not rocket science to define a (local) enpoint which is being called upon event detection.

And I think, Arlo does not see themselves as a home automation solution provider, Thus, it would not violate their own environment as a business encapsulation (aka vendor lock-in).

What do you guys know?

I appreciate any answer.

other complaints but not related to this topic:

The color vision does not work on a live stream but just a recorded one - where could have I read that before purchase?

Also, there are sometimes glitches in the video, having a portion of the video being green or you know colorized pixelation; is this known issue?

Why cant I have one camera on my list which does not trigger an alarm when being armed? i cannot remove it.

How can I protect the lense from water drops which make it unusable for that moment, but leave stains which impair quailty in the night but also during day - the solutions I have seen are not really promising?

Why is the camera only available with the black front - why isnt there a all-white solution?

[StephenB]

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@orfiorfi wrote:

The color vision does not work on a live stream but just a recorded one - where could have I read that before purchase?

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It should if there is enough light for color.  Are you turning on the spotlight when you livestream (using the flashlight icon)?

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@orfiorfi wrote:
IFFFT might be an option

Why cant I have one camera on my list which does not trigger an alarm when being armed? i cannot remove it.

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You can.  This is done by editing the camera rules in "Armed"

• https://kb.arlo.com/42/What-are-modes-and-rules-and-how-does-Arlo-use-them

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@orfiorfi wrote:

How can I protect the lense from water drops which make it unusable for that moment, but leave stains which impair quailty in the night but also during day - the solutions I have seen are not really promising?

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There are two options you can try.  One is a treatment like RainX (look for one that is safe for plastic).  The other is to get a third-party rain shade that installs over the camera.  I've seen some birdhouse enclosures that might also work, though I don't know if there are any that are suitable for the Ultra.

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@orfiorfi wrote:

Why is the camera only available with the black front - why isnt there a all-white solution?

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I guess Arlo doesn't see enough incremental sales to justify adding a second camera model.  Though hopefully @JamesC will forward this input to the relevant folks inside of Arlo.

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@orfiorfi wrote:

To improve that but also hoping to get a battery only solution, I had the idea to turn on the IR illumination on Arlo events.

With my experience from home automation, I was thinking or hoping for some IoT protocols being supported.

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IFFFT might be an option, but not something I've tried.

• https://kb.arlo.com/1075729/What-is-IFTTT-and-how-do-I-use-it-with-my-Arlo-device

Timing might be a problem here, as there will be lag.  I believe the event path is camera->base->cloud->IFFFT.

FWIW, they haven't done much on integration with IoT platforms.  Though they haven't said why, my guess is that they might be concerned about increasing the security attack surface due to the various APIs they'd need to support.

As an aside, I think an Arlo IR floodlight would be a useful accessory.

[orfiorfi]

Thank you StephenB for your quick response...

@StephenB wrote:

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It should if there is enough light for color.  Are you turning on the spotlight when you livestream (using the flashlight icon)?

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no, not on livestream;

with your comment I realized I had spotlight on in the low light settings making events turning it on and giving a colorized video...and not a cloud post processing step...

However, still I am totally not happy if that means colorized night vision - for me that ad would be a lie then - that it turns on a light - that is not colorized night vision not even night vision!

it is like saying you have high res colorized night vision (during the actual day) because it is night just on the other side of the world

"You can.  This is done by editing the camera rules in "Armed"

• https://kb.arlo.com/42/What-are-modes-and-rules-and-how-does-Arlo-use-them"

but not for the "armed" mode, you have to create your own mode and then add; then you can also delete custom rules

IFFFT: I will look into that

"FWIW, they haven't done much on integration with IoT platforms.  Though they haven't said why, my guess is that they might be concerned about increasing the security attack surface due to the various APIs they'd need to support."
Too bad, but I dont see where it increases the security attack surface. On what would be the question, not on Arlo as it is usually a push over a standard protocol. They wouldnt need to support all but maybe just one, like a simple http request to an endpoint I define. Ideally, just calling intranet endpoints. With that I could easily register events from the camera and do whatever I want to with random HAB system.

It would be nice - at least - to get a statement on this whether it might be doable in the future from their perspective

P.S

this editing for quoting is horrible counter-intutitve; I am not sure how you did so far,

but for me it was also pasting the whole statement and making it almost impossible to quote in between

[StephenB]

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@orfiorfi wrote:

However, still I am totally not happy if that means colorized night vision - for me that ad would be a lie then - that it turns on a light - that is not colorized night vision not even night vision!

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For recordings, you have the options to

• use low-light color with the spotlight at night
• use IR Nightvision w/o the spotlight at night.

With Livestreaming, it will switch to color if you turn on the spotlight in the app.

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@orfiorfi wrote:

but not for the "armed" mode, you have to create your own mode and then add; then you can also delete custom rules

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To circle back to your original question - you can edit the rules in the Armed mode, and disable notifications for a specific camera there.  If you meant the siren (and not the notification) you also have control of that.

You can also create a custom mode to do that same thing, and just switch to that (or schedule it).  But custom modes will go away when your account gets migrated from Library to Feed.

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@orfiorfi wrote:

 but I dont see where it increases the security attack surface.

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Just my opinion though - Arlo hasn't said why they've chosen to invest more  with IoT integration.

More code that communicates over the network generally does increase the attack surface.  Even if it is limited to push events (and not control), it creates the possibility that someone unauthorized might be able to eavesdrop on the events.  With the home security system, now in the mix, that includes information like whether doors are open or closed.

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@orfiorfi wrote:

this editing for quoting is horrible counter-intutitve; I am not sure how you did so far,

but for me it was also pasting the whole statement and making it almost impossible to quote in between

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My basic process is to use the quote function in the toolbar, and add a reply to the first part underneath it.  Then cut out portions of the quote that I don't want to include.

The position the cursor under the first reply, and then quote again.  Rinse and repeat.

The forum software messes up on this sometimes, but you can go into the html using the toolbar, and fix things up if you are so inclined.

[orfiorfi]

this colored vision on low light situation is not "night vision" as they advertise for; this is fake ad if you ask me

however, if there is a rain drop over the lense the spotlight which might get activated when there is an event completely flashes the camera, reflecting light right into the lense
Is there a solution?
Is arlo providing a technical solution to that - like detecting over lightning and turning it off?

Is there any official statement on the IoT protocol thing?